Nearly 600 Hasbro workers currently based in Pawtucket will have to report to the company’s new Boston headquarters in January or else lose their jobs, according to an Oct. 8 notice filed with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. The toy and gaming empire’s relocation across state lines has been in the works […]

A fresh round of “No Kings” events is happening across the state on Saturday, Oct. 17. This time around, organizers of at least 10 events planned so far across Rhode Island are emphasizing voting early. The focus is aligned with a push by national organizers to highlight early voting and protect voting rights, Rob Vitello, […]

Two years after federal monitors found numerous problems with how grant money was tracked and spent by state housing officials, a new audit echoes many of those same problems.  The 25-page report published Sept. 29 by the state’s Office of Internal Audit and Program Integrity found that the Rhode Island Executive Office of Housing (EOH) […]

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey is 80 and has served in Congress for half a century. His Democratic primary challenger in Massachusetts, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, is 47 and made generational change a centerpiece of his campaign. Markey won the […]

Rhode Island Current Senior Reporter Nancy Lavin was honored Friday with a 2026 A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism for her work exposing a gap in state law that prevented homebound seniors from receiving care needed to avoid severe health complications. Lavin was awarded third prize in the annual competition administered by the New England Newspaper […]

Clang clang clang went the cowbells as supporters of Republican congressional candidate Vic Mellor gathered outside WPRI 12’s studios Friday ahead of his first TV debate with incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner, who had his own posse of fans congregating before his arrival. Inside was at first quieter, with Magaziner and Mellor shaking hands […]

There was little movement among Rhode Island students’ standardized test scores this year. Math inched up, while English language arts dipped slightly. A sharper decline could be seen in high school juniors’ SAT reading and writing scores. The Rhode Island Department of Education is still maintaining a modest amount of hope in the latest Rhode […]

Rhode Islanders can’t be offered the opportunity to register to vote at the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) unless they first provide proof of citizenship, a review of Rhode Island’s voter registration procedures has found. Both Secretary of State Gregg Amore and House Minority Leader Mike Chippendale confirmed the results this week, two months […]

The personal information of more than 600 Rhode Island residents who worked for or bought products from Hasbro Inc. may have been exposed during a two-part data breach earlier this year, according to an Oct. 7 email sent to the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office and shared with Rhode Island Current. The notice comes more […]

The first gubernatorial debate of the 2026 general election cycle began cordially enough. Moderator Gene Valicenti asked the three candidates if their opponents had the temperament and experience to serve as governor. Republican Aaron Guckian readily acknowledged that each of them was “a smart individual,” while independent Ken Block conceded that Democratic opponent Helena Buonanno […]

Rhode Island Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos and her Republican challenger, former state Rep. John Loughlin, met Wednesday afternoon for their second televised debate in less than two weeks, sparring over grocery stores, gas prices, and how much blame to assign to President Donald Trump for Rhode Islanders’ problems. Unlike the candidates’ pretaped Sept. 25 matchup […]

The Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory is sending fewer firearms cases to outside reviewers while accepting more gun evidence from local police departments thanks to progress rebuilding its in-house testing staff, its director said. Three forensic firearms examiners left the lab after 2024 testing error upended its operations and reputation. Soon after the labs outsourced […]

Trailing in the polls and facing public pressure to drop out, Republican gubernatorial candidate Aaron Guckian has just over $7,000 in his campaign account in the final sprint toward the Nov. 3 general election, according to information filed with the Rhode Island Board of Elections late Tuesday. Meanwhile, Guckian’s two opponents, Democrat Helena Buonanno Foulkes […]

Freshly crunched numbers for a proposed overhaul of how Rhode Island calculates the bulk of the state’s share of local school funding would increase annual state education formula aid by an additional $525 million over this year — a number which does not include new expenses the proposal was designed to shift to the state. […]

DNA evidence collected by a special investigative unit within the Rhode Island Office of Attorney General has led to an arrest in the 1985 murder of a 22-year-old Jamestown woman in Newport. It’s a case with special meaning for Attorney General Peter Neronha, who grew up in Jamestown and knew the victim, Hillary Hellewell. “We […]

On less than an acre of farmland in Hopkinton, rows of hemp plants were nearing harvest. Most of their “colas” — dense clusters of buds prized for smokable flower — had already been cut ahead of a nor’easter bound for southern New England on the last weekend of September. The rest will be harvested in […]

Providence City Councilor Miguel Sanchez announced Monday he has enough support to secure the council presidency come January, setting the stage for a progressive overhaul of City Hall government. The council’s 28-year-old majority whip, first elected in 2022, said his potential leadership team would dovetail with Democratic candidate for mayor David Morales’ administration, should Morales […]

One month after the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) failed to decide the fate of a proposed oyster farm in Tiverton, project opponents are asking a judge to step in. The Sept. 24 complaint filed in Providence County Superior Court against both the CRMC and applicants John and Patrick Bowen argues the council’s […]

Since July, a Rhode Island news site has been publishing stories by authors that don’t exist.  Kelly Lockhart, a housing reporter for Uprise RI, wrote about the widening gap between earnings and housing costs in the Ocean State. Correspondent Adriana Vossari covered the latest votes — on zoning, school procurement, criminal justice for juveniles, and […]

Fire departments and other first responder organizations across Rhode Island are getting more than $4.5 million in grants for new equipment, training and emergency response upgrades, federal officials and Rhode Island’s congressional delegation have announced.  Funding comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, which provides funding to fire departments […]

University of Rhode Island (URI) students, faculty and staff can now ride public buses for free with their school IDs under an agreement announced last week between the university and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. URI will pay a flat $135,000 fee to join RIPTA’s U-Pass program, allowing members of the university community to […]

The state’s largest hospital operator is offering buyouts to 200 non-clinical supervisors and laying off 10 executives amid financial pressures. Brown University Health announced a series of cost-cutting measures on Thursday, the first day of its new fiscal year. Like healthcare providers nationwide, the hospital conglomerate is struggling against rising costs, a function of market […]

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Here’s something you probably didn’t have on your bingo card: The Democratic governor of Massachusetts asking President Trump’s administration to move faster in approving a gas expansion project. That’s exactly what Gov. Maura Healey did on […]

Changes to Medicaid starting Thursday, Oct. 1, will affect eligibility for some noncitizens as well as coverage of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss for Rhode Islanders enrolled in the joint federal-state health insurance program for people with low incomes and older adults and people with disabilities. Federal enrollment data from June show 250,294 Rhode Islanders […]

Compared with the insult-laced, tense exchanges in both parties’ gubernatorial primaries, the first head-to-head between general election candidates Helena Buonanno Foulkes and Ken Block proved mild, even congenial. Despite their different labels — Foulkes, a Democrat, and Block, an independent — there was little daylight between the competitors on many of the questions posed by […]