Providence Business News articles from January 2000

Providence Business News archives from January 2000

CVS to protect herbal-using customers.
January 31, 2000... PROVIDENCE -- CYS Corp., the drugstore chain with the most stores in the country, has taken steps to protect its customers who use popular herbal supplements while taking prescription drugs. The Woonsocket-based retailer has developed a...

Mosca pleads guilty to two bribery charges.
January 31, 2000... PROVIDENCE - Lawyer Angelo "Jerry" Mosca, Jr., 72,has pleaded guilty to charges that he delivered two bribes, totaling $25,000, to Providence city tax officials to obtain tax reductions for his law office and a client, in the latest Plunder...

Two indicted for loan fraud involving Fleet, SBA.
January 31, 2000... PROVIDENCE -- A federal grand jury indicated Russell P. Smith, 38 of Warwick and Anthony J. Regine, 55, of Amherst, N.H. on charges of fraudulently obtaining a $95,000 loan from Fleet Bank that was backed by the Small Business Administration....

New wireless phones can dial-up web.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... e-mail also available Think of it as the-Internet on the run. The new generation of digital wireless telephones allows users to tap into the World Wide Web from just about anywhere. Buy a book at Amazon.com or buy some shares of...

Billboard campaign leads techies to web, maybe RI.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Last July, motorists sweltering through mid-summer Southeast Expressway traffic found themselves staring at a billboard that bore what must have been an interesting idea: "mass-exodus.com, this is your exit." The billboard bore no other...

Mix technical skills and good support, service.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... You have heard about sibling rivalries. This is a story about sibling success -- big time success. It. begins out of a garage in Barrington with a lot of dreams and not a lot of money. Then story doesn't end. It just gets more profitable....

Hodgesbadge.com keeps it simple.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... COMPANY: Hodges Badge Company, Inc. WHERE TO FIND: www.hodgesbadge.com CRITIQUE: Portsmouth-based Hodges Badge Company has a simple, yet effective site that serves as a fine on-line companion to the company's catalog. Although the...

Here's a 'plan' to subsidize e-commerce and eliminate e-taxes.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... You can always tell that an industry has come of age when it conjures up a public policy issue to take to Washington. By this measure, I figure the e-commerce business has just had its bar mitzvah. The e-tailers' cause is taxation, always...

Excelergy launches first Internet transaction hub.
January 31, 2000... Excelergy Corporation, a customer care and billing technology leader for the deregulated energy industry recently announced the launch of eXACThub, an Internet-based clearinghouse for all transactions among energy participants in the...

Board of Governors approves new degree.
January 31, 2000... The Center for Management & Technology at Rhode Island College will offer a master's in professional accountancy (MPAc) degree in the fall of 2000 semester, after receiving final approval form the Board of Governors of Higher Education at its...

Staples.com signs marketing agreement with Yahoo!(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Staples Inc. announced that Stamples.com has signed a marketing agreement with Yahoo Inc. to be the premiere office supply merchant on Yahoo! Small Business. As a premier merchant, Staples.com will have fixed button placement in office...

APC selected by MS to develop Windows support.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... American Power Conversion of West Kingstown announced last week that it had joined an elite group of industry-leading companies Microsoft Corp. has tapped to assist in the development of the Windows 2000 operating system. Microsoft has...

Deal to offer broadband statewide.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... BOSTON -- Every school, town hall and police department in the state will have a shot at inexpensive broadband Internet access thanks to a deal between a state agency and a telecommunications startup backed by Cisco Systems Inc. Widespread...

Cybersquatters beware; law eases prosecution.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Cybersquatters registering domain names of well-known companies face new perils by engaging in these activities. The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, signed by President Clinton on November 29, along with dispute resolution...

Area's computer networking companies.(Statistical Data Included)
January 31, 2000... Area's computer networking companies (ranked by number of employees) Rank Firm 1 UNICOM 297 Elmwood Ave., Providence, RI 02907 (800) 556-2828, fax: (401) 467-5607 2 CORE...

Women closing fast on men's Internet lead, as advertisers note rising interest.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 31, 2000... The Internet's days as a male-dominated club likely will end during the coming year as more women move online, according to results of a study released Jan. 17 by a Seattle-based research firm. Women accounted for 49 percent of Internet...

