Government
Public services and government action
Pawtucket's only warming center closes days before severe winter freeze
The Black Lives Matter RI Warming Center on 92 East Avenue in Pawtucket has been closed. About 30-40 people get meals at the warming center every day, and 16 people spend the night, avoiding the freezing winter temperatures.
New report details dark side of RI's criminalization of sex work
In a new report, COYOTE RI organized and analyzed misdemeanor prostitution related cases in Rhode Island going back to 2000, and state felony sex trafficking and pandering cases from 2016 to late 2022.
Improved ProvPort deal on its way to full City Council for approval
The Providence City Council Finance Committee approved the passage of an ordinance establishing a new 30 year tax exemption agreement (TEA) for ProvPort, Inc, a non-profit operator in the Port of Providence on the city’s south side. It's not perfect, say community members and environmental activists, but it is a start.
Reps Cicilline and Magaziner discuss first days in Republican-controlled House
The Representatives talked partisan gridlock, raising the debt ceiling, classified document security, saving Social Security and Medicare, the rise of White Supremacist violence, the War in Ukraine and Marjorie Taylor Green, among other subjects.
Planned Parenthood gathers elected officials to rally for Equality in Abortion Coverage Act
The rally marks what would have been the 50th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, guaranteeing a person's right to abortion, and the six months since the Dobbs decision, overturning Roe.
McKee's new head of prisons was previously fired from Wyatt, failed to assist sick prisoners
Hiu Lui Ng was essentially tortured, to death, by prison administrators, including Wayne Salisbury, who at the time served as the warden. Salisbury was fired from his position as Warden in 2009.
Kim and Akim lived in tent in Woonsocket, until home was bulldozed by the City
In our most recent interview with a former member of the Woonsocket encampment, we discovered that the shocking cruelty in Woonsocket continues, and now unhoused people are reporting that members of the Woonsocket Police have been told to allow no one to pitch any tents anywhere in Woonsocket on public property. Unhoused people are being told to leave Woonsocket entirely.
Governor McKee 2024 budget features tiny tax cuts, EACA funding
Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee submitted his FY24 RI State Budget proposal to the General Assembly on Thursday, immediately generating praise and condemnation. Tax cuts, what the McKee Administration refers to as "Tax Relief" does address the state's sales tax. But most of the substantive tax cuts are aimed at business owners.
RI House debates potential rule changes
The Rules by which the House and Senate organize themselves serve as the operating system for the legislature. At the House Committee on Rules hearing on Wednesday, a leadership backed Rules resolution was heard, along with 11 additional resolutions from Representatives seeking to alter the rules and push them towards what the sponsors consider to be more openness and fairness.
Exclusive: Uprise RI interviews those unlawfully evicted from Woonsocket homeless encampment
On Thursday morning we spoke to three people who lived in the encampment until last Wednesday, Jeremy, Pamela, and Ray. Jeremy was terse and guarded, and we spoke to him first. Pamela and Ray, a couple, spoke to us together. Pamela was effusive, Ray more reserved, but their stories, taken together, paint a very different picture of events than that offered by Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt and Deputy Chief Thomas Calouro on a radio program broadcast Wednesday morning.