Dissident Bank RI investors haven’t given up

The dissident investors seeking to force a sale of Bank Rhode Island are formally appealing to other shareholders, according to documents filed last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. PL Capital LLC, an Illinois hedge-fund investment firm, is seeking three seats on the board of directors of Bancorp Rhode Island (BARI:Nasdaq), the Providence bank’s parent company, according to a proxy statement the firm mailed to shareholders. It is the second time the men who head PL Capital, Richard Lashley and John Palmer, have sought board seats, and they have accumulated 8.5 percent of the stock. PL Capital has a history of taking on the management at banks it considers underperforming. It seeks to profit from improved earnings, a quick run-up in stock prices or the sale of its targets. Lashley and Palmer lost a bid last May to gain seats on the BARI board as company shareholders sided with the bank’s management in a proxy fight that ended at a shareholders meeting. This year, the two men are joined by former investment banker Daniel Mullane, of Connecticut, who headed Advest Group Inc. before its sale to the Merrill Lynch brokerage house. He is also being nominated for a board seat. Bancorp Rhode Island’s management has nominated its own slate, headed by company founder and board chairman Malcolm G. Chace III. The shareholders will vote May 21, during the annual meeting.

Finding ways to promote agritourism

Farmers, orchard operators and tourism officials gathered yesterday to find ways to promote agritourism — a way to attract tourists and their money to Rhode Island’s farms to create jobs and revenue. “Saving farmland is not enough to stem the tide of farm closings and encourage a new generation of Rhode Island farmers,” said Stu Nunnery, director of the Rhode Island Center for Agriculture Promotion and Education. The sessions, including workshops and presentations, took place at the Culinary Museum at Johnson & Wales University, in Providence.

Legislators to tour Guard facilities today

Members of the General Assembly will tour the Rhode Island National Guard facilities in North Kingstown today, at the invitation of Maj. Gen. Robert T. Bray, adjutant general of Rhode Island and commanding general of the Guard. “The National Guard has created an exciting opportunity for us. This information session is particularly relevant right now, when our national security system is being tested and Rhode Island’s finest are being called to serve their country,” said House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence.

Carbon dioxide allowance auction announced

Ten Northeastern states hoping to crack down on power plants and other large-scale greenhouse-gas emitters have announced plans for a carbon dioxide allowance auction, to be held Sept. 10. The participating states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont — want to sell allowances as part of a cap-and-trade program to take effect Jan. 1. Some legislative approvals are still needed in the states before the first-of-its-kind auction is held, officials said. Under the RGGI, governments would cap the amount of carbon dioxide that factories and plants are allowed to discharge annually and then the companies would have to buy enough allowances to cover their emissions, with excess allowances sold at a profit on the secondary market. The states have set a cap of about 188 million tons, which is the amount of carbon dioxide power plants expect to discharge next year. Starting in 2015, the cap would be reduced by 2.5 percent annually, ultimately resulting in a 16-percent emissions reduction from projected “business as usual” amounts, according to the RGGI.

Astro-Med introduces home sleep screener

West Warwick-based Astro-Med Inc., a manufacturer of high-tech specialty printing systems, electronic medical instrumentation and test and measurement instruments, has announced a new lightweight screener for use in home sleep studies. The unit was developed over a period of years in anticipation of approval for reimbursement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in Washington, D.C., which did so on Friday. Until now, most sleep studies were conducted in laboratories because Medicare and Medicaid would only compensate medical professionals for studies done there. It was widely argued that this reduced the number of patients who received screening. With the availability of the new device, doctors will now be able to order sleep screenings for patients who are considered likely to have disorders such as sleep apnea, giving them the portable machine to set up and use themselves in their homes. For those patients whose screening suggests a disorder, a more extensive sleep study would be conducted in a laboratory setting.

Massachusetts expanding Keno operations

Sales of Keno tickets in Massachusetts — now mostly in bars and restaurants — will be expanded to other locations, a move expected to generate an additional $100 million in annual sales, the state lottery commission announced yesterday. Players will be allowed to buy Keno-to-go tickets at convenience stores, grocery stores and other retailers. Instead of checking numbers on an on-site monitor, players will use the Massachusetts Lottery Web site. The Keno-to-go locations could be available as soon as the middle of next month, spokesman Dan Rosenfeld said. Of the estimated $100 million in new sales that Keno-to-go will generate, nearly $70 million will be paid out as prizes and $20 million will be returned as aid to cities and towns. The rest goes to lottery operating costs.

Textron lauded nationally for its ethics

Providence-based Textron Inc. has been named by the Ethisphere Institute as being among the top government contractors in ethics. Overall, the company was rated number 4 out of more than 1,000 companies evaluated, with a classification of excellent. It also received top honors in the Best Ethics Program Overall, Best Ethics Training & Communications Programs and Internal Control Systems categories. The institute’s rankings are built on an objective analysis in four categories: code of ethics and business conduct, leadership and tone from the top, internal control systems, and ethics training and communication programs. The rankings will be published in the first-quarter issue of Ethisphere Magazine, available later this month, and are available now at Ethisphere.com.

Raytheon awarded radar contracts

Raytheon Co.’s Tewksbury, Mass.-based Integrated Defense Systems division, which has a unit in Portsmouth, has been awarded two task orders worth $28.3 million as part of a U.S. Missile Defense Agency contract, to operate and sustain the agency’s X-band radars. The contract has a potential value of $1.9 billion over 10 years. Work will be performed at the company’s Missile Defense Center, in Woburn, Mass., and Integrated Air Defense Center, in Andover, Mass., and by Raytheon Technical Services Co. personnel at sites designated by the MDA. The contract award signifies a long-term partnership between Raytheon and MDA to consolidate operations.

Moe’s Southwest Grill plans expansion

Atlanta-based Moe’s Southwest Grill, featuring Tex-Mex food, is looking to open 10 to 15 franchised restaurants in Southeastern New England over the next three years, the company says. The franchise fee is $25,000 and total start-up costs range from $256,000 to $651,000, according to a company statement. The company has more than 360 outlets around the country, including four in Massachusetts and three in Connecticut. It is a division of Focus Brands, which franchises or operates 2,100 ice cream stores, bakeries and restaurants in the United States and Puerto Rico. Among those outlets are Carvel ice cream stores.