By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Thursday morning!
Candidate forum organizers really need to talk to each other more. The candidates running to be Rhode Island’s next attorney general have not one, but two candidate forums, scheduled today.
The first is from 9 to 11 a.m. at Lincoln School in Providence and hosted by Sojourner House. The second is from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center in Providence and hosted by the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association.
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High tide in Portsmouth is at 10:08 a.m. and 10:32 p.m. Low tide is at 3:31 p.m. Sunset is at 8:17 p.m.
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The Rhode Island Continuum of Care Board of Directors meets at 4 p.m.
Immigration journalist Daniela Gerson, author of “The Wanderers: A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II,” is in conversation with Rhode Island Foundation President and CEO David at 6 p.m. at the Dwares JCC in Providence. The event is sponsored by the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates Helena Foulkes, left, and Gov. Dan McKee were being considered for an endorsement by the Rhode Island AFL-CIO. (Left photo by Michael Salerno, right photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current).
By Nancy Lavin
The focus of the governor’s race temporarily shifted one block west of the State House Wednesday to a nondescript office building where leaders of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO met but opted not to endorse in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. “The consensus was, we could not get to a consensus,” Patrick Crowley, organization president, said in an interview Wednesday night. “We’re taking the position to stay neutral in the governor’s race. Individual affiliates can make their own endorsements if they wish.”
Kirk McDonough, left, chair of the Cranston Board of Canvassers, and Nick Lima, right, Cranston registrar and elections director, review nomination papers on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (Photo by Nolan Page/Rhode Island Current)
By Nolan Page
Rhode Island election officials are working long hours to verify thousands of candidate signatures by Thursday’s 4 p.m. deadline. But proponents of an online nomination system, such as one used in Arizona, say it could streamline ballot access and reduce administrative burdens.
The exterior of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Johnston. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
Rhode Island U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. on Wednesday refused to pause his June 5 ruling blocking the Trump administration's freeze on asylum processing from nearly 40 countries, keeping the order in effect during the government's appeal.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley holds up page 36 of the Providence City Council’s 2025 Housing Crisis Task Force report, which recommends creating an emergency eviction prevention fund, during a July 15, 2026 press conference at City Hall. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
By Alexander Castro
Mayor Brett P. Smiley Wednesday accused the Providence City Council of delaying approval of the contract needed to launch the city’s $1 million emergency rent relief fund, for which funding became available July 1. With 55 days to go before the Democratic mayoral primary, Smiley told reporters he could not interpret the council’s reluctance, after its initial embrace, as “anything other than politics.”
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, questions Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about his silence amid multiple unanswered FOIA requests. (Screenshot/C-SPAN)
By Ashley Murray | D.C. Bureau
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed Wednesday he would not oppose an effort in Congress to permanently ban a controversial “anti-weaponization” fund at a confirmation hearing before a tightly divided Senate Committee on the Judiciary Wednesday. Rhode Island’s U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse grilled Blanche over a stack of unanswered FOIA requests, an alleged $50,000 bribe to Tom Homan and his support for FBI director Kash Patel among other matters.
ICYMI
US House passes bipartisan bill to make daylight saving time permanent | Amelia Twyman, D.C. Bureau
New York governor orders first statewide data center moratorium | Alex Brown, Stateline
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