In the News… quick recap of the week ending March 15, 2025

A quick list of the news items of the week of interest to Rhode Islanders. Local, regional, national, international and passings of note.

RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY

Approx. $200/yr increase in Providence taxes to pay for city school decision

Mayor Smiley wants to tax parking lots in Providence

Firehouse in Pascoag burned in a fire station fire

Grace Church in Providence is having its mural restored

Luis Viquez, director of orchestral studies at URI, has been elected president of the College Orchestra Directors Association

Harvard Univ. has put into effect a hiring freeze

On the Border restaurant chain with one restaurant in Rhode Island, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

RI Energy will pay a fine of $8M from National Grid days – the payment will go into a fund supported by ratepayers that is used to cover costs of storm damage to the energy system

Goodwill store opening newest location at 452 Putnam Pike, Smithfield

Former head of ICE in Boston will serve as Acting Director of ICE, nationally

Worcester regional vocational schools are seeing a massive increase in student interest, leading their waitlists to grow and applications to vastly outnumber the amount of seats they have available each year. (MassLive)

A Boston developer wants to relocate the existing South Boston courthouse to a vacant, decades-old bank building in the neighborhood and add apartments on top. 

New list of colleges for investigation for anti-Semitic activities on campus now 60. (Brown Univ. only one from RI)

COSTCO opened to large crowds in Sharon, MA

Providence Place Mall has new regulations for youth under 18 – they must have an adult with them and groups of 4 or more will be asked to disperse – this begins on 3/24

New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen will not run again

Hemenways has reopened

Rhode Island has 8,439 civilian federal govt employees

Harvard University and MIT have implemented hiring freezes as the White House crackdown on higher education continues to escalate.

Temporary closure of the Glendale Bridge, which carries Victory Highway over the Branch River between Main Street and Snake Hill Road in Burrillville for approximately four months for reconstruction, reopening in mid-summer 2025.

12 and 20 staffers were laid off from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital over the past few months, many of them Islanders. The hospital is in the MA hospital group

Turkeys in Brookline, MA are acting aggressive towards residents – mating season

Brown Univ. implements a hiring freeze as it prepares for up to $25M pullback from federal government after investigation over anti-Semitic actions on campus

85% of attendees at PFC games in Pawtucket will drive there. City has 19 parking lots prepared to accept influx of cars.

It is estimated Massport Boston Logan Airport picked up the cost of over $779K for the migrants who came in and stayed at the airport

Tax increases could be significant for Providence property owners – remembering why this is so – school demand of the city for payments

4 headed for deportation in RI, back to Guatemala, after being convicted here of a retail theft ring

Sen. Ruggerio home from hospital

Many Rhode Islanders getting the EZ Pass scam as text messages from the system

Hundreds of scientists rallied in Woods Hole against DOGE and federal spending cuts that have left many, especially young scientists, out of work. 

New England Aquarium has created a retirement village for aging penguins

Former President of the Azores, Vasco Cordeiro and his Portuguese law firm have opened an office in New Bedford to provide legal advice regarding Portuguese laws, specializing in a wide spectrum of legal areas, including citizenship law, inheritance law, family law, real estate law, business law, commercial law, and labor law among others.

4 new stores coming to Wrentham Village – Big Chicken, Vuori, La Vie en Rose and Rag & Bone – last 3 are all apparel

Providence police major drug bust involving hundreds of grams of illicit drugs, and firearms – in the Orms St., Providence area

Cranston police gun training range will stay at its location, with plans to move off the table – local schools say reports of bad effects on them are not being made and they see no problem with the range, even though a few homeowners have been bringing up the issue of shooting noise for several years. Silencers will be used when they can be, notes police chief.