Beyond Y2K--ITs still ready to help.
January 31, 2000... Alan Greenspan's forecast of the Y2K rollover event was right on the money. "The probability of a cascading of computer failures in mission-critical systems is no negligible," he told group of federal regulators last September. Then the...

Harvard Net joins rush of DSL links to Internet.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... The competition to provide high-speed Internet access to Rhode Island homes and businesses continues to heat up as another industry heavy-hitter enters the market and others make plans to do the same. HarvardNet moved into the Ocean State...

HEAD APPOINTED AT LOG ON AMERICA.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Steve Head, a Nortel Networks professional services consultant, has been appointed director of switched facilities for Log On America, Inc. With over twenty years of experience in domestic and international telecommunications, he has held...

RHODE ISLAND stock watch.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 31, 2000... RHODE ISLAND stock watch Stock Div./ P/E 52 week 52 week Last Company name symbol share ratio high low week Aerovox (O) ARVX ...

PERSONAL INVESTING.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Q. Your pinion, please, of Oppenheimer Strategic Income Fund. The dividends have been sliding downhill in recent years, which is unnerving to a retiree on a fixed income. -- L.H., North Hollywood, Calif. A. Rising interest rates have...

Despite national surge, RI unions shrink.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 31, 2000... Union membership in Rhode Island continues to fall, even as membership across the country is starting to rebound, the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. Of the 119 million working Americans, 16.5 million, or 13.9 percent...

Labor today less likely to strike than in days past.
January 31, 2000... Though still considered among labor's most potent weapons, strikes in recent years have given way to other tactics, including corporate campaigns and political action. George Nee, secretary/treasurer of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO called...

Unions polish image with quality work.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... When Bob Silvia, the president of Process Engineers & Constructors in Warwick, thinks of union labor, he sees workers braving the element on top of a power plant in Tiverton. He envisions the four-man crew he sent to a job in Providence --...

The service economy forces unions to refocus.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... The shift in employment from manufacturing to service industries in Rhode Island and across the country has forced unions to follow American workers into some unfamiliar territory. But, overall, unions appear to be prospering amid the new...

Area's labor unions.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 31, 2000... Area's labor unions (ranked by number of members in the local) Rank Labor Union 1 United Food and Commercial Workers Local 328 278 Silver Spring St., Providence, RI 02904 (401)...

BUSINESS notes.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... ACCOUNTING Oscar E. Almeida was recently promoted to senior at the certified public accounting firm of Rooney, Plotkin & Willey, LLP. Almeida, a Warren resident, is a graduate of Bryant College. ARCHITECTURE Kathleen Bartels has...

SBA names First Bank and Trust new markets lender of the year.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... The U.S. Small Business Administration has presented First Bank and Trust Company with the Rhode Island New Markets Lender of the Year Silver Award for its work in lending minorities and women. The Bank had the highest of loans to new...

PUC chairman.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... After several months, Gov. Lincoln Almond has finally nominated a replacement for James Malachowski as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission. His choice, Elia Germani, a lawyer most recently with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode...

Port development.
January 31, 2000... We agree with North Kingstown legislators who oppose a proposal to move the Providence Port to Quonset Point/Davisville. While there is some sound reasoning for the move, there is more evidence against it, including the realization that...

It's okay to fail.
January 31, 2000... When asked what it is that is the most important concept, central to his own thinking and his company's philosophy, Jack Welch, General Electric CEO, said "robust experimentation and innovation" at all levels of the company. It is a...

Economy to grow, despite sub-par schools.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... While Rhode Island's economic prospects are "solid for the long-term," it still suffers from a sub-par public education system and high taxes, and will be missing an "immense opportunity" if it fails to develop a container port at Quonset...

Quality care: What is it?(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... A state program designed to provide consumers with complete information about the quality of health and hospital care in Rhode Island may become a model for the rest of the nation, officials say. As directed y state law in 1998, the state...

RI last in nation to block biweekly pay.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... And then there was one. During their 1999 legislative session, lawmakers in Maine enacted biweekly pay legislation, allowing businesses to pay hourly workers every two weeks. It left Rhode Island as the only state in the country that...

