The legislation spelled out what’s at stake, saying the funding would help preserve 2,700 jobs in Rhode Island. It said Roger Williams Medical Center provided care for nearly 31,500 emergency room patients, 55,000 inpatient cases, and 84,000 outpatient visits in fiscal year 2024, while Our Lady of Fatima Hospital provided care for nearly 25,500 emergency room patients, 4,857 inpatient cases, and 124,000 outpatient visits.

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, and Senate President Valarie J. Lawson, an East Providence Democrat, issued a joint statement, saying the two hospitals “provide critical health care to our state, and Rhode Island cannot afford a scenario in which they close.”

Rhode Island’s other hospitals would be unable to absorb the 300,000 patients they serve each year, nor their 55,000 emergency department visits, they said.

Shekarchi and Lawson said that with the involvement from the Health Department and Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, the state has imposed “many, many safeguards” on the deal “to ensure the long-term stability of these two hospitals.”

The House and Senate finance committees have worked to ensure “Centurion is prepared to support the hospitals and will work to right the ship after mismanagement by the current owner,” they said.

“While the entire health sector nationally faces many uncertainties in the current environment, this sale, which would return the hospitals to nonprofit status, is the best available path forward for a better future for Fatima and Roger Williams, and for public health in Rhode Island,” Shekarchi and Lawson said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Louis P. DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, said rather than being “too big to fail,” Rhode Island and its health care system is “too small to let them fail.”

“This is the right thing to do to shore up those hospitals and provide the means for Centurion to take over the hospital,” DiPalma said.

He added that if Centurion defaulted on its loans, the first reserve funds would come from $9 million that the nonprofit is putting up. The state’s $18 million would only be tapped after that $9 million is gone, he said.

Senator Jonathon Acosta, a Central Falls Democrat, said legislators needed to pass the bill to save the hospitals, but he wanted to be sure Rhode Island learns a lesson from all this. “It’s important that we contextualize exactly how we got here so we don’t get here again in 10 to 20 years,” he said.

Acosta said private equity came into Rhode Island nearly 15 years ago seeking to buy the two hospitals. State officials vetted the purchase, but he said, “At the end of the day, it was private interests trying to get into a space that takes public dollars for the provision of help.”

 Acosta noted that many of the patients at the two hospitals rely on public funding through Medicaid and Medicare, but he said, “This private company began taking anything from the top that they could take and sending it out of state.”

At the same time, he said, the company used the hospitals and their patients as collateral while borrowing millions and providing millions to shareholders.

“So now they’re bankrupt, and we are faced with the closure of two of our hospitals,” Acosta said. “ Rich people borrow money from other rich people using our public hospitals as collateral, and now need us to bail them out with public money so that we can convert the private hospital back to a nonprofit. That is wild.”

Representative David Morales, a Providence Democrat running for mayor, said he was supporting the bill because tens of thousands of Medicaid and Medicare recipients depend on those hospitals. But he, too, emphasized the importance of recognizing “how we got into this mess in the first place.”

“It is a result of what happens when we have for-profit entities that abuse and exploit our health care system,” he said.

So with $18 million in public funds on the line, Morales said he expects Centurion to pay its frontline health care workers “a livable wage” and maintain “safe staffing” so patients receive the quality of care they deserve.

Representative Charlene M. Lima, a Cranston Democrat, also supported the legislation, and said the state must also look out for the doctors who were promised medical malpractice insurance by Prospect. She warned that the failure to provide that coverage could drive doctors into bankruptcy and exacerbate the shortage of primary care doctors in Rhode Island.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

GoLocalProv News Team

High profile Rhode Island realtor Kyle Seyboth is the subject of a new lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court. 

The lawsuit is related to the actions filed by the Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.

In November 2024, GoLocal was first to report that Seyboth – and a number of his related companies and associates – were hit by the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office with claims that the group “took advantage of two elderly Haitian immigrants with limited command of the English language to swindle the pair out of their home for a fraction of its value.”

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That case is still pending in Providence Superior Court.

New Federal Lawsuit

Also named in this new lawsuit are Lowell Williams, Chris Messier and a series of companies related to Seyboth.

The lawsuit asserts in its opening paragraph:

After scamming two elderly Haitian immigrants out of the $400,000 home that they had owned for almost thirty years, providing them the relatively paltry sum of $100,000 in exchange, defendant Kyle Seyboth explained the circumstances to the plaintiffs’ panicked daughter thusly, “I own the house. It’s my [f–king] house. It’s my house.” Mr. Seyboth is wrong.

The lawsuit has multiple counts, including a claim that Seyboth and the other defendants are guilty of a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

According to the lawsuit filed on Monday, “Plaintiffs Marie Delva and Jean Marie Delva (collectively the “Debtors” or the “Delvas”), both debtors in separate cases under chapter 13, Title 11 of the United State Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) before the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, bring this action to: a) recover the prepetition fraudulent transfer of exempt property, to wit, their residence located at 58 Pekin Street, Providence; b) seek a determination that the foreclosure rescue scam through which they lost the Property was in fact a loan transaction and to recharacterize the conveyance of the Property as an equitable mortgage; c) have the usurious loan transaction declared void; and d) for monetary relief under applicable law.”

“Defendants collectively orchestrated or participated in a foreclosure rescue scam and, through a bait-and-switch, took the Debtors’ $400,000 home for $100,000 while requiring repayment of $280,000 within a year for the Debtors to get their home back. In designing this transaction, certain Defendants candidly referred to the transaction as a loan when communicating among themselves, and referred to the Debtors’ periodic payments as ‘mortgage payments,’” states the lawsuit.

Nick Hemond, Seyboth’s attorney, told GoLocal, “The Delvas lied to each other, they lied to the AG, then they lied in superior court, now it would seem they intend to take their lies to federal court.”

Seyboth’s History and Real Estate Expert for WJAR-10

In October of 2025, Seyboth made threats to call immigration officials against a family he was in a dispute with. 

Then, he was caught on tape berating a man in a related dispute.

LISTEN TO THAT AUDIO EXCHANGE ABOVE.

Seyboth heads the Seyboth Team and is affiliated with Century 21.

He continues to be a regular on WJAR’s Studio 10 as a real estate expert.

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A recent survey determined two out of three prospective Valentine’s Day diners would consider having fast food on the most romantic day of the year.

“White-tablecloth restaurants, prix-fixe menus, and eye-watering wine markups are out; drive-thrus, value meals, and ‘would you like fries with that?’ are very much in,” the release said. “In 2026, romance isn’t dead – it’s just been supersized, discounted, and served in a cardboard box.”

See also: 8 Rhode Island Restaurants, Chefs Named 2026 James Beard Semifinalists

MarketBeat polled 3,004 couples, asking them whether they are considering dining at a fast-food restaurant for Valentine’s Day this year.

“The answer was emphatic: 67% said they absolutely are,” according to MarketBeat.

“Sonic appeals to couples who want Valentine’s Day to feel different without trying too hard,” the release from MarketBeat said.

See also: What Popular Restaurant Do Rhode Islanders Want More Than Any Other Brand?

“Eating in the car, sharing fries, sipping something neon — it all feels informal and oddly intimate,” according to the release. “There’s no table service awkwardness, no lingering bill, just an easy, slightly retro experience. It’s a choice that says romance doesn’t need ceremony, just good timing and a place where nobody’s dressed up.”

Following Sonic for the top Valentine’s Day fast food picks were Chick-fil-A (fortunately Valentine’s isn’t on a Sunday this year), Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

See also: Wingstop Opens 1st Ever Rhode Island Restaurant