Rhode Island
9 Offbeat Rhode Island Towns To Visit In 2026
In Charlestown, a garden village called the Fantastic Umbrella Factory sells no umbrellas. What it has instead is bamboo paths, a flock of emus, and a greenhouse of carnivorous plants, all down a back road as though it needs no explanation. That matter-of-fact oddness runs through the nine towns here. Some keep working relics going rather than roping them off as exhibits, like a windmill in Jamestown still open to the climb and a portrait painter’s birthplace in North Kingstown with its waterwheel still turning. Others trade in the genuinely strange: troll sculptures hidden in the woods, and a stretch of open sand that locals call Rhode Island’s desert. None of them sit far apart, which is the quiet advantage of a small state.
Little Compton
Little Compton’s village of Adamsville holds Gray’s General Store, founded in 1788 and run by the same family for seven generations until it closed in 2012. Rhode Island officials once proclaimed it the oldest continuously operating general store in the country, and its marble soda fountain and penny candy still live in local memory. The store sold johnnycakes made from cornmeal ground at Gray’s Grist Mill, which sits about 100 yards down the road and just across the state line in Westport, Massachusetts. Elsewhere in town, the Whitehead Preserve at Dundery Brook runs a boardwalk trail through ponds and wetland forest. Sakonnet Gardens opens its tightly planted garden “rooms,” hidden pathways, and water features by limited reservation, so anyone hoping to see it should book well ahead.
New Shoreham
New Shoreham is the town that covers Block Island, reached by ferry from the mainland. The Southeast Lighthouse, built in 1875, stands above the Mohegan Bluffs on the island’s south side, where a long stairway drops to a beach beneath the clay cliffs. People scoop the natural wet clay, let it dry in the sun, and rinse it off in the surf, a ritual that has become part of a Block Island summer. Inland, the 1661 Farm keeps a small menagerie of exotic animals, including alpacas, emus, and kangaroos, and rents rooms on the property along with a wellness center. Cars come over on the ferry, though the island is small enough to cover by rented moped or bicycle.
Charlestown
Charlestown is a quiet coastal town whose strangest stop is the Fantastic Umbrella Factory, the garden village named at the top of this list. Bamboo paths wind past small teepees and rock mazes to pens of emus, goats, and ducks, with bohemian shops and a greenhouse selling carnivorous plants such as the Venus flytrap. A few minutes away, Ninigret Park holds two of the giant recycled-wood trolls that the Danish artist Thomas Dambo has installed around the world, and tracking them down feels like a treasure hunt. The same park is home to Frosty Drew Observatory, which opens on Friday nights under some of the darkest skies in the state for views of the Milky Way, the planets, and distant nebulae. East Beach adds clear water and white sand for a quieter afternoon.
Jamestown
On Conanicut Island, the Jamestown Windmill is the town’s signature landmark, a three-story octagonal mill built in 1787 to replace an earlier 1730 windmill on the same hill. Its sails turned until 1896, and the structure still stands in the Windmill Hill Historic District, open for a climb up the winding stairs into the bonnet where the gears sit. The town marks it with Windmill Day each July. The shoreline carries a different kind of history: Beavertail, Fort Getty, and Fort Wetherill state parks hold concrete passageways and gun emplacements left from the island’s coastal defenses, with coves below for swimming and offshore wrecks for certified divers. Watson Historic Farm, a 265-acre colonial-era farm, runs hiking trails toward the water.
Lincoln
Lincoln Woods State Park is studded with glacial boulders that climbers know by name, among them Ship Rock, Buddy Boulder, and Bear Hug. Deeper in, an overgrown section locals call the “post-apocalyptic” woods hides old stone walls, abandoned structures, and roadbeds swallowed by trees. Olney Pond anchors the park with hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking, and the whole place stays quiet because it takes some effort to reach. Along the Blackstone River, the Blackstone River Bikeway follows the old canal past preserved 19th-century mill villages such as Ashton, including an elevated boardwalk over the Lonsdale marshlands.
Johnston
Johnston keeps its oddities in the woods. Snake Den State Park is scattered with ruins and relics that turn an ordinary walk into a low-key treasure hunt, while Johnston Memorial Park adds more open ground for a morning outside. Dame Farm and Orchards works year-round, with apple picking and a corn maze in fall, blueberries and peaches in summer, and wagon rides through the orchard’s wooded hills. The farm’s apple cider donuts have a following of their own.