Reinventing the Navy through experimentation.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Name: Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski Occupation: Became the forty seventh president of the Naval War College in Newport in July 1998. Background: Served as a fighter squadron commander in Operation Desert Storm, and after promotion...

A landmark merger of electric companies.
January 31, 2000... $635 million is at stake New England Electric System of Westborough, Mass., has reached a preliminary settlement agreement with three of the parties that have opposed parts of its plan for acquiring Eastern Utilities Associates of West...

BRYANT COLLEGE.
January 31, 2000... The Providence Business News/Bryant College executive poll is a weekly survey of 70 top business leaders throughout the state, representing small and large companies in a variety of industries and businesses. QUESTION: Are labor unions a...

RI joins national trend by listening to NPR.
January 31, 2000... National Public Radio is gaining momentum in the Ocean State. Simulcast on two stations, WRNI 1290AM in Providence, and WXNI 1230AM in Westerly, the number of listeners in Rhode Island has grown more than 300 percent according to the...

Providence Port not welcome in North Kingstown.
January 31, 2000... Saying it would create a "revolution" in her district, state House Majority Whip Suzanne M. Henseler is criticizing a recent proposal by a Rhode Island professor to move the Port of Providence to Quonset Point. Henseler, a North...

From grandma's oven to your table.
January 31, 2000... Company: Newport Upper Crust Location: Lincoln Owners: Jeff Jordan, Norman Beretta and JR Beretta Employees: 10 Type of business: Potpie maker and distributor Year founded: 1994 Annual revenues: WND The...

Carol Malysz named director of RI Women's Business Center.
January 31, 2000... The Small Business Administration's Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE), has named Carol C. Malysz director of the Small Business Administration's women's business center in Rhode Island. The SBA Women's Business Center Program...

Northern Rhode Island Chamber wired.
January 31, 2000... The Lincoln-based Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce has launched itself into the business world of the 21st century, announcing today that it has signed on as a charter member of a new national Internet network called ChamberBiz.com....

Cumberland to be home to publications distribution center.
January 31, 2000... CUMBERLAND (AP)-- Three major universities plan to consolidate their U.S. warehouses and customer service operations in a new building, bringing more than 50 jobs. Harvard University Press, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press...

First Financial Corp. reports record 1999 earnings.
January 31, 2000... First Financial Corp. parent company of First Bank and rust Company reported record earnings for the year ended December 31. The company also reported record fourth quarter earnings for the period ended December 31. Net income for the...

Textron post record earnings.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Surpassing 10 years of continuous quarter-over-year-ago-quarter earnings growth, Textron Inc. reported a fourth quarter diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $1.12 up 51 percent from $.74 in 1998. Led by outstanding...

Washington Trust reports earnings.
January 31, 2000... The Washington Trust Company reported a fourth quarter 1999 net income of $3.0 million, or 27 cents per diluted share, a 9.5 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 1998. For the quarters ended December 31 199 and 1998, rates or return on...

Bank Rhode Island reports record 1999 earnings.
January 31, 2000... Bank.Rhode Island reported record earnings of $4.4 million for the year ended December 31, a 14 percent jump over the previous years. Earnings for the fourth quarter also rose sharply, up 19 percent over the same period in 1998. Fourth...

Fleet Financial announces increase in operating earnings.
January 31, 2000... FleetBoston Financial reported fourth quarter operating earnings of $726 million, or $.76 per share, up 17 percent compared to net income of $622 million, of $.65 per share in the fourth quarter of 1998. Return on assets and return on equity,...

Retail heating oil prices climb out of sight.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... February is here, but many Rhode Islanders are still staggering from January's one-two punch to the wallet. First, resident had to crank up their furnaces as the mercury plunged into the single digits with wind chills of 30 below or worse...

German appointed PUC chair.
January 31, 2000... Elia Germani has been named chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission. Gov. Lincoln Almond on Jan. 26, announced that German would begin filling immediately the term of former PUC Chairman James Malachowski. The appointment...

