In the News… recap of news of the week

Locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, here’s a quick recap of news of the week – as well as passings of note…

RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY

St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Providence – Smith Street – 11am

WPRV 790 is the radio home for Rhode Island FC – WPRO’s Gene Valicenti’s producer, Tom Quinlan will be calling the games

211 says rent payment assistance was top reason for residents in CF and Pawt to call

Controversy in Vermont over keeping or doing away with the school lunch program

Off-duty Boston PD officer shoots man attacking people with a knife in a fast food restaurant – after event Mayor, police and other spox offered condolences to the attacker, not the potential victims nor thanks to the fast-acting police officer who saved lives.

17 Providence school teachers terminated

Professor of Literary Arts Kwame Dawes began his 3-year term as National Poet Laureate of Jamaica

Joan Woods, representing the RI nursing home industry joined Gabe Amo at the congressional address of the president

Southcoast Wind is devaluing their assets. Also saying they hope to “wait out this administration” for 4 years – Gov. McKee says RI may come up on the short end of the stick on this initiative.

Vineyard Wind had another problem – this time with lightning striking the already damaged turbine

Zachary Cunha now a partner at the Providence office of Boston-based law firm Nixon Peabody

Edesia’s contract for providing “ready-to-use-therapeutic-food” was almost immediately restored, personally by Elon Musk, after he had more information about what the company does. Edesia is in North Kingstown.

Traveler stung by scorpion at Logan baggage claim

Treasurer Diossa announces $7 Million in forgiven medical debt for Rhode Islanders

UNITED Theatre opens in Westerly – described by Gov. McKee as “Nashville North, a new arts, education and economic development initiative”

Gray seal “Chappy” found on the streets in CT has died

Boston Mayor Wu spent over $650,000 to prepare for her testimony before Congress

Wellvana has acquired the Medicare Shared Savings Program business of CVS Accountable Care

Haitians and Venezuelans in Massachusetts are suing the Trump administration for its plans to rescind Temporary Protected Status, which lets them live in the U.S. legally.

RI House GOP says it will not attend the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce because it is disingenuine, a “dog and pony show”

RI will once again consider doctor-assisted death for terminal patients – sponsored by Rep. Ajello

Second Chick-fil-A will open in Warwick on Quaker Lane

BCBSRI will eliminate 30 positions

Hospitals in Rhode Island supported over 60,000 jobs and generated an estimated $11.7 billion in total economic output in 2024, according to a new report released today – the2024 Economic Impact Analysis

The AP is reassigning reporters – Rhode Island will get a writer from Nashville area

Stefan Pryor is now a partner at Palm Venture Studios, with home offices in Austin, and nearby offices in Stanford, CT and Boston, MA. The firm specializes in turnaround capital for early-stage startups. (GoLocal)

4 office leases maintained by the federal govt in RI announced as being canceled: (ProJo)

•FDA office of Criminal Investigations in Warwick at 300 Metro Center Blvd.

•FDA office in East Providence at 32 Hemingway Drive

•NOAA office in Narragansett on State Street

•Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration office in East Providence at 20 Risho Ave

Gov McKee delivered Meals on Wheels at a Coventry senior living center

Barrington is planning to close three athletic fields for nearly two years to renovate them

A LongPlex sports center coming to Tiverton, RI – (https://www.longplex.com)

Rhode Island Energy is on the hook for nearly $8 million to make up for an alleged fraud scheme

Caffè Nero location, part of an English chain with over 1,000 coffee shops worldwide will open on Thayer Street where the restaurant, Shaking Crab, used to be.

A bill is working its way through RI legislature to require all golf courses to have AEDs on site

The Providence City Council has approved a “twinning” initiative with Athlone, Ireland

Deborah Goddard confirmed the Director of the RI Department of Housing.

RI ACLU sues Trump Administration over gender ideology prohibitions in arts grants

Rhode Island ranks 12^th in states that should reach a 100-year life expectancy the fastest (by 2125). Before us are Arizona (by 2108), Virginia, New York, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland, and a tie for 11^th – Connecticut and Florida. Vermont is #13. New Hampshire, #14. Maine, #24. By DVC Stem

Associate in Arts in Culinary Craftsmanship will now be offered at the CCRI Newport Campus.

