Tagged: Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority is considering changes to its bus service and wants the public to weigh in. The transit authority is considering two alternatives to how it’s running now.

RIPTA marketing director Amy Pettine says the changes won’t add costs to running the transit system, but could expand service in some much-needed parts of the state. She says this includes a new route proposed for Woonsocket and better coordination with commuter rail.

Drivers keeping track of prices at the pump may have noticed that the average gallon of regular unleaded will cost a nickel more than it did last week.

That extra nickel now puts the average price of regular unleaded at $3.79 a gallon. That’s higher than the national average. AAA Southern New England urges Rhode Islanders to shop around since the range in price spans 26-cents.

Across the border in Massachusetts the average price went up by four cents to $3.72 a gallon, just a penny shy of the national average of $3.73.

Rhode Island has released test scores that show 73 percent of public school students are proficient in reading and just 57 percent are proficient in Math. The numbers were relatively flat compared to previous years, so for more analysis we turned to State Education Commissioner Deborah Gist. She spoke with Rhode Island Public Radio’s Education Reporter Elisabeth Harrison.

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Just about every good government group in Rhode Island is pushing for an end to the so-called master lever option on state ballots. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay explains why this is not a panacea for what ails our state’s political culture.
 
It has become an article of faith in Rhode Island among the self-styled government reform groups, most statewide elected politicians and the chattering pundit classes that our state needs to get rid of that relic of urban machine politics, the master lever.