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WATCH: View of the northern lights from Hansville
Greg Johnson’s SkunkBayWeather.com webcam caught the aurora borealis early Monday morning.
SkunkBayWeather.com
Is seeing the northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, on your bucket list? This could be a chance to check it off your list without leaving Rhode Island.
From Friday night to early Saturday morning, the Aurora Borealis will potentially be visible over the northern United States, possibly reaching as far as Virginia, Missouri, Colorado.
Though a rare occurrence overall, this is the second year in a row that the northern lights have come south. An April 2023, they were visible all the way to Arizona.
While the prediction say they are likely to be visible in the Ocean State, AccuWeather’s forecast says the viewing conditions may be poor because of cloud cover. But the show might return again on Saturday night, when conditions might be better.
The phenomenon of the northern lights is caused by massive clouds of charged particles released by the sun toward the Earth, events known as coronal mass ejections. Upon impact with the Earth’s magnetic field, these particles interact with molecules of atmospheric gases to ignite the aurora borealis over the Northern Hemisphere, usually over Canada.
Situations such as this one result from larger coronal mass ejections, which can mean the lights will spark over larger portions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Barring cloud cover, which could be an issue for viewers in the Northeast, for best results it’s recommended to travel somewhere with as little light pollution as possible and look to the northern horizon.
“I personally have seen them five times, the best in 2003,” Francine Jackson, staff astronomer at Brown University’s Ladd Observatory said last July. “The best way to see them here has to be a place with a good northern horizon, with as little light pollution as possible.”
If you’re trying to see the lights, she recommended finding a north-facing beach.
Even if you don’t get the best view on Friday, if the coronal mass ejections continue at their present level, the northern lights could still be visible here on Saturday night as well.
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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