In the News… summary for week ending Aug. 3, 2024

Rhode Island & Vicinity

RIPTA’s board of directors voted 7-0 Thursday to spend $7.5 million more on the tunnel, bringing the total project cost from $15.8 million to $23.3 million

150 blades are being investigated by LM Wind, the manufacturer, after blade collapse off the coast of Nantucket, amid claims from GE that it was a manufacturing error

Woonsocket abandoned chemical mill burned Monday, total loss

Kohl’s will have Babies-R-Us inside many stores including the one in rhode island

Cost of running MA homeless shelter system estimated to exceed $1Billion – could tank state’s budget

Providence has announced the newly expanded Neutaconkanut Park and Hill Skatepark, doubling its size and incorporating new features suitable for skaters of all levels. The expansion includes rain gardens, additional trees, extensive landscaping and new benches.

Kirby Perkins Construction in Middletown will lay off 58 employees

Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank has awarded a total of $1,714,928 in Emerging Contaminants grants to the Chariho, Foster, and Scituate Public School districts for water treatment upgrades to remove PFAS from their small drinking water systems. Schools, awards and projects: Charlestown Elementary – $615,000 – PFAS Remediation Work. Captain Isaac Paine Elementary, Foster – $674,928 – New Well, Pump House. North Scituate Elementary – $425,000 – PFAS Treatment Upgrades

Teresa Paiva Weed will retire as President of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI) by the end of summer.

The Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns announced that Randy Rossi will serve as the organization’s next executive director after approval by the executive board. He follows Ernest Almonte who retires in December

4 stores in NK were “smash and grab” locations – the Amtrak store, the Yorktown Market, the Smoxy Smoke Shop, and the Kingstown Mobile, all on Post Road.

The entire Hematology/Oncology unit at South County Hospital has left due to chronic inadequate funding of the “healthcare delivery system”.

Lisa Pina-Warren will lead Institute for Non-Violence

MA has budgeted for $117 million for a free community college program covering tuition and fees at 15 community colleges.

Hendricken’s President, Father Robert Marciano, will end his term, but continue as pastor at St. Kevin’s in Warwick.

Waterfire Co-CEO, Peter Mello, leaving to become head of the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA

PC Friars Basketball Coach Kim English promotes Corey Wright to Assistant Coach

Rhode Island students who qualify for reduced-price meals will receive free breakfast and lunch at school next year. Cost of $813K

Boar’s Head recall expanded to 7 million additional pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products – 71 products produced between May 10, 2024, and July 29, 2024 under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names. Items include meat intended for slicing at retail delis as well as some packaged meat and poultry products sold at retail locations. These products have “sell by” dates ranging from 29-JUL-2024 through 17-OCT-24.

Bond rating agency says Providence Place Mall’s Macy will close

Newport Jazz Festival underway

New Bedford Portuguese Feast now has women on the planning committee

Babies R Us opening at Kohls – and in RI

EZ-Pass can now be used for mobile pay for gas

NBC10’s Allegra Zamore has left the station – and the business, saying “life is too short to wake up every day not excited about what’s ahead.

Woonsocket Director of Human Services Michael Houle resigned

Fitch Ratings assigned Bond Rating of AA++ on RIHEBC financing of Cranston school projects

Mayor Michelle Wu is extending Boston’s pilot program turning offices into housing until the end of 2025, with a collective $15 million in state funding as an incentive.

Nabsys (Barrett Bready) has Hitachi High-Tech Corp now has a majority interest

John Silva was named president and chief banking officer of Bristol County Savings Bank 

Boston’s head of planning and development, Arthur Jemison, announced he is leaving to move back to Michigan with his family.

Vineyard Wind turbine blade debris now washing up on Martha’s Vineyard

Two large encampments of about 20 people were removed from the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest

Dozens of people, including the Massachusetts governor and several sports stars, dumped cold water on themselves at Fenway Park Thursday to mark the 10th anniversary of the ALS ice bucket challenge.

Best Buy in Seekonk to close

The Interplex plant in East Providence, recently rebranded as Ennovi, will close and eliminate more than 200 jobs.

Update on the Washington Bridge: The legal team provided an update today on their progress. According to Max Wistow and Jonathan Savage, the team has now determined they will definitely bring suit. “While we are continuing to finalize the details, we now can say with certainty that we intend to file suit against responsible parties to seek financial recovery on behalf of the State. That lawsuit will be brought on or before August 19, 2024.  No further details will be supplied until the lawsuit is filed.”

