1. STORY OF THE WEEK: In some ways, the $14.3 billion budget approved by Rhode Island’s House Finance Committee this week is a return to the pre-COVID norm. But in other ways, it’s a …
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By Ian Donnis
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6/16/25
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Editor’s note: The following is part of a series of stories on local veterans written by Westport Middle High School students who spent the first half of 2025 interviewing more than 20 local …
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By Peyton Phillips
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6/11/25
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The “Letter to the Editor” column has for years been a place where readers from all walks of life are free to express their opinions about what is happening in our neighborhoods and the …
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By Stephan Brigidi and Craig Evans
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6/9/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: When does the calculus of doing nothing outweigh the value of doing something at the Statehouse? That question will hang over Smith Hill until the resolution of the proposed …
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By Ian Donnis
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6/9/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: When Attorney General Peter Neronha makes a presentation, he really goes to town. A case in point was the news conference in his office Wednesday, about confronting Rhode …
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By Ian Donnis
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6/2/25
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Politicians in the state no longer hide their conflicts of interest. It is probably because the voters have become anesthetized to abuses. Here are just a few recent examples.
Speaker of the …
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By Arlene Violet, Esq.
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6/2/25
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Many American states conduct special observances on the date that they entered the Union under our Constitution. Rhode Island does not. Is that reluctance because of embarrassment over the fact that …
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By Patrick T. Conley
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5/28/25
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Editor's note: This is the first of more than 20 veterans' stories included in a book soon to be released by Westport Middle School students and teachers. Students and teachers spent months …
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5/21/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: Three primary factors seemingly fueled Donald Trump’s win for the White House last year -- Democrats’ slow response to voters’ concerns about inflation and …
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By Ian Donnis
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5/19/25
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STORY OF THE WEEK: Legislative leaders in Rhode Island have for years reflexively opposed efforts to raise broad-based taxes. The trend has been more in the other direction, with a four-point cut in …
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By Ian Donnis
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5/12/25
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STORY OF THE WEEK: After Val Lawson won election Tuesday as the new president of the Rhode Island Senate , she faced a battery of reporters’ questions about her dual role as head of that …
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By Ian Donnis
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5/5/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: The unexpected death of Rhode Island Senate President Dominick Ruggerio at age 76 on Monday marks the end of an era in more ways than one. Ruggerio, widely revered by his …
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By Ian Donnis
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4/29/25
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If you've ever tried to take and develop quality photos with a black and white film camera, you know just how magical it is when you succeed.
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By Ethan Hartley
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4/24/25
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STORY OF THE WEEK: If the sine qua non of President Donald Trump is about pushing boundaries, the apex of that tendency is coming front and center. The showdown over Kilmar Abrego Garcia in …
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By Ian Donnis
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4/21/25
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On April 12, 1861, South Carolinians opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor to begin America’s bloody Civil War and put our Union in peril. Several months later, a Rhode Island woman …
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By Patrick T. Conley
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4/15/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: Decades after supporters lauded the North American Free Trade Agreement as a way to add American jobs, there’s plenty of criticism of NAFTA from both the left and the …
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4/14/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: The mid-term elections of 2026 are almost 20 months away -- and that’s an eternity in politics. But after months of soul-searching after the Democrats’ devastating …
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By Ian Donnis
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4/7/25
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Amazon has a small house for sale, 20’ by 40’, which is larger than the pallets now housing the homeless, with three bedrooms (or choice, like a living room or den if one bedroom is …
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By Arlene Violet, Esq.
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4/2/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: Almost three years have passed since Gov. Dan McKee signed adult-use cannabis legalization into law , and the state has yet to open the application process for handing out …
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By Ian Donnis
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3/31/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: As we roll into the weekend, perhaps you’re savoring the emergence of spring, the arrival of March Madness in Providence, an expected return to form of the Red Sox or any …
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3/24/25
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Originating in the (aptly named) rainforest’s hills, a heavy nighttime downpour sluiced palm fronds, bamboo and other plant life into the sea. In the dawn, coconuts sporting long hairlike …
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By Rick Massie
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3/18/25
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: “Don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree!” -- the timeless aphorism from the late U.S. Sen. Russell B. Long of Louisiana -- speaks …
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By Ian Donnis
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3/17/25
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STORY OF THE WEEK: Tariffs “will always tend to crush the spirit of enterprise and cripple the productive energies of a country.” If that sounds like a gripe from Canadian Prime Minister …
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By Ian Donnis
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3/10/25
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Despite the breakneck pace of President Trump and Elon Musk as they try to remake the federal government, Attorney General Peter Neronha said, “I think you can, for the most part, put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
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By Ian Donnis
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3/3/25
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Editor's note: An abridged version of this commentary will be published in the Thursday, March 6 edition of the Sakonnet Times.
The decision to close Fort Barton Elementary School in my hometown …
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By Samantha Cookinham
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2/27/25
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