Anthony Barile of Cranston, RI passed away, peacefully at home on January 16, 2026, surrounded by his loving family. He was born on September 19, 1937, to the late John Barile and Anna Vitello. He was the brother of the late Loretta Matrone and Marion Camuso, and Dorothy Santilli of Lincoln, RI. He was the beloved husband of the late Judith A. Barile to whom he had been married for 65 years. He is survived by his loving children Deborah Letourneau (R. Michael) of Warwick, RI, Robert Barile (Murriam) of Gloucester, MA, and Karen Barile-Lyons (Thomas) of Cranston, RI. He was the devoted grandfather of Michael Letourneau, Nicole Sobolewski, Heather Lyons, and Brittany Leger, and the great grandfather of Connor and Bennet Letourneau and Lainey and Kody Bergsten

After graduating from Classical High School, he attained a Bachelor’s Degree from Providence College and a Master’s Degree from the University of Rhode Island. Mr. Barile was the State’s Medical Director for many years and became the Director of the Department of Human Services in 1989. During his career in state service, he served on many Executive and Legislative Committees in the health care area and was a member of the Health Services Council for 5 years.

Mr. Barile was vice chair of the State Medicaid Directors National Organization and the recipient of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council Robert M. Goodrich Distinguished Public Service Award in 1988.

He retired from a 30-year career in State Service in 1990 and took a position in the private sector as the Vice President of Operations for Health Management Services, a company that managed nursing homes. In 2010, he became the President of that company and assumed the role of President of Hopkins Manor, a 200-bed nursing home located in North Providence, RI.

During his career in the private sector, he served on the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Health Care Association as treasurer and Vice Chair. In 2008 he received the Chairs Award from that association in recognition of his contributions to the delivery of quality care in R.I. Nursing Homes.

Mr. Barile who received the Humanitarian Award from the Grodin Center in 1986 enjoyed assisting individuals and organizations achieve their goals. Although Mr. Barile enjoyed receiving awards and recognition during his professional career, his greatest source of pride and satisfaction came from the prominent and supportive role he played in the higher education achievements of his 3 children and 4 grandchildren, as they attained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.

His greatest leisure time activity was playing golf. He was a long-time member of the Cranston Country Club and most enjoyed playing golf there with his fellow members of the Ocean State Golf League that he ran for a number of years. Mr. Barile’s golfing highlight came on May 12, 2015, when he was fortunate enough to score a hole-in-one on the 12th hole at the Cranston Country Club.

His Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday January 22, 2026, at 11:00 am at Holy Apostles Church,800 Pippin Orchid Rd. Cranston. Burial will be in St. Ann Cemetery. VISITING HOURS will be held from 8:30 – 10:00 am at the NARDOLILLO FUNERAL HOME & Crematory, 1278 Park Ave., Cranston. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Holy Apostles Church Memorial Society, 800 Pippin Orchard Road, Cranston, RI 02921.

The mysterious buyer of a Wyoming ranch four times larger than New York City and bigger than the state of Rhode Island has been identified as a chief executive officer and local politician who already owns a million acres of land.

Christopher Robinson, the CEO of Ensign Group L.C., scooped up the massive 916,000-acre Pathfinder Ranches on behalf of the landholding company and closed the deal on Jan. 14, according to KPCW.

Robinson purchased the land for an undisclosed amount, only four years after he bought the neighboring Stone Ranch.

The massive property, which rolls across 1,431-square-miles, was listed over the summer by Swan Land Company broker Scott Williams for a whopping $79.5 million. New York City spans across 300.4 square miles, while Rhode Island spans 1,033.9.

Spreading across four counties in the Rocky Mountains, the Pathfinder Ranches is made up of four separate properties and encompasses over 1% of the land in the Cowboy State.

Actual deedage acreage of the historic purchase added up to 99,188 acres with the additional land coming from leases, according to the Cowboy State Daily.

The Park City, Utah resident is using the smaller ranch to bridge together the Pathfinder Ranches properties and create a self-sustainable livestock range.

“So, we’re kind of reuniting that, and we intend to, we’re operators,” Robinson told the outlet. “We’re not generally landlords. We’re going to, over time, grow into it, where we’re mostly running our own livestock on it.”

