Focus

BATTLE TESTED: Margaux Morisseau, co-chair of the Rhode Island Coalition for Payday Reform, has been fighting against payday lenders and the lobbyists for years, and she feels the momentum is swinging her group’s way now.  PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Activists won’t abandon payday lending fight

Focus 09/15/2023

It has not been a lucky year for Georgina Paulino. The Westerly resident’s partner was injured and is out of work. The care of...

PLAN AHEAD: When it comes to cannabis businesses working with insurance companies, Joseph Pakuris, CEO of Mother Earth Wellness Inc. in Pawtucket, says it requires more time, resources and advanced planning than other businesses. PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Cost of insurance coverage grows for cannabis businesses

Focus 09/01/2023

Since kicking off recreational sales in late 2022, Rhode Island’s cannabis industry has undergone sweeping changes this year, with seven recreational dispensaries currently operating...

ROUNDTABLE: Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island CEO and President Peter Marino, center, meets with staff at the health insurer’s Smithfield headquarters. PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

‘Turbulent time’ for those up for Medicaid renewal

Focus 09/01/2023

The staff at Thundermist Health Center has been bracing for a flood of work this year, and that flood has now arrived. The center, a...

CONNECTORS: Jennifer Hawkins, left, CEO and president of the nonprofit ONE Neighborhood Builders, and David Marble, CEO and president of OSHEAN Inc., check new network antennae on the roof of ONE Neighborhood Builders’ Providence headquarters. The antennae are helping to provide free Wi-Fi to residents in the Olneyville neighborhood.  PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Olneyville’s free internet narrows digital divide

Focus 08/18/2023

During a pandemic Zoom meeting from home, Jennifer Hawkins had a revelation. The CEO and president of the nonprofit ONE Neighborhood Builders felt guilty for...

LINE IN THE SAND: Monica Teixeira de Sousa, a professor at the Roger Williams University School of Law, says the lawsuit against Rhode Island’s new shoreline access law has the potential to create a precedent that will either inspire similar challenges or have a chilling effect on other coastal property owners.  PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Ripple effect expected from legal challenge of shoreline law

Focus 08/18/2023

It came as a surprise to few when, soon after shoreline access advocates celebrated the law’s passage in June, a group of coastal property...

CHANGE MAKER? Patrick Crowley, secretary-treasurer for the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, says the wage theft law will alter the way management at many companies treats its employees when it comes to paying wages.  PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

AG: New wage theft law is pro-business, too

Focus 08/18/2023

For more than four years Attorney General Peter F. Neronha sought to adjust an oversight in state law that he argues could have been...

ON THE EDGE: Selahaddin Gumus, left, and Dana Biechele-Speziale are co-founders of deep-tech startup AtomICs Inc., which is developing molecular-level data storage that allows more information to be stored in a smaller amount of space, more sustainably and for longer periods of time. Biechele-Speziale is holding an aluminum plate that inserts into and is read by the mass spectrometer behind them.  PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

In R.I., deep-tech firms struggle to find support

Focus 08/18/2023

AtomICs Inc., a startup founded at Brown University, chases an ambitious concept: molecular-level data storage that’s small and durable enough to revolutionize the market. Co-founded...

SOARING CEILING: Members of the Brown University arts community tour the Lindemann Performing Arts Center in April, walking through the main performance space that can transform into numerous configurations, from a 625-seat orchestra hall to a 250-seat proscenium theater. COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY/NICK DENTAMARO

New Lindemann PAC to serve as ‘artistic incubator’ at Brown

Focus 08/04/2023

At an impressive 118,000 square feet, Brown University’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center, slated for a public opening this October, has a large presence on...

WORKING TOGETHER: Anita Bruno, right, executive director of Rhode Island Women In The Trades, and Jessica Baez, pre-apprentice, work on a construction site at a home in Cranston. PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

‘Still so many barriers’ for women in the trades

Focus 08/04/2023

Given the difficult life circumstances Elizabeth “Ellie” Navarro has had to deal with, it’s a wonder she’s so upbeat. Growing up, the 19-year-old Pawtucket native...