Rhode Island Government News

Shape Up Rhode Island, the Ocean State's quieter variation of "The Biggest Loser," has received a grant to make the weight loss and fitness program more accessible to low-income residents.

Few people could argue with the notion that hospital operations performed on the wrong body part are events that should never happen , but at one hospital, these so-called wrong-site operations have taken place five times since 2007.

The RI Department of Labor and Training reports that unemployment insurance claimants who had previously exhausted all their entitled extended unemployment insurance benefits may now be eligible for up to 20 more weeks in additional benefits, as a result of legislation signed into law today by President Barack Obama.

State tax collections plunged over the last four months, yet another sign that Rhode Island's economy is going nowhere fast.

With school based vaccination clinics starting this week in Rhode Island, the news of another child's death from the H1N1 flu brings the stark reality of the possible effects from the H1N1 Swine flu.

Rhode Island is now the last state in the country to ban prostitution. Last Wednesday and Thursday the Rhode Island House and Senate voted respectively to close an almost 30-year loophole in the statea s law that banned prostitution outdoors, but allowed it indoors.

Rhode Island would close a loophole allowing prostitutes to ply their trade indoors under new legislation approved by state lawmakers.

To help track H1N1 trends, Rhode Island health officials are receiving electronic prescription data to identify outbreaks based on age groups and ZIP codes.

The Rhode Island Association of Fire Chiefs is urging Rhode Islanders to change the batteries in their smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors when they turn back their clocks this Sunday at 2 a.m. In 53 percent of the reported fires in homes equipped with smoke alarms, the devices did not work, most often because of missing, disconnected or ...

The 12-year-old Bristol girl who died earlier this week did have the H1N1 flu virus, Gov.

A Rhode Island school says medical officials are conducting an autopsy on the body of a 12-year-old student who died after coming down with flu-like symptoms.

Lawmakers could soon close a loophole making Rhode Island the only state beside Nevada that permits indoor prostitution.

Health officials are investigating how a surgeon at Rhode Island Hospital mistakenly operated on the wrong part of a patient's hand, the hospital's fifth wrong-site surgery since 2007.

In a study published in the journal Transfusion , researchers at hospitals in Rhode Island have seen a dramatic increase in transfusion-transmitted babesiosis cases.

The headline in the August 3 Rhode Island Providence Journal, "Academics urge R.I. to keep indoor prostitution legal," took me down memory lane.

Main Category: Blood / Hematology Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses Article Date: 21 Oct 2009 Babesiosis is a potentially dangerous parasitic disease transmitted by ticks and is common in the Northeast and the upper Midwest.

Babesia lives inside of red blood cells, meaning it can also be transmitted through a blood transfusion from an infected but otherwise asymptomatic blood donor.

The state has given more than $87 million in tax breaks to businesses over the past two years but has not been able to determine whether the businesses have achieved the goals for which the breaks were intended.

Nearly 200 supporters of same-sex marriage rallied on the steps of the Rhode Island state house in Providence on Saturday, angry that Rhode Island is an actual 'island' in a sea of New England states that have marriage equality or civil union laws on the books.

Nearly all of the 1,700 state jobs that have been paid for by federal stimulus money come from five departments, state officials said Friday afternoon.