Page 3 - Christopher Blazejewski News Today

Rhode Island lawmakers overwhelmingly approved spending $119 million in federal pandemic relief money Tuesday when they returned to the State House to start the new legislative session. Rhode Island got more than $1.1 billion in American Rescue Plan funds, but has yet to spend any of it.

The Providence Journal PROVIDENCE — The effort to make reductions of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions mandatory in Rhode Island took a big step forward Tuesday with Senate approval of the Act on Climate bill.   The landmark legislation that environmental groups, public-health experts and citizen advocates say is necessary for the state to do more to fight climate change won passage in a 33-to-4 vote.  "Climate change is real, and its impacts will continue to be devastating if we do...

RHODE ISLAND – The Senate has confirmed now former Gov. Gina Raimondo to serve as the next U.S. Commerce Secretary. The Tuesday vote, which passed with bipartisan support, came more than seven weeks after President Joe Biden first tapped Raimondo to serve in his cabinet. In the hours that followed her confirmation, Raimondo would officially resign her governorship and pave the way for Lt. Gov. Dan McKee to take the reins.  “Serving as governor these past six years has been the hono...

Dan McKee Sworn In As New Rhode Island Governor - Cranston, RI - McKee, the former lieutenant governor, is the state's 76th governor.

Governor Dan McKee was sworn in as the 76th Governor of Rhode Island this evening in a private ceremony at the State House.

Conservative wing of RI GOP raffling AR-15 to raise money for 2022 campaigns Katherine Gregg, The Providence Journal © Rhode Island Republican Conservative Caucus A portion of the ticket for a gun raffle being sponsored by Rhode Islands Republican Conservative Caucus. PROVIDENCE — Rhode Islands Republican Conservative Caucus is raffling guns —  including an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle — to raise money to try to win more GOP seats in the state legislature. Second prize ...

Second prize in the March 20 drawing is described as "a Mossberg .12Ga Pump action shotgun."  The Conservative Caucus — motto: "Ocean State Culture, Done Right" — has launched the raffle at a time when gun control is gaining ground at the Rhode Island State House. The single largest obstacle to past action on these types of bills was then-House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, a Cranston Democrat with a consistent "A rating from the NRA, who lost his bid for reelection in November. Key memb...

PROVIDENCE — House Republican Leader Blake Filippi is seeking to revive his lawsuit challenging the way the Rhode Island legislature hires and fires and spends $46 million-a-year.  He is now suing the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly, his Republican Senate counterpart, Dennis Algiere, and others - including new JCLS executive director Henry Kinch -  "individually and in [their] official capacity."  Filippi, the Block Island Republican who leads the 10-member Republican blo...

The proposed contract has been a lightning rod since Gov. Gina Raimondo, who is on the brink of quitting mid-term for a Cabinet post in the Biden administration, quietly negotiated and then pushed the no-bid IGT deal at the end of the 2019 legislative session. Several key provisions remain largely unchanged in the bill co-sponsored by Shekarchi,  the new House speaker,  Blazejewski, the majority leader, and House Finance Chairman Marvin Abney, including a jobs guarantee that advocates argue...

During the same interview, Rep. Christopher Blazejewski, the incoming House majority leader, said it’s important that Providence doesn’t “give up on its public schools,” adding that the turnaround plan is supposed to transform the existing Providence schools, not just “bring in more charters.” Although thousands of parents are on a waitlist for charter schools, there was considerable opposition last month to the proposed expansion of Achievement First, which runs a network of charte...