Brown Univ. and URI are on lists to be investigated by US govt – Brown for failure to control anti-Semitic behavior on campus and URI for reverse discrimination against white students

“Johns” identified in first set of cases in the Boston brothel case. First are: Patrick Walsh, Swampscott; Pinhao Chao, Allston; John J. Doran, Wellesley; David LaCava, Waltham; Jason Han, Roxbury; Jonathan P. Lanfear, Winchester; Pablo Domingo Maceira, Boston; Peter H. MacGillivray, Boston; Kerry Wu, Natick; Boya Zhou, West Roxbury; Mark Zhu, Lincoln; and Yihong Zou, Boston. Includes a dentist, a pharmaceutical executive, a hospital radiological worker, etc.

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NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

$600K canceled for research at Southern University into “menstrual cycles in transgendered men”

China imposes retaliatory tariffs on Canadian farm and food products

US Space Force space drone landed back on Earth after 434 days in orbit on top secret mission

A 14-year-old shot 29 times at Newark police, killing one officer and leaving another critically injured – no clear motive – occurred outside, near fast food restaurants

President Trump appoints Laura Ingraham & Maria Bartiromo to the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

King Charles is recording the “music of his life” – soundtracks that have marked his favorite musical pieces of his entire life

5 year anniversary of start of COVID

The Danish postal service, known as PostNord, will remove 1,500 red mailboxes and cut 1,500 jobs in Denmark due to the country’s “increasing digitalization”, no longer delivering mail – they will deliver packages. Mail will need to be picked up.

There may be a ban on Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek from U.S. government devices over national security concerns

90,000 Palestinians re-entered Jerusalem for prayers

Maine can go back to registering babies online, not needing to go to Soc. Sec. offices in person

2^nd person died from measles – the majority of the 200+ infected are from the Mennonite community. Most people who get measles, today, survive, if they have good nutrition and access the healthcare system

RFK Jr. announced a study will be done about autism and MMR vaccines, which has never been studied

SpaceX expanding in Houston – 400 more jobs

OpenAI, in California (Mission Bay) will hire “thousands”

South Dakota House has passed legislation allowing students to carry firearms on their persons for self-defense.

HHS sends all employees a $25K incentive to leave

President of Ireland reacts blankly to the news that Rosie O’Donnell has moved there from the US. He doesn’t know who she is.

Small plane crashed into parking lot at an apartment house in Lancaster, PA – all survived, but injured – pilot reported door opened midflight

Heinz is packaging and positioning ketchup as a dip for chips

Every document looked at in the Biden administration seemed to be signed by an autopen process, and did not carry original signature of the president – except for his decision not to run

ICE arrests Columbia Univ. anti-Semitism organizer, a graduate of the school, who will be deported following legal challenge. He is from Palestine and holds a green card

Israel cuts off power to Gaza

Panama releases deportees from US – they are from several countries – Afghanistan, etc., they have no money, jobs, etc.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he is officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID

VW new entry-level electric car will be built in Portugal

CDC plans “to leave no stone unturned” in investigating rising rates of autism among American children

CVS will open a dozen mini stores just for prescriptions and medications

X was targeted by a cyberattack, originating from IP addresses in Ukraine

An ancient Jewish mikvah (ritual bath) was found outside of Rome, Italy

New list of colleges for investigation for anti-Semitic activities on campus now 60. (Brown Univ. only one from RI)

List of colleges for investigation for anti-white discrimination include URI, from RI – and MIT and and Yale in MA

10% of Pentagon staff to be cut

NASA closes 3 offices, including DEI office

200 FEMA employees let go

German company Siemens will invest $10 BILLION in US

InfoWars reporter and freelancer, Jamie White, murdered outside his home, after leaving studio

Ontario agreed to suspend its 25% surcharge on electricity exports. US agreed to forgo tariff charges – both will meet to negotiate a fair deal

US will resume military aid and info sharing – Zelenskyy agrees to continue towards peace agreement

Pres. Trump purchased a deep red Tesla in front of the White House in a show of support for Elon Musk – he has also bought a cybertruck for his granddaughter

US Dept. of Education lays off 50% of its staff, asks staff to leave DC offices, cites security concerns

Compounds of weight loss drugs no longer available per the FDA

Maui Police Chief John Pelletier named as a co-conspirator in the P. Diddy case for transporting a victim from Las Vegas to California posing as a sheriff executing a warrant. Pelletier was also the Incident Commander during the Las Vegas nightclub shooting

