For several days outside Portsmouth Town Hall, 219 flags fluttered in the late-summer breeze. Each represented a Rhode Islander who died from an opioid overdose in 2025.

It happens every two years in Rhode Island. In late August, a few leaves begin twirling down from trees. College students depart; or return. Yellow buses return to the roads. And then, bam! It’s …

There are certain jobs in a town government that belong to the town council, and there are certain jobs that belong to the town administrator.

There is finally some encouraging news about climate change, and Rhode Islanders have the Heartland Institute to thank for it.

For years, Portsmouth Concerned Citizens (PCC) has made transparency one of its rallying cries. The taxpayer advocacy group regularly calls on town officials, boards and commissions to conduct …

There is a certain energy that settles over a room when public comment begins. It is part confession booth, part open mic night, part therapy session conducted under fluorescent lighting. People …

The reopening of the East Bay Bike Path bridges was met with much pomp and circumstance on Monday, and with good reason. Every Rhode Island delegate in Congress, the governor and half the local …

Every so often at a Portsmouth Town Council meeting, a familiar complaint rises from the audience: “We never hear about these things until it’s too late.” The frustration is …

There is something deeply Rhode Island about fixing potholes with a phone number. Not fixing them, exactly — let’s not get carried away — but creating a system by which we may report them …

Before the Rhode Island General Assembly are two bills that serve the public and improve transparency in government. Both were heard before a House committee this week, and both are led by and …

Every so often at a Portsmouth Town Council meeting, a familiar complaint rises from the audience: “We never hear about these things until it’s too late.” The frustration is …

A T-shirt made a statement at a Portsmouth Town Council public hearing on March 16, but the larger issue was one the town has been grappling with for years: how to regulate signs without violating …

We’ve taken to calling this the storm of the century, because it is. For this region, it is the biggest storm in the lifetimes of anyone living today. Following the Blizzard of 1978, roads, …

It’s a shame that Zoom School is still a thing. Days before winter storm Fern blew into the Northeast, most school districts announced Monday cancellations. A few, however, announced …

This is a moment for journalists to consider the challenges we will face in the coming years when the robots will be smarter, and the truth may be more difficult to find, but more important than ever.

With fewer than a dozen people watching, the Portsmouth Planning Board on Jan. 8 gave preliminary approval to a large self-storage facility on West Main Road , continuing a development pattern that …

The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office was correct in finding that the Portsmouth Parks and Recreation Committee violated the Open Meetings Law by failing to post meeting minutes on time. …

Disc golf — the sport involving airborne plastic discs and people who have strong feelings about their trajectories — has once again completed its predictable orbit around Portsmouth Town …

For more than a century, this nation built infrastructure to accommodate one dominant technology — motor vehicles. Roads, highways, bridges, ramps, parking lots, driveways and garages were all …

Is there anything more irritating than the flashing road signs that thank motorists for their patience as they crawl toward the pathetic remains of the Washington Bridge on I-195 West? The …

A wonderful convergence of vision, people and opportunity placed a giant troll along a forgotten outcropping of East Providence waterfront, and the result is nothing short of remarkable. It is also …

A resolution being pushed before city and town councils throughout Rhode Island is asking for their support in making access to public records more challenging. Most of the thousands of bills …

Kudos to Common Cause Rhode Island for filing a complaint and seeking a tighter code of ethics in Rhode Island in the wake of a scandal involving Gov. Dan McKee and the awarding of a $5.2 million …

When we first learned that the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) had adopted a new system for rating the strength of Rhode Island high school sports teams, we were dubious. Now that it took …

Regardless of who wins next Tuesday, the sun will rise next Wednesday. The Earth will keep spinning. Schools will welcome their students. Businesses will open their doors. Life will be much the same …