By Christopher Shea | Reporter
Hiya,
For the infrastructure enthusiasts among us: the Henderson Bridge and the nearby roundabout in East Providence briefly made a cameo on a recent episode of “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.”
Now we wait for the Washington Bridge to make its Bravo debut.
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Providence Porchfest returns Saturday, bringing hundreds of live music performances to dozens of homes across the city’s East Side from noon to 6 p.m., rain or shine. In this case, possibly up to a quarter-inch of rain.
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Here’s your look at the week that was:
The Rhode Island State House is shown on a January night in 2026. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
Two long-debated topics on Smith Hill, a millionaire’s tax and a state inspector general, were cemented in the revised fiscal 2027 budget given first passage by House lawmakers Friday night. The record $15.2 billion budget — even higher than the $14.9 billion tax-and-spend plan Gov. Dan McKee unveiled in January thanks to an extra $228 million surplus revealed from updated revenue estimates in May — sailed through committee in record time, with deliberations complete by 7:30 p.m.
Breeze Airways pilots briefly march in front of Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport on May 27, 2026. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
Breeze Airways pilots picketed outside Rhode Island T.F. Green Airport on the airline’s fifth anniversary Wednesday afternoon, highlighting contract negotiations that have stalled since 2023.
Marjorie Leary, 17, of Little Compton, reads her award-winning essay during the state’s Memorial Day ceremony at the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter on Monday, May 25, 2026. (Photo by Laura Paton/Rhode Island Current)
By Janine L. Weisman
Marjorie Leary, the Rhode Island state winner of the VFW Voice of Democracy competition, delivered the keynote speech for the Memorial Day ceremony at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter on Monday. The Little Compton teen is a junior at Portsmouth High School.
‘We cannot run a district in perpetuity,’ Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Angélica Infante-Green told the state’s K-12 council Tuesday night, May 26, 2026. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
After seven years, the Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education Tuesday night gave its approval to returning control of the Providence Public School Department to the capital city effective July 1. “It’s not like turning on a light switch, which is what everybody is thinking,” Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Angélica Infante-Green told the council.
Butler Hospital workers staged a 30 hour sit-in in front of the Care New England headquarters at 4 Richmond Square in Providence in June 2025. The health care system is now cutting 30 leadership positions. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
Care New England is cutting more than 30 leadership and nonclinical positions to help close an estimated $20 million budget gap for fiscal 2026.
A laptop displays the digital sportsbook for Bally’s Corp., which was tentatively awarded a license from the Rhode Island Lottery to operate in the state. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
The Rhode Island Lottery on May 8 awarded Bally’s Corp. a tentative five-year deal to join the state’s small digital sportsbook, ending the single-operator sports betting market that has been in place since online wagers began in the state in 2019.
ICYMI
Legislation allowing extended bar hours during World Cup games becomes law | Janine L. Weisman
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