RI lawmakers bring their personal life to State House debate providencejournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from providencejournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Sponsors oppose medical waste facility proposed on East Greenwich-West Warwick border
STATEHOUSE â Sen. Bridget Valverde and Rep. Justine Caldwell introduced joint legislation last week which would prohibit new, high-heat waste incineration facilities in Rhode Island.
The bill comes on the heels of outcry and concern from their local constituents, who in large part, have come out in strong opposition against a proposed medical waste facility on the border of East Greenwich and West Warwick.Â
MedRecycler Inc. hopes to open its waste-to-energy plant at 1600 Division Road, and if approved, plans to dispose of up to 70 tons of medical waste a day. By using a process known as pyrolysis, which indirectly heats the waste in the absence of oxygen, the material would be evaporated into syngas, rather than just burned.Â
RI House approves IGT/Bally s bill after sharp debate Published Wed May 12 2021 00:42:45 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) by Ian Donnis
After an almost three-hour debate, the Rhode Island House of Representatives voted Tuesday, 62 to 11, to give IGT and Bally’s a 20-year no-bid contract to provide the state’s gambling services.
GOP lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to amend the gambling bill, as part of what they called an attempt to strike a better deal for taxpayers.
Republican representatives point to how Massachusetts takes a higher percentage of revenue from table games in that state. GOP Whip Michael Chippendale (R-Foster) said he disliked the implied threat that IGT might leave Rhode Island if it didn’t get what it wanted.
The Senate passed the Nathan Bruno and Jason Flatt Act (
2021-S 0031) sponsored by Sen. James A. Seveney (D-Dist. 11, Portsmouth, Bristol, Tiverton) that would require all public school districts to adopt suicide prevention policies and train all personnel in suicide awareness and prevention annually. The measure now moves to the House of Representatives, where similar legislation (
2021-H 5353) has been introduced by Rep. Terri Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown).
Senate, House OK bills to make construction tax exemptions permanent
The Senate and House passed separate bills to make tax exemptions for properties under construction permanent. The Senate bill (
2021-S 0288) was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Michael J. McCaffrey (D-Dist. 29, Warwick). The House bill (
Opponents were geared up for battle last year. But the pandemic shut down the legislature.
Now all of the bills crafted by opponents of Rhode Island s Reproductive Privacy Act have been reintroduced and queued up for a House Judiciary hearing on Friday, same time, same place as the annual fight over death with dignity legislation.
Introduced several times before but never passed, the legislation would insulate a physician from any civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action for prescribing medication to be self-administered by a patient to hasten death.
Those against abortion tend to oppose assisted suicide under any circumstances, while those who believe in individuals right to make their own health-care decisions take the other side.