There’s another wave of health care reform mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly called “Obamacare,” that employers need to know about. more

PROVIDENCE – The mayors of four Rhode Island cities joined several state legislators and a coalition of advocates last week in calling for the passage of legislation aimed at freeing Rhode Islanders from a cycle of debt caused by ultra-high-interest payday loans. more

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island last week became the latest state to roll back criminal penalties for minor marijuana possession, replacing the threat of jail time for those caught with pot with something akin to a traffic citation, The Associated Press reported. more

BOSTON – Attorney General Martha Coakley and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have called for a new permanent leader to replace Edward DeMarco as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. more

When a federal labor board ruled in September that a West Virginia coal mine had illegally refused to hire union workers, 61-year-old Dave Preast thought his nine-year ordeal was finally coming to an end. more

David M. Gilden made his connection with Providence as a Brown University student, then went to Boston to earn his law degree. But Rhode Island had gotten a hold on this Connecticut native. He recalled it as “a bit of an experiment” when he took a chance on the Ocean State as the place where he would settle. more

FORT WORTH, Texas – Oppenheimer & Co. agreed to pay about $2.9 million to settle claims by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Massachusetts attorney general that it misled investors in a private-equity fund, Bloomberg News reported last week. more

PROVIDENCE – Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin last week announced that he has submitted legislation to implement a criminal-records-check program for long-term-care providers who have direct patient access. more

One of the top box office movies of the winter was called “Identity Thief,” a lightweight comedy about a guy chasing a woman across the country after she had stolen his identity. It was filled with pratfalls, sight gags and fat jokes. more

PROVIDENCE – Senate Majority Leader Dominick J. Ruggerio, D-Providence, would bar employers from demanding social media-related materials of job applicants, and would establish similar prohibitions for colleges as they consider prospective students under a bill he introduced. more