By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Friday morning!
The ½ inch of rain in the Providence forecast tonight through Saturday night will help but not enough to make a dent in the dry conditions across the state. Rhode Island is running about 3 inches below normal, said Andrew Loconto, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norton, Massachusetts.
“That’s not something we’re going to make up anytime soon unfortunately,” Loconto said.
Gov. Dan McKee on Thursday issued a statewide drought advisory after the state’s Drought Steering Committee found precipitation, groundwater and stream flow levels met the criteria for an advisory across most of Rhode Island. As a result, McKee urged residents and businesses to take steps to conserve water.
The U.S. Drought Monitor, updated every on Thursday, now shows the entire state as moderately dry with the exception of a tiny northwest corner that is abnormally dry.
Here are tips from the Environmental Protection Agency on how not to waste water.
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High tide on Block Island is at 7:05 a.m. and 7:27 p.m. Low tide is at 12:33 p.m. Sunset is at 8:10 p.m.
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The House Committee on Finance has posted the fiscal year 2027 state budget bill for potential consideration at 4 p.m., though it will likely be heard later than that.
A laptop displays Kalshi’s homepage featuring prediction odds on the winner of the men’s French Open. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday moved to intervene in the federal lawsuit against the state of Rhode Island’s attempt to regulate online prediction markets, arguing such platforms fall exclusively under federal oversight and not state gaming laws.
Left to right, shown during a House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources hearing on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, are Rep. David Bennett, a Warwick Democrat; Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, a South Kingstown Democrat; Nicholas Fede, director of the Rhode Island Liquor Operators Collaborative; and Jed Thorp, advocacy director for Save the Bay. (Screenshots/Capitol TV)
By Nancy Lavin
No one had any pretense that a Wednesday afternoon State House hearing on a bottle bill would lead to passage this year. Instead, the vetting by the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources offered a chance for feedback as a state consultant continues its own analysis of the costs and benefits of a recycling revamp.
A mail ballot drop box is seen at a polling station on Nov. 4, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. D.C. District Court Judge Carl Nichols on May 28, 2026, declined to block, for now, an executive order by President Donald Trump on mail-in voting. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
By Jonathan Shorman | D.C. Bureau
A federal judge on Thursday declined to block President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail, finding that it was too early to challenge the directive. The decision by D.C. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, represents a setback for Democratic groups, lawmakers and other groups including the NAACP that have sued to stop the order ahead of November’s midterm elections. The March 31 order faces at least five lawsuits.
Clockwise from left, a Sojourner House volunteer removes plaster in 1988, marching in Woonsocket in 2003, a staff member handles a call in the mid-1990s and the Drop In Center at 1570 Westminster St. in Providence’s West End. (Contributed photos)
COMMENTARY
By Vanessa Volz
As Sojourner House marks 50 years of service with an anniversary breakfast Friday, its executive director hopes more people recognize that addressing domestic violence in Rhode Island and elsewhere is a public priority, not a private matter.
Starting in 2028, state primaries will be held on the second Tuesday in June. (Photo by Will Steinfeld/New Hampshire Bulletin)
By Ethan DeWitt | New Hampshire News Bulletin
Sixteen states hold primaries in June and 13 in May. Only four, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Delaware, have September primaries. But starting in 2028, the space between the primary election and the general election in New Hampshire will grow from two months to five. New Hampshire primaries will be held on the second Tuesday in June instead.
President Donald Trump looks on during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on May 27, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
By Ashley Murray | D.C. Bureau
Could pardoned Jan. 6, 2021, riot defendants who assaulted police officers essentially be rewarded for committing political violence? The Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund has attracted scrutiny for its corruption potential, even splitting congressional Republicans who rarely confront the president’s decisions and policies.
ICYMI
Breeze pilots picket at T.F. Green amid stalled union contract talks | Christopher Shea
Wild blueberry farms across Maine suffer as climate change upends growing seasons | Sydney Cromwell, Inside Climate News
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