Frank Prosnitz

For Russ Partridge, executive director of Westerly’s WARM Center and Wakefield’s Welcome House, two emergency and transitional housing shelters, the phone rings three to four times a day from individuals and families facing homelessness. It may be a family – like the other day – whose landlord has told them he would be raising the […]

Republican State Rep. Patricia L. Morgan, who is running for U.S. Senate trying to unseat three-term Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, this week called on supporters in an email “to help me defeat Sheldon Whitehouse,” calling his “track-record…dismal.” In the sweeping statement, she made several allegations that many upon fact checking were found to be either misrepresentations […]

Voters in six Rhode Island school districts today approved millions of dollars in school building projects, with only voters in North Kingstown rejecting a $222 million bond that would have funded building a new middle school. In Middletown, voters barely approved a $190 million school bond by a vote of slightly more than 100 votes. […]

While it seems that every few days there’s another announcement of an affordable housing project, those projects are years from completion, and the number of communities that have achieved the state’s affordable housing threshold has dropped to five, from a high of seven a couple of years ago. That threshold, a goal set by the […]

The State Board of Elections is “forgiving” millions of dollars in fines previously levied against candidates filing late campaign finance reports, or not filing reports at all.  Quarterly, the Board of Elections would publicly list those candidates who owed the board fines for failure to file. Those reports stopped being listed publicly two years ago, […]

Westerly Town Council President Ed Morrone has abruptly resigned from the council, alleging that most council members have prevented citizens from being heard on specific issues, been divisive, and “callous.” Morrone, who had previously served on the council and in the state House of Representatives and State Senate, was elected last November to the council […]

Newport Board of Canvassers this morning asked Newport Police to investigate possible fraudulent signatures submitted on behalf of Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos for her candidacy for the vacant District 1 U.S. House of Representatives seat. An investigation is already underway by Jamestown Police, also questioning the validity of signatures submitted on behalf of Matos.  In […]

There’s a gaggle plus of people who apparently want to succeed David Cicilline in Congress, at least according to the filings in the Secretary of State’s office by today’s 4 p.m. deadline: 23 Democrats, three Republicans, and nine independents. That’s, of course, just the first step. The next is gathering the 500 signatures to qualify […]

The Westerly Town Council last night rejected, after more than three hours of public comment, an effort to have it endorse a bill that would have expanded an anti-obscenity bill that could have resulted in banning books in school libraries. The bill was introduced in the state House of Representatives in late April and is […]

A majority of Americans, says Forbes Magazine, are struggling financially, living paycheck to paycheck, and it doesn’t matter whether you earn $25,000 a year or $200,000 a year. Forbes says that more than 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and 41 percent of Americans earning between $150,000 to $200,000 per year live […]

While legislators ponder several bills aimed at easing the state’s housing crisis, the state agencies dealing with the homeless and most marginalized populations are seeing a “huge spike” in housing needs. “There’s been a massive increase in the last 18 months,” said Russ Partridge, executive director of Westerly’s Warm Center and Wakefield’s Welcome House. Statewide, […]

Rhode Island politicians, fresh from expensive primary and general elections, still have millions of dollars left in their campaign accounts. And those in powerful legislative positions are leading the way. Speaker of the House Joseph Shekarchi, D-Dist. 23 has amassed a robust campaign fund of nearly $1.7 million, according to the latest campaign finance report. […]

When the Rhode Island State Legislature convenes on Jan. 4, it’s certain that shoreline access will be among its top priorities. In the 2022 session, the House of Representatives unanimously approved a shoreline access bill, only to see the Senate fail to consider the legislation. The shoreline access bill did not pass the House until […]