Free Republic

A Rhode Island police officer vying for a state senate seat was charged with assault Saturday after allegedly punching his opponent during an abortion rally near the state house. State senate candidate Jennifer Rourke claimed on Twitter that her opponent in the race, Jeann Lugo, attacked her at the Friday night rally that took place hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Rourke's tweet included a video of the alleged encounter. The Providence Police Department said on Saturday that Lugo, an officer with the department, was charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct in connection with the...

The Rhode Island representative refused to yield his time during the outburst, while discussing legislation related to “red flag” laws, that would allow the government and law enforcement to confiscate firearms from anyone deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. Florida congressman Matt Gaetz attempted to insert an amendment to the legislation stating “Congress disfavors the enactment of laws that authorize a court to issue an extreme risk protection order, also known as Red Flag laws, in the States because such laws trample on an individual’s due process and Second Amendment rights.” That prompted Cicilline to call the...

Under-counts may have cost Florida and Texas another House seat. Well, well. Remember how Democrats accused the Trump Administration of trying to rig the 2020 Census? Now a Census Bureau study reveals that Republican-leaning states may have been hurt by mistaken under-counts. On Thursday the bureau published the results of its post-enumeration analysis, which it does after every Census to identify errors in the count. Its study found that 14 states were over- or under-counted by statistically significant margins. Compare that to 2010 when the bureau’s post-hoc analysis found that all the state population counts were more or less accurate....

California and 15 states that want the U.S. Postal Service to electrify its mail delivery vehicles are suing to halt purchases of thousands of gas-powered trucks as the agency modernizes its delivery fleet. Three separate lawsuits, filed Thursday by the states and environmental groups in New York and California, ask judges to order a more thorough environmental review before the Postal Service moves forward with the next-generation delivery vehicle program. Plaintiffs contend that purchases of fossil fuel-powered delivery vehicles will cause environmental harm for decades to come. The lawsuits could further delay the Postal Service's efforts to replace the ubiquitous...

Rhode Island Democrats have introduced a bill that would double the state income tax for residents who have unvaccinated children.Yes, really.State Senator Samuel Bell (D) submitted the punitive bill last month, which orders all Rhode Island residents and taxpayers over 16 years old to receive the COVID-19 injection and boosters mandated by the state’s director of the department of health.Anybody who violates that order “shall owe twice the amount of personal income taxes” to the state.This act would mandate all residents sixteen (16) years or older to be vaccinated against COVID-19. If a resident is under sixteen (16) years of...

Rhode Island Democrats want to punish the parents of children who refused to submit to the COVID vaccine mandates. If passed, the bill will financially cripple individuals by doubling their personal income tax and requiring them to pay a monthly fine of $50. State Senator Samuel Bell is the lead legislator backing the bill, which mandates all Rhode Island residents, workers, and taxpayers receive a COVID-19 vaccine as well as any subsequent boosters that the state’s director of the department of health shall require. The bill’s text can be read here. (See link) The law will apply to every person...

When asked whether someone who doesn’t know what a woman is should serve on the Supreme Court, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “I think it’s pretty clear that Judge Jackson is a woman. So, I don’t think she has any doubt as to what a woman is." At the Capitol on Thursday, March 24, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Whitehouse: “Senator Blackburn, on Tuesday during the hearing, asked Judge Jackson to define the word ‘woman’ and Judge Jackson said, ‘No. I can’t.’ Should someone who does not know what a woman is serve on the...

On March 15, 2022, the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island found the Rhode Island ban on the possession of stun guns was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. The decision is expected. Several other courts have found a complete ban on stun guns to be unconstitutional. The foundational decision was made in the United States Supreme Court in its unanimous decision about a stun gun ban in Massachusetts, Caetano v. Massachusetts.In the Rhode Island opinion, written by District Judge William E. Smith, there are several interesting observations. Judge Smith observes it is the burden of the...

"Rep. Ro Khanna and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse are pushing a bill they say will help bring relief from high gas prices to Americans – as energy industry critics argue it would do the exact opposite. The proposal, which comes as Russia's war on Ukraine delivers a shock to global energy prices, is called the 'Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax'."

he Portugese Navy has confirmed this morning that one of its patrol boats came to the aid of the Felicity Ace, a car carrier transiting the Atlantic Ocean, as reported by the Washington Post. The vessel transmitted a distress signal after fire broke out in one of the cargo decks, with the ship announced as "not under command" shortly afterwards. Thankfully, the 22 crew on board have been reported as successfully evacuated from the ship. The Felicity Ace had departed from the port in Emden, Germany on February 10, believed to be carrying vehicles from Porsche and other Volkswagen Auto...

