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R.I. Assembly votes for $18 million public backstop to save two hospitals – The Boston Globe

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R.I. Assembly votes for  million public backstop to save two hospitals – The Boston Globe


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.”

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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.”

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“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.”

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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.

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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.





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Bodycam footage shows moments police respond to Pawtucket shooting

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Bodycam footage shows moments police respond to Pawtucket shooting


Police bodycam footage shows the moments officers arrived to the scene of a deadly mass shooting in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

The shooting on Feb. 16 at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena killed Rhonda Dorgan and Aidan Dorgan, the ex-wife and son of the shooter, who died by suicide.

Gerald Dorgan, Rhonda’s father, died from his injuries this week. His wife, Linda Dorgan, and family friend Thomas Geruso remain hospitalized.

Around five minutes after the first officer arrives, he beings helping paramedics with a man who identifies himself as Aidan. Twelve minutes in, Aidan Dorgan is transported to the hospital, where he would later die from his injuries.

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For the last 10 minutes of the footage, the officer then begins helping paramedics transport the other three gunshot victims.

The video ends with police prepping witness interviews.

The shooting rocked the Pawtucket community. Chris Librizzi, head coach of the Blackstone Valley Schools hockey team impacted by the shooting, said the players and coaching staff “are devastated over the events that took place at Lynch Arena on Monday and intimately affected one of our teammates.”

As authorities continue investigating the shooting in Pawtucket, three patients remain in critical condition.

“We will lean on each other and support one another, as we have always done as a team,” he added.

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Pawtucket police said two handguns were found at the scene after the shooting, a Sig Sauer P226 and Glock. Other weapons have been seized at the suspect’s storage unit in Maine.

Investigators continue reviewing all video evidence from before, during and after the shooting, including surveillance footage from the Dennis M. Lynch Arena, police body-worn camera footage and other records — a high school sports livestream captured the shooting from a distance — police said.



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Man killed in RI shooting; suspect involved in Mass. car crash that killed 2 others

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Man killed in RI shooting; suspect involved in Mass. car crash that killed 2 others


A man has died after a shooting in Cranston, Rhode Island, and investigators say a suspect was later involved in a car crash in Swansea, Massachusetts, that killed two other people.

The shooting victim was found Thursday on Legion Way, shot multiple times in the chest, Cranston police told NBC affiliate WJAR-TV. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital where he later died. His name has not been released.

The suspect initially fled on foot, setting off a shelter-in-place order while investigators searched the area.

Police said Friday that investigators identified a suspect vehicle, which was later spotted by Massachusetts State Police. A trooper followed the car down Route 6 and Interstate 195, but stopped when it crossed back into Rhode Island. The car was later involved in a crash on Route 136 in Swansea, Mass.

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Swansea police say that crash on Route 136 (James Reynolds Road) resulted in the deaths of two other people.

According to the Swansea Police Department, two officers saw a white Infinity G37 speed past them around 12:18 a.m. Friday on Route 6, otherwise known as Grand Army of the Republic Highway. Moments later, officers observed that the vehicle had crashed into the side of a blue Subaru Ascent that had been traveling southbound on Route 136.

Both vehicles sustained catastrophic damage, police said.

The vehicle that was struck was fully engulfed in flames. First responders and bystanders tried to extinguish the fire, but both occupants — a man and a woman — were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Their names have not been released.

The 28-year-old Infinity driver, who struck the victims’ Subaru, was taken to Rhode Island Hospital with serious injuries and later into custody by Cranston Police. They have not been publicly identified at this time.

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Swansea police said they are aware that the Infinity was the subject of a police pursuit, and know the driver was wanted in connection to the Rhode Island homicide investigation. While Swansea police had been alerted to be on the lookout for the suspect’s vehicle, however, they say they were not involved in the pursuit and were not pursuing the vehicle at the time of the deadly crash.

The crash in Swansea is under investigation by Massachusetts authorities, including state police and the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office. Meanwhile, Cranston police said they would give an update on their investigation around 1 p.m.