Robinson plans to work the property’s livestock to become self-sufficient rather than buying from outside the ranch.

The land was estimated to have a capacity of 90,444 Animal Unit Months, the amount of livestock a rangeland can support.

“With cattle prices as high as they are, we’re not going to be buying any mother cows to stock,” he said. “We keep a lot of heifers back anyway, so we’re going to grow internally.”

“If things get really tough, we’ll get rid of yearlings,” he said. “But we don’t get rid of mother cows. There have been droughts and things in the past, but we’ve got enough scale and flexibility that we can sell the yearlings.”

The Ensign Group, co-owned by Robinson and his siblings Alexander and Victoria Robinson, has acquired over 1 million acres of private and public lands throughout Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming under the Ensign Ranches moniker.

Before the massive purchase, the Robinson and Freed portfolio ranked at number 31 on Land Report Magazine’s Top 100 Landowner List.

Pathfinder Ranches may push the group’s portfolio to over 470,000 acres up 10 spots on the list and surpassing billionaire Jeff Bezos’ own impressive 462,000 acres, according to KPCW.

“We love land and water. We think it’s a good long-term investment, and we like the opportunities it affords us to be stewards over a piece of God’s creation,” Robinson said.

Robinson, a graduate from the University of Utah, is one of the five members of the Summit County Council, a seat he has held since his election in 2008, according to the county’s website.

He has extensive experience in production agriculture, local government, mineral and resource development, public lands, renewable energy and conservation efforts.

In December, Robinson announced that he would not run for reelection.

Robinson is also on the board of several conservation and land groups in the Utah area.

The newly purchased land is also home to a diverse ecosystem of wildlife including housing the US’s first sage-grouse conservation bank.”

“It’s a statewide bank that, if there’s any damage to, disturbance to, core habitat for greater sage-grouse, one option for mitigation would be to buy credits from the Pathfinder,” Robinson told the outlet. “[The property has] got a lot of sage grouse on it, a lot of antelope, pronghorn, deer and elk. It’s teeming with life.”

The property, named after rolling foothills, high plains and broad river valleys, is a cowboy’s dream and one of Swan Land’s largest sales in Wyoming.

“This is what we specialize in are the large complicated transactions,” Williams told the Cowboy State Daily. “And the beauty of this is the buyers are excellent ranchers, but they’re also conservation-minded operators as well.

“That’s a plan that will take some time to realize,” Robinson said.

Several tax changes took effect in Rhode Island on Jan. 1, including a new tax on whole-home short-term rentals and inflation adjustments to the estate tax threshold, the state Division of Taxation announced this week.

The changes affect short-term rental operators, homebuyers, estate planning and several business tax credits.

Short-term rentals

Owners of short-term rentals face two changes this year. The local hotel tax that applies to all short-term rentals, including hotels, doubled from 1% to 2%.

A new 5% whole-home short-term rental tax now applies to any residential dwelling rented in its entirety. The tax covers houses, condos, mobile homes and other residential dwellings, including vacation rentals and those offered through online hosting platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO.

Real estate conveyance tax

The Tier 2 threshold for the real estate conveyance tax increased to $824,000, up from $800,000. The threshold will now be adjusted annually based on the Consumer Price Index. The Tier 2 rate of $3.75 per $500 applies to residential property sales exceeding the threshold, in addition to the Tier 1 rate.

Estate tax

The Rhode Island estate tax threshold rose to $1,838,056 for decedents dying in 2026, up from $1,802,431 in 2025. The estate tax credit amount increased to $87,940 from $85,375.

Interest rates

Interest on tax overpayments dropped to 7.25% from 8%. Rates on underpayments remain at 18% for trust fund taxes and 12% for all other taxes.

Business tax credits

Several business tax credits were eliminated for tax years beginning Jan. 1, 2026, including the Jobs Growth Act Tax Credit, Specialized Investment Tax Credit and Employment Tax Credit. The Research and Development Expense Credit carryforward period increased from seven years to 15 years.

For more information, contact the Division of Taxation at 401-574-8829 or visit tax.ri.gov.