In the News… recap of the week ending Jan. 11, 2025

RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY

54 homeless people died in Rhode Island. 1 has died – last week – in RI – inside a UHaul van

WPRI’s Ted Nesi says hackers were demanding $23 million as a ransom payment

House Speaker Joe Shekarchi said he thinks it’s more likely the new westbound Washington Bridge will not be complete until 2028 – Joe Paolino’s ABC6 show

Joe Paolino will run for DNC vice-chairman in RI (WPRI)

Kin Restaurant in Providence will close

RI will hold a Tax Compliance Day for people who owe for time periods past 2023 who may have problems getting a driver’s license, etc. on Jan. 13th at RI College. More info: RI Div. of Taxation

MA has announced it will do full background checks on the homeless going into a shelter

Last quarter of 2024, 139 people with flu and 364 with COVID have been hospitalized in RI

Prospect Medical Holdings (Rog. Wms. Hospital/Fatima Hosp) may declare bankruptcy to restructure

Newport’s Newest Fine Dining Restaurant Joins Elite Group of Top-Tier Establishments

FREE half-hour parking across from Providence City Hall on Washington Street for residents and business owners who are there to pay a bill, attend a meeting or handle city business.

Nantucket Barrier Beach now a National Natural Landmark

Tiverton’s Baja Café has a return to business with cats, after licensing issues were taken care of

Cranston’s Budlong Pool slated to open in July of 2025

Mayor Smiley says he will ask for a tax increase next year

Warwick’s outdoor skating area will open in fall of 2025

Jerod Mayo let go by the New England Patriots

Norwood Hospital presses for opening

Gov. Healey files spending bill seeking $425 million more to cover emergency family shelter costs in second half of fiscal 2025.

Starting January 4, 2025, all vehicle travel on the Woods Hole-Martha’s Vineyard route will be by reservation only. No standby travel will be allowed for automobiles. 

Providence repaired 4,000 potholes last year

Newport Skate Park named in memory of Seamus Kirby

In 2024, Rhode Island ranked No. 7 on the most popular list of most inbound moves – by United Van Lines – last year it ranked No. 5

RIPTA winter schedule adds service to Amazon center in Johnston

The only typewriter repair shop in Greater Boston will close March 31, MetroWest Daily News reported – Cambridge Typewriter – featured with Tom Hanks on national TV news

Multiple school closures will be recommended by the Boston Public School Systems

Bruegger’s Bagels has permanently closed in Downtown Boston after 17 years

Macy’s at Providence Place Mall will not close as part of the large chain closing plan

HUD announced over $140 million in funding to 836 existing grantees through the Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Program, for 1,537 service coordinator positions across US. In RI, housing authorities received $1,857,370 in funding. The FSS program provides grants to public housing agencies and multifamily property owners to support the salary of program coordinators. 

Schorsch Group in Newport may be buying the Old Canteen

Nearly 700 MDs and residents of Lifespan at Rhode Island Hospital will, by a 464 to 27 vote be joining the Committee of Interns and Residents, the largest physicians’ union in US.

Norovirus cases up 66% in 2024 in Massachusetts

East Providence appropriated $50,000 in ARPA funds to restore 112 gravestones at the historic Newman Cemetery with TNT Gravestone Solutions

House Speaker Shekarchi said there will be no new programs, and no tax decreases for this year in RI, due to budgetary concerns

RI Cannabis licenses will be $30K, and given out by lottery

The Tiverton Farmers Market is running weekly on Sunday mornings, from 10am to 1:30pm

Aquidneck Community Table’s Growers Market is held on Saturday mornings at Brick Market Place at Stoneacre Garden. Market hours are 9am to 12pm

The Farmers’ Market at Mount Hope Farm has moved indoors, Saturdays, 10am to 12:30pm

Farm Fresh Rhode Island has resumed its Winter Market, Saturdays, now through April. 

Two sets of 360-foot twin U.S. Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutters will be based on Aquidneck Island, built by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama. (Rhode Island Current)

Mass General re-instituted masks for all staff due to 3% COVID rate

Grey Sail and Outer Light Brewing Co. jointly announced a formal partnership. Grey Sail’s acquisition of Outer Light enhances the Westerly brewery’s regional portfolio of craft beer and spirits. 

RI used COVID funds to pay for recurring expenses – seen as defeatest to a yearly budget and how we have such a deficit now.

