Providence County | featured news

PROVIDENCE — With two men claiming the presidency, protests in the streets, the Army putting down the protests and inflation running at over 2 million percent, Venezuela today is a portrait of strife.And among the nearly 800 Venezuelans living in Rhode Island, there’s a complicated mix of feelings as they look at their South American homeland almost 2,500 miles away."It is very difficult to describe this feeling of hate and love at the same time,” [...]

As part of Gov. Gina Raimondo’s plan to add staffing in the state parks system, her administration is proposing increases of 33 percent for most parking fees at state beaches as well as steeper increases for camping fees, including doubling the price for some prime campsites.

After a couple weeks of testing on the sleepy roads around North Kingstown Golf Course, the autonomous shuttles are slated to move to the bustling streets of Providence's Woonasquatucket Valley, where the state plans to provide free trips between downtown and the Olneyville Square area.

OUTSIDE BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) — U.S.-backed Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State group in Syria handed over more than 150 Iraqi members of the group to Iraq, the first batch of several to come, an Iraqi security official said Thursday. The official said the IS militants were handed over to the Iraqi side late Wednesday, and that they were now in a "safe place" and being investigated. The transfer marks the biggest repatriation from Syria of [...]

CHICAGO (AP) — "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett turned himself in early Thursday to face accusations that he filed a police report when he told authorities he was attacked in Chicago by two men who hurled racist and anti-gay slurs and looped a rope around his neck, police said. Smollett turned himself in at central booking, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was scheduled to hold a Thursday morning news [...]

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — This year's Atlantic sea scallop fishing year begins in several weeks, and federal regulators are proposing new management measures for the valuable fishery. The fishing season for scallops begins on April 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it plans to set quota and other allocations that are similar to those set for the previous year. NOAA Fishery's proposed rules would also set a 205,000 pound [...]

Middletown taps William D. Kewer to head police department

Low-income renters with housing vouchers face major obstacles when trying to find a place to live, according to a recent report by a regional housing nonprofit.SouthCoast Fair Housing, which serves Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, scoured for available rental units during two audit periods last February and November. Staff and volunteers identified 259 listings that were priced within 100 percent of the fair market rent and did not explicitly discourage those with housing [...]

The 10-day festival features activities and events around the island, and some participants spent the morning horseback riding on the beach or stomping grapes at Newport Vineyards.

For 74 years, Mendonsa maintained that he was the sailor in the photo, but he was never able to convince Life magazine, which published the photo, one of four taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, as "V-J Day in Times Square."