By Janine L. Weisman | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning!
Good news to start off your Monday: Rhode Island’s most popular and densely populated shellfishing area reopens to commercial shellfish harvest at 7 a.m.
The closure of Lower Providence River conditional shellfish Area 16E has ended after the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and Rhode Island Department of Health completed required water and shellfish testing. The test results have met national standards for safe shellfish harvest. The area temporarily closed on May 4 after 800,000 gallons of untreated sewage spilled into Narragansett Bay from a broken sewage pipe in East Providence.
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High tide in Newport is at 9:58 a.m. and 10:19 p.m. Low tide is at 3:04 p.m. Sunset is at 8:01 p.m.
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The rescheduled annual board meeting of the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority is at 8:30 a.m.
The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts meets at 4 p.m. and is scheduled to vote on a public art commission for Rhode Island College’s Whipple Hall Institute of Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies.
Health care providers, advocates and executives gathered in the Rhode Island State House library on Thursday, May 14, 2026, to show support for a package of bills meant to ease rising costs and provider shortages. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
By Nancy Lavin
Per-person spending on hospital services, prescription drugs, and long-term care rose 9.1% from 2023 to 2024, nearly twice as fast as the 5.1% voluntary state cap on health care spending growth, according to a new report published Monday by the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner. The findings have ignited debate over whether and how to sanction insurers that exceed the state’s target.
Alina Jade Barnett, an assistant professor of computer science and statistics at the University of Rhode Island, specializes in machine learning, deep learning, and healthcare-centric AI. (Photo courtesy of Alina Jade Barnett)
By Alexander Castro
University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor Alina Jade Barnett’s research into improving AI models for breast cancer diagnosis and detection is one of 26 research projects sharing in $650,000 in seed money from the Rhode Island Foundation.
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Lori Urso sponsored the first bill of its kind adding workplace accommodations for menopause- and perimenopause-related conditions to state law in 2025. A generational shift in recent years has led to more legislation in statehouses around the country. (Courtesy of the Rhode Island Senate)
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
The topic of menopause used to be taboo, but a generational shift in recent years has led to more legislation in statehouses around the country, providing more access to treatments and preventive care as well as more educational opportunities for healthcare providers. More than half the states, including Rhode Island, have enacted menopause- and perimenopause-related laws.
Chris Kearns, acting commissioner of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, speaks as an iPhone records a presentation of Gov. Dan McKee’s recommended fiscal 2027 budget on Jan. 15, 2026. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
COMMENTARY
By Bill Ibelle
If Gov. Dan McKee's cuts to clean energy programs are approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly, it will be just like the Washington Bridge fiasco — another example of kicking the can down the road until the state abruptly faces astronomical costs and serious hardships.
ICYMI
2026 Point-in-Time Count results show fewer Rhode Islanders were unsheltered | Janine L. Weisman
US Supreme Court rules telehealth abortion can resume while lawsuit continues | Sofia Resnick and Kelcie Moseley-Morris
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