Thursday, March 19, 2026
Narragansett Tribe interested in acquiring possible burial site
R.I. Pond’s Drawdown Reveals What Could be Native American Burial Ground
By Dan D'Ambrosio / ecoRI News contributor
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Rhode Island state archaeologist Charlotte Taylor said she
has not yet been able to visit the site, which is accessible only from the
Connecticut side of the pond. There are many unknowns about the site, according
to Taylor, who has seen photos.
“It does not look like a typical Rhode Island Native
American past period burial,” Taylor said. “These burials weren’t usually
demarcated by rock piles on top in a rectangular way.”
It’s also not clear who owns the site.
“It could be private property; then it is the property of
the owner of the land,” Taylor said.
Even if the site turns out to be on private property, it
would still be protected by Rhode Island’s law prohibiting disturbing burial
grounds, according to Taylor.
“Someone going in and digging up a possible burial would be
against the law,” Taylor said.
Connecticut state archaeologist Sarah Sportman first learned
of the possible burial ground in January, when she got a call from a reporter
for The Day newspaper in New London.
What’s inside the Rhode Island Senate’s 2026 health care bill package
Rhode Island is on its own in fight to improve health care
By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current
The 17-bill package is nearly double the size of last year’s collection, which sported nine pieces of legislation.
“These are complex issues we’re facing,” Senate President Valarie Lawson said at a State House event Thursday introducing the package. “And this is a long, long process.”
Lawson said the chamber’s priorities reflect listening to consumers and primary care providers over the last couple of years as well as the work of a special Senate-led commission which determined in January that a medical school at URI would help alleviate the state’s primary care workforce shortage.
Senate Committee Health and Human Services Chair Melissa Murray joined Lawson and bill sponsors in the Senate Lounge to present their lawmaking to-do list, which Murray described as orbiting three major themes:
- One suite of bills aim to support people in crisis by improving access to behavioral health resources.
- Another tranche would boost the Ocean State’s health care workforce.
- The last set seeks to protect patients and providers via initiatives like further regulation of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and updated vaccination schedules for children.
“While we know that solving the crisis cannot be accomplished through any single piece of legislation, or any one collection of bills, those being highlighted today build on our past progress and help address the most pressing needs of this moment,” Murray said in a statement. “Achieving our goals will be a long-haul effort, and our chamber remains truly committed to seeing it through.”
Before Thursday, six of the package bills had already been introduced and await hearings in their respective committees. The remaining 11 bills were introduced Thursday and await hearings.
Stronger foundations for people in crisis
Three bills aim to strengthen the infrastructure for crisis support in Rhode Island. One Murray-sponsored bill would codify the state’s 988 hotline — and BH Link, the mental health hotline’s local operator — and require the state to fully fund both programs if federal monies should evaporate.
The 988 hotline was established under the federal National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 and went live in 2022, with each state offering its own take on the federally-funded call-routing and crisis response network. BH Link also runs a walk-in service for behavioral health issues. According to a Senate press release, more than 90% of calls to 988 are resolved over the phone, with no emergency department visit needed for the caller.
One of the people who has benefited from 988 is Steven Hoard, who told the audience at the Senate unveiling about his loved one’s experience with 988 in December 2025.
“My son called me — drinking, depressed, high anxiety, locked himself in his basement of his home,” Hoard said. “I explained to him that we needed to get him some assistance and help. But he was adamant, ‘Please don’t call 911, I don’t need my neighbors to see everybody here.’”
Instead, Hoard said he called 988, and heard “on the other side of that line…someone with compassion, empathy, professionalism, that was truly caring about my child.” The hotline helped dispatch a mobile crisis unit clinician who spoke with Hoard’s son.
Hoard said his son checked himself in for treatment two days later. If 911 came instead of 988 to help his son, “the situation would have ended much, much differently,” he said “So I implore you, please fund 988. It will save lives.”
A separate proposal from Lawson would codify the children’s Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS), empowering it with coverage under Medicaid and an additional $900,000 appropriation in the fiscal year 2027 budget.
The crisis response program for children is a 24/7, free crisis response hotline like 988 that caters to youth ages 2 to 21. The service fielded 849 cases between October 2024 and October 2025, according to a Senate news release that reported 80% of cases were “stabilized” and connected to appropriate community resources without a visit to the emergency department.
Under Lawson’s bill, the appropriation would increase to $1 million in fiscal year 2028, with the extra funding aimed at ensuring access for uninsured and underinsured kids.
A complementary bill by Sen. Alana DiMario, a Narragansett Democrat, would further bolster the response program for kids in crisis by specifying a minimum reimbursement rate for commercial insurers so they can cover the service. DiMario’s bill would amend the law she helped get passed in 2025, one which required payers to reimburse coverage of services for 24/7 youth crisis response.
