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Rhode Island
The fight to keep Wayne Salisbury from leading RIDOC just turned nasty. Here’s how.
PROVIDENCE – The correctional officers’ union is bringing up the 2010 arrest of Wayne Salisbury as they ramp up their fight to keep McKee’s pick to run the state Department of Corrections out of the job.
The charge – obtaining money under false pretenses – was later dismissed.
Richard Ferruccio, president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, said: “Rhode Islanders deserve to have governmental leaders they can trust to do the job they’re appointed to do. It is disheartening that Governor McKee has chosen to appoint a leader to the Department of Corrections who was charged with a felony for stealing from his employer.”
In addition, Ferruccio:
- faulted Salisbury as “unqualified” to be the director and questioned whether he could be trusted to fulfill the duties and responsibilities as required.
- Claimed that the prisons are less safe under his leadership.
The union urged members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject McKee’s nomination and called for a national search “for a qualified leader who doesn’t carry the baggage of a felony arrest.”
McKee stands by Salisbury
McKee remained solid in his support for Salisbury, who has served as the interim director for 16 months.
“As acting director with over three decades of experience in corrections, Wayne Salisbury has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to manage challenges in the field of corrections, from assembling a task force dedicated to recidivism reduction, to renewing the department’s focus on staff development and succession planning,” spokeswoman Olivia DaRocha said in a statement.
“We appreciate the Brotherhood of Correctional Officers’ concerns,” she continued. “DOC leaders have and will continue to work with their membership and the advocacy community to identify and implement best practices in areas such as officer safety and recruitment, as well as inmate discipline and education.”
Salisbury stands by his own record
Salisbury also stood by his record.
“As it has been previously reported, the 2015 unsubstantiated charge involving Interim Director Salisbury was dismissed,” corrections spokesman J.R. Ventura said in a statement. “Interim Director Salisbury remains focused on leading the Department of Corrections by advocating for its staff and positioning those in its custody for success upon reentry to the community.”
Ventura also noted that a 2012 settlement was reached without a finding of fault in another lawsuit involving the 2008 death of Chinese detainee Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng while in the custody of immigration officials at Wyatt Detention Center.
A federal judge approved a multimillion-dollar settlement on behalf of Ng’s family. Salisbury was one of over two dozen parties named a defendant in that case.
Looking back: Rocky career at Wyatt Detention Center
Salisbury began as a corrections officer at the publicly owned and privately run Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in 1993 and rose to the rank of warden.
He was fired as warden in 2007, but rehired later that year under new management. He was fired again in February 2010.
In April 2015, the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office dismissed a charge against Salisbury alleging that he had obtained money under false pretenses by falsifying the amount of unused vacation time he was owed at Wyatt and collecting more than $16,456 from the jail.
Prosecutors dismissed the single felony count in “the interest of justice,” a filing noted. Witnesses had provided new information that “may impact the ability of the state to sustain its burden” of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The filing noted that Salisbury had been compliant with his bail terms since his arrest in 2010 and had paid restitution.
The Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, which operates Wyatt, voted unanimously to “permanently terminate” Salisbury and his wife, Tammy L. Novo, the jail’s top financial administrator.
The correctional officers’ union noted in its statement that Novo was the CFO at the Wyatt when these payments to Salisbury were made.
Blistering Wyatt report
A 2009 report by Michael V. Fair, a former corrections commissioner in Massachusetts, was highly critical of the jail’s management team and its relationship with its board of directors.
The report detailed that Salisbury reworked the jail’s organizational chart by placing the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Corporation under him instead of having Novo, his wife, report to the board “as an equal to the warden as it was originally established by the board.”
“This one act, implemented by the warden without the benefit of discussion or approval from the board, has placed the warden in a position with much more authority and power than the board ever conferred on him,” the report said.
The report stated that the CFO previously “noted that she took a risk by withholding her responses thereby delaying the issuance of the audit report. She was aware that the audit report was to be a `Going Concern’ and that she wanted to avoid such an opinion.”
Local News
“Is Taylor Swift getting married here? Many, many, many have asked,” wedding planner Nicole Simeral said.
WESTERLY, R.I. (AP) — When a large tent appeared next door to Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill estate this week, it didn’t take long for speculation about the superstar’s impending nuptials to ripple through the affluent New England seaside village — and the internet.
Soon, fans were swapping theories online, photographers were staking out vantage points and residents found themselves fielding questions about a wedding that never was. Or at least, a wedding that seems yet to happen.
The rumors, so far, have proved unfounded. But they offered a glimpse into life in Watch Hill, the Rhode Island beach community in the town of Westerly, close to the Connecticut border, where Swift has owned a home for more than a decade and where curiosity about the singer has become woven into everyday life.
Rumors take hold
From the nearby lighthouse, visitors craned for a better view of Swift’s mansion, a sprawling white home perched atop a rocky bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Security cameras dotted the property, and a guard called out to visitors who strayed too close.
Wedding planner Nicole Simeral, dressed in black, stood outside the small white chapel across from the massive yellow Ocean House hotel — Swift’s neighbor on the beach — waving along cars and buses that slowed and directing traffic to keep moving.
She watched visitors speculate about a wedding she said she knew wasn’t Swift’s. She’s working a different wedding every weekend in June in that spot. Still, the questions kept coming.
“Is Taylor Swift getting married here? Many, many, many have asked,” Simeral said.
She said there had been “a lot of chitter chatter” as people tried to connect sightings of people who know Swift in local shops to impending nuptials. But she doubted Watch Hill would be practical for a wedding of that scale because of its limited luxury lodging.