Building code changes in CA would allow apartment buildings to be built on beach front property burned in the Palisades fires

Clean CR passes and government stays open

Ashville, NC applies for millions in disaster relief to be prioritized by DEI regulations – HUD rejects

Rosie O’Donnell says she’s moved to Ireland

Medical helicopter crashed, 3 dead, in Mississippi

Girl Scouts sued over use of heavy metals and pesticides in their cookies

Helicopter traffic around DC will be limited

USDA cutting $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks

Three Vestas wind turbines made by Danish manufacturer collapsed last year at Missouri wind farm

President said he would designate violence against Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism, after showroom violence incidents, fires and destruction to autos, and destruction of charging stations – Tesla stock rose 3.8% after the White House parade of cars where President bought 2

Elon Musk’s Starlink has commercial agreements with India’s largest telecom providers, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio

Southwest will start charging for bag checking

Maryland has a case of measles, a person who traveled internationally. Also cases in California and New York

Lyft and Uber working on easier to use app for elderly

Michelle Obama and her brother will launch a podcast on relationships

Lisa Vanderpump, known for her reality TV career and hospitality ventures, has partnered with Caesars Entertainment to transform The Cromwell on the Las Vegas Strip into The Vanderpump Hotel

Surge of Mexicans having crossed back over from US as illegals into Mexico asking to resettle

Gov. of NY locks NYPD out of DMV data – when they pull someone over they can’t access the data of the driver without a warrant – part of sanctuary state regs. She also has a policy to notify people if there is an action against them to deport them.

“Trump wants no taxes on people making below $150,000 annually, Lutnick tells CBS”

Breakthrough Energy, funded by Bill Gates, and working on climate change issues, makes staffing and budget cuts to dovetail with new federal programs.

Protests to release Palestinian activist at Columbia Univ. – making a First Amendment case but it went beyond that into Algerian citizen, set to graduate in May – louisiana – Mahmoud Khalil.

Meta’s Community Notes will use open-source technology from Elon Musk’s X

Sect. of State Rubio is in Canada for the G7

Bomb threat made against SCOTUS Justice Barrett’s sister

Trump administration has gutted a federal program that provided more than $1 billion to encourage programs in 40 states that help people buy locally grown food

iRobot’s chief executive conceded in a public statement connected with a financial filing that its future is in doubt

59 hostages remain in Hamas captivity. 24 of them are believed to be alive

USDA opening up SNAP to WV and other areas of disaster

Dozens of demonstrators who got into Trump Towers first floor and refused to leave were arrested by NYPD

A citizen group to offer protection to citizens going about their daily lives, kids going to school, etc. has been formed in Lincoln Heights, Ohio. They have legally armed and wear identifying uniforms. They focus on de-escalation and protection.

American Airlines plane catches fire in Denver airport – passengers have to deplane out onto the wings

PetScreening is a company that will register your pet for the rental housing industry that requires it.

Found Pres. Biden had transferred over 82,000 pages of classified emails and documents to an unsecured private email account under a fake name

Israel/Hamas talks stagnant

Tariffs being talked about on EU champagne and wine

CrossFit is up for sale – again

John Hopkins Univ lays of 2,000 as USAID money ends

Egg prices drop for the 3rd week

Travel restrictions for dozens of countries, mostly Muslim or adversarial, as part of a new ban as intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the U.S. to detect national security threats being considered

Appeals court lifted a block on executive orders seeking to end government support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a win for Trump administration

Ten Senate Democrats voted alongside Republicans on Friday to pass a six-month funding bill, averting a government shutdown with just hours to spare. The Dems were: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York – Sen. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania – Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada – Dick Durbin, Illinois – Brian Schatz, Hawaii – Gary Peters, Michigan – Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire – Kirsten Gillibrand, New York – Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire, and Angus King, Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats.

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PASSINGS

John Feinstein, 69, Washington Post sportswriter and author

Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, 77

Alan Simpson, 93, former Senator, (R), from Wyoming