By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Monday morning!
Hope you made the most of a wet and windy weekend. Most of the state saw between 2 ½ and 3½ inches of rainfall over the three days with over 4 inches recorded in some locations, including Portsmouth.
The tail end of the nor-easter brings continued windswept rain across Rhode Island today, meteorologist Bryce Williams of the National Weather Service’s office in Norton, Massachusetts, said. He went through some weather data with me Sunday night to find the highest wind gust recorded in the Ocean State.
The winner: Block Island with 71 mph recorded Saturday at 3:59 a.m. That’s just 3 miles short of a Category 1 hurricane.
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High tide in Warwick is at 9:36 a.m. and 10:01 p.m. Low tide is at 3:17 p.m. Sunrise is at 6:39 a.m. Sunset is at 6:32 p.m.
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The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts meets at 4 p.m.
The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation Board of Directors meets at 5 p.m.
Music teacher Danielle Trial Lucini accompanies students on the trumpet during her first-period Concert Band class at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
By Alexander Castro
A new study commissioned by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts found students who took four years of music classes had lower chronic absenteeism rates than peers who did not. The findings are playing out in Providence classrooms, where educators say sustained music participation can help keep students engaged in school.
A police officer uses the Flock Safety license plate reader system. Since 2016, the Granite State has had one of the strictest laws in the country regulating and limiting such readers. (Photo courtesy of Flock Safety)
By Ethan DeWitt | New Hampshire Bulletin
As backlash to Flock and other license plate-tracking cameras grows, some states are exploring limiting the technology. New Hampshire is already a decade ahead. Since 2016, the Granite State has had one of the strictest laws in the country regulating and limiting automated license plate readers.
Students leave William H. Wells Community High School at the end of the school day in Chicago. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest national survey of high school students focuses on diet, physical activity, sleep, digital behavior and mental health. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
By Amanda Watford | Stateline
For years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey has tracked a broad range of issues affecting teenagers, from substance use and sexual behavior to violence, mental health and other health risks. But the latest report focuses on just five areas — diet, physical activity, sleep, digital behavior, and mental health and suicide risk. It largely leaves out national findings on substance use, sexual behavior, violence and disparities among student groups that were prominent in previous reports.
Rhode Island now enables people with criminal records to qualify for expungement of up to four felonies, but only for nonviolent offenses and not until 15 years after they have completed their final sentence. (Getty photo)
COMMENTARY
By Joseph Broadmeadow
Rhode Island’s newly expanded expungement law could improve public safety by helping those who have old, nonviolent felony convictions overcome barriers to jobs and housing.
ICYMI
K-12 spending, absenteeism programs face risks as feds stop key monitoring, watchdog says | Robbie Sequeira, Stateline
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to permit quick third-country deportations | Ariana Figueroa, D.C. Bureau
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