Butler Hospital’s unionized nurses, mental health workers and other staff are expected to walk off their jobs at 6 a.m. on Thursday, as temporary agency staff prepare to step in to keep the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side running. Butler Hospital will remain open, and provide “safe, compassionate, and uninterrupted care” during the strike, […]
Local
Posted inEnvironment, Local, Newport Bureau
State board allows Jamestown residents with dry wells to connect to municipal water
The Rhode Island Water Resources Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to allow four Jamestown households to connect to the town’s water. The residents, who live just north of the Newport-Pell bridge along Seaview Avenue, say they ran out of usable water in their own wells more than two years ago. Some of the residents say […]
Posted inEnvironment, Local
Settlement talks underway in contentious Westerly shoreline access case
Settlement talks are ongoing between the town of Westerly and a shoreline fire district that wants a judge to invalidate a town-designated public right-of-way to the beach. The Watch Hill Fire District is objecting to the town’s 2008 resolution to designate the Fort Road right-of-way. Beachgoers use the path to walk onto Napatree Point beach […]
Posted inEconomy, Local, Politics
McKee rejects call for higher taxes on RI’s richest
State revenue in Rhode Island is running about $80 million ahead of expectations for the fiscal year starting July first. Does that make it less likely that state leaders will support a broad-based tax increase, or how about a tax increase for the wealthiest Rhode Islanders? The Public’s Radio political reporter Ian Donnis sat down […]
Posted inEducation, Local, Politics, Technology
RI Senate votes to ban cell phones in schools
The movement to ban cell phones in public schools is gaining momentum in Rhode Island. On Tuesday, the state senate unanimously passed a measure to do just that. The bill would not just cover phones. Tablets, computers, and smartwatches would also be prohibited, starting in August, along with any other electronic device that connects to the […]
Posted inImmigration, Local, Transportation
AG Neronha sues Trump administration for threatening to withhold $628 million in federal funding to Rhode Island
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Noronha is co-leading a group of 20 attorneys general challenging the Trump administration’s threat to withhold government funding from states that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts. Back in February, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation announced that in order for states like Rhode […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Local, South Coast Bureau
Special master to investigate claims of a courthouse romance in New Bedford
A justice from Massachusetts’ highest court has appointed a special master to investigate claims that a New Bedford judge carried on a romance with a prosecutor while ruling on her cases. The allegations were first circulated in anonymous letters that swept through the New Bedford District Court in the fall of 2023, offering salacious details […]
Posted inHealth, Local
Health care costs in Rhode Island continue to rise, report finds
The popularity of expensive weight-loss medications and other prescription drugs along with higher hospital costs are driving up health care spending in Rhode Island – more evidence, state regulators said, of why insurers need to reduce red tape for doctors and increase spending on primary care, according to a report released Monday. The amount of […]
Posted inImmigration, Local, South Coast Bureau
New Bedford resident due to be released from ICE detention remains in custody
A Guatemalan man detained last month in New Bedford after immigration agents used an axe to break through his car window is still being held at a New Hampshire detention facility despite a judge’s order to dismiss his case. Juan Francisco Méndez was expected to be released last Thursday after Immigration Court Judge Donald Ostrom […]
Posted inHealth, Local
Brown University Health patients lose innovative remote monitoring programs
Brown University Health’s primary care group has eliminated its home care monitoring programs for about 700 patients diagnosed with heart failure, high blood pressure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD. The programs— terminated as of May 5 — allowed nurses and health coaches to remotely monitor patients by providing them with blood pressure cuffs, […]
