The Providence Journal

Cliff Walk gets nod

A previously stalled $23 million project to repair a collapsed section of Newport’s Cliff Walk is proceeding, with plans to use taxpayer dollars to shore up private property. On Oct. 14, state coastal regulators unanimously approved an application to...

Abuse allegations grow

The number of Catholic priests and parochial school teachers accused of sexually molesting children in Rhode Island is higher than previously known. While a bombshell report from earlier this year included 75 clergy “credibly accused” of sexually...

‘ROBBED’ OF BENEFITS

Precious Rojas isn’t accustomed to having spaces of her own. Precious, who goes by Star, was removed from her mother’s care as an infant. Throughout the years, the 19-year-old drifted from one placement to the next in state care. She winces as she...

Top of the list

Move over Cumberland, a ZIP code in Warwick, encompassing Apponaug, Cowesett, the airport and much of Warwick’s coastline on Greenwich Bay, is Rhode Island’s hottest real estate area. Warwick’s 02886 ZIP code is the hottest real estate market in Rhode...

TROUBLING SIGNS

It wasn’t so long ago that bird experts were celebrating a huge increase in Rhode Island’s osprey population that had seen the number of observed active nests more than double from 2019 to 2024 and the number of fledglings reach a record-high level for...

The things we love about RI, even if it drives us crazy sometimes

It’s time to break out the coffee milk and stuffies, maybe a hot wiener or two – all the way, of course – throw on your favorite hoodie from Frog & Toad and celebrate. Why? Because Oct. 5 is National Rhode Island Day. It’s the state we love and...

BOAT OR PLANE?

NORTH OF HOPE ISLAND IN NARRAGANSETT BAY – A notice to boaters crackled over VHF Marine Channel 10, warning that testing was underway. Soon, REGENT Craft’s “Viceroy” seaglider prototype was zipping through calm, open seas. The 12-passenger electric...

UNHAPPY NEIGHBORS

NEWPORT – A new residential construction in an historic corridor of Newport is turning heads and raising more than eyebrows. According to design documents submitted to the city, the plan is to build a four-story, single-family dwelling at 677 Thames...

Ruling the roost

The pair of vultures roosting in the attic was just the most obvious sign that the house at 195 High St. in Bristol needed work. Built in 1838, the once-tidy post-and-beam building in the heart of the downtown historic district looked every bit its...

RAISING A GLASS

Turn on the tap and chances are better than not in Rhode Island that the water pouring out comes from the Scituate Reservoir. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Providence or Warwick, Bristol or Lincoln, Cranston or Smithfield, the water you rely on every...

ARTS REVIVAL

EAST PROVIDENCE – At first glance, there was nothing remarkable about the community room inside the Hattie Ide Chaffee Home. It was a pleasant afternoon, one of summer’s last attempts to stave off the incoming chill of fall, and dappled sunlight...

A WET & WILD WEEKEND

Surf’s up near Bonnet Shores in Narragansett on Sept. 26. A long-duration nor’easter pounded Rhode Island, with rain expected to continue through today, bringing coastal flooding, damaging wind gusts and beach erosion. While the storm will have...

Discover the Newport fortress with views, history and hidden gems

I recently visited Fort Adams in Newport − no, not for anything cool like the Folk Festival (I’m a nerd, remember?), but just for something fun and free to do on a recent Saturday. I tell you what, if it’s free fun you want, go straight there. We...

GAMES WORTH CHECKING OUT

WEST WARWICK – When Amber Bliss was in middle school, the boy she had a crush on brought home the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons’ player’s handbook, which contains instructions for the tabletop role-playing game. Bliss has a clear memory of...

NOW PREMIERING

KINGSTON – Artists of all stripes and sounds, from photographers to trumpeters, choral singers to painters and graphic artists at the University of Rhode Island have a sort-of-new $99 million addition/renovation/rebuild of their fine arts...

MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

KINGSTON – Why are dollar stores – like Family Dollar, Dollar General and Dollar Tree – so popular, especially when it comes to groceries, and is there a way to shop at the stores in a healthy way? That’s the latest line of study for a University of...

GROW YOUR OWN

PROVIDENCE — Arriving to the first day of school is a journey, but perhaps no path was more winding than that taken by Mayra Grijalva. Nearly 30 years of striving and working odd jobs, going back to school and taking every opportunity has led to this....

‘I’m owed some answers’

Liliana Turano-Morris made for a fierce single mother, one willing to go to any length for her son, an only child raised surrounded by love. “When my mother was alive, I felt like I had the biggest family – because of one woman,” William Soares, 37,...

‘Great Pun-kins’

The Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular is returning for the 2026 fall season on Oct. 1 – and this year it is coming with a punny twist. ● The annual display features more than 5,000 jack-o’-lanterns carved and colorfully lit from the...

REVIVING RIVERWALK

Debris from crumbling tile blows in the river’s breeze along the Providence Riverwalk as signs fade in the blazing sun and plaques tarnish, becoming unreadable. ● People walk by these timeworn displays every day, not sparing a minute to look at the...