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RI House speaker unveils housing bills for 2026. What to know

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RI House speaker unveils housing bills for 2026. What to know


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  • Rhode Island House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi has introduced a new package of housing legislation.
  • Highlights include allowing property owners to divide single-family lots and legalizing single-staircase, four-story apartment buildings.
  • The package also seeks to expand the Homeless Bill of Rights and streamline the creation of emergency shelters.

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi is once again taking aim at the regulations he says are stifling new homebuilding.

The Warwick Democrat unveiled his sixth annual suite of housing legislation on Thursday, Feb. 26, a few weeks after announcing he would not be running for governor this year.

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“We are still trying to play catch-up for all the years that Rhode Island was dead last in the country for new housing starts,” Shekarchi said. “While Rhode Island remains a relatively affordable option for people moving here from other states, our own residents are too often priced out of the neighborhoods they grew up in.”

The legislative text of the nine-bill housing package, and with it the specifics of how it would work, were not available for Thursday’s news conference.

But highlights of the package, according to summaries, include:

  • Infill housing. Allow property owners to divide lots in single-family zoning districts, creating multiple dwellings instead of one, provided they have water and sewer service.
  • Parking maximums. Put new limits on how much off-street parking communities require for new apartment buildings.
  • Homeless Bill of Rights. Expand the state’s Homeless Bill of Rights to require 15-day notice to the occupants of encampments before local authorities clear them.
  • Emergency shelters. Let communities build temporary shelters, such as the ECHO Village Pallet shelter in Providence, during a state of emergency.
  • Stairs. Legalize the construction of four-story apartment buildings with a single staircase.
  • Affordable housing taxes. Overhaul the tax system for income-restricted housing covered by the state’s “8 Law.”

Is land-use reform working?

Since Shekarchi was elected speaker in 2021, the General Assembly has passed dozens of bills he backed that tweaked state land-use statutes or streamlined the process for building.

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How successful this approach has been is subject to debate.

Many local elected officials wary of development in their communities continue to rail against efforts to erode their power over construction.

Others in the growing Yes In My Back Yard movement see Rhode Island’s piecemeal approach as inadequate in comparison with the scale of the affordability problem and what other states are doing.

As evidence that his changes are making a difference, Shekarchi said Rhode Island saw a 70% increase in building permits in 2023 and a more modest increase in 2024. (Statistics for last year were not immediately available.)

Gov. Dan McKee’s 2030 plan calls for 15,000 new housing units built by that year.

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Democratic primary challenger Helena Foulkes is slated to roll out her housing plan on Monday.

It is expected to include a millionaires tax to fund affordable housing, a revolving fund and target of 20,000 new homes.

What would the new laws do?

Letting property owners put multiple homes on a plot of land is one of the most direct ways that lawmakers can encourage the construction of more homes, but it is also one of the most controversial.

That’s especially true in areas zoned for large lots and single-family homes.

How far the new bill allowing lots to be subdivided in single-family zones goes is unclear. It is sponsored by Rep. Stephen Casey, D-Woonsocket.

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Legislation setting maximum parking requirements for new developments, introduced by Rep. Joshua Giraldo, D-Central Falls, would apply to areas accessible by public transit.

Critics of off-street parking requirements say they make it harder to build new apartments and make the units that are built more expensive.

Shekarchi proposed the emergency shelter bill last year. It passed the House and died in the Senate.

It was the result of how long it took state officials to navigate Rhode Island’s building code and open the ECHO Village Pallet shelter in Providence.

The staircase bill, sponsored by Rep. June Speakman, a Warren Democrat and chair of the House’s home affordability study commission, follows a wave of cities and states relaxing rules on how many exits are required in new construction.

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Currently, the state building code requires two stairways in buildings with more than three stories, and fire officials have opposed all efforts to change that.

Speakman’s bill would allow four-story buildings with a maximum of 16 units with a single staircase.

Supporters of single-stair buildings say they allow development of small sites that would otherwise sit vacant and allow family-sized units with more light and better ventilation.

A previous Rhode Island single-stair bill would have allowed six stories, but it died in committee.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order in mid-February to study the idea.

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