Press Forward has new chapters in the US – including Rhode Island. Others are in Kansas City, Maine, Middle Tennessee, and Pennsylvania Wilds

Weigh in Motion data about weight limits of trucks on the Washington Bridge is now available, here:  https://www.dot.ri.gov/projects/WashingtonBridgeClosure/docs/WIM/WIM_Chart.pdf

Man arrested at CCRI Lincoln campus after seen walking around with knives – and confronting riders on a RIPTA bus. No incidents. Some students were seen packing up and leaving campus.

Arts groups and ACLU file suit over gender ideology order

May 3^rd home game for RIFC in Pawtucket – 1^st game at new stadium

LA jewelry company suing Alex & Ani for millions in unpaid bills

Boston Globe Today, TV program with the newspaper, will not continue

Bike lane dividers being removed in many Boston cities

RI Saltwater Fishing Show this weekend at the AMP – includes an exhibit from Green Oceans on offshore wind and its impact on fishing industry

The National Endowment for the Arts agreed to remove a new certification requirement that required artists to attest that they will not “promote gender ideology” in order to apply for funding while the outcome of the ACLU and the ACLU of RI is pending.  

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NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Forever 21 to close 200 stores

Former Gov. Cuomo running for Mayor of NYC

Sesame Workshop facing layoffs and cutbacks after their employees say they will unionize

VP Vance & family harassed at Vermont ski resort, necessitating a hasty departure for an undisclosed location for their safety

US life expectancy is 78.4 – still behind other developed countries, and behind pre-COVID levels

Illegal immigration is increasing in Canada as it decreases in the United States

BLM street banner in Maryland will be removed

New Zealand fires its ambassador to US after he made disparaging comments about US President

President Trump’s address to Congress – 44% positive response, per CNN

Ukraine being taken on by European countries, after non-productive meeting with US

Elon Musk announces his 14th child, Seldon, 4th born with Shivon Zilis, a Canadian executive with one of his companies, Neuralink.

To preserve historic Black churches, $8.5 million in grants has been awarded to congregations nationwide

$25K buyout for employees of US Dept. of Education who announce their leaving by end of day this past Monday.

Dr. Francis Collins retiring from NIH

An Afghan man who participated in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 American soldiers and roughly 170 Afghan civilians during the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan captured in a prisoner release to face trial in US 

New Monopoly game with no paper money – all cash on an app on players’ phones

Wildfires in South Carolina

Anora wins Oscar for best picture

Pres. Trump renamed the national park area known as the “Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge” as the “Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge” to ensure that the young woman murdered would always be remembered

70 Red Robins restaurants to close – 1 in RI, not sure if it will close

Health insurers, including Cigna, Humana and Elevance Health, are tucking changes to DEI strategies and business risks into their annual reports.

Goldman Sachs to cut up to 5% of its staff

Idaho is requiring “proficient cursive” by grade 5

China firms have told their single employees to get married or they may be targeted for termination

Federal govt is placing empty or nearly empty buildings of HQs up for sale

Fewer immigrants apprehended for crossing the border into the US – ever – last month – approx. 8,000

Mexico turned over 29 cartel kingpins to the US to stand trial – some we’ve been looking for for 40 years

Firefly Enterprises has landed an aircraft on the moon

Taiwan Semiconductors announces a $100Billion investment in the US – 3 new plants in Arizona

Fox Sports NFL Sunday analyst Jimmie Johnson retiring

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. Army to rename Georgia’s Fort Moore back to its original name of Fort Benning

Governors of several states such as New York, Hawaii, Maryland, etc. putting out the recruitment mat for the 7,000 federal workers who may be looking for a job

Senate confirms Linda McMahon to run Education Dept.

Head of the FBI’s New York office has retired

Dairy Queen has a blue cone available for a limited time

Some Mardi Gras parades won’t be held due to bad weather predicted

Crowds of immigrants disappearing at border – still gathering on Mexican side

1^st Lady Melania Trump working to pass anti-revenge porn bill

CEO of Kroger Foods resigns – behavior said to be inconsistent with his role as head of company

60 staff at the US Chips Act office out of a job

Parents in Britain will be offered bereavement leave if they’ve experienced a miscarriage

MSNBC names Eugene Daniels as Sr. Washington correspondent and co-host of The Weekend with Jonathan Capehart

RFK Jr’s spokesperson has resigned before a potential firing. Kennedy says he never met him.

