By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Wednesday morning!
Word on Smith Hill is that the 2026 legislative session will come to an end on Thursday. But will there be Del’s Lemonade?
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High tide in Providence is at 4:24 p.m. Low tide is at 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. Sunset is at 8:19 p.m.
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Gov. Dan McKee, Rhode Island Department of Transportation Interim Director Robert Rocchio, and Walsh Construction Vice President Chuck Parish host a 10:15 a.m. media briefing in the construction laydown area on Gano Street in Providence, at the Insterstate 195 overpass, to highlight this week’s start of in-water construction for the new Washington Bridge. Hard hats and reflective vests provided to guests. Closed toe shoes with flat soles recommended.
The House Committee on Small Business meets at 3:30 p.m. to vote on advancing amended anti-drink spiking legislation to require bars to offer patrons tamper-proof drink lids upon request. Bars would not be required to post signs about the availability of drink lids under the revised bill.
The Rhode Island House of Representatives at its 4 p.m. floor session votes on an amended bill that would establish enforcement limitations on contract terms for the licensing of ebooks or digital audiobooks to libraries.
The Rhode Island Senate votes on the nomination of Bob Cormier as president and CEO of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub at its 4 p.m. floor session.
Comments from a special assistant attorney general in the Rhode Island Office of Attorney General are shown on a marked up copy of the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
As the Rhode Island General Assembly closes out its 2026 session this week, a proposal to codify federal protections against voter suppression into Rhode Island law is being deferred by legislators next year. Advocates say they were blindsided by the decision against bringing bills that were considered nonpartisan to the floor for a vote.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys Jordan Campbell, left, and Brantley Mayers leave U.S. District Court in Providence after a Tuesday, May 12, 2026, hearing over a federal subpoena seeking Rhode Island Hospital records tied to transgender minors’ medical records. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
By Alexander Castro
Rhode Island’s federal judiciary will consider a possible disciplinary proceeding for the U.S. Department of Justice lawyers assigned to an ongoing court fight over subpoenaed medical records for transgender youth treated at Rhode Island Hospital. The proceedings were jumpstarted by an order filed Friday, June 5, by U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who cited “the representations made to this Court” by DOJ attorneys.
Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor, Xay Khamsyvoravong, left, and governor, Heleno Buonanno Foulkes, right, won endorsements from party leaders on Monday, June 8, 2026. (Left photo by Janine L. Weisman; right photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
The Rhode Island Association of Democratic City and Town Chairs on Monday night endorsed Democratic challengers for governor and lieutenant governor, Helena Buonanno Foulkes and Xay Khamsyvoravong. Local party leaders did not make an endorsement in the open, four-way Democratic attorney general’s race during their closed-door meeting at the Rochambeau Library in Providence.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Louis P. DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, speaks during the debate on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (Screenshot/Capitol TV)
By Nancy Lavin
A $15.2 billion budget — the highest state spending plan on record — heads to Gov. Dan McKee’s desk, following the Rhode Island Senate’s approval Tuesday. The upper chamber’s 32-6 vote followed more than two hours of debate and a dozen failed amendments, including three Republican-led attempts to strike down or weaken the millionaire’s tax headlining the fiscal 2027 budget.
Rhode Island is among several states looking at new ways to get corporate money out of politics. (Getty image)
COMMENTARY
By Sonali Kolhatkary
The Rhode Island Corporate Power Reset Act, which would redefine corporations in a way that prohibits political spending, is not expected to advance before the end of this year’s legislative session, a Senate spokesperson said Tuesday afternoon. Even so, it adds the Ocean State to a list of several states experimenting with new ways to get this flood of corporate money out of politics.
An aerial view of Camp East Montana, an immigrant detention center in El Paso, Texas. (Photo courtesy of Government Accountability Office)
By Ariana Figueroa | D.C. Bureau
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed concern that the U.S. military was responsible for the quick construction of a detention camp on a Texas base that wasted millions in federal funds and failed to meet basic standards, according to a nonpartisan government watchdog report.
ICYMI
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