By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Tuesday morning!
The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RITPA) has made no move to increase its $2 base bus fare, which has been unchanged since 2010. Meanwhile, independent gubernatorial candidate Ken Block is proposing one year of free bus fare to see if it boosts RIPTA ridership.
But the record high cost of diesel has upended the bus agency’s finances, Christopher Shea reports. RIPTA budgeted $5.2 million to fuel its diesel buses for this fiscal year, based on an average price of $2.48 per gallon.
Rhode Island’s average for diesel was $6.33 per gallon on Monday.
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High tide in Newport is at 10:06 a.m. and 10:34 p.m. Low tide is at 3:57 p.m. Sunrise is at 6:40 a.m. Sunset is at 6:30 p.m.
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The Ethics Commission meets at 9 a.m.
The State Properties Committee meets at 10 a.m.
Gov. Dan McKee speaks at the Tomorrow Fund's Annual Childhood Cancer Awareness reception at the State House at 1 p.m.
A fleet of Rhode Island Public Transit Authority buses, including diesel and battery-electric models, is parked across the street from the agency’s Providence headquarters in January 2024. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
A favorable diesel price lock that helped the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority narrow last year’s budget gap ended three months ago. But the financial woes facing the statewide bus agency from skyrocketing fuel prices is just beginning with the cost of diesel now over two and a half times what was budgeted for this year.
Members of United Nurses & Allied Professionals hold an informational picket outside Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence on Sept. 15, 2026. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
Can new owners turn around struggling Roger Williams and Fatima hospitals? Neronha is not convinced.
By Nancy Lavin
Attorney General Peter Neronha has given the new owners of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital until Friday to resubmit a required long-term strategic plan, after rejecting an initial version tuned in Sept. 15. Neronha remains concerned about hospital closure due to insufficient cash flow.
University of Rhode Island President Marc Parlange speaks to lawmakers, students and other URI supporters during URI Day at the Rhode Island State House in April 2025. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
By Alexander Castro
University of Rhode Island trustees on Friday unanimously approved a request to ask for a $20.3 million increase in the university’s fiscal year 2028 budget amid projections of an $8.1 million shortfall this year. Rising inflation and missed enrollment targets were among the reasons cited for the 17% increase in operating support for the school over this year.
Voters fill out ballots using touch screens during early voting at the Bismarck Event Center in Bismarck, North Dakota, on June 8, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
By Jonathan Shorman | D.C. Bureau
Five weeks before Election Day, President Donald Trump’s sprawling effort to identify and remove noncitizen voters hasn’t produced the kind of large purges that could meaningfully affect the midterm elections. Even a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision giving states access to a supercharged Department of Homeland Security computer program to verify voters’ citizenship will have a limited immediate impact, election experts say.
A collection of signs advertising cash for homes is shown earlier this month at an event in Kansas City, Missouri, celebrating a new state law regulating real estate wholesalers. Critics say these businesses can be predatory, especially for poor, minority and older homeowners. (Photo by Kevin Hardy/Stateline)
By Kevin Hardy | Stateline
The signs, text messages and mailers promise cash, quick sales and a seamless means of unloading unwanted homes. But advocates say the business of buying homes for cash can confuse vulnerable homeowners and rob them of home equity. And now, many states are cracking down.
ICYMI
As states seek to rein in Flock license plate cameras, New Hampshire is considered a model | Ethan DeWitt, New Hampshire Bulletin
COMMENTARY: What’s one of the best public safety tools? A clean record | Newsroom or reporter name
Governors pledge to oppose federal overreach — even when their party runs Washington | Kevin Hardy, Stateline
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