A $625M contract to fix multiple bridges in RI awarded to Skanska (not Washington Bridge) – originally estimated contract at $500M – company was only one to bid on the project

Property owner in Barrington sues neighbor for building a “spite fence” of too tall trees so they could not see the water

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National & International

40% of Jasper, Canada structures have burned in wildfires

Travelers into Las Vegas stuck on highway where trucks are burning with lithium batteries preventing easy extinguishing – highways are shut down as temps soared

Hezbollah (Lebanon) attacked Israel, killing 12 children playing soccer, injuring more – Israel IDF began to retaliate the next day

Chevron moving its headquarters from California to Texas

Jennifer Garner stuck in an elevator for over an hour at a Comic Con promo event

Ralph Lauren’s son David Lauren married a woman named Lauren Bush (her uncle is George W) and she took his last name so now her name is Lauren Lauren.

The UK has put an emergency ban on puberty blockers which has been upheld by their High Court

New blood tests may accelerate the ability to diagnose Alzheimer’s, replacing expensive scans and spinal taps.

Norah O’Donnell will leave anchor/managing editor position at CBS  and take on “another role” at the network

New research shows Speaker Pelosi’s top security aides got warned that the Capitol breach might happen – the night before the Jan. 6th riot. Pelosi refused to call in National Guard.

Stabbing rampage in England at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party for young children – 2 dead, 9 injured (6 critical), and 2 injured adults. Attacker was 17 years old.

Dollywood had a flash flood, which was cleaned and opened within a day

Cardi B announces 3rd pregnancy, with newly divorced husband, Offset.

Former CNN host Don Lemon sues Elon Musk for reneging on his offer of a podcast/simulcast media show

McDonalds sale figures decline globally – first time in 3 years

Federal judge rejects appeal for the NRA to have an “outside monitor”

Israel has responded with an attack on the Hezbollah commander’s location in retaliation for their attack that killed 12 children.

30 million more borrowers targeted for student loan relief this fall

An art historian discovered the location of a famous missing portrait of King Henry VIII, dating back to the 1590s, in the background of a random social media post

Project 2025 to end policy work, director to step down from the Heritage Foundation

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez to file for divorce

CNN has eliminated its entire “commentary” department

Evan Gershkovich, editor with the Wall Street Journal who was arrested in Russia and charged with Espionage in March of 2023, and then on July 19th was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison, was released as part of a massive prisoner swap

Shania Twain has a new residency in Vegas

Turkey blocked access to Instagram platform but gave no reason for the action.

Former Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device that was secretly smuggled into his guesthouse in Tehran, and not by an airstrike as initially thought.

VP Harris plans on announcing her running candidate on Tuesday

France tells nationals to leave Irann ‘as soon as possible’

A statue of country music legend Johnny Cash in Washington, DC

Japan: Nikkei 225 sees biggest daily drop since ‘Black Monday’ in 1987

Third national warning about cinnamon recalls

September 4th new date for debate on Fox network between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris – Trump pulled out of ABC network debate

Jobs report 60,000 less than expected jobs increasing in construction and health care but otherwise no increases

Kohl’s will have Babies-R-Us inside many stores

Iraq, Greece and Cyprus to all close airspace  

Simone Biles posed for photo with a gold medal and then posted it on social media, “I love my black job” – referencing Donald Trump’s comment before the Black Journalists group that migrants were taking black jobs, clarifying he meant jobs for anyone, including the group he was speaking to

US Naval forces, ships headed to Mideast

Italian boxer, Angela Carini, stopped fighting when forced to fight a contender who was biologically a man, with a punch “like I’ve never been hit before”, starting a controversy – following fights had similar matchups with the questioned contender always winning. The Olympic group has given Carini $50,000 related to the experience.

New program which allows 30,000/month to enter the US from 4 countries – Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela – has been paused due to widespread fraud and abuse.

Man arrested trying to get in to Mar-a-Lago to see Donald Trump saying he had evidence that China was behind a plot to assassinate him.

Justin Timberlake had his driver’s license suspended in his DWI case, and the judge threatened to sanction his attorney for speaking out, and put a gag order on the case

A Giant pigeon statue will be installed in NYC for 16 months, noting all the people who have come to settle in the city

Aerosmith no longer will tour, noting permanent damage to singer Steven Tyler’s voice

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Passings

Dr. Joseph Chazan, 89, patron of the arts in RI

Steve Hyder, 63, one time voice of PawSox – and other local sports