An all-caps warning for AI chatbots
A pair of bills from Democratic Sen. Lori Urso of Pawtucket urge the state to exercise greater control over the impact chatbots may have on mental health.
“It’s important to kind of use the runway we have to get ahead of the crisis that could befall us if someone were to utilize chatbot technology,” Urso said, adding that chatbots’ “sycophant nature” may conceal, minimize or worsen suicidal ideation or thoughts of self-harm.
One bill would bar AI companion models from being used in psychotherapy sessions that are recorded or transcribed unless the patient or their representative give consent.
The second bill wants to regulate the companionship offered by AI chatbots, and would mandate that chat service providers institute safety protocols for users who express suicidal thoughts, a desire for self-harm, or other injurious behaviors.
Urso’s bill also outlines a specific and recurring label that would need to be attached to conversations with AI chatbots, according to the bill text. This notification would be attached “at the beginning of any AI companion interaction and at least every three (3) hours for continuing AI companion interactions hereafter.”
The bill specifies that the warning would be verbally communicated by the chatbot, or relayed “in bold and capitalized letters of at least sixteen (16) point type.”
The warning would read: “THE AI COMPANION (OR NAME OF THE AI COMPANION) IS A COMPUTER PROGRAM AND NOT A HUMAN BEING. IT IS UNABLE TO FEEL HUMAN EMOTION.’”
PBMs, PBMs, PBMs
A trio of bills related to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) seeks to further regulate the pharmaceutical middlemen. Legislation which has clamped down on the not-always-transparent activities of these businesses which typically manage pharmacy coverage for health insurers has been a constant source of legislative priority for lawmakers like Sen. Linda Ujifusa of Portsmouth, whose previous PBM legislation has seen success and even a recently concluded enforcement action by the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office.
In this year’s package, Ujifusa has a proposal which would require the state’s auditor general to embark on a study to “determine whether Rhode Island would benefit from adopting a consolidated prescription drug management program within the Medicaid program,” according to the bill text.
One of the things the bill asks for the auditor general to examine is how managed care organizations use multiple PBMs and drug formularies, a system it describes as “representing Rhode Island’s current status quo.”
Another bill by Sen. Robert Britto, an East Providence Democrat, would impose new accountability and transparency requirements on PBMs, mandating more insight into “rebates of any kind, inflationary payments, credits, clawbacks, fees, grants, chargebacks, reimbursements, or other benefits received by the pharmacy benefit manager.”
Legislation by Sen. Peter Apollonio Jr., a Warwick Democrat, would require PBMs to obtain certificates of authority from the Department of Business Regulation if they want to do business in Rhode Island.
Showing some love for the primary care workforce
The legislative agenda also follows the recommendations of the URI medical school commission, which concluded in January after a year-and-a-half investigation. A bill by Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, a South Kingstown Democrat, would pony up the initial $5 million for the school to get off the ground, with the money coming from general revenue. Fiscal year 2028 would see an investment of $7 million and fiscal year 2029 would see an investment of $8 million. That adds up to $20 million, which is the amount recommended by the commission for an initial state investment. (URI would still need to secure additional funding for the school to open.)
Legislative commission recommends backing URI medical school
Sen. Pamela Lauria, the Barrington Democrat who co-chaired the URI medical school commission, has a resolution in the package which follows from the committee’s recommendations: creating another study commission, this one focused on primary care in Rhode Island, and how to keep providers and medical graduates living and working in the state.
A bill from Senate President Pro Tempore Hanna Gallo, a Cranston Democrat, would fashion a loan repayment track specifically for primary care providers within the existing Health Professional Loan Repayment Program. Eligible physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners could receive two years of loan repayment assistance, under the proposal.
Another Lauria bill would create a scholarship program for med students who commit to work as primary care providers in Rhode Island after graduation. Eligible students would be enrollees in medical school, nursing school or physician assistant programs.
Also on the Senate’s wish list this year:
- Malpractice protections. A bill by Lauria, which the Senate passed in 2024 and 2025, would allow providers to apologize or express sympathy to patients and families, without the risk of these claims becoming admissions of liability in malpractice-related lawsuits. Another bill related to malpractice comes from Sen. Mark McKenney, a Warwick Democrat, and would create a 13-member commission to study how malpractice claims affect medical providers and their costs. The commission, if created, would have its findings due by Oct. 1, 2027.
