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PROVIDENCE — Should former City Councilman Luis Aponte, who pleaded no contest in July to embezzling $13,942 from his campaign account, be banned from collecting a $500-a-month city pension?Deputy City Solicitor Kenneth Chiavarini told the city's retirement board Wednesday morning that the city's Law Department will advise the board what to do when it meets Nov. 20.At Wednesday's meeting, the board voted to approve the pension applications of Aponte and nine [...]

Joint effort of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Brown's School of Public Health, the RI Life Index finds zip code, housing, education, income and city of residence among key factors in determining well-being

The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Mount Hope Bridge by lighting the bridge up in red, white and blue from Thursday through Sunday.The bridge was the longest suspension bridge in New England when it opened on Oct. 24, 1929, according to the turnpike authority, a distinction that it held until the Pell Bridge opened in 1969. The two-lane bridge connects Bristol and Portsmouth. Its total length is 6,130 feet, and the [...]

Good afternoon, and welcome back to This Just In. I'm Mike McDermott, managing editor of The Providence Journal. It's sunny and nearly 70 degrees out there, so do yourself a favor — take a walk around the block and enjoy it. Won't be many more of these days left. The big news of the day comes from the office of the attorney general, which announced that a grand jury investigation into a confrontation in August outside the Wyatt Detention Facility [...]

A federal grand jury in Providence has returned indictments charging two Newport women in related cases with child pornography charges.The grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging Samantha York, 31, with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of distribution of child pornography. The grand jury returned a single-count indictment charging Karissa C. Cave, 23, of Newport, with receipt of child pornography.According to information presented to the [...]

PROVIDENCE (AP) — A vaping industry association is challenging Rhode Island's ban on the sale of flavored vaping products.Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo signed an executive order banning the sale of flavored vaping products in September. The Democrat said the ban was motivated by a desire to protect children.The Vapor Technology Association and the owner of RI e-Cig and Vapes sued Raimondo and the state's health director Wednesday in Superior Court.The lawsuit [...]

Soon after I wrote last June of being diagnosed, Tony Rossi messaged to say he’d been diagnosed himself.In his case, it was lung, liver and kidney cancer.“I’d love to hear how you handle the disease,” he said.Over the next months, we exchanged a few messages and on Tuesday, I decided to call him.Tony is 60, grew up in Pawtucket and lives now with his wife, Lori, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She works as a waitress at “Eggs Up [...]

 WASHINGTON — Republicans briefly brought the Democrat-led impeachment investigation to a halt Wednesday when around two dozen GOP House members stormed into a closed-door deposition with a Defense Department official. Democrats said the move compromised national security because some of the Republicans brought electronic devices into a secure room.The protest by Republican lawmakers captured national attention, drawing the focus away from [...]

Providence celebrated the grand opening of Woonasquatucket Adventure Park on Wednesday. A former brownfield, this 9.25-acre parcel has been transformed into a park that connects thousands of Providence residents — especially teens — to the outdoors, and to unique recreational opportunities. The new park, located along the Woonasquatucket River Greenway, features a parkour course, a bicycle pump track, and a multi-use trail system. Native plants and rain gardens help clean [...]

Attorney General Peter Neronha confirmed that a statewide grand jury had decided no charges were warranted in the Aug. 10 peaceful protest that turned ugly — not against the guard who drove the truck, the protesters who blocked the entrance to the prison's employee parking lot or the guards who pepper-sprayed them.