An unvaccinated oral surgeon has filed a lawsuit in Rhode Island after his medical practice, which saw over 800 patients each month, was shut down over him not getting a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the New Civil Liberties Alliance. He was banned from work as an oral surgeon, unless he got vaccinated, the same day Rhode Island’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers went into effect on Oct. 1, according to an order by the state health department. Now, Dr. Stephen Skoly is suing the state’s Gov. Daniel McKee and the interim director of the state’s health department arguing that “Rhode...

The Rhode Island Department of Health stands by the decision to allow COVID positive health care workers to return to their jobs instead of rehiring unvaccinated workers who were terminated because of their inoculation status. Updated quarantine and isolation guidance from the Rhode Island Department of Health allows employees to continue working at hospitals and nursing homes without restrictions if the facility is so short-staffed it's a safety hazard for patients and residents. The updated guidance sparked some criticism after health care workers were placed on unpaid leave for not getting vaccinated, with critics questioning if lifting the mandate would...

Rhode Island is one of the latest states to reintroduce a mask mandate, which went into effect on Monday. Gov. Daniel McKee (D) announced the mandate this month, requiring “masking or proof of vaccination at certain indoor venues, including entertainment venues, retail, places of worship, manufacturing, and offices,” according to the state’s website. It applies to indoor establishments with a capacity of 250 individuals or more.

Rhode Island has reported its first case of the omicron variant, making it one of the dozens of states to have detected the new COVID-19 strain. Gov. Dan McKee (D) and the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) announced the omicron case in a joint statement on Saturday. The infected individual is in their 20s and recently traveled from New York to Providence, according to the statement.

The Biden administration approved an offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island on Wednesday as part of a plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. The administration expects to review at least 16 construction and operations plans for commercial offshore wind energy facilities by 2025. “We have no time to waste in cultivating and investing in a clean energy economy that can sustain us for generations,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement. “Just one year ago, there were no large-scale offshore wind projects approved in the federal waters of the...

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) are urging President Biden not to nominate Jerome Powell to serve another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, warning that his refusal to use the Fed to prepare the economy for the impact of climate change is a major problem. The Democratic senators join Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who are trying to steer Biden away from Powell, who was appointed chairman by President Trump, and toward picking Lael Brainard, the only Democrat on the central bank’s seven-member board. “Jerome Powell refuses to recognize climate change as an urgent and systemic economic...

Students in Rhode Island are asking a federal appeals court to affirm that all public school students have a constitutional right to a civics education, saying that they aren’t taught how to meaningfully participate in a democratic and civil society ... ...The plaintiffs have asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Boston, to reverse a lower court’s dismissal of the case, declare there’s a constitutional right to an adequate civics education, and send the case back to district court.... ...The defendants include Rhode Island’s governor, education commissioner and other education authorities. Their lawyer, Anthony Cottone, told the...

A Rhode Island woman’s search for her relative’s displaced gravesite led to the discovery of nearly 1,000 people buried beneath a local highway and an unmarked mass grave containing hundreds of bodies. Both discoveries were connected to state institution cemeteries in Cranston, where more than 5,000 of Rhode Island’s poor, sick or mentally ill residents were buried between 1875 and 1953. ...worried her relative was buried beneath the state highway According to the R.I. Department of Transportation, tens of thousands of people drive on Route 37 every day. Malcolm said the plaque indicating where the mass grave is located was...

Subway worker Jumanne posted a series of videos vandalizing a Subway restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island, where he dumped food onto the floor He put sandwich ingredients on the bathroom floor and toilet In another video he recorded himself as he walked across tubs of food and then put them back, presumably to be used in customers' sandwiches Jumanne even drank from Gatorade bottles and put them back on the shelf In an interview with DailyMail.com he admitted he did it because he was trying to draw attention to his films and music 'I just reached a point where I...

A top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee says a preliminary investigation does not show that then-President Donald Trump was the mastermind of a “scheme” to get his Justice Department to work on overturning the results of the 2020 election.Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the committee, told Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, that according to an interim report released by the panel last week regarding allegations involving the former president, so far nothing has been found to indicate any nefarious plots directed by Trump.The Washington Examiner reports:Trump is said to have favored...