- Vaccinations. An Ujifusa bill would ensure the state health department sets child and adult vaccination schedules. It would also require insurers and Medicaid to cover all immunizations — sans cost-sharing for patients — if they are included in the health department’s guidance. The bill would take effect at the beginning of 2027.
- Behavioral care placement. A bill by Sen. Brian Thompson, a Woonsocket Democrat, would require insurers to cover at least a week of post-acute care without the need for prior authorization, starting Jan. 1, 2027. Another Murray bill would create a program for people with complex behavioral health needs and enhance per-diem Medicaid payments to long-term care facilities that serve patients with significant behavioral needs.
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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
What Rhode Islanders should expect as economic consequences of Trump's Iran war
Cost of Iranian conflict likely to extend beyond energy prices, says URI economy professor
.webp)
The attacks, which were celebrated by many Iranians around
the world in ending an oppressive regime, sparked significant conflict where
ongoing missile strikes are occurring in the Middle East. Economically, energy
costs—particularly oil and gas—have spiked in the U.S. and abroad. More
recently, vessels traveling the Strait of Hormuz—a critical global shipping
route—have struck mines reportedly planted by Iran, further affecting
commercial activity.
Nina
Eichacker, associate economics professor at the University of Rhode Island,
says everyone will feel the effects of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East
the longer it lasts. And, it’s not just at the pump where society will be hit
hard, she says. Instability and civil unrest in the region also has a cost.
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Governing on rage and by impulse leads to crazy decisions
Trump’s military excursion, into an abyss
His every bizarre utterance about his war “plans” — including wildly
conflicting declarations that Iran has surrendered and the war must be expanded
to defeat the regime — immediately move markets.
Putin’s goals have never been hidden or uncertain — he wants
to erase the nation of Ukraine and reincorporate its territory into his
neo-Russian Empire. Trump, by contrast — and characteristically — is utterly
unable to articulate why he started the largest war the United States has
embarked on since the years following 9/11, let alone explain what “victory”
might look like.
The evident fact, though, is that Trump is completely nuts,
and that he’s “governing” the country — and has now taken the US to war — based
on his impulses alone, without even the pretense of a strategy or goal.
It’s almost as if Trump felt that, as a would-be dictator,
he had to have his own nihilistic war, just like his idol Vlad Putin. But
Trump’s “excursion” against Iran is nothing like Putin’s years long “special
military operation” against Ukraine — it’s actually more stupid.
 |
| Note also that Trump's mother was an immigrant as were both of his grandparents |
This is hardly unusual. In fact, it’s the sine qua
non of late Trumpism, in which the Strongman of Mar-a-Lago “rules” the
country based on pure impulse, rather than even the most misguided of strategy.
“Governance” by impulse
It’s a frightening reality of the Trump regime that, as
Trump has descended into utter incoherence and is now nothing more than an
assortment of adolescent (and frequently violent) urges, the US government has
been remade into a tool for the immediate satisfaction of his wants and desires
no matter how absurd or nihilistic they may be.
We’ve seen this dynamic of chaos descend upon various
components of our government and society over the past 14 months.
Learn about Taylor Swift’s ‘genius’ at March 26 URI humanities festival
In person lecture also will be live-streamed on YouTube
Stephanie Burt, a Harvard University professor and poetry
expert—and a “Swiftie”—has examined in her course “Taylor Swift and Her World”
the award-winning singer’s unique, joyful genius as an artist who has mastered
her craft. Burt will further discuss Swift’s artistry and celebrity during the
University of Rhode Island’s Humanities
and Popular Culture/Counterculture lecture series.
Burt’s talk, titled “The
Genius of Taylor Swift: A Crash Course on the Pop Superstar,” will be
held Thursday, March 26, at 4 p.m. in the Hope Room of the
Robert J. Higgins Welcome Center, 45 Upper College Road on the Kingston Campus.
The yearlong lecture series, hosted by the URI Center for the Humanities, is
focusing on topics ranging from women’s basketball to Shakespeare to music and
social justice. The series is co-sponsored by the URI College of Arts and
Sciences, Division of Research and Economic Development, Department of Gender
and Women’s Studies and the Affirming Multivocal Humanities Mellon Grant, and
Department of Philosophy.
Burt’s presentation, part of URI’s annual Spring Humanities
Festival, will also be livestreamed through the Center for the
Humanities’ YouTube
channel, and people who register will receive a link. At the March 26 talk,
Burt will analyze Swift, her body of work and the community that her art has
fostered.
White House autism briefing linked to swift shifts in prescribing patterns, study finds
Misinformation leads to bad medical choices
By Juan Siliezar, Associate Director of Media Relations
and Leadership Communications, School of Public Health,
The study shows
that after the Sept. 22, 2025, briefing,
acetaminophen orders for pregnant women in emergency rooms fell markedly while
prescriptions for leucovorin for children dramatically increased.