Chickabiddy is their name, sports clothing their game.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... A new Rhode land company is hoping to catch a ride on the wave of the increasing number of women participating in outdoor sports. Chickabiddy, of Barrington, is the first women's surf and snowboard-clothing line on the East Coast, and...

Citizens groups oppose funds for new Fenway.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... BOSTON -- Three public interest groups have expressed opposition at a State House public hearing to the use of public funds to underwrite or support construction of a new ballpark for the Red Sox baseball team. The opponents, the...

Raytheon-built missile fails; company upset.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... LEXINGTON -- After a week in which Raytheon executives predicted lower earnings than anticipated for the year and sent the company's stock skidding downward, the weapons and electronics manufacturer suffered another setback when its missile...

Cisco acquires Franklin firm in stock deal.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... FRANKLIN -- Cisco Systems Inc., which announced last week that it would continue its expansion in New England, and purchased a large piece of property in north central Massachusetts, has acquired Atiga Networks, which is located in this...

Merck plans bio-research center in Boston.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... BOSTON -- Merck & Co., the largest pharmaceutical company in the country, has announced plans to build a 10-story biotechnology research building behind the Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center off Brookline Avenue here. A company official...

NEES expanding fiber optic network.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... WESTBORO -- New England Electric System's telecommunications system subsidiary NEESCom announced that it is opening a 75-mile fiber optic network serving Marlboro and three neighboring communities as it extends its effort to set up a...

Ocean Spray has a new chief executive.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... LAKEVILLE -- Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. has chosen Robert Hawthorne, 54, formerly at Pillsbury Brands and General Mills in Canada to be its chief executive culminating a six-month search. Hawthorne will replace Thomas E. Bullock, who...

Photonics center to be established at MIT.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... CAMBRIDGE -- Nanovation, Inc., a Miami, Florida-based company which is doing pioneering work in photonics technologies, has announced that it is committing $90 million to create a new research center in its field at the Massachusetts...

Concord Comm. buys FirstSense Software.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... MARLBORO -- Concord Communications, Inc., which makes computer programs that detect flaws in computer networks, announced that I had acquired FirstSense Software, Inc. of Burlington in a stock deal worth $101 million, the Boston Globe...

Convention unit changes name, hires help.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... PROVIDENCE -- The recently maligned Providence Convention Center Authority has decided to rename itself and get some professional guidance. Hereafter the authority, which was founded in 1980 by the General Assembly to receive and administer...

RI Foundation agrees to contribute money to arts.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... PROVIDENCE -- The Rhode Island Foundation announced recently that it had decided give more than a $1 million annually to arts organizations. The announcement was made at the Business Volunteers for the Arts dinner at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet,...

Metech closing Indiana plant.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... MAPLEVILLE -- Metech International, Inc., the electronics recycling and resource recovery company, announced that it is phasing out its South Bend, Ind., operation and concentrating on its locations here and in Gilroy, Calif. A company...

Unemployment remains below 4 percent.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 31, 2000... PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island's December unemployment rate of 3.8 percent marked the fourth consecutive month that the state's unemployment rate remained below 4 percent, and the fourth consecutive month it remained below the national...

And technology will set you free.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... A few weeks ago I wrote in this column that a positive attitude would be the key to having fun, enjoying prosperity, and enhancing life in the next millennium and beyond. Anything but a positive attitude toward technology is nonsense....

After the fall of Harvard Pilgrim Health.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... A plea for a rational form of universal care The health care system in the United States is a national disgrace. In a time of historic prosperity, we nevertheless have 44 million Americans and 100,000 Rhode Islanders uninsured, and those...

Marketplace has let us down, director says.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Tom Schumpert, the Director of the Department of Business Regulation, likened Blue Cross, United and Harvard to three boys going down in the pond to see who could hold his breath the longest. All three insurers, it is now clear, were charging...

GPC/O'NEILL HIRES SIPALA.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Jill Henderson Sipala has been promoted to senior account executive at the Providence office of GPC/O'Neill & Associates. Sipala currently provides media relations, marketing and media buying advice to the firm's public and community...

New faces at the Brown Alumni Magazine.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Shaughna Giracca and Mindy Oswald have joined Brown Alumni Magazine: Giracca as an advertising sales agent, and Oswald, art director. Giracca comes to BAM from The Providence Business News, where she was advertising sales account...

