Convention unit changes name, hires help
PROVIDENCE – The recently maligned Providence Convention Center Authority has decided to rename itself and get some professional guidance. Hereafter the authority, which was founded in 1980 by the General Assembly to receive and administer state room taxes paid by tourists using hotels in Providence, will be called the Providence Tourism Council and will have offices–rent free– in the Exchange Terrace office building, owned by the Rhode Island Foundation. The state auditor general recently criticized the authority for failing to observe many standard rules for government bodies, such as posting agendas for meetings, taking minutes of meetings held and keeping them in a location accessible to the public, or even holding its meetings in public. At a recent meeting, the authority, now council, agreed to hire the law firm of Tillinghast Licht Perkins Smith & Cohen to provide legal guidance, and the accounting firm of Piccerelli Gilstein & Co. to audit its finances.
RI Foundation agrees to contribute money to arts
PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Foundation announced recently that it had decided give more than a $1 million annually to arts organizations. The announcement was made at the Business Volunteers for the Arts dinner at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet, The first year’s contribution of $1.2 million is designed to help arts organizations steady their budgets, promote arts education, commission new art works and build community ties. A spokesman for the foundation said the arts would join education, economic development and children and their families as a long-term concern of the organization.
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Metech closing Indiana plant
MAPLEVILLE – Metech International, Inc., the electronics recycling and resource recovery company, announced that it is phasing out its South Bend, Ind., operation and concentrating on its locations here and in Gilroy, Calif. A company spokesman here said improvements in the operations here and in Gilroy had doubled their capacity, making the South Bend plant redundant. That plant will close Feb. 4, the company announced. Metech specializes in recycling and reuse of industrial manufacturing scrap, obsolete inventory and used electronics equipment. Efforts to obtain from the company information on the effect on employment at its three plants as the result of the reorganization were unsuccessful.
Unemployment remains below 4 percent
PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s December unemployment rate of 3.8 percent marked the fourth consecutive month that the state’s unemployment rate remained below 4 percent, and the fourth consecutive month it remained below the national unemployment rate, according to the state Department of Labor and Training. The 3.8 percent December figure was .3 percent lower than the previous year and .3 percent lower than the national unemployment rate. The department said there were 472,900 Rhode Islander’s employed in December, an increase of 5,900 from the previous December, slightly less than 1.3 percent growth. Among the major industries, only manufacturing lost jobs over the year (200), with trade up 2,600 jobs, services up 1,300, government up 1,100, finance/insurance/real estate up 600, contract construction up 500, and transportation/public utilities neither showing a loss or gain in jobs.
CVS to protect herbal-using customers
PROVIDENCE — CVS Corp., the drugstore chain with the most stores in the country, has taken steps to protect its customers who use popular herbal supplements while taking prescription drugs. The Woonsocket-based retailer has developed a computerized program that keeps records of the medications and alternative cures clients use then cross-checks the remedies to avoid possible risky combinations. For example, the supplement St. John’s Wort, taken to relieve depression, reduces the effectiveness of some heart medications, said Chris Bodine, a CVS vice president for pharmacy. Herbal supplements, largely unregulated, have grown into a $1.5 billion per-year industry and health care providers have been struggling to educate people about using the remedies safely. Nearly 40 percent of those who use a nutritional supplement don’t tell their physician, CVS said.
Mosca pleads guilty to two bribery charges
PROVIDENCE — Lawyer Angelo “Jerry” Mosca, Jr., 72, has pleaded guilty to charges that he delivered two bribes, totaling $25,000, to Providence city tax officials to obtain tax reductions for his law office and a client, in the latest Plunder Dome development.
Two indicted for loan fraud involving Fleet, SBA
PROVIDENCE — A federal grand jury indicated Russell P. Smith, 38 of Warwick and Anthony J. Regine, 55, of Amherst, N.H. on charges of fraudulently obtaining a $95,000 loan from Fleet Bank that was backed by the Small Business Administration. The pair allegedly conspired in 1995 to obtain the loan for business costs, then use the money to pay Regine’s personal debts. According to the indictment, Smith said in a loan application that he would contribute $20,000 in cash and about $125,000 in equipment and vehicles to Regine Printing of North Providence. The indictment said Smith did not provide any cash to the company and the equipment and vehicles were worth much less than declared. The indictment also alleges that in April 1995, Regine obtained $50,00 from Rocco Folco Jr., a convicted loan shark who is serving a 57-month federal prison sentence.
