Newport News

By: Ben Sienko

I can hear the heavy surf pounding Monahan's Dock from my living room. Torrential downpours, 40mph winds, 42 degrees in March, and we're going surfing. The excitement of long awaited swell buzzes throughout the surf community. My phone is ringing, boards strapped tightly to roof racks and poking out of passenger seats zip passed on Ocean Road, its here.

Cars line both sides of the street as we arrive to the local surf spot. Covered in a soft shell of neoprene wetsuit, my face is the only thing exposed to the 38 degree water. The lineup is packed. So many surfers are out testing their abilities in 5 to 8 ft waves, battling each other for the chance to ride the best one.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Revenue collections are outpacing estimates in Rhode Island so far in the current fiscal year.

Fiscal advisers for the House of Representatives released data this week showing that total tax revenues are nearly 18 percent ahead of estimates. Sales tax revenues, typically seen as an indicator of economic activity, are $16.3 million ahead of projections.

The figures could offer a glimmer of hope for the economy, along with last week's news that the unemployment rate in January had held steady rather than decline further.

Leonard Lardaro, a University of Rhode Island economist, says the numbers are not surprising since the economy could not stay in a "free fall" forever.

The figures are being presented to the House Finance Committee,
which can rewrite the governor's budget proposals.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Rhode Island lawmakers are rolling up their sleeves to help small businesses survive the recession so they can thrive when it's over. ABC6 Reporter Paul Mueller has more...

PRESS RELEASE

AG Lynch rebuts testimony of CEO of LNG project developer

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch today offered a spirited rebuttal of the testimony delivered yesterday by Gordon Shearer, the CEO of Hess Corp. who accused Lynch, in Shearer's remarks before a special legislative task force, of misrepresenting material facts about the LNG terminal that Shearer's company has been seeking to locate in Mount Hope Bay, and about the marine transit of LNG.

"Mr. Shearer needs some Windex to see out of the glass house that he apparently lives in and from which he's throwing stones," Lynch said. "The only people for whom this ill-advised LNG terminal would be a quote-unquote 'economic boon' would be Mr. Shearer, his fat-cat cronies in the energy industry and Hess LNG's share holders."