By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Monday morning.
Today we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country as members of he armed services.
The Boots on the Ground for Heroes Memorial is on display at Fort Adams State Park in Newport from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Over 7,000 combat boots adorned with flags and placards with the name of a U.S. service member killed in action since 9/11 are arranged in rows for this Memorial Day weekend tribute.
Gov. Dan McKee speaks at North Kingstown's Memorial Day commemoration and wreath-laying ceremony at 9 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park on Boston Neck Road. At 10 a.m., he will walk in East Greenwich's Memorial Day parade, which starts at Academy Field at the Swift Community Center on Peirce Street.
McKee, state officeholders and congressional delegation are scheduled to attend the state's 52nd Memorial Day ceremony at 1 p.m. at the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter.
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High tide in Newport is at 4:25 p.m. Low tide is at 10:19 a.m. and 11:08 p.m. Sunset is at 8:06 p.m.
Portsmouth High School junior Marjorie Leary represented Rhode Island as the state winner of the VFW Voice of Democracy audio-essay contest. (Photo by Katharine Leary)
By Janine L. Weisman
A Portsmouth High School junior from Little Compton won’t let America’s problems overshadow its values. She sees them as motivation to fight for freedom and progress in her audio-essay titled “In Order to Form a More Perfect Union,” chosen as the Rhode Island state winner in the national Veterans of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy audio-essay scholarship competition. Marjorie Leary will read her essay as the keynote speaker at the state's annual Memorial Day ceremony Monday at the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter.
A laptop displays the Beacon Mutual Insurance website as seen on May 22, 2026. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
By Alexander Castro
The personal information of an estimated 132,000 Rhode Islanders was involved in a January cyberattack on Beacon Mutual Insurance, the Warwick-based workers’ comp company revealed last week. The Rhode Island Department of Administration confirmed that approximately 4,500 state employees, both past and present, were affected.
A floral designer in Newport, R.I., creates bouquets on April 30. A growing number of states, including Rhode Island, are launching retirement plans for workers who don’t have access to plans through their employers. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current)
By Kevin Hardy | Stateline
Philadelphia will be the first city to run an automatic retirement program, but it joins a growing number of states with such plans. More than 50 million Americans don’t have retirement plans through work. The new programs require most employers without retirement offerings to set up payroll deductions for their workers, but do not require any employer match.
An anti-abortion group last month sued seven Utah fertility clinics, including Utah Fertility Center, claiming their disposal of embryos as part of the in-vitro fertilization process violates the state’s wrongful-death law. (Photo by McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)
By Sofia Resnick | Stateline
A lawsuit filed last month by an anti-abortion group against seven Utah fertility clinics, claiming their disposal of embryos as part of the in-vitro fertilization process violates the state’s wrongful-death law, illustrates the divide among many in the anti-abortion movement.
Community members protest ahead of a special Box Elder County Commission meeting to discuss the Stratos project, a massive data center proposed for an unincorporated area in Box Elder County, Utah, on May 4, 2026. (Photo by Alixel Cabrera/Utah News Dispatch)
By David Lightman | D.C. Bureau
The future of data centers and their huge appetite for electricity is quickly escalating as a political flashpoint from coast to coast, moving from cities and states now to the nation’s capital. Finding consensus on how to proceed in D.C. is tough, with the industry spreading around millions to make its case, some lawmakers pushing a moratorium, and others looking for ways to ease the burden on Americans without halting development.
ICYMI
States that cover healthcare for immigrants scale back | Shalina Chatlani, Stateline
Trump says Kevin Warsh will be ‘totally independent’ as he’s sworn in as Fed chair | Ashley Murray, D.C. Bureau
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