WESTERLY
PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management has stocked freshwaters across Rhode Island with hatchery-raised trout for Memorial Day weekend, a popular time for recreational fishing. The following local waterbodies have been stocked:
Rhode Island’s efforts to encourage people to fill out the 2020 census may have worked too well, with the U.S. Census Bureau releasing a survey Thursday showing an overcount that saved a congressional seat. The bureau said residents in eight states were overcounted during the once-a-decade head count. Rhode Island’s 5% overcount translates to more than 55,000 residents. It would have lost a congressional seat if 19,000 fewer residents had been counted. Rhode Island had a statewide committee that worked to encourage participation in the census. Committee member John Marion says getting people excited to participate could've resulted in them filling it out twice.
Authorities have released the names of the four people who died in a fire at a Massachusetts apartment building last weekend, but the cause of the blaze remains under investigation. The victims of Saturday’s early morning fire in Worcester were identified by authorities on Wednesday as 47-year-old Joseph Garchali; 53-year-old Christopher Lozeau; 41-year-old Vincent Page; and 29-year-old Marcel Fontaine. Garchali and Fontaine lived in the same unit of the three-story, six-apartment building. The blaze was reported at about 3:30 a.m. Two victims were found Saturday and two more victims were recovered Monday. The search was slowed by concerns about the integrity of the heavily damaged structure.
Two men convicted of buying their kids’ way into school as part of the college admissions bribery scheme can stay out of prison while they appeal their cases. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton ruled Thursday that John Wilson and Gamal Abdelaziz can remain free on bail pending appeal of their convictions. Also on Thursday, a judge ruled that a woman who worked for the mastermind of the scheme and took online classes for students to boost their prospects of admission won't serve prison time. Mikaela Sanford, a former employee of the admissions consultant at the center of the scheme, was sentenced to time already served.
Seven dolphins that were stranded in a shallow Massachusetts river have been released in deeper waters after an hourslong effort by more than 40 experts, interns and volunteers. The International Fund for Animal Welfare says the Atlantic white-sided dolphins got stranded early Wednesday in the Herring River on Cape Cod. Misty Niemeyer of the fund's rescue team says crews had to work quickly because the tide was coming in and dolphins often risk getting stranded again when it rolls out. The dolphins were released in deeper waters off Provincetown that afternoon.
Vice President Kamala Harris will tell the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s graduating cadets that they are starting their service at a crucial moment for the world. In prepared remarks for Wednesday's ceremony in Connecticut, Harris calls it a period in history when the “rule of law is strained” and “fundamental principles are under threat.” Harris also reflects on the state of a world in which long-standing rules and norms are more frequently coming under attack, noting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Democrat will tell the graduates that upholding the international rules-based order is one of the nation's “defining missions.”
The Department of Justice has given the green light to National Guard members on active state duty across the country to join labor unions. The agreement comes despite a 1978 U.S. law that makes it a felony for military personnel on active federal duty to unionize. The Justice Department approval came in a lawsuit settlement finalized Tuesday in federal court in Connecticut. Labor unions sued the department and Attorney General Merrick Garland seeking collective bargaining rights for Connecticut National Guard members. The Justice Department says the federal ban doesn't apply to Guard members on state duty.
BOSTON (AP) — The commission put together to study the racial implications of the Massachusetts state seal and motto has voted unanimously to recommend that both be replaced.
DETROIT (AP) — Nearly 43,000 people were killed on U.S. roads last year, the highest number in 16 years as Americans returned to the roads after the coronavirus pandemic forced many to stay at home.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island lawmakers unveiled changes Tuesday to a bill to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana, revisions that aim to ensure the legislation passes the state's General Assembly.
The lawyer for a New Hampshire man accused of killing his wife’s co-worker after he discovered they were texting — and then forcing her to behead him — has told jurors at the start of his trial that his wife is the one to blame for the death. Armando Barron admitted in court Tuesday to assaulting his wife and her co-worker, Jonathan Amerault. But defense attorney Morgan Taggart-Hampton said during opening statements that he didn't kill Amerault. She said the wrong person is on trial. She said the evidence that will be presented in the trial will contradict Britany Barron’s statements that she was forced to harm Amerault. Britany Barron pleaded guilty last year to falsifying evidence and was released from jail on parole. She plans to testify against her husband.
PROVIDENCE — High prices for crude oil, a crucial component in gasoline, are continuing to push up prices at the pump and a decline in demand has had no impact in lowering costs.
Wedged into a recliner in the corner of her assisted living apartment in Portland, Oregon, Skylar Freimann, who has a terminal heart condition and pulmonary illness, anxiously eyed her newly arrived hospital bed on a recent day and worried over how she would maintain independence as she furt…
PROVIDENCE — A Rhode Island dog whose inspiring story of going from shelter dog to lifesaving police K-9 became the subject of a recent Netflix movie has been euthanized.
LAWRENCE + MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
WESTERLY
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Two Rhode Island men who pleaded guilty in connection with the 2019 shooting death of a 17-year-old girl have been sent to prison for life, prosecutors said.
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts has agreed to pay $56 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by the families of veterans who died or became sick after contracting COVID-19 at a state-run veterans' care center during one of the deadliest outbreaks at a long-term care facility in the U.S…
RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) — A 28-year-old man who was rescued from a raft off the coast of New England in 2016 after his boat sank pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he killed his mother at sea to inherit the family’s estate.
