Citizens’ revenues up, profits down
PROVIDENCE – Citizens Financial Group reported lower overall profits for the six months ending March 31, even though operating revenues rose during that period. A Citizens spokesperson attributed the falloff in profit to two major acquisitions, although those acquisitions, State Street Bank’s commercial banking business last March and UST Corp of Boston in January helped to increase the Bank’s revenues 16 percent during the six months. The higher earnings were offset by one-time merger costs resulting in a 14 percent reduction in profits to $98.5 million, down from $114.7 million in the same period a year ago.
Two admit guilt in SBA loan fraud
PROVIDENCE – A Rhode Island man and a New Hampshire man have admitted their guilt in connection with their scheme to fraudulently obtain a loan from then Fleet Bank. The $95,000 SBA backed loan was supposedly sought to obtain start-up costs and working capital for a company called Regine Printing of North Providence. The applicants, Russell P. Smith, 38, of Warwick and Anthony J. Regine of Amherst, N.H. pleaded guilty May 5 in U.S. District Court, Providence before U.S. District Judge Mary P. Lisi. U.S. Attorney Margaret E. Curran announced the guilty pleas. Sentencing was scheduled July 27. Smith and Regine are free on bond. According to U.S.Assistant Attorney James H. Leavey, instead of the money from the loan being used for Regine Printing it was used instead for Anthony Regine’s personal expenses. Smith is accused of making false statements in connection with applying for the loan. Regine is charged with money laundering.
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Newport Creamery merges with Bee Bee
MIDDLETOWN – Newport Creamery and Bee Bee Dairy Restaurants in Connecticut have merged, the companies announced. Under the terms of the merger, Bee Dee’s six restaurants will become Newport Creamerys. The current owners, Peter and Christopher Pappas will continue to operate the restaurants. This merger brings the total of Newport Creamery restaurants in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut to 46
Mark Hayward named director of SBA office
PROVIDENCE – Mark S. Hayward, who served as deputy district director from 1991 to 1999 and acting director since February 1999, has been appointed director of the Rhode Island District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration. As director Hayward is responsible for the management and delivery of the SBA’s financial assistance, business development and counseling programs for Rhode Island. He also administers 17 SBA employees, 2,000 loans worth a total of $235 million, and oversees the Small Business Development Centers and the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) chapter. Hayward is a native of East Providence, has a bachelor’s degree from Providence College and lives in Seekonk with his wife and children.
Scientist gets grant for study of post-calamity ocean
NARRAGANSETT – Dr. Steven D’Hondt, professor of paleoceanography at the Graduate School of Oceanography at URI, has been awarded a $220,000 grant to study over a three-year period the recovery of ocean life after an asteroid struck the earth 65 million years ago. It was that calamitous event that led to the extinction of the dinosaur. But Dr. D’Hondt’s focus will not be on the disappearing dinosaurs but rather on the evolution of plankton in the ocean’s altered ecosystem and reestablishment of the critical marine carbon cycles. It is estimated that it took three-million years for the oceans on earth to recover from the asteroid blast. Dr. D’Hondt will study sediment from thee sites around the world. Analyses will be done at GSO, the Earth and Ocean Sciences Stable Isotope Laboratory at the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
RI Americorps projects awarded $1.086 million
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two Rhode Island Americorps projects have been awarded $1.086 million by the U.S. Corporation of National Service. The Rhode Island Commission on National Service will operate the programs that are directed at improving education in Rhode Island. City Year Rhode Island will receive the largest segment of the award, $910,000 to finance a program to tutor and mentor elementary school children, implement an after-school program, and present special issues workshops. The Providence Children’s Museum’s Americorps Program received the balance of $176,011.
Rhode Island maintains full employment
KINGSTON – Rhode Island remained fully employed for the 14th consecutive month, at least mathematically, according to Leonard Lardaro, Ph.D, and professor of economics at the University of Rhode Island. The state’s unemployment index in March, based on Lardaro’s formula, was 3.7 percent, its lowest rate for the 14-month period of recovery. That 3.7 percent index gave the state a -0.6 jobless improvement index for March. That figure indicates a 0.6 percentage point margin of improvement over the national unemployment rate for that period. Yet, for all of those indications of improvement for the state, it still trails all New England states in unemployment rates. New Hampshire leads with a 2.1 percent figure, followed by Connecticut at 2.3, Vermont, 2.4, Massachusetts, 2.4 and Maine, 3.5.
Governor appoints LaFayette to chair race panel
PROVIDENCE – Gov. Lincoln Almond has appointed Dr. Bernard LaFayette, distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Rhode Island, chair of the Governor’s Committee on Race and Police and Community Relations. Dr. LaFayette directs the URI Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. The committee’s formation was inspired by the death of Providence Police Office Cornel Young.
URI, SubChem Systems get grant for bay study
KINGSTON – A group of URI research scientists and SubChem Systems, Inc of Jamestown are joint recipients of a $250,000 grant from the University of New Hampshire to develop new technology to track contaminants in estuaries affected by storms and dredging. The group from the URI Graduate School of Oceanography will study with SubChem Systems concentrations of nutrients and reactive metals such as iron and copper, using a combination of new instruments, geochemical studies and sediment samples. The money is coming from UNH’s Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Esutuarine Environmental Technology.
RIPEC chooses new president
PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council board of directors recently elected Shivan S. Subramaniam president. Subramaniam is president and chief executive officer of FM Global. He succeeds E. Gordon Gee, former president of Brown University, who resigned from RIPEC after accepting the post of chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. FM Global was formed through the merger of Allendale Insurance and Protection Mutual.