The Watch Hill rumors also dovetailed with separate online speculation that Swift and her fiance, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, were planning a celebration at Madison Square Garden, though no details about the pair’s wedding have been released, despite multiple requests for comment to Swift’s spokesperson.
The tent itself, Simeral said, was hardly unusual. “Next weekend, there’ll be another tent just like this.”
For two summers, Westerly Police Department community service officer Nick Quaratella has stood at the entrance to a public path leading to the beach beside Swift’s estate, answering questions from beachgoers and keeping traffic moving.
“They come to the beach, but then they also ask if she’s here or not,” Quaratella said.
He said he can’t help but joke around with some fans.
“I’ll say, ‘Oh, did you hear that she moved?’” he said. “And they’ll say, ‘No.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson moved in.’ And they’ll go, ‘Oh, really?’ and then they’ll walk away.”
“That’s pretty funny,” he concluded.
Over the years, he’s seen plenty of unusual reactions. His coworker once spotted a fan on their knees, bowing toward the entrance gate near the property. Visitors have shouted “I love you, Taylor!” from the roadside. One woman convinced her granddaughter he was Swift’s security guard and posed for a photo with him.
Quaratella has fielded a few questions about the supposed wedding, but not as many as he expected.
“At this point, it’s part of my job,” he said. “It makes me smile. It makes me laugh. I have no problem with it. It makes the day go by.”
Living with Taylor Swift
Down near a strip of beach boutiques, lifelong resident Lauren Nigrelli said the frenzy surrounding the star has eased since Swift first moved into the neighborhood in 2013. Back then, Nigrelli recalled, fans would drive around in circles by her shop playing Swift’s songs.
“Things have definitely calmed down since then,” she said.
Today, Swift’s presence remains a fixture among local businesses in what she described as a “quaint New England coastal community.” Nigrelli, a Realtor who owns the boutiques Tide and Tide Kids, said she began selling apparel emblazoned with “Holiday House,” the nickname associated with Swift’s mansion, after children began coming into the store asking for it. On Saturday, she was also selling a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding sticker book.
“I think every shop has something related to her,” Nigrelli said.
On the beach below the mansion, Audrey and John Curtis, a married couple from Connecticut who have been vacationing in Westerly for years, settled into beach chairs and debated the wedding rumors.
“We were just looking up at her house,” Audrey Curtis said, pointing toward the mansion. “She’s not getting married here now, though.”
Curtis said she had heard various theories, including speculation that a wedding might be held at Ocean House. But as she thought through the logistics, she became skeptical.
“Then I was thinking about, ‘How would everybody get here?’” she said. “In New York, you’ve got JFK, you’ve got LaGuardia, and she’s got two penthouses in New York that she combined, so I figured they could obviously have more people there.”
Her husband wasn’t so sure.
“They could lie and say it’s happening there, but it’s happening here,” John Curtis said. “When important people do things, they don’t want people to know.”
Six friends from New York, posing for photos in matching Watch Hill sweatshirts while celebrating a birthday, said Swift wasn’t the reason they chose the beach town, though they weren’t sure they would have discovered it if not for the singer.
Leslie Aucapina, 24, who attended Swift’s Eras Tour in Philadelphia, said she grew up listening to Swift’s music and thought the Taylor-themed merchandise was “really cute.” She liked that the excitement surrounding Swift helped local businesses and enjoyed visiting the inspiration for “the last great american dynasty,” a song about Holiday House from Swift’s 2020 Grammy Album of the Year-winning album, folklore.
But she said the speculation at times crosses a line. “If she wants to share it, she wants to share it,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s someone’s house.”
The fourth annual Newport Juneteenth celebration was held at Fort Adams State Park on Saturday, June 20, an expanded event that paired the holiday with a Rhode Island 250th anniversary theme honoring the history of Black and Indigenous people across the state.
Presented by Rhode Island Slave History Medallions, the daylong program opened with a reenactors’ parade and an honorary musket salute before turning to tributes from civic leaders, including a keynote address by Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore and remarks by Governor Dan McKee.
The parade ground program continued through the afternoon with presentations by historians, youth activities, craft vendors and food trucks, alongside performances tied to the 250th theme. The lineup featured colonial music, Indigenous dancing and drumming by the Thawn Harris family of the Narragansett people, a performance by members of the Pokanoket Tribe, a drum circle led by African drummer Sidy Maiga and a gospel performance by RPM Voices of Rhode Island.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, more than two years after it took effect freeing enslaved people in the Confederate states.
RISHM, a statewide nonprofit, works to educate Rhode Islanders about the state’s role in the history of slavery by sharing documented stories of enslaved people. More information is available at rishm.org.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — Thousands gathered in downtown Providence on Saturday for Rhode Island PrideFest, marking a major milestone celebration for the LGBTQ+ community.
The area between Dyer Street and the Providence River filled with music, vendors and community groups as the 50th annual PrideFest became a day-long celebration of identity and inclusion.
NBC 10’s Martha Konstandinidis reports on Providence’s 50th Annual PrideFest. (WJAR)
Attendees described a lively atmosphere and strong turnout.
“It’s a great turnout and it looks beautiful outside,” said Analisy Huertas of Providence.
Vendors said steady crowds and high energy made for a busy but enjoyable day. Many attendees said the event’s welcoming environment keeps them coming back each year.
“I love seeing everyone expressing themselves and being really happy,” added Adeline Lamoureux-Hathaway.
Eventgoers walking in Providence Saturday, June 20, 2026. (WJAR)
For William and Carrie Hatcher, it was their first time attending PrideFest, saying the experience stood out for its sense of community and acceptance. “There’s so much to see, so much to look at, and we’re meeting so many different people,” Carrie Hatcher said.
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PrideFest continued into the evening, with many planning to stay for the illuminated night parade.
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