Mexico and Canada respond to tariffs with promise to put tariffs on US too

After Mardi Gras last year there were 93,000 pounds of beads gathered from clogging local drains over 5 blocks.

Tom Llamas to take over for Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News

Arrest made in the death of 3 football fan friends who died outside a home where they had been watching a game – all 3 died of Fentanyl and cocaine combined toxicity”

About Lesotho, the country “no one ever heard of” mentioned in Pres. Trump’s address: (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czdnv6gpezjo)

Pres. Trump warned the Hamas that death is in store for them if they don’t immediately return the hostages, alive and dead

Tiger Woods said he’s not into practicing for upcoming tournaments, after the death of his mother

Key Democrats are now saying their behavior at the address to Congress was ineffective and embarrassing, earning the description of Republicans as the “party of insanity”

180 CDC workers who were laid off now invited back

VA cuts of over 70K employees said not to impact veterans’ benefits and services, and will return the department to its 2019 staffing level of 399,957 employees – head of VA says this will help eliminate redundancies and administrative delays in serving veterans

VA staff who manned the suicide hotline and were furloughed, have been rehired

Churches in US were “full” with attendees on Ash Wednesday – a marked increase

On Thursday, A Rhode Island judge ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding funds from states, saying an executive order freezing federal grants, loans and other payments approved by Congress “fundamentally undermines” the separation of powers and is causing irreparable harm.

President Donald Trump will lift tariffs on most goods from Mexico for four weeks

2^nd SpaceX craft explodes over Florida waters while ascending

Gov. Newsome now says boys playing in girls’ sports is an issue of fairness and he totally supports rules so this does not happen

Eggs. Most of your fast food restaurant egg dishes do not contain whole eggs.  At Starbucks, most of its egg-based breakfast items includes water, modified food starch, soybean oil, whey solids, and citric acid. Others: https://www.aol.com/finance/fast-food-chains-dont-real-140000266.html

On Friday, Eurostar trains to London were cancelled after an unexploded Second World War bomb was found near train tracks

Pres. Trump says he has sent a letter to the Ayatollah in Iran

Jobs report adds 151,000 for February, unemployment rate of 4.1%, only slightly lower than expected

National Tracing project shows Mexican drug cartels are armed with guns purchased by Mexican government

The SBA will move offices out of “Sanctuary Cities” – Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York, Atlanta and Seattle

1^st student to be deported as visa is revoked for college demonstrations linked to Hamas

Rep. Al Green censured from House of Representatives (included 9 Democrat votes)

Intuitive Machines lands on the moon – but craft is on its side – 2^nd time this has happened. 3^rd attempt put on hold

Pope Francis, still hospitalized, tapes message played in Rome

TikTok deadline may be extended again

The DOJ is investigating the price of eggs

Homeland Security has removed collective bargaining for TSA agents

Sanctions threatened against Russia if they continue to bombard Ukraine

13 universities targeted to end anti-Semitic activities: 10 are: George Washington, Columbia, UCLA, NYU, Michigan, Harvard., Northwestern, John Hopkins. U of Southern California, UC Berkeley (all campuses at Univ. of Calif)

Firing squad of 3 executed prisoner in South Carolina, his chosen method of execution – first in 15 years in US

$400M federal funding (DOJ, HHS, ED, GSA) to end to Columbia Univ. due to their inability to end anti-Semitic activities on campus – college leadership has called in their board to address the issue

Gene Hackman death investigation update showed his wife died of hantavirus and cardiac issues a week before Hackman died – Hackman was in the final stages of Alzheimer’s

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PASSINGS

James Harrison, 88, donated his rare blood for 60 years – estimated to save 2.4 million babies. He lived in Sydney, Australia. His blood contained Anti-D, an antibody given during pregnancy to prevent hemolytic disease of the newborn, which could result in stillbirth and neonatal death.

Carl Dean, 82, husband of Dolly Parton, after 60 years of marriage

Congressman Sylvester Turner, 70, died after returning from Congressional address