Citizens Bank announces 2 promotions and 3 new hires.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2000... Four employees have been named vice president, and one a branch manager of Citizens Bank. Those employees are Jeffrey J. Kolarik, Patricia M. Roberts, Thilo a. Vollrath, John J. Battista, and Michael N. Felicetti, respectively. Kolarik...

Shift of Providence Port to Quonset proposed.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... With the state's failure to find an acceptable port proposal for Quonset Point, it is time to consider a radical alternative, a Rhode Island professor argues: Moving the Port of Providence there. University of Rhode Island professor...

Shift of Providence Port to Quonset proposed: Weygand urges high-tech. Licht prefers port.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... U.S. Congressman Robert Weygand would prefer that the state focus its efforts at Quonset Point/Davisville on the development of a high technology park, rather than a major shipping port. But his political opponent for the U.S. Senate,...

Farewell Boat House, ciao Bella Vista.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... The tables will be covered with linen, menus written in Italian, and certain dishes prepared at tableside when the Boat House restaurant reopens next month as Providence's newest upscale Italian eatery. The old restaurant, which overlooks...

She leads Bell Atlantic toward future's tests.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Name: Donna Cupelo Age: 43 Background: President and chief executive officer of bell Atlantic-Rhode Island since March 1997. Vice president and general manager of NYNEX's central and western Massachusetts business unit form 1995 to...

Monet fires 200 and moves manufacturing.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... When East Providence jewelry manufacturer Monet announced last week that it would fire 200 workers and move its manufacturing overseas, it was doing what its competitors had already done, officials said. Last week, Monet, part of the New...

Cost of electricity rises, but not enough for rivals.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... The price Rhode Island electric utilities charge customers for power increased on Jan. 1 as scheduled, but the higher price is still too low to inspire widespread electric competition. The cost of power sold by utilities in Rhode Island,...

Cote & D'Ambrosio offer Army the best they can do.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... As the United States Army looks to the 21st century, including, dropping its famous "Be All You Can Be" slogan, one Rhode Island advertiser reflects on his part in the development of what has become an icon of the armed services. Ken...

Dedicated public servant retires, seeks new task.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... His friends and colleagues call him "one of the unsung heroes of state govermnent." Now, after more than two decades working in various aspects of state government, and to the disappointment of those he worked with along the way, Leonard...

Travel at T.F. Green tops 5 million.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 24, 2000... T.F. Green Airport reached a milestone in 1999, exceeding 5 million passengers for the first time in its 68-year history. That's more than double the 2.4 million passengers that used the airport in 1996, the year the new terminal opened. ...

Zero Stage funds first firm.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... BlueStreak.com, a Newport-based Internet Technology company has become the first firm to receive venture capital funding -- $7 million total -- from a fund developed three years ago, aimed solely at supporting Rhode Island companies,...

Citizens' forms new division.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Citizens Financial Group, Inc. last week announced it was developing a new division, Citizens e-Business, aimed at capturing Internet opportunities. Hal R. Tovin, chief marketing officer and director of convenience banking, was named...

Falls Church to use Nestor's CrossingGuard.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... PROVIDENCE -- Nestor Traffic Systems, Inc., an affiliate of Nestor, Inc. last week announced that the City of Falls Church, Virginia has awarded a contract to the Company for its Crossing Guard(r) video-based automated, red light enforcement...

Excelergy partners with Siebel Systems.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... CAMBRIDGE -- Excelergy Corp., a leading provider of Web-based customer information and transaction management technology to the deregulated retail energy market, and Siebel Systems, Inc., a leading supplier of Web-based customer relationship...

HarvardNet offers DSL service in Rhode Island.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... BOSTON -- HarvardNet, a leading provider of digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet access in New England, announced last week the availability of its BusinessSpeed DSL service in Rhode Island. Offering service for the first time in Rhode...

Scientist wears computer while shopping.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The guy wired-up with a headset and keypad in the dairy-food aisle is not just an information an geek with a 21St century calculator. He's Andrew Fagg, a University of Massachusetts scientist who could be shaping the...