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FBI agents raided a building on Dorrance Street in downtown Providence on Thursday morning. "There is court authorized activity at that location," said Jim Martin, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha's office. He declined to elaborate. The 127 Dorrance St. building houses the offices of Joseph Molina Flynn, an immigration lawyer in Massachusetts and Rhode Island who serves as a municipal court judge in Central Falls. Molina Flynn's office is the focus of the search, according to multiple sources. Molina Flynn was the first openly gay person and the first formerly undocumented person to serve on the bench...

Mayors from eighteen U.S. cities signed a letter to President Obama saying they are willing to take even more refugees than what has been proposed by the administration. “We will welcome the Syrian families to make homes and new lives in our cities,” wrote the mayors, all of whom are part of the Cities United for Immigration Action coalition. “Indeed, we are writing to say that we stand ready to work with your Administration to do much more and to urge you to increase still further the number of Syrian refugees the United States will accept for resettlement.” “This is...

Distressed cities are finally doing what they should have been doing long ago, declaring bankruptcy to force concessions from public unions. Numbers are still a trickle, but at soon as a major city such as Oakland or LA selects that option, we will likely see a torrent of municipal bankruptcies. At a packed, two-day conference on municipal woes sponsored by Michael Stanton, the publisher of The Bond Buyer Distressed Cities Discuss Bold Tactics in a New Fiscal Era. The conference was devoted to a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the more powerful tools being used in many cities...

In the wake of Central Falls's bankruptcy filing last Monday, lawmakers and local officials across the Ocean State have had to come to grips with the fact that the tiny city's fiscal "issues" are not unique. As you may remember, Central Falls's financial woes are primarily the result of the city's $80 million unfunded pension liability. The city was forced to file for bankruptcy after union retirees failed to agree to concessions that would have slashed pension benefits by as much as half. The filing was a wakeup call for Rhode Island, which is suffering from widespread pension crises. Combined,...

The tiny, cash-strapped town of Central Falls, Rhode Island, is expected to know Monday whether it is officially bankrupt. Robert Flanders, the town's state appointed receiver, will work through the weekend to decide whether he will file for bankruptcy on behalf of Central Falls... ... Central Falls faces a $4.9 million budget shortfall. The real financial problem, however, is the city's $80 million public pension debt and it's public safety worker pension fund is on track to run out by October. A Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy filing would give Central Falls the opportunity to change it's union agreements. But it...

It's not Jefferson County, yet, but it could certainly be seen as the precursor to the first domino. "The state-appointed receiver overseeing the cash-strapped Rhode Island town of Central Falls has filed for bankruptcy on the city's behalf in an effort to help it get back on its feet. Receiver Robert G. Flanders and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee announced the step - which Flanders has described as a last resort - at a news conference at City Hall. Flanders filed the legal paperwork seeking bankruptcy protection Monday. "From the ashes of bankruptcy Central Falls will rise again," Flanders said."...

The major problem is the city, with an annual operating budget of about $16 million, is facing about $32 million in promised after-retirement health-insurance costs in addition to the $48 million in pension obligations. “That’s $80 million for a city that has 19,000 citizens, approximately,” he said. “That’s a huge problem.” Pfeiffer raised the specter of a municipal bankruptcy filing as a last resort..... The crisis in Central Falls has been growing for more than a decade, Pfeiffer said. City administrations approved municipal employee contracts Central Falls could not afford and kept giving out pension and retirement benefits without figuring...

A school superintendent in Rhode Island is trying to fix an abysmally bad school system. Her plan calls for teachers at a local high school to work 25 minutes longer per day, each lunch with students once in a while, and help with tutoring. The teachers' union has refused to accept these apparently onerous demands. The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000. This exemplifies a nationwide trend in which public sector workers make far more than their private-sector counterparts (with better benefits). The school superintendent has responded to...