Rhode Island Current

10/16/2025

New cyber range at Rhode Island College (RIC) officially opened Wednesday, offering students a simulation room to prepare for close encounters with bad actors.

https://rhodeislandcurrent.com/2025/10/15/new-ric-cyber-range-prepares-students-for-real-world-danger-lurking-in-cyberspace/

10/15/2025

“At a time when public health leadership from Washington, D.C. is increasingly unstable, we are committed to stepping up to create clear, coordinated leadership led by facts and science," Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement. "I’m proud to join this alliance of fellow governors because when we work together, we get results, and that’s exactly what this moment demands.”

In a clear rebuke of recent federal health policy, 15 Democratic governors announced today they’ve formed a public health alliance that breaks with guidance from the Trump administration and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

10/15/2025

U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith found Homeland Security officials continue to "to bully the states into making promises they have no obligation to make” or else risk losing FEMA funding already appropriated by Congress.

U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith says the Trump administration is violating his September order striking down a Federal Emergency Management Agency directive withholding disaster aid from states that defy the president’s immigration policies.

10/14/2025

The State Properties Committee on Tuesday unanimously gave preliminary approval for a 10-year lease for Dune Brothers LLC to occupy the building at 169 Riverside Drive, Tiverton.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management has lined up a popular Providence-based clamshack and seafood wholesaler as the anchor tenant for the former Chase Marina beneath the Sakonnet River Bridge in Tiverton.

10/14/2025

U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose on Friday granted a preliminary injunction against the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), halting grant policies directing grantee organizations to eliminate all DEI initiatives in their work or risk losing funding.

A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday granted a preliminary injunction against the departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development, halting policies requiring grantee organizations to eliminate all DEI initiatives in their work or risk losing federal funding.

10/14/2025

Four months after millions of “No Kings” protesters rallied across the country against the policies of President Donald Trump and his administration, more peaceful protests are planned for Saturday, Oct. 18, including nine across Rhode Island.

Nine No Kings protests are planned across Rhode Island on Saturday, Oct. 18, joining a nationwide day of demonstrations against the policies of the Trump administration.

10/14/2025

The Rhode Island Press Association welcomes submissions for nominations to the Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026.

The Rhode Island Press Association is accepting nominations for the Class of 2026 Hall of Fame, honoring those who have made lasting contributions to journalism in Rhode Island or beyond. Deadline is Dec. 31, 2025.

10/13/2025

“The central thing that we focus on is that new technologies are brought in by disruptive outsiders who are interested in shaking up the status quo. If they succeed in doing that, they become the status quo.”

Brown University Professor Emeritus Peter Howitt and his colleague, the French economist Philippe Aghion, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their research on how new technologies can affect growth over time.

10/13/2025

The emerald ash borer was detected in New Hampshire in 2013 and in Rhode Island in 2018.

For more than 70 years, the American chestnut tree has, mostly, been absent from the landscape. But historical accounts of its grandeur and the tons of nutritious seeds it produced every fall have made it loom large in New England’s forest memory. Now, as another tree disappears — the ash — sc...

10/13/2025

COMMENTARY: Like pasta primavera and the Feast of the Seven Fishes, Columbus Day is largely an Italian American invention. We should rename the holiday to reflect it’s about us, not someone whose “discovery” led to the deaths of millions. By Jen A. Miller

Writer Jen A. Miller says she's proud of her Italian American heritage — but thinks Columbus Day in name has to go.

10/13/2025

Tuesday is the deadline to make the move to Microsoft’s latest OS or put temporary fix in place. Reporter Alexander Castro looks at how local and state government IT officials are preparing.

Microsoft will no longer provide support and security updates for Windows 10 as of Tuesday, Oct. 14, requiring machines all over the globe to be upgraded to Windows 11. Most local and state government IT officials contacted by Rhode Island Current report they are managing the preparations well, afte...

10/13/2025

The federal shutdown has prevented Congress from extending two telehealth care programs for Medicare beneficiaries because they automatically expired Oct. 1.

The federal shutdown has forced a reckoning for two increasingly popular programs — telehealth visits and in-home hospital care — because Medicare waivers automatically expired Oct. 1.