Catherine Welch

Senator Jack Reed is trying to get Rhode Island a seat on the management board that oversees squid and other species caught by Rhode Island fishermen.

Senator Jack Reed says he thinks background checks would be effective in curbing gun violence. The New York Times reports that opposition to background checks is holding back federal gun control legislation.

A housing facility for disabled veterans will be dedicated Tuesday afternoon to a fallen Rhode Island Marine.

Seven years ago today, Marine Sgt. Brian St. Germain was riding in a truck across Iraq when it rolled over in a flash flood. The Rhode Island chapter of Operation Stand Down is honoring St. Germain’s life and service, by putting his name on its West Warwick facility for homeless and disabled veterans.

Operation Stand Down’s Tony DeQuattro says this is part of a push that started two years ago to rename all of their facilities after fallen troops. 

The state now owns the remaining parcel of land in Warwick that was home to the Rocky Point amusement park. The land will be turned into a coastal state park.

The state closed on 82 acres of land at Warwick City Hall, using $9.6 million of a $10 million bond passed a little more than two years ago.

It’s going to take a while before the public can enjoy the park. The Department of Environmental Management says it needs to clean up the site and remove safety hazards, but the DEM will open up sections of land over the next year.

The family of a missing Brown student says while tips are pouring in, there are still no significant leads. The 22-year-old has been missing since March 16th.  Providence Police had said that the family thought Sunil Tripathi committed suicide, but the family is now ruling that out.

The father of Sunil “Sunny” Tripathi  says every day the family calls homeless shelters, hospitals and is plastering fliers up in areas his son liked to visit, hoping that someone knows where he is.

The Senate Education Committee votes Wednesday on legislation allowing schools to hold events like father-daughter dances. Cranston’s school committee asked lawmakers to draft the bill after a complaint last year shut down its father-daughter dance.

The attorney representing a group of Central Falls city councilors says mediation with the city’s receiver has broken down.

Lawrence Goldberg represents the council president and two other members who want the receiver to leave. The receiver’s office says it’s not budging until the city council has been briefed on a five-year fiscal plan. Goldberg says that plan is not mandatory and the receiver should have left long ago.

About a hundred firefighters protested Monday morning outside a conference focused on distressed municipalities, where state treasurer Gina Raimondo was the keynote speaker. Inside, Raimondo applauded the cooperation it took from organized labor to make the state pension overhaul possible.

Nothing says home quite like a white picket fence, and Jacqueline Dowdy’s got one surrounding her light green triple-decker. Her grandparents bought the place more than 40 years ago. Back then, they lived on the first floor.

“My parents lived on this floor, this is the apartment I grew up in,” says Dowdy. “And I had an aunt, one of my mother’s younger sisters, who lived on the third floor.”

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras says it’s a dream that the city won a $5 million prize to help low-income children boost language skills. The prize money came from a philanthropic organization set up by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.