The study was authored by researchers from Brown
University’s School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School and published
in the Lancet.
According to the authors, the usage changes for both drugs
are notable because they were specific to the drugs mentioned in the
announcement and because they occurred despite no new clinical trial data or
formal guideline revisions during that period.
R.I. Must Encourage Responsible Housing Development That Protects Drinking Water Supplies
Building consensus for responsible development
By Scott Millar / Land use planner
Rhode Island needs more housing, and I support that goal.
But how we get there matters. Growth has limits, and development must respect
constraints, especially when it comes to preserving clean drinking water.
Here are the Irish "Principles of Sustainable Development"
The failure to adequately plan a long-term, safe, steady
supply of drinking water for new housing can have catastrophic impacts.
Watersheds for public surface water and groundwater drinking water supplies are
not appropriate for high-density development. Once drinking water is
contaminated or overdrawn, it can’t easily be restored and must be protected
for both current and future generations.
For these reasons, I strongly support legislation to amend the Rhode Island Low and Moderate Income (LMI) Housing Act. This legislation would eliminate the existing state-mandated housing densities in lands that are used for drinking water supplies.
Moreover, the current law only requires developers to cite that public water or sewer systems are available. The legislation adds language that the capacity of public water or sewer be documented to support the proposed increase in residential density before a development proposal can be approved.
The intent
of the amendments is to ensure that housing densities for LMI do not exceed the
availability of onsite drinking water supplies; do not introduce pollution that
would make drinking water unsuitable for use; and stay within the limits of any
public water or sewer system.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Charlestown's share of Chariho costs to increase 5.02%
Chariho School Committee votes down proposed budget, then reverses course and passes it
In the end, it took a warning from their legal counsel to
convince the Chariho School Committee to pass a Fiscal
Year ‘27 budget for voter approval..webp)
Pass the budget or violate the law.
Committee decides to flip-flop
You can watch the meeting here: 2026-03-10 School Committee
Meeting
The budget, as presented and ultimately passed, will require, upon voter approval, each of the three communities that make up the Chariho School District to increase its financial contributions to the schools. Committee Chair Louise Dinsmore opposed the budget because of the increases and, in fact, voted against it - twice.
“I have said publicly that I will not support passing this Fiscal Year ‘27 budget, especially because Richmond has a significant increase in front of them.”
Richmond’s increase was
7.82%, Charlestown’s was 5.02%, and Hopkinton’s was 2.1%.
Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor says Rhode Islanders SHOULD NOT get refunds for Trump's illegal tariffs
Yeah, no refunds for you. Here's Loughlin in his own words:
Revolution Wind begins delivering electricity to Rhode Island and the regional grid
We’ve got the power
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
The initial power delivery is not the final achievement: The 65-turbine project is 93% complete and not expected to hit its full 704-megawatt nameplate capacity until the second half of the year. However, the initial test of connection to the region’s electric grid marks an important benchmark, especially after two attempts by the Trump administration to block the project’s completion.
The initial power delivery appears on schedule with the prior timeline, despite two separate pauses forced by the Trump administration. The project was first put on hold in August 2025, with federal energy regulators unexpectedly demanding a review for national security concerns, despite having already completed a comprehensive review of project impacts nearly two years earlier. The stop work order was overturned by a federal judge in D.C. in September in response to one of two lawsuits filed by developers and state attorneys general.
Bobby Jr.'s crazy anti-vax campaign monkey-wrenched
Federal judge blocks Kennedy’s changes to childhood vaccine policy
In a ruling issued this afternoon, Judge Brian E. Murphy
said the changes made by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. to the childhood immunization schedule likely violated the
Administrative Procedure Act, as did Kennedy’s reconstitution of a federal
advisory board that makes recommendations on clinical use of vaccines.
The preliminary injunction comes in response to a lawsuit
filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other leading medical
groups against HHS in July 2025 over
Kennedy’s unilateral changes to COVID vaccine recommendations for children and
pregnant women. The suit was amended in
January after HHS overhauled recommendations for childhood vaccines, reducing
the number of recommended vaccines from 17 to 11.
The lawsuit argued that these moves, along with Kennedy’s
appointment of vaccine skeptics to the Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices (ACIP) after firing 17 previously
appointed members, bypassed the scientific process and didn’t follow
proper administrative procedures.
Murphy said in his ruling that there is a method to how
decisions about vaccine recommendations have historically been made, “a method
scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.”
“Unfortunately, the government has disregarded those methods
and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions,” he wrote.
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