By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good Monday morning!
Hope you had a great weekend. Our newsroom team sure did after winning a dozen awards, including for first place honors, at the Rhode Island Press Association 2026 Editorial Awards banquet Friday night.
After some patchy fog this morning, the Providence forecast calls for a mostly sunny day with a high near 84. But look out later this week. The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat watch from 10 a.m. Wednesday through 8 p.m. Friday.
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High tide in Warwick is at 8:25 a.m. and 8:42 p.m. Low tide is at 1:25 p.m. Sunset is at 8:24 p.m.
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Gov. Dan McKee announces $7.5 million in awards from the first round of the $20 million bond-funded Housing 2030 Entry-Level Homeownership Program at 11 a.m. at the future site of Ballou Townhomes, a 15-unit townhouse development on Ballou Street in Woonsocket. Mayor Chris Beauchamp and Secretary of Housing Deborah Goddard are among those scheduled to attend.
The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation Board of Directors meets at 5 p.m.
A Coca-Cola truck passes under an offline tolling granary on Interstate 195 in Providence in March 2025. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
By Christopher Shea
The long-awaited return of truck tolls is still on track for spring 2027, albeit a little later than the Rhode Island Department of Transportation had promised. The transportation department on Friday awarded a tentative $944,000 contract with Canadian-based Quarterhill to create a new back office system that will manage toll transactions on tractor trailers traveling over the state’s highways.
Second Amendment supporters in yellow shirts and gun safety advocates in red and orange stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in the gallery over the Rhode Island Senate on June 20, 2025, in this photo that received an honor in the 2026 Rhode Island Press Association Editorial Awards competition. That night Senate voted 25-11 to pass an amended bill banning the manufacture and sale of assault-style weapons. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current) (Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
COMMENTARY
By Janine L. Weisman
Rhode Island Current won a dozen awards, including for first place honors, in the Rhode Island Press Association’s 2026 Editorial Awards presented Friday night at the Quonset O Club in North Kingstown. The awards included third place for freelancer Michael Salerno’s photo of people on different sides of the gun debate participating in a ritual of American democracy.
Legislation strengthening penalties for those who leave children unattended in hot cars was signed into law by Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee this week. (Getty photo)
By Nolan Page
A 1997 state law limited police in Rhode Island to only being able to issue a verbal warning on the dangers of kidnapping and extreme temperatures for unattended children left in hot cars while those who left an animal could be charged with a misdemeanor. That inconsistency ended after Gov. Dan McKee last week signed legislation passed during the 2026 session by the General Assembly.
Amare Thomas of the Houston Cougars gives a stiff arm to Tamarcus Cooley of the Louisiana State Tigers in the second half during the Kinder’s Texas Bowl on Dec. 27, 2025 in Houston. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
By Shauneen Miranda
A bipartisan bill to set national standards for college athletes’ compensation has cleared a major legislative hurdle but still faces roadblocks, including opposition from the largest college sports conferences, to becoming law.
ICYMI
Care New England CEO to step down in 2027 to become board chair | Alexander Castro
RI GOP endorses Aaron Guckian for governor | Nancy Lavin
GOP dreams of another big budget bill dashed by Trump demands for SAVE America Act | Jennifer Shutt, D.C. Bureau
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