By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Thursday morning!
A conspiracy theorist might wonder if the self-storage lobby has anything to do with the latest guidance from state cannabis regulators to hemp licensees.
Rhode Island hemp farmers and retailers can quarantine their existing inventory containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container when a federal ban takes effect on Dec. 11. But they will need state permission to destroy it, Christopher Shea reports.
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High tide on Block Island is at 5:35 p.m. Low tide is at 11:37 a.m. and 11:45 p.m. Sunrise is at 7:06 a.m. and 5:55 p.m.
A gale water
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The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority Board of Directors meets at 1:30 p.m.
A debate between Woonsocket Mayor Christopher Beauchamp and his challenger in the nonpartisan race, Council President Daniel Gendron, is at 6 p.m. at Aging Well Inc. Senior Center, 84 Social St., Woonsocket. The debate is presented by the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island and moderated by Providence College Associate Professor of Political Science Joseph Cammarano.
Mike Simpson, cofounder and director of marketing for Lovewell Farms in Hopkinton, displays the company’s THC sparkling lemonade at the Broadway Street Fair in Newport on Oct. 10, 2026. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current)
Hemp businesses don’t have to destroy their stock after federal ban starts. They just can’t sell it.
By Christopher Shea
Rhode Island regulators are letting hemp businesses hold onto products soon to be barred under federal law. But questions remain about what they can do with that inventory if Congress changes course after high potency THC products become illegal on Dec. 11.
Rep. Jenni Furtado, an East Providence Democrat, has been chosen as the next chairwoman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party. (Courtesy of the Rhode Island General Assembly)
By Nancy Lavin
A freshman state representative from East Providence will be the next leader of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski announced Wednesday. Rep. Jenni Furtado will replace former party chair Liz Beretta-Perik, who resigned Tuesday, following her husband’s indictment on federal fraud charges related to his former education firm in Ohio.
WPRI’s Tim White, left, and Ted Nesi, right, seen from behind, moderate the last gubernatorial debate before the Nov. 3 general election on Tuesday night, Oct. 20, 2026, at Rhode Island College. The three gubernatorial candidates on stage from left to right are independent Ken Block, Republican Aaron Guckian and Democrat Helena Buonanno Foulkes. (Photo by Corey Welch/WPRI 12)
By Nancy Lavin
The candidates sparred over tax returns, public polling and federal lawsuits during Rhode Island’s final gubernatorial debate Tuesday at Rhode Island College hosted by WPRI-TV 12. Democratic nominee Helena Buonanno Foulkes has released her 2025 tax information and repeated her calls for independent candidate Ken Block to do so. Republican nominee Aaron Guckian has also not yet released his tax returns, but promised to do so after submitting his filings by the Oct. 15 extension deadline.
Sample ballots line the wall at East Providence City Hall, where early voting is underway. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
After record-breaking turnout in the Sept. 9 primaries, including a wave of early voting, just over 30,000 voters cast ballots at designated municipal polling sites in the first eight days since early voting began Oct. 14. That’s nearly double the 17,000 ballots cast in the first eight days of early voting in 2022, the last time the state’s general officeholders were on the ballot, but 40% fewer compared with the 2024 presidential election, according to Rhode Island Department of State data.
Justin Hubly, executive director of the Nebraska Association of Public Employees, leads a news conference in December 2023 in Lincoln. New national research found high levels of job satisfaction among public employees, but high levels of burnout and harassment at work. (Photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
By Kevin Hardy | Stateline
State and local government employees report high levels of job satisfaction across the country, but face significant rates of burnout and on-the-job harassment. That’s according to a new national survey of nearly 5,000 public servants across all 50 states released today by The People Lab at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
ICYMI
Rhode Island Hospital resident physicians ratify first union contract | Alexander Castro
Cheaper manufactured homes could be having a moment, if only states can catch up | Robbie Sequeira, Stateline
Trump’s DOJ steps up pressure on California over noncitizen voters 2 weeks from election | Jonathan Shorman, D.C. Bureau
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