Focus

AFFORDABLE POLICIES: Rep. Joseph J. Solomon Jr., D-Warwick, has sponsored a pet insurance bill to help filter out bad actors in the market and make policies more affordable.  PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Pet insurance market booming, legislation looks to rein in bad practices

Focus 03/28/2025

An industry born from the first policy taken out in 1982 for the TV celebrity collie Lassie is now a multibillion-dollar market, growing so...

CHALLENGING MARKET: Butler & Messier Inc. insurance agent Ernie Shaghalian, left, chairman of the Government Affairs Committee of the Independent Insurance Agents of Rhode Island, meets with Mark Male, CEO and president of Rhode Island Association of Insurance Agents Inc. Shaghalian says the property insurance market is the worst he’s seen it in 45 years. PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Pullback by insurers adds to difficulty of house hunting

Focus 03/28/2025

Finding a home in Rhode Island is difficult enough these days, but after prospective homebuyers pinpoint the rare house in their price range and...

STAYING AFLOAT: Delite Primus, left, director of advancement for Farm Fresh Rhode Island, speaks with Harvest Kitchen Production Manager Charreese Braxton at Farm Fresh’s Providence location on Sims Avenue. Farm Fresh recently had to lay off four employees and is seeking financial assistance amid a federal funding freeze imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration. PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Hurting R.I. nonprofits eye offers of financial help

Focus 03/28/2025

A federal funding freeze is putting the hurt on Farm Fresh Rhode Island, and now the nonprofit’s administrators are looking for any other funding...

FIRST OF A KIND: Ten years ago, this South Kingstown house on Teal Drive was the first in Rhode Island to be constructed to the Fortified building standard developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety in 2010. There are bills in the state Senate and House to make funding available for more homes to be “hardened” against extreme weather.  PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Fortified homes needed, but they’re not cheap

Focus 03/14/2025

The 2,400-square-foot clapboard-covered home overlooking Green Hill Pond in South Kingstown didn’t look particularly extraordinary among the other houses along Teal Drive when it...

AT IT AGAIN: State Rep. Karen Alzate, D-Pawtucket, says the first bill she filed this legislative session was one that would restrict payday lenders, a measure that some legislators have been trying to get passed for more than a decade.  PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Payday lender opponents renew legislative effort

Focus 03/14/2025

Advocates for payday lending reform celebrated lin 2023 when the House voted overwhelmingly for a bill they believed would finally curtail so-called “payday lenders,”...

LIVING THE HIGH LIFE: Waterplace Towers in downtown Providence contains luxury apartments, but don’t expect to rent them at a bargain rate right now.  PBN PHOTO/WILLIAM HAMILTON

Few signs of cooling in luxury rental market

Focus 03/14/2025

These days, most of the prospective homebuyers who call real estate agent Kira Greene aren’t from Rhode Island, and in a strange way, that...

ON THE DECLINE? The estimated annual amount of overdraft fees collected by U.S. banks and credit unions has dropped from a high of nearly $12 billion in 2019 to $5.3 billion in 2023. But the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule would cut further into that revenue. SOURCE: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data; Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council

Bankers fight to overturn rule on overdraft fees

Focus 03/14/2025

A proposed banking regulation that one federal agency says will save Americans $5 billion a year in overdraft fees is facing strong opposition from...

DANGER PRONE: The seawall that holds up the Cliff Walk south of Narragansett Avenue has been damaged by erosion and that section of the walk has been closed for nearly three years. A dispute over federal funding has created uncertainty about the repair.  PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY

Repairs to Newport’s Cliff Walk remain out of reach

Focus 02/28/2025

Newport’s Cliff Walk is in a battle against the sea – needing millions of dollars for crucial repairs – and a new conflict in...

BOOST NEEDED: Main Street in downtown Pawtucket has struggled to return to its glory days of decades ago. The city is looking to hire a public relations firm to tout the positive developments in a community that has experienced setbacks recently, including the news that Hasbro Inc. is looking to move to Boston.  PBN PHOTO/WILLIAM HAMILTON

Pawtucket looks to hire firm to give it some hype

Focus 02/28/2025

Rocked by the loss of the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2020 and reeling from the possible departure of toymaking giant Hasbro Inc., Pawtucket leaders...

MAKE IT FAST: Peter Walsh, owner of indoor golf facility Golf365RI LLC, says the trend toward golfers wanting to play shorter rounds has helped spur the design of much smaller golf courses in recent years.  PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

On the drawing board, golf courses are downsizing

Focus 02/28/2025

Any successful endeavor, whether a personal relationship or new construction, requires three elements that are in short order in today’s culture. Money, space and time. This...

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