By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Tuesday morning!
A day of sunshine, high temps up to 90 degrees inland but cooler on the coast and wind coming from the west-southwest mean ozone levels will reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups across Rhode Island today. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management has issued a statewide air quality alert from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. Sensitive groups include people with heart or lung diseases, diabetes, older adults and children. They should take steps to reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion today.
The general public is not likely to be affected.
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High tide in Providence is at 9:58 a.m. and 10:19 p.m. Low tide is at 3:04 p.m. Sunset is at 8:02 p.m.
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The Rhode Island Life Science Hub Board of Directors meets at 9 a.m.
The Senate Committee on Judiciary meets at 2:30 p.m. to hear testimony on the appointments of Joanna M. Achille and Maria Ferro Deaton as associate justices of the Rhode Island Superior Court.
The Judicial Nominating Commission meets at 4 p.m. to consider and select individuals to be interviewed for an associate justice vacancy on the Rhode Island Supreme Court and an associate justice vacancy on the Rhode Island Superior Court. The panel will also set dates for public comment and candidate interviews.
The House Environment and Natural Resources Committee after 4:30 p.m. to vote on bills, including one that would prohibit the use of black plastic takeout containers for prepared food and drink from restaurants, stores and other retail sales establishments.
The Quonset Development Corporation meets at 5 p.m. On its agenda is a “Resolution regarding Lease with QSS Biosolids, LLC.”
Gov. Dan McKee has proposed adding $1.6 million for the Newport Hospital birthing center to his fiscal 2027 budget plan. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
Newport Hospital’s Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center is getting its own line item — and funding — in Gov. Dan McKee’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget. McKee announced the addition of $1.6 million for Brown University Health’s labor and delivery unit in a press release Monday.
Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council Chair Ray Coia, left, is one of six nominees submitted by Gov. Dan McKee for the revamped coastal panel. At right is Jeff Willis, CRMC executive director. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
Gov. Dan McKee’s six nominees for the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, all men, are slated for initial confirmation hearings before the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture Wednesday — nearly three months after the March 1 deadline for new appointees to join the volunteer council under last year’s law to reform the troubled agency. Its current chairman made the list.
Stacks of tax return documents received by a state worker. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
Four state employees on Monday filed a class action lawsuit in Providence County Superior Court against the state for the string of payroll blunders caused by an internal software upgrade late last year. The complaint estimates the proposed class could eventually include more than 20,000 people — roughly the same number of employees who earlier this year received incorrect tax forms listing “State of Rhode Island Umbrella Company” as the employer in the return address window.
East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, voters stand in line at an early voting location in 2022. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has suspended Louisiana’s May 16, 2026, party primary elections for six U.S. House districts — after early voting had begun — following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to throw out the state’s existing congressional map. (Photo by Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator.)
By Jonathan Shorman | D.C. Bureau
When the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas’ gerrymandered congressional map to take effect in December, its conservative majority wrote that a lower court had “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign” when it blocked the map more than three months before the election. Now, the Supreme Court is the one upending elections.
Pregnant patients experiencing miscarriage who live in states with abortion bans have fewer options for healthcare management, according to a new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Photo by Anna Spoerre/The Missouri Independent)
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris | Stateline
Pregnant women experiencing miscarriage who live in states with abortion bans have fewer options for healthcare management, according to a new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
ICYMI
Shifting attitudes on menopause drive lawmakers to push for new protections | Kelcie Moseley-Morris, Stateline
Trump drops IRS suit in trade for $1.7B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund decried by Dems | Ashley Murray, D.C. Bureau
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