Mayor Picozzi in Warwick has said they were clear about only using COVID influx of funds for one time or new expenditures

Cooked Goose Restaurant in Westerly shut temporarily due to fire

Chapel Grille will be closed for 6 weeks and reopen managed as Circe Prime, of the Circe Restaurant Group – all gift cards will be honored and no staff will be let go

Kelly Coates of Carpionato Group said there will be more restaurant news to come (following Chapel Grille) in the Chapel View area

Johnston HS was closed on Friday due to heating system problems – last week it was Tolman HS

Cat declawing banned in MA

Governor McKee will give State of the State address on Tuesday, January 14th at 7:00 PM at the RI State House – available to watch on RI Capitol TV

RIBridges cybersecurity breach letters will begin to go out to those who have had their information compromised, with instructions on steps to take

Mayor Wu expanded Boston’s pilot letting BPS students get into certain museums for free, expanding free entry to all K-12 students in Boston on the first and second Sunday of each month. The program now involves nine institutions, including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of African American History and the JFK Presidential Library and Museum.

RI State Police announced that 108 were arrested for DUI over the holiday weekend

Mayor Smiley wants control of schools

60 workers at Tatte in Boston forced to resign over immigration status

Gov. Healey calls for an inspection of shelters and homeless programs

Boston repaired 10,100 potholes last year

Prime Healthcare, the owner of Landmark Hospital in Woonsocket, has agreed to acquire three community hospitals in Central Maine.

Ocean Biomedical, spun off by Brown Health, has zero revenue, owes millions of dollars to investors and former executives, faces multiple lawsuits, and could lose its Nasdaq listing – they were founded by Indian-American physician Chirinjeev Kathuria with Scientific Co-founders Jack Elias and Dr. Jonathan Kurtis, both from Brown University’s Medical School faculty.

Wayfair, based in Boston, will exit Germany, with hundreds of people left out of work

A Coalition of business groups, primarily based in Providence, has written a letter opposing Speaker Shekarchi’s plan for business tax increases, saying this is driving businesses away from expanding or forming in RI.

Budlong Pool in Cranston, targets July for reopening

Apex Tire in Pawtucket on Main St. will close

Gov. McKee said he will be reviewing how the RI Coalition to End Homelessness functions, and if the CES system is being run correctly – as well as trying to get an accurate count of the # of homeless in RI – the number given by the Coalition – approximately 650 – differs widely from what is being said by cities/towns

REI has decided to exit its Experiences business, including adventure travel, day tours, and classes. REI is located in Cranston.

In MA, the half-billion dollars budgeted for shelters this budget year dried up this month. Gov. Healey is requesting $425M more, but legislators have questions.

Stacy Crooks, Director of the College Planning Center at Rhode Island Student Loan Authority (RISLA), told a local media outlet that, “Sadly, $9 million in Pell Grant money was left on the table in Rhode Island.”

Gov. McKee held a press conference to update people on the cybersecurity breach of their data and said that letters will be going out to individuals who may have been impacted – you can get 5 years credit monitoring, lifelong security identity watch.

Boston ICE arrested a convicted child molester immediately upon his release from a Rhode Island facility. Jorge Armando Jacinto had served 14 years in the ACI, according to ICE. He was first arrested in February 2011 and convicted by the Providence/Bristol County Superior Court of nine child molestation offenses, and sentenced to 40 years in prison, with the court suspended 20 years. He had also been in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and remains in ICE custody as he awaits a hearing. In RI, he was convicted of 4 counts of felony 1st degree molestation and 5 counts of 2nd degree child molestation, according to the agency.

Care New England has agreed to pay $1.9 million in Kent Hospital back wages/damages to 853 health care workers not properly compensated for working through their breaks

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NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Pres. Biden presented Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Bono, and 16 others the Presidential “Medal of Freedom”

Pres. Biden to ban offshore drilling and gas drilling – Pres-elect Trump said he will overturn that on day one

Jet Blue will pay a $2M penalty for being chronically late on the East Coast.

Perry, the beloved donkey who served as the model for Donkey in Shrek, has passed away at 30

Simone Biles Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year

Dunkin’ has no doughnuts on the shelves in Nebraska and New Mexico, saying “supply chain” causes but not providing more details

McDonald’s rolls back diversity initiatives

New lead guidelines put in place for baby food

World’s oldest woman – Tomiko Itooka dies at 116 – new title goes to Inah Canabarro Lucas, who is also 116, and a nun in Brazil.

Melania Trump documentary is being made to come out this summer

The Christmas Tree in New York City’s Rockefeller Center will be shipped back to where it came from in the Berkshires and milled into planks to use as stair treads in homes built by Habitat For Humanity.

Receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Pres. Biden: Denzel Washington, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr, former Kennedy Center chair David Rubinstein, fashion industry’s Ralph Lauren, soccer star Lionel Messi, LGBTQ+ activist, Tim Gill, conservationist Jane Goodall,  Democratic Party megadonor and philanthropist George Soros, voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer (posthumously), the late Michigan Gov. George Romney (father of former Utah senator Mitt Romney) and the late New York senator & U.S. attorney general Robert F Kennedy Sr., Hillary Clinton and Bono, the World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres, late Obama administration defense secretary Ashton Carter, Michael J. Fox, and Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Congress certifies presidential election

VOX Media lays off 12 – on top of 30 from weeks before

Trudeau in Canada stepping down

Sportswear giant Puma is suing Tiger Woods’ brand Sun Day Red claiming its logo closely resembles Puma’s longstanding leaping cat emblem, in use since 1969. Puma argues that the similarity could mislead consumers, given the overlap in apparel and footwear markets.

2 people found dead in JetBlue plane landing gear at Fort Lauderdale

It’s Girl  Scout Cookie time!  2 cookies will be retired after this year – they are the Girl Scout S’mores and Toast-Yay

Mark Zuckerberg announced changes with FB, Instagram and Threads – fact checking team will move from CA to TX and they will move to a community check service as much as possible

A renowned kidney transplant surgeon, Zhendi Wang, 44, of Wuhan, China, will forfeit nearly $1 million after being involved in a steroid sale scheme using opened bank accounts in Massachusetts.

HUD announced over $140 million in funding to 836 existing grantees through the Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Program. These awards will fund 1,537 service coordinator positions across the country. Throughout RI, housing authorities received $1,857,370 in funding. The FSS program provides grants to public housing agencies and multifamily property owners to support the salary of program coordinators. 

Gulf of America? Pres-elect Trump reiterated his intention to rename the Gulf of Mexico. The US has claimed control over much of the gulf which has been “shared” by the US, Mexico and Cuba. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea determined that U.S. territorial waters expand for 12 nautical miles from its shores, and the US federal government manages the seas and the submerged parts of the Outer Continental Shelf as well. While the U.S. could pass legislation requiring a name change in the US, there would be nothing forcing other nations to adhere to that decision.

Chief jurist for the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled on Thursday that the Biden administration’s rewrite of Title IX violated the Constitution. Title IX speaks to sex-based discrimination in K-12 schools and colleges that receive federal funding. Biden sought to extend it to protect queer and transgender students.

M&Ms new flavor is Strawberries & Crème

Alec Baldwin sues New Mexico attorneys, prosecutors, for malicious prosecution

Princess Kate turned 43

REI has decided to exit its Experiences business, including adventure travel, day tours, and classes.

Pres. Biden will designate two new national monuments in California – the Chuckwalla monument in southern California and the Sáttítla monument in the far north of the state will place 840,000 acres (339,935 hectares) of land under protection, shielding it from extraction and energy development.

Getty & Shutterstock will merge for $4 million

FDA confirmed Monday that it had completed its review of a plan to lower nicotine levels in tobacco, signaling the Biden administration’s intent to advance a ban on the cigarettes currently on the market.

Massive fires in the greater LA area of CA have destroyed tens of thousands of businesses and homes, with at least 5 dead and many injured. More than 7 separate fires burn, uncontrolled.

Starlink, owned by Elon Musk, is providing free satellite hookups to the California area hit by fires, where no cell service is left – media using Starlink to report the news

Bidens became great grandparents – William born to M/M Hunter Biden

The Israeli military discovered the body of October 7th hostage, Youssef Alzyadni—along with evidence that his son, Hamza, may also have been killed, in the tunnels beneath Rafah in Gaza.

Pres. Biden calls off his trip to visit the Pope due to the CA fires

7 out of 10 insurers have pulled out of California (prior to fires) – Gov. of CA has passed a law saying no insurance company can change or drop insurance for one year – unclear if a company can go out of business

Venezuelan authorities briefly detained opposition leader María Corina Machado in Caracas on Thursday, according to her campaign team. Following a rally, the group said, Machado was knocked off her motorcycle and “violently intercepted” amid gunfire. 

TikTok decision not yet made by SCOTUS

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PASSINGS

Anita Bryant, 84, singer

Richard Cohen, 76, husband of Meredith Vieira, lived with Multiple Sclerosis 50+ years

Patricia Lombardi, 70, New England Lemonade family member

Brian Matusz, 37, former Baltimore Orioles pitcher

Edward Quinlan, 75, former head of the Hospital Association of RI

Peter Yarrow, 86, of Peter, Paul & Mary

Amit Yoran, 54, cybersecurity expert, often on national media interviews