Business

By DAVE FALLON

PROVIDENCE, RI – Providence Business News Editor Mark Murphy joins Rhode Island Public Radio's Dave Fallon for a weekly business segment we're calling "The Bottom Line." Each Friday it looks at business news and themes that affect local business and the public.

This week Mark and Dave mull over the steps that lead to the state's $75 million guaranteed loan to video game developer 38 Studios. The company is having serious money troubles and has asked the state for more help.

By DAVE FALLON

PROVIDENCE, RI – Providence Business News Editor Mark Murphy joins Rhode Island Public Radio's Dave Fallon for a weekly business segment we're calling "The Bottom Line." Each Friday it looks at business news and themes that affect local business and the public.

For this first edition, Dave and Mark sit down with Thomas Dougherty, VP at Nortek Holdings, Inc.

By FLO JONIC

Providence, RI – Rhode Island continues to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and is one of only a handful of states with a jobless rate still in the double digits.

By FLO JONIC

Providence, RI – Rhode Island's unemployment rate edged down slightly in April. As WRNI's Flo Jonic reports it's currently the lowest it's been in almost two years.

Rhode Island's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 10.9% - down one tenth of a percentage point from March. It's the first time in 21 months the rate has been below 11%. But it is still two percent higher than the national jobless rate.

By IAN DONNIS

Providence, RI – Providence's budget woes, and critics fire back against Governor Chafee's budget. That's part of the discussion this week on Political Roundtable. Here's our host, WRNI political reporter Ian Donnis.

Do you have insight or expertise on this topic? Please email us, we'd like to hear from you. news@wrni.org.

By IAN DONNIS

Providence, RI – Governor Lincoln Chafee used the backdrop of the Pawtucket River Bridge on Interstate 95 Tuesday to make the case for the transit funding plan in his budget.

Chafee wants to steer $12 million from the state general fund for each of the next five years to fund transit improvements. He says creating this regular funding source would allow the state to avoid borrowing and paying interest for costly improvements.