The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council and the R.I. Economic Development Corporation have established a collaborative partnership with the state’s General Assembly to build a legislative database as a resource for Rhode Island businesses. more

More than 20 percent of children in the Ocean State live with a parent who is either unemployed or underemployed, according to a report from the Urban Institute. more

Included in Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee’s budget proposal was $500,000 earmarked for designs of a joint Rhode Island College and University of Rhode Island advanced nursing center in Providence’s Knowledge District. It follows a failed attempt to get a $65 million bond question on last fall’s ballot and comes three years after URI President David M. Dooley first floated the idea. more

The availability of the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, a component of the health benefits exchange in Rhode Island, should be expanded to businesses with more employees, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council said in a report released Wednesday afternoon. more

The Housing Network of Rhode Island has received a $375,000 grant from the R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin’s Office to bolster mortgage and home buyer education programs, the office announced Thursday. more

State tax systems across the United States, including Rhode Island, take a larger share of income from middle- and low-income families than from wealthy families, according to a new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. more

Rhode Island is among nine Northeastern states poised to revise regulations that will substantially lower allowable emissions of carbon dioxide, with the goal of putting the changes into effect by January 2014, said Frank Stevenson, supervising air-quality specialist for the R.I. Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Air Resources. more

The U.S. isn’t expected to return to full employment for at least six more years, and the consensus in Washington seems to be that President Barack Obama’s administration has no options to improve that dreary outlook. more

When most politicians push same-sex marriage, they talk about equal rights. Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee has a different selling point: competitiveness. more

Tom Hanks has a knack for playing the roles that define American generations. In “Saving Private Ryan,” he embodied the courage of the men who landed on the Normandy beaches under heavy fire. In “Apollo 13,” he conveyed calm and ingenuity under intense pressure: “Houston, we have a problem.” And Forrest Gump revealed much about America before, during and after the Vietnam War. more