6:05 AM Fri, Nov 20, 2009 | Permalink
Thomas J. Morgan  Email
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On the local front:
A year ago today:
Rhode Island's unemployment rate last month climbed to 9.3 percent, the highest since 1983, as job cuts in the private and public sectors coursed through nearly every part of the economy, a government report released today shows. Factories, offices and retail stores, among others, slashed payrolls in October, eliminating 2,400 jobs, according to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. The ranks of the unemployed last month swelled to nearly 53,000, the highest on record. Rhode Island's October unemployment rate is identical to that of Michigan, where Detroit's Big Three automakers this week pleaded for American taxpayers to help their industry as prospects of receiving federal rescue aid dimmed. The latest jobs report is grim even in light of the economic forecast released yesterday by the nonprofit New England Economic Partnership. The NEEP economists predicted that during the next two years, Rhode Island would lose nearly 15,000 more jobs and unemployment would hit 10 percent, probably by the end of next year. But the pace of the decline is swifter than predicted. The October job losses already account for more than 70 percent of the 3,400 jobs that NEEP had forecast the state would lose during October, this month and next month.
On Nov. 20, 2004
5 years ago today:
The Providence police have decided not to press charges against a truck driver who ran over a bicyclist three days ago on Allens Avenue. The cyclist, Peter Robbins of Sheldon Street, remained in critical condition in Rhode Island Hospital. Robbins fell under the back wheels of the 18-wheeler while riding his mountain bike. Investigators determined that the truck driver, Fred Parella, 56, of Barrington, who was driving for Fortune Metals, did not see Robbins. Witnesses said Robbins tried to pass the truck on the right, even though the truck was taking a right turn onto Terminal Road.
25 years ago today:
Three men from Norridgewock, Maine, are free on $25,000 bail after being arraigned on auto-theft charges involving nearly 100 cars stolen from the Providence and Warwick, R.I., areas. The three were indicted after an investigation in Maine, and more arrests are expected in Rhode Island in connection with the case. Maine State Police say the case involves the largest stolen-car ring in the state's history. Arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Edward Keith were Michael Daniels, 34; Robert Daniels, 23, and Frank Carcieri, 31. All three are from Rhode Island but have lived in Norridgewock for about 13 months. Pasquale Perrino, an assistant U.S. attorney assigned to the Bangor office, said the defendants bought junked automobiles and used the titles and vehicle-identification numbers to disguise the stolen cars. Also, he said, some cars were cut up and sold for parts either as "the result of an outright theft or an insurance theft."
On the international front:
On this day in 1990, Saddam Hussein orders another 250,000 Iraqi troops into Kuwait.
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