RICHMOND — Members of the Chariho School Committee warned the public before the second school budget referendum of the year that if they were unable to receive support for a 0.94% increase, it would result in staffing cuts during the coming year.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The head of Rhode Island's second-largest hospital group announced Wednesday that he will retire early next year.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A man found floating on a raft off the coast of New England in 2016 after his boat sank was charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday with killing his mother at sea to inherit the family's estate.
A new effort is underway to find the remains of a British ship that Rhode Island colonists burned 250 years ago, marine archaeologists and state officials announced Tuesday.
NEW YORK — Stocks racked up more losses on Wall Street Monday, leaving the S&P 500 at its lowest point in more than a year.
PROVIDENCE — Motorists are likely to experience some sticker shock at the pump as the cost of crude oil has contributed to rising gasoline prices, leading to a 19 cent increase per gallon over the past week.
America’s faithful are bracing — some with cautionary joy and others with looming dread — for the Supreme Court to potentially overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and end the nationwide right to legal abortion.
WESTERLY
RICHMOND — When members of the Chariho School Committee sent the budget out for a second referendum, officials warned that if the community did not support the requested 0.94% budget increase then any further reductions would likely require staffing cuts and potentially higher class sizes at…
PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island House of Representatives has approved legislation (2022-H 7714A) sponsored by Rep. Samuel A. Azzinaro (D-Dist. 37, Westerly) that would make “stolen valor” a crime.
WESTERLY — After nearly 30 consecutive years in office, state Sen. Dennis L. Algiere says his current term will be his last and he will not seek reelection in November. First elected in 1992, he was named minority leader by the Republican caucus in 1997 and has held the leadership post since then.
RICHMOND — Voters have rejected the proposed 2022-23 budget for the Chariho Regional School District a second time, voting decisively Thursday against a revised plan that, while less than was rejected in April, still requested a 0.96% increase over current spending.
NEW YORK (AP) — Some small businesses are still struggling to hire qualified workers, even as Americans return to the U.S. job market in droves.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Disaster-level instability in the Atlantic herring industry has prompted the federal government to give $11 million to commercial fishermen and shore-side infrastructure in four states.
A one-time Boston mobster who served 16 years in prison before he was freed by a judge who ruled that prosecutors may have coerced him into admitting to a role in a killing he had no part in has sued the state attorney general for the return of $268,000 he says was unjustifiably confiscated.
WESTERLY — Dennis Algiere, who has served as a state senator since 1993, has decided not to seek reelection when voters go to the polls in November.
The Massachusetts child protection system failed to prioritize the needs of a 5-year-old New Hampshire girl who vanished in 2019 after her father was awarded custody, according to a much-anticipated independent review released Wednesday.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Rhode Island Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a 2019 state law that protects abortion rights in the state when it rejected a legal challenge to a lower court's decision.
The Supreme Court’s apparent intention to abolish a nationwide right to abortion, spelled out in a draft opinion leaked this week, will expand the battlefield of the nation’s most highly charged culture war, taking it to states where abortion access has long been assured.
BOSTON (AP) — The Satanic Temple is requesting to fly a flag over Boston City Hall after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the city violated the free speech rights of a conservative activist seeking to fly a Christian flag outside the downtown building.
COVID-19 vaccines and tests for the virus continue to boost CVS Health and the health care giant raised its annual forecast after yet another strong quarter.
NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — Nantucket is a step closer to allowing anyone who chooses regardless of gender to go topless on the Massachusetts resort island's beaches.
RICHMOND — When voters take to the polls on Thursday to vote a second time on the proposed 2022-23 budget for the Chariho Regional School District, they will be asked to approve a $55.23 million budget that would amount to a 0.96% increase in spending over the previous fiscal year.
The phones inside an Alabama abortion clinic were ringing off the hook: the callers wanted to know if abortion remains legal. And, if so, for how long?
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Democratic lawmakers in more than a dozen states are following California’s lead in seeking to offer legal refuge to displaced transgender youth and their families.
PROVIDENCE — The price for gas is up 9 cents in Rhode Island over the past week, bringing the state average to $4.18 per gallon as crude oil prices continue to impact gasoline supplies.
The Rhode Island House of Representatives has approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Terri Cortvriend, D-Portsmouth, prohibiting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from food packaging made or sold in Rhode Island. The bill now goes to the Senate.
LAWRENCE + MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
WESTERLY
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Col. Darnell Weaver was sworn in as the superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police on Friday, the 15th person to lead the agency, but the first person of color in the role.
Rhode Island, Connecticut and 14 other states that want the U.S. Postal Service to electrify its mail delivery vehicles are suing to halt purchases of thousands of gas-powered trucks as the agency modernizes its delivery fleet.
PROVIDENCE (AP) — Gov. Dan McKee announced Wednesday that he has appointed Lt. Col. Darnell Weaver to be the next superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, making him the first person of color to command the department.
The Rhode Island Civic Learning Coalition invites students, teachers and school administrators to complete a 15-minute survey to share experiences with civics education in the state. The survey is part of a research project to understand the state of civic learning in Rhode Island.
EAST GREENWICH (AP) — Former Cranston Mayor Allan Fung officially launched his campaign Tuesday for the state’s seat in Congress being vacated by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin.