Latest Rhode Island Headlines
All the headlines from our Rhode Island Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Fake Fire Marshals Descend on Rhode Island City
Aug 11 2008 // The Woonsocket, Rhode Island Fire Department is warning city residents to be on the look out for phony fire marshals. Officials say one or more people have been falsely representing themselves as a fire marshal. The...
Rhode Island Arraigns Allegedly Drunkest-Ever Driver
Aug 6 2008 // A Rhode Island man who authorities say had a blood alcohol level more than six times the legal limit has been arraigned on a drunken driving charge. Stanley Kobierowski, of North Providence, appeared briefly in Providence...
Rhode Island Police Arrest State’s Drunkest Person Ever Recorded
Jul 25 2008 // Rhode Island state police say they arrested a man this week whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent — the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn’t dead. Stanley Kobierowski was taken to...
Rhode Island Toughens Social Host Liability and Underage Drinking Laws
Jul 23 2008 // Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri has signed legislation approved by the General Assembly to strengthen the so-called “social host” law and address a number of other issues regarding underage drinking and...
Rhode Island Supreme Court Rejects Social Host Liability Claim
Jul 14 2008 // The Rhode Island Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s decision by refusing to hold a Manville couple liable for the injuries a woman and her boyfriend suffered in a car crash after drinking at the couple’s...
Business Moves
Jul 7 2008 // Hudson Insurance, Hooghuis Hudson Insurance Group, the U.S. insurance division of Odyssey Re Holdings Corp.has acquired Hooghuis Group LLC, an underwriting agency specializing in U.S. directors and officers liability...
Insurers Welcome Rhode Island Supreme Court Lead Paint Decision
Jul 2 2008 // The property/casualty insurance industry is applauding a recent Rhode Island court ruling on lead paint for confirming that a state’s product liability, not public nuisance, law should govern in such cases. In its...
Rhode Island Top Court Overturns Landmark Lead Paint Ruling
Jul 1 2008 // Rhode Island’s top court Tuesday overturned a landmark lower court ruling that three former manufacturers of lead paint were liable for creating a public nuisance by covering up the health risks of lead paint. The...
Foam Company Offers $6.3 Million to R.I. Nightclub Fire Families
Jun 30 2008 // A company that sold the foam blamed for fueling a Rhode Island nightclub fire that killed 100 people has agreed to pay $6.3 million to settle lawsuits from survivors and victims’ relatives, according to court papers...
Beacon Mutual Cuts Workers’ Compensation Rates in R.I. 7.2%
Jun 24 2008 // Beacon Mutual Insurance Co., Rhode Island’s largest workers’ compensation carrier, reported that it will implement a 7.2 percent average decrease in rates that has been approved by the Department of Business...
Rhode Island Labor Official Appears as Witness Before Federal Grand Jury
Jun 16 2008 // A prominent labor official has appeared as a witness before a federal grand jury that’s been investigating influence-peddling at the Rhode Island Statehouse. George Nee, the secretary-treasurer of the Rhode Island...
Packaging Company Settles for $25M in Rhode Island Nightclub Fire
Jun 16 2008 // A New Jersey packaging company sued after a Rhode Island nightclub burned down five years ago has agreed to pay $25 million to survivors and relatives of the 100 people killed, according to court papers filed Friday. The...
R.I. Heart Patient Wins $2 Million Malpractice Award
Jun 11 2008 // A Warwick man who claimed he suffered brain damage because he didn’t receive proper care during open heart surgery at Rhode Island Hospital has won a $2 million award from a Superior Court jury. With interest, the...
R.I. Senate Weighs System for Tracking Medical Mistakes
May 30 2008 // A Rhode Island Senate committee plans to vote on creating a new system for tracking medical mistakes and near mistakes after brain surgeons at Rhode Island Hospital operated three times on the wrong side of patients’...
R.I. Supreme Court to Hear Lead Paint Makers’ Liability Appeal Today
May 15 2008 // Three U.S. companies that once made lead paint have spent nearly a decade fighting off a lawsuit that could force them to pay billions to clean up contaminated properties. The case heads to the Rhode Island Supreme Court...
Foam Companies Agree to $30M Settlement in R.I. Nightclub Fire
May 14 2008 // Several foam manufacturers have agreed to pay $30 million to settle lawsuits brought by survivors and family members of those who died in a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people, according to court papers filed this...
R.I. Supreme Court to Webcast Arguments in Lead Paint Case
May 13 2008 // People following the state’s lawsuit against former lead paint manufacturers can watch online this week as both sides argue their case to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The court plans to Webcast the May 15...
Plaintiffs: Gas Firm to Pay for Rhode Island ‘Blue Soil’ Cleanup
Apr 25 2008 // An energy company has agreed to pay residents of a polluted waterfront neighborhood in Rhode Island and to clean up the massive contamination that turned the soil under their homes blue, lawyers for the neighbors said,...
Providence, R.I. Firefighters with Cancer to Get Disability Pensions
Apr 22 2008 // Providence, Rhode Island firefighters diagnosed with cancer will receive accidental disability pensions under a measure passed by the City Council. Firefighters with cancer will be presumed to have developed the disease on...
Speaker Maker, Bus Companies Reach R.I. Club Fire Settlement
Apr 21 2008 // A speaker maker and two bus companies have agreed to pay a combined $1.3 million in tentative settlements stemming from a 2003 fire at a Rhode Island nightclub that killed 100 people, according to court papers filed. The...
