Tuesday, June 17, 2025

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MONEY MATTERS: Brown University Health is using a portion of the funds raised in a $300 million bond issue last year to finance a Miriam Hospital renovation project that will include a new emergency department. The rendering shows what the completed $125 million project will look like. 
COURTESY THE MIRIAM HOSPITAL

Health care bond use grows nationally, but uncertainty looms for R.I....

As health systems’ balance sheets and labor forces are stabilizing, the health care bond market has rebounded. But uncertainty still reigns for Rhode Island...
PLAN AHEAD: Financial advisers Anthony Cerino and Kara Museler, who is also senior vice president of wealth management, at The Hilton Group at UBS Financial Services Inc. in Newport say business owners need to start planning years in advance for a successful business ­transition. 
PBN PHOTO/­DAVID HANSEN

Exit signs: How can business owners assess their readiness for transition?


Only 30% of business owners looking to sell find a buyer for their company, and only 10% get what they want. Interestingly, roughly the same...
John ­Simmons

4 common sense measures to help R.I. businesses

From stunning coastlines to a world-class culinary scene, the Ocean State has so much to offer everyone who visits and lives here. Unfortunately, our...
A BIT EMPTY: Charles Cullinan, Bryant University Accounting Department chair and professor, teaches a class at Bryant in Smithfield. He acknowledges that there are fewer students aspiring to become accountants these days. 
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

States act to reverse CPA shortage. Will R.I.?

Accounting firms have long felt the crunch, and it’s getting worse. A growing shortage of certified public accountants is pushing the profession to its limits,...
CHANGE COMING? Visa Inc.. and Mastercard Inc. dominate credit card payment processing, but a bill in Congress is aiming to change that with the hope of reducing fees for merchants. 
AP FILE PHOTO/STEVE HELBER

Credit card legislation has banks up in arms

A legislative move to increase competition in the credit card payment network – dominated by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. – is facing severe...
MAKING IT WORK: R.I. Public Defender Collin Geiselman, left, and Matthew Toro, deputy public defender, discuss cases in their office in Providence. Now that higher pay rates have been approved, the public defender’s office is having a much easier time keeping and hiring staff. 
PBN PHOTO/­MICHAEL SALERNO

R.I. public defenders get helping hand, but still understaffed

The workload has gotten easier for the attorneys in the R.I. ­Office of the Public Defender, but it’s still not case closed when it...
CRACKING DOWN: Fred Mattera, president of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, says federal legislation to crack down on illegal fishing by foreign vessels could be a boost for the Rhode Island fishing industry. 
PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

‘Pirate’ fishing vessels a target of federal bill

Fred Mattera, president of the South Kingstown-based Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, can recall when foreign commercial fishing vessels could often be spotted off the...
FEELING COMFORTABLE: U.S. Navy veteran Lidell Booysen says the University of Rhode Island has eased his transition from the military. URI is one of six local colleges that have received the Military Friendly School designation. 
PBN PHOTO/­MICHAEL SALERNO

These local colleges prove to be ‘military friendly’

Lidell Booysen is a U.S. Navy veteran and a mechanical engineering student at the University of Rhode Island. The 25-year-old isn’t like most of...
A SIMPLER SYSTEM? Attorney Zachary Stolz, a law partner at Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick Ltd. 
who works on veterans affairs, is hopeful that the Dole Act, signed into law in January, will streamline the disability benefit process. 
PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Veteran benefits, including in workplace, boosted under the wide-ranging Dole Act

In 20-plus years representing thousands of clients who are military veterans, Zachary Stolz, a law partner at Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick Ltd., has seen...
BIG BOOST: Kristin Costa runs her small business, Pinch of Fancy LLC, with the help of culinary business incubator Hope & Main in Warren, but she started in her own kitchen and was helped by Rhode Island relaxing laws against homemade food businesses in 2022. 
PBN PHOTO/
MICHAEL SALERNO

Cottage food industry booming after state relaxes homemade food sale laws

The cottage food industry in Rhode Island is booming. What were once side hustles – selling homemade food items made out of one’s own...
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