BANDING TOGETHER

A few years ago, drummer Mike LaBelle needed surgery on both of his eyes for a condition related to his diabetes that was essentially blinding him. LaBelle, a Johnston resident, didn’t have his own health insurance. He was fortunate to be on his...

A ‘BEAUTIFUL’ MESS

NORTH KINGSTOWN – A roughly 22-acre area in Quonset that was once used as a military salvage yard and includes a recreational beach near residential neighborhoods is primed for local zoning restrictions and monitoring following reports of...

A MODEL OF SUPPORT

Two social service professionals, familiar with providing the right supports to freshly traumatized children and families, texted each other as they geared up to respond to the mass shooting at Brown University. “I wanted her to tell me it wasn’t...

Eyes in the sky

The Providence police needed some help from above on at least three occasions this past summer, including a situation on Saturday, Sept. 5, that involved a young man suspected of possessing a gun. In that situation, police say, the suspect drove away...

DIVIDED OPINIONS

WARWICK – A new road configuration on a busy stretch just south of the airport has drawn mixed reaction from those along the route, with some longtime residents saying a new center turn lane is leading to massive traffic backups at peak times. The...

INDEPENDENT MAN

Ken Block was hoping to make a big splash by running the first TV ad of his third try for governor during the NFL season opener between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. But there are no guarantees in sports or politics, and, as luck...

Cameras are everywhere

I’ve read a lot about Flock cameras lately. You know, those license plate reading devices that track vehicles. Is it freaky? I’m old enough to think yes, it’s freaky. But there are cameras everywhere these days, and I wonder if this generation just...

SUCCESS STORY

David Morales is almost never caught without his bright blue suit and patterned tie. He has spent much of the last year talking to and about his “neighbors” – whether with Providence’s unofficial “Hi, Neighbor” greeting or proclaiming about the plight...

Foulkes defeats McKee to advance in governor’s race

Former CVS executive Helena Buonanno Foulkes won the Democratic nomination for governor in Rhode Island after a bitter, high-cost joust that turned Gov. Dan McKee into the first incumbent governor in Rhode Island to lose a primary since 1994. McKee...

Heavy turnout, delays seen

Rhode Islanders cast ballots in several key races on Wednesday, Sept. 9, including governor, 2nd Congressional District, U.S. Senate, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and, for voters in Providence, Democratic candidate for mayor. By press time,...

Decision day at last

It’s primary election day in Rhode Island, and there’s no shortage of exciting races on the ballot. Polls will close at 8 p.m. Sept. 9, and results will be available live on the Board of Elections website and ProvidenceJournal.com. The biggest race...

RISING STAR

The first manned prototype of REGENT Craft’s new electric flying boat prototype took flight Wednesday, Sept. 2, in Narragansett Bay. The vessel lifted from the water around 10 feet above the surface with two crew members at the controls and flew 1,956...

LEAVING THE PARTY

Rhode Island voters have shifted away from the Democratic Party since 2024’s presidential preference primary, a Providence Journal analysis of voter registration data shows. ● But Democrats have not been fleeing – for the most part – toward the...

REMEMBRANCE & RESILIENCE

‘A tragic end’

One week after 27-year-old Brendan Norris stole a 40-foot classic sailboat, sailed it to Newport Harbor then died in an exchange of gunshots with police, many questions remain unanswered. Online posts and interviews with acquaintances of Norris, as...

MOVING IN, MOVING FORWARD

The first whispers of fall arrived on Providence’s College Hill this week with packs of confident-seeming 18-year-olds and their nearby, giddy parents. The annual rites of Brown University’s move-in day for first years (brown boxes, lanyard necklaces,...

CREATING A COMMUNITY

PROVIDENCE – When Ed Zuker bought the 444-unit Regency Plaza apartments in 1986, the three-building complex in downtown that vaguely looks like a hotel, it was the biggest complex in the state, but it had no community spaces. It was just three...

TAKING NOTHING FOR GRANTED

Four years after her 2022 near-miss run for governor, Helena Buonanno Foulkes is in the political catbird seat: calm, confident, but “not taking anything for granted.” Days out from the Sept. 9 Democratic primary, she’s still hitting the bookstore,...

TUNING IN TO THE PAST

PROVIDENCE — To drive down Broad Street is to travel through a strip of the city’s colorful history of migration. Start at Grace Church Cemetery, where Elmwood Avenue and Broad Street bifurcate. The cemetery dates back to 1834. A stroll through it...

A WELCOME MAKEOVER

PROVIDENCE – Repair and restoration work has started on the historic La Pigna Arch on Federal Hill with the expectation that the $400,000 project will be completed in time for Columbus Day. ● It’s the first major repair and restoration of the landmark...

Taxes, housing top reader suggestions to make RI affordable

As expenses rise across Rhode Island and the nation, The Providence Journal asked readers how they would suggest state leaders lower costs for residents. For many respondents, the answer revolved around taxes and housing. Rosemary Murphy said the...

REPORT IDs ‘OPPORTUNITY’ TO IMPROVE

Soon after a mass shooter killed two students and injured nine other people late last year, the first police officers at the scene faced an “inherent” risk of friendly fire, according to a newly released after-action report. The report by the Police...

