SEN. REED BACKS OUT, OSPRI TO FILL IN AT BUSINESS FORUM
 
August 21, 2009
 
Providence, RI - Bill Felkner, President of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, announced that he will be participating on a panel at a business forum hosted by the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce. The event will be held in the Chamber Conference Room at 230 Old Tower Hill Rd, Wakefield, from 12-1pm on Tuesday, August 25. This event will replace the "meet and greet" with Senator Jack Reed that had originally been scheduled but was cancelled due to a scheduling conflict for the Senator.
 
"I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to sit down with taxpayers and the business community and discuss the current state of affairs in both Rhode Island and our country," said Felkner. "We certainly appreciate how busy schedules can get, but the business community has so few opportunities to meet as a group that we hope Senator Reed will reconsider and make time in his schedule to join us at this business forum."
 
Representatives from Ocean State Policy Research Institute, including Thomas Linehan, Fellow on Small Business Affairs, and Brian Bishop, Fellow on Regulatory and Environmental Policy, will be at the forum to answer questions regarding any analysis of the policies being considered by Congress.  Portions of the meeting will be broadcast later on our South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce 'Chamber Channel' which is accessible from the chamber website at www.skchamber.com.
 
"The business community is an important participant in the ongoing policy debates at both the state and federal level," Felkner said. "I hope that our elected officials will provide an equal opportunity for our local business community to voice its concerns."
 
About OSPRI:
 
Created in 2007, our work is focused on crafting sound public policy based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, and traditional American values. We offer timely research and analysis on important issues to be shared with elected officials, the media, business leaders, community organizations and individual citizens. In recent months, we have been responsible for such successful projects as the Transparency Train, a public financial and legislative information repository, as well as regular updates published and available on our website and companion blog.
 
About The Transparency Train:
 
The Transparency Train Web Portal (www.transparencytrain.org) provides access to a variety of websites designed to present public information in a Google-style searchable format. These sites include:

• RI Data: contains every budget, payroll, public employee contract and monthly check register for all cities, towns and school districts in Rhode Island
• RI Votes: an online database of legislation and voting records
• LRB Watch: analysis and information on the State Labor Relations Board.
• RI Schools: an interactive website that allows viewers to create comparative graphs of school districts plotting various metrics such as cost per student, test scores and the number of employees (coming Summer 2009)
• RI Donors: will contain a "connect the dots" approach to viewing political and lobbying finances (coming Fall 2009)
• Take Action: a "how-to" manual that shows citizens how to file Freedom Of Information Act requests for public information and what to do if they don't comply