By Nancy Lavin | Senior reporter
It’s Friday.
It’s the final day of July, but the first of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Eagle’s four-day visit to Newport. The 295-foot tall ship will be docked at Newport’s Long Wharf through Monday, with free boarding for the public.
Also starting today: the Newport Jazz Festival. Gates open at 10 a.m. with music starting at 11 a.m. for the “granddaddy of all music festivals” at Fort Adams State Park in Newport. The three-day event runs through Sunday.
Meanwhile, the controversy surrounding former House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi’s application to the Rhode Island Supreme Court seems to have no end, with campaign donations by members of the Judicial Nominating Commission now under scrutiny. Reporter Christopher Shea has more on that below.
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High tide in Narragansett is at 9:28 a.m. and 9:41 p.m. Low tide is at 3:35 p.m. Sunset is at 8:04 p.m.
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State and local candidates and officeholders have until 11:59 p.m. to submit their second-quarter campaign finance reports to the Rhode Island Board of Elections. Democratic gubernatorial challenger Helena Buonanno Foulkes offered a preview of her $900,000 donation haul, which puts her account at $3.3 million as of June 30, according to her campaign. More to come.
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U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner will mark the 61st anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid with a 1 p.m. press conference at the Coventry Resource and Senior Center.
Zachary Mandell, chairman of the Rhode Island Judicial Nominating Commission, prepares to begin the panel's meeting on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Mandell donated $10,835 to former House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi’s campaigns between 2015 and 2026, according to state finance records. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
Judiciary commission members criticized for not revealing campaign contributions to ex-House speaker
By Christopher Shea
More than half of the Judicial Nominating Commission members who voted to advance former House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi’s bid to fill an opening on the Rhode Island Supreme Court have donated to his political campaigns in recent years, state finance records show.
Attorney General Peter Neronha, second from left, speaks to the other members of the Inspector General Independent Advisory Commission at its meeting Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at the State House. Jason Gramitt, executive director of the Ethics Commission, is to Neronha's left. Secretary of State Gregg Amore, General Treasurer James Diossa and Will Fletcher, president of the Association of Inspectors General, seated left to right, make up the rest of the commission. (Screenshot)
By Nolan Page
Candidates will have three weeks, starting Friday, July 31, to apply for Rhode Island's first-ever inspector general position.
Neal Katyal (left), Larry Lessig, Rick Bennett and Maia Cook address reporters outside the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston on July 29, 2026, after oral arguments. (By Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star)
By Emma Davis, Maine Morning Star
Maine’s 2024 referendum regulating political spending is being challenged in U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston, its decision could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Diseases like measles have surged to the highest level in decades in the United States.(Photo by Getty Images Plus)
By Jennifer Shutt, D.C. Bureau
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cut back the country’s safety net while spreading misinformation about vaccines has aggravated the severity and spread of infectious diseases, public health experts say.
The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
By Ashley Murray, D.C. Bureau
For the second time in as many weeks, a War Powers Resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s war with Iran failed to pass the U.S. Senate Thursday.
ICYMI
Dems ramp up TV ad spending in primary race for AG race | Christopher Shea
McKee picks up second teachers union endorsement | Nancy Lavin
Blanche nomination for AG up in the air as vote nears in US Senate panel | Ashley Murray, D.C. Bureau
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