By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Wednesday morning!
The town of North Kingstown has hit a wall in its effort to obtain public records from the Quonset Development Corporation and the Narragansett Bay Commission involving a now-paused sludge processing project in Quonset Business Park.
Welcome to our world.
Year after year, proposed reforms to the loophole-filled Access to Public Records Act have died in committee in the General Assembly. As Senior Reporter Nancy Lavin notes in today’s top story, if only state leaders had enacted reforms, North Kingstown might have the records they requested last May by now.
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High tide in Westerly is at 7:30 a.m. and 7:45 p.m. Low tide is at 2:04 p.m. Sunrise is at 6:36 a.m. Sunset is at 6:43 p.m.
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The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority meets at 8:30 a.m.
The Rural Stakeholder Advisory Council holds it inaugural meeting virtually at 10 a.m. to begin determining how Rhode Island will disburse its $156 million federal Rural Health Transformation award, part of the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program established by H.R. 1.
Republican General Treasurer candidate Micholas A. Credle holds a 12:30 p.m. State House press conference to deliver a speech with a Rhode Island relatable title, “I Know a Guy.”
The Board of Elections meets at 5 p.m.
North Kingstown Town Manager Ralph Mollis, shown speaking at the dedication ceremony for the Iver Mudslider troll in Ryan Park in August 2025, has hit a wall with two state agencies that refused to release public records, or quoted large fees to fulfill the request. At right is then interim Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor. Behind Mollis is U.S. Sen. Jack Reed. (Photo by Laura Paton/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
After its public records requests to two quasi-public state agencies were partially denied, North Kingstown has appealed to the Rhode Island Attorney General's office. But advocates familiar with the state's loophole-ridden Access to Public Records Act aren't surprised by the problems town officials are facing in their request for public information.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during the Ogden Memorial Lecture on International Affairs in Brown University’s Pizzitola Sports Center on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (Photo by Nick Dentamaro/Brown University)
By Christopher Shea
The last time former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Rhode Island, he spoke to a gathering of U.S. governors to advocate for free trade amid tensions between the two North American neighbors. On Tuesday night, he returned to Providence where he said the relationship has moved beyond ordinary trade disputes to what he described as a threat to Canada’s sovereignty under the Trump administration.
Wind turbines generate electricity at the Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island. President Donald Trump’s administration has pledged billions of dollars to persuade developers to abandon offshore wind leases. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
By Alex Brown | Stateline
Rhode Island is part of an eight-state coalition that filed lawsuits Tuesday challenging the Trump administration’s payments to private companies to cancel offshore wind leases, escalating an ongoing legal battle over the government spending billions of dollars to block wind projects.
The first day of school at Bloomfield High School in Bloomfield, New Jersey, on Sept. 2, 2026. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)
By Shauneen Miranda | D.C. Bureau
Education experts and advocates on Tuesday urged Congress to repeal an incoming national school voucher program over concerns that it will divert critical funds away from public schools to private institutions.
The U.S. Capitol on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
COMMENTARY
By Robert T.F. Downes | Connecticut Mirror
Were Congress an employee sitting down for its annual performance evaluation, the meeting would be brief. Public confidence has collapsed. Basic responsibilities are routinely deferred until the last possible moment. Cooperation has become a liability, theatrics a professional skill, and measurable output an afterthought. Congress would be fired, a political science Ph.D. candidate at the University of Connecticut and Rhode Island College adjunct professor writes.
ICYMI
Judge suggests Trump’s most recent birthright citizenship orders may require new lawsuit | Ariana Figueroa, D.C. Bureau
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