News

The Dynamo House, the century-old onetime Narragansett Electric power station, now sits as a forlorn reminder of what once thrived along Providence’s downtown waterfront.  And as Rhode Island Public Radio political analyst Scott MacKay notes, it now stands as a guard to the old Jewelry District that state and city officials are trying to rebrand as a Knowledge District.

As the Rhode Island State Police took a moment to remember those who died in the line of duty, they also paused to honor trooper Roupen Bastajian who rushed to help survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Every year, Rhode Island state police gather to remember the seven troopers killed in the line of duty since the agency was founded in 1925.  But this year, a trooper who’s very much alive was honored as well. Trooper Roupen Bastajian received the State Police service ribbon for aide he rendered at the Boston Marathon bombings.

Fiddleheads are the whimsical, tightly coiled spiral of fern sprouts that push their way up from under the layers of winter debris on the forest floor.

They are also a regional and seasonal delicacy.

In today's podcast, payday lending reform comes before the House Finance Committee, and a closed East Providence recycling will finally be removed.

Business leaders are coming out in support of Deborah Gist, the state’s controversial education commissioner. The Providence Journal reports that two dozen business organizations have asked the State Board of Education to renew Gist’s contract, which is currently under review.

Former state auditor Ernest Almonte has made it official -- after announcing for governor last year and vowing to stay in the race, he's decided to run instead for state treasurer as a Democrat:

A former Johnston man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his common-law wife. Donald Greenslit was also sentenced to the maximum allowed by law for several lesser crimes.

A jury found Donald Greenslit guilty of murder, following a nine-day trial in March.  Prosecutors argued that on January 22, 2012 Greenslit murdered Stacie Dorego, his common-law wife. He tried to hide the crime by dismembering the her body and burning it in a fireplace in the basement. The victim’s two children were present at the time of the murder.

A contentious recycling facility in East Providence will close.  The Department of Environmental Management will use bond money to pay the property owner to remove all construction and demolition debris from the site.

The outlook for cutting the interest rate charged by payday lenders remains unclear after the House Finance Committee Wednesday voted to hold two related bills for further study.  Supporters and opponents describe the issue in completely different ways.

What does the word ‘family’ mean to you?  Does it conjure up images of the proverbial mom and dad with their offspring, or do you have a more elastic sense of what family is all about? On this we would all agree:  Family is an essential cornerstone in our lives. In his early twentieth-century masterpiece, The Life of Reason, the philosopher and poet George Santayana said, "The family is one of nature's masterpieces." And as we hear from 12-year-old Matt Lannon, what matters ultimately is how each of us understands what family means in our own unique lives.

Matthew Lannon is a 12 year old sixth-grader at the Wheeler School in Providence. He recently testified in favor of same-sex marriage before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees in Rhode Island in support of his family. The legislation was signed by Rhode Island’s governor on May 2, 2013.