
By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Wednesday morning!
The Providence forecast calls for a slight chance of showers this morning and then mostly cloudy with a high near 63.
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High tide in Warwick is at 5:54 p.m. Low tide is at 11:01 a.m. and 11:52 p.m. Sunset is at 7:56 p.m.
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The Public Utilities Commission meets at 9:30 a.m. to consider Rhode Island Energy’s Green Button Connect plan, which would allow customers to securely share their energy use data with third-party vendors, as part of the deployment of smart meters to replace aging infrastructure and meet state climate goals.
Gov. Dan McKee speaks at the 10 a.m. grand opening of the Ocean State Labs life science incubator at 150 Richmond St., Providence.
The annual board meeting of the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority is at 1 p.m.
The Senate Committee on Education Committee meets at 4 p.m. for hearings on bills that would set limits on mayoral academies and charter schools, including one calling for a moratorium on new charter schools or expansions beginning operations in the next three years. It would also bar the state from approving or appropriating funds to a new charter school not approved before July 1, 2025.

Unleaded gas is $4.44 per gallon and diesel was $5.89 a gallon at the Marathon station on Point Street in Providence, Rhode Island on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current)
By David Lightman | D.C. Bureau
Due to greater domestic production, the United States is importing less crude oil from the Persian Gulf than it has in 40 years, according to a March analysis by to the International Energy Agency. So what’s up with American consumers paying so much more for gasoline? Globalization.

Jay Gotra, former CEO of Smart Green Solar, is now running as a Democratic candidate for governor. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
Jasjit “Jay” Gotra said he hasn’t worked full-time since his solar sales company closed in late 2024 amid allegations of predatory and deceptive sales tactics by the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office. The state’s case against him and his business, Smart Green Solar, is ongoing nearly three years after it was first opened. But Gotra has set his sights on a new job opportunity: Rhode Island governor.

A man fishes along the shoreline immediately north of the rock wall built without permission by the Quidnessett Country Club in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. The attorney general’s office sued the country club over the wall on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Save the Bay)
By Nancy Lavin
After years of unsuccessful efforts by state coastal regulators to force Quidnessett Country Club to remove a rock wall built in defiance of state coastal regulations, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the North Kingstown club in Providence County Superior Court.

Migrants, many fleeing violence in Haiti, cross the Rio Grande at Del Rio, Texas, in 2021 to buy supplies in Mexico while waiting to claim asylum in the United States. (Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar/The Texas Tribune)
By Tim Henderson | Stateline
At a hearing this month, judges in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston appeared skeptical of the constitutionality of mandatory detention for millions of migrants who illegally crossed a border but have not yet ruled. Three other appeals courts have struck down the Trump administration policy threatening imprisonment without bond while two others have upheld it. The U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to decide the matter.
ICYMI
Cost of Iran war rises to $29B as US gas prices spike | Ashley Murray, D.C. Bureau
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