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Five days after the train derailment accident in Connecticut, Amtrak travelers Rhode Island Public Radio talked to say they remain confident about train travel through Amtrak.  One traveler named Paul Murphy, who was headed to Washington DC, says he’s a veteran of train travel.

Dozens of bills have been introduced in the General Assembly this session that, if passed, could affect your health, your family's health, or the state's health care system.

On today's podcast, Brown University students speak to the Corporation about divesting from fossil fuels, and Education Commissioner Deborah Gist responds to her vocal critics.

Plus on This I Believe Rhode Island, a young woman muses on the ways in which we remember each other.

There’s a meaty agenda on tap this week at the State Board of Education. The group is scheduled to vote Thursday on a controversial proposal to allow police to carry guns on state college campuses. The board is also scheduled to vote on adopting new science standards and consider a contract extension for Education Commissioner Deborah Gist.

It’s hard not to be moved by the plight of Moore, Oklahoma which was hit by a catastrophic tornado Monday.  Hundreds of buildings were flattened and at least 24 people, including nine children, were killed.

Experts say New England is less likely to be hit by a tornado than anywhere else east of the Rocky Mountains.  New England averages eight tornadoes a year, but they tend to be weak events – on the scale of EF0 or EF1.  The storm that hit Moore, Oklahoma has been categorized an EF5.

A student-led protest group at Brown University will attend the Corporation’s annual meeting Thursday to answer questions about climate change.  The group wants the university to divest from fossil fuel companies.

Moderate Party founder Ken Block has announced that he’ll be a candidate for governor next year. Block calls himself a problem-solver who can move the state forward.

Block thinks he can significantly improve on his showing in 2010, when he got six and a half percent of the vote for governor. He says he’s running because Rhode Island’s problems are abundantly clear.

Haven’t all of us had those moments in life when we worry that we’re invisible, that no one notices we’re really here?  Perhaps we were the new kid at school who seemed to blend into the crowd, or the party goer to whom no one paid much attention. Maybe all of us feel the sentiment shared by Ralph Ellison in his novel, Invisible Man: “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”  All of us want to be validated, and that’s what we hear from Christina Connett.

Christina Connett teaches art history and the history of cartography at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her love of maps comes from a life of travel by sea, air and land and an interest in how people relate to ideas of place. Connett and her family live in Jamestown.

The PawSox came out with their second win in the 4 game series against the Indianapolis Indians at McCoy stadium Tuesday.  The Pawsox were ahead 9 – 6 before the 8th inning until the Indians hit a home run scoring two points. The PawSox still came out on top ultimately carrying out a 9 – 8 win.  Manager Gary Disarcina had this to say about the PawSox current schedule. 

“We are excited to enjoy our day off and I think you know day offs don’t come around here..  So we are going to enjoy our day off and then we will get back at it with Louisville, and play baseball!”

The Lifespan hospital system’s recent acquisition of Gateway, a mental health care network, may be a sign of more to come. But it could be too soon to tell what it means for a patient’s pocketbook.