Tagged: legal issues

The reaction is streaming in to the US Supreme Court’s decision, on a 5-4 vote, to uphold most of the Democratic-backed Affordable Care Act:

Senator Jack Reed:

“Health reform is long overdue.  Nearly two decades ago, former Republican Senator John H. Chafee pointed out that a private health insurance market works best when everyone is in the insurance market.  And during the debate in 2009, top Republicans in Congress were still saying “there is a bipartisan consensus to have an individual mandate.”

Lawyer Max Wistow, a partner in the Providence firm of Wistow & Barylick, was hired by the state today to try to reduce the roughly $100 million liability faced by taxpayers due to the meltdown of 38 Studios.

After being introduced by Governor Chafee during a Statehouse news conference, Wistow said he couldn’t offer specifics on his approach since he’d just started on the job as a special counsel for the state Economic Development Corporation.

State Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher Koller plans to camp somewhere in the vicinity of the US Supreme Court when the court is expected to issue its highly anticipated decision Thursday morning on the Affordable Care Act.

As the General Assembly rushes to rap up the legislative year, the state Senate is slated to consider at 2 pm today the nominations of Luis Matos (as a Superior Court judge) and Mary McElroy (as state Public Defender).

Also on tap are the nominations of former lawmaker Charles Levesque as magistrate of the Family Court, and House legal counsel John Flynn as Drug Court magistrate of Superior Cour

Veteran prosecutor William J. Ferland is moving up to a new post in the US attorney’s office:

United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha has announced the appointment of Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Ferland as Senior Litigation Counsel for the District of Rhode Island. Mr. Ferland, who joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office on May 1, 2010, after 20 years as a top state prosecutor, replaces former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew J. Reich who retired on June 1, 2012, after 37 years with the Department of Justice.