STANDING HIS GROUND

In Dan McKee’s Rhode Island, roads are in their best shape in years – and getting better; new homes and apartments are popping up all over the place; and the state’s public schools are on track to become “the best” in the country by 2030. This is what...

FIRST DAY BACK

The nearly 20,000 students and 2,000 teachers of Providence Public Schools returned to class on Tuesday, Aug. 25. And for the first time in seven years, they returned to a district governed by local officials, as the state’s takeover concluded in...

FAULT LINES

The Democratic primary battle for governor between Dan McKee and Helena Foulkes is personal. She calls him mediocre, incompetent, unable to keep pace with the ideas and economic growth in neighboring states. He calls her corporate, greedy, focused...

Puzzling decline for Providence election

State Rep. David Morales has said that he’s running the largest voter mobilization effort in Providence history. Mayor Brett Smiley has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars beaming election ads into Providence homes. And the city’s population has...

CAPITAL FIGHT

The Providence mayoral campaign between Brett Smiley and David Morales is an old-school clash of ideas. Democratic socialist Morales is headlining a push by Providence’s political left to take control of City Hall, where it already has a council...

This tiny bug is causing BIG ISSUES for Block Island residents and travelers

Fueling up for a long day as a delivery driver, Travis Jaeger started a mid-June morning with a hearty breakfast of steak, eggs and bacon. Around 11:30 a.m., he paused to eat a roast beef sandwich for lunch. ● Jaeger was unloading paper products at The...

CAUGHT BY SURPRISE

Gerard Perreault was surprised in July when he pulled up a World War IIera hand grenade while magnet fishing off the Rocky Point State Park fishing pier. He was beyond shocked when he hauled in another grenade a few weeks later. “I could never have...

Back for more

The late Warwick historian Henry A.L. Brown was one of the founders of the annual Gaspee Days parade. But when his sons were growing up, they never got to go. That’s because Brown, who died in 2025 at 93, always presided over the community clambake...

PRYING EYES?

A South Kingstown official wondered about the capacities of automated license-plate-reading cameras in her community. Her question involved a very old form of public messaging: bumper stickers. The councilwoman understood that devices supplied to...

HUNG

Cost of coffee rising in Rhode Island java shops. Make rent or eat healthy? That is a choice many Rhode Islanders are having to make lately as a perfect storm of inflation, supply shortages and federal food aid cuts is buffeting them, forcing them to...

Too much to bear

NORTH KINGSTOWN – The Department of Environmental Management has fined a new asphalt plant in the Quonset Business Park $8,500 – and ordered it to come up with an odor mitigation plan within 60 days. The administrative action comes in response to...

WHAT GOES ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK?

With prices increasing on everything from groceries to utilities, some Rhode Islanders are cutting back on discretionary spending to ensure they can manage the bills on essentials. What are Rhode Islanders cutting out or cutting back on? It’s a long...

Prices on the ballot

Maybe it’s your jaw dropping to the floor or a shake of your head, but we’ve probably all been in a similar state lately. ● The cause? The increasing cost of just about everything we encounter in life. ● Planning a summer cookout? Steaks on the grill...

FAIR SHARE OF FUN

The Washington County Fair, the state’s largest agricultural event, is in full swing and runs through Sunday, Aug. 16, in Richmond. A summer tradition since 1967, the fair includes vendors, livestock, crafts and food, as well as an array of rides and...

CLASH OF THE CANDIDATES

PROVIDENCE – The battle over who will be Rhode Island’s next governor moved to live TV for the first time on Wednesday night, Aug. 12, with incumbent Dan McKee and his Democratic primary challenger Helena Foulkes clashing sharply over the actual state...

BIG OPPORTUNITY

PROVIDENCE – While mall vacancies have piled up across the state, roughly 50 local vendors at Providence Place have pioneered a creative way to fill space and boost the local economy. Three empty storefronts surrounding the Apple store on the first...

‘AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE’

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): synthetic chemicals that contain fluorinated carbon atoms, are used in consumer and industrial products for their desirable properties (such as water, stain and fire resistance), are highly resistant to...

OUT FOR A SPIN

Heritage Hills Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Smithfield and Elmhurst Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Providence have been doing a “Bucket List” series with residents to help them fulfill their lifelong dreams. On Aug. 6, they visited...

AGE-OLD DEBATE

Nothing in politics is permanent, but in Rhode Island, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed is the closest thing. ● The Cranston native, first elected to Congress in 1990, has posted gaudy favorability numbers and barely needed to campaign for reelection since...

Down a rabbit hole

I work with people who feel like family, and I would wish that for everyone − it really makes work feel less like “work.” In the beginning of the summer, I got a FaceTime call from my daughter, who lives in Providence. She was panicking because a...

Democratic socialism: What it is, what it isn’t

Ahead of a challenging midterm election, Republicans have seized an opportunity to castigate their opponents as extremists after democratic socialists won Democratic congressional primaries in New York City, Colorado and Washington, DC. ● GOP leaders...