Bristol
Bristol runs the oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration in the country, first held in 1785 and still drawing crowds that dwarf the town. Its Main Street is painted red, white, and blue year-round, and on the holiday the bands and floats parade for hours before the fireworks close the night. The rest of the year, Bristol looks the part of a waterfront New England town, with historic architecture, the 18th-century Coggeshall Farm Museum at Colt State Park, and the open-air Chapel-by-the-Sea. The East Bay Bike Path runs 14.5 paved miles through coastal and wooded stretches, and the Beehive Café serves pastries and lunch by the water. On the strength of that July tradition, Bristol has been called America’s most patriotic town.
West Greenwich
West Greenwich holds something a small New England state has no business having: a patch of open sand dunes that locals nickname The Dunes, or “Rhode Island’s desert.” It sits inside the Big River Management Area, roughly 8,300 acres where dunes meet woods and green swimming holes. Stepstone Falls is a multi-tiered cascade with an accessible swimming hole, and Breakheart Ponds opens onto horseback and mountain-biking trails. Just outside town, another of Thomas Dambo’s trolls hides near Browning Mill Pond in the Arcadia Management Area.
North Kingstown
North Kingstown was the birthplace of Gilbert Stuart, the painter behind the portrait of George Washington that appears on the dollar bill. His restored 1750s home and mill still run a wooden waterwheel and gristmill, set among gardens, a millpond, and a stream where river herring migrate in from the Atlantic Ocean each spring on their way to Carr Pond. Nearby, Smith’s Castle preserves nearly four centuries of history on a site that traces back to a 1630s trading post, which makes the present house one of the oldest standing in Rhode Island. Casey Farm, an 18th-century working farm, overlooks Narragansett Bay, and the seaside village of Wickford, laid out around 1709, fills its blocks with eclectic shops and local eateries.
The Quieter Side of Rhode Island
What ties these nine places together is not a postcard version of New England but the opposite: working mills, a year-round painted Main Street, troll sculptures in the trees, and a desert that has no business existing. The state’s size means a person can string several of them together in a single day without much planning, and each one repays the detour with something genuinely its own.
Rhode Island
RI Lottery Powerball, Numbers Midday winning numbers for May 30, 2026
The Rhode Island Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 30, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from May 30 drawing
01-27-35-44-52, Powerball: 12, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Numbers numbers from May 30 drawing
Midday: 0-6-8-1
Evening: 7-6-1-2
Check Numbers payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Wild Money numbers from May 30 drawing
01-11-21-25-36, Extra: 05
Check Wild Money payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 30 drawing
05-14-22-28-30, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes less than $600 can be claimed at any Rhode Island Lottery Retailer. Prizes of $600 and above must be claimed at Lottery Headquarters, 1425 Pontiac Ave., Cranston, Rhode Island 02920.
- Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot winners can decide on cash or annuity payment within 60 days after becoming entitled to the prize. The annuitized prize shall be paid in 30 graduated annual installments.
- Winners of the Millionaire for Life top prize of $1,000,000 a year for life and second prize of $100,000 a year for life can decide to collect the prize for a minimum of 20 years or take a lump sum cash payment.
When are the Rhode Island Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Midday): 1:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Evening): 7:29 p.m. ET daily.
- Wild Money: 7:29 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Rhode Island editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island high school yearbook printed with the word ‘school’ misspelled on its cover: ‘Shocking to see’
It failed spelling.
A Rhode Island high school mistakenly misspelled the word “school” on its yearbook cover.
Over 100 copies of Johnston Senior High School’s 2026 yearbook are missing the letter “c” in the word “school” written on its spine.
Students, faculty and parents at what was dubbed “Johnston Senior High Shool” in the keepsake graduation book are shaking their heads at the cringeworthy mistake.
“It was really a shocking thing to see, a whole high school misspelling the word ‘school,’” Johnston senior Neari Vazquez told NBC 10. “It’s kind of a bad look.”
Johnston Senior High School Superintendent Scott Sutherland told 12 News that he wrote a letter to the school’s families to apologize for the error, made by the yearbook printing company Treering.
In the note, he explained that Johnston’s yearbook club looked over a digital proof of the book prior to publication, but it did not show the spine.
However, Treering, which is based in Silicon Valley, released a statement disputing his claims.
“The school reviewed and approved both before the book went to print,” the spokesperson wrote.
“The yearbook was printed exactly as the school’s editorial team approved it.”
The school’s yearbook club first noticed the glaring error when the boxes of books arrived at the school.
“One little thing, it’s like everything is perfect but this one thing is messed up,” yearbook club member Nate Dellamorte told NBC 10.
“When I talked to the advisor, he was already actively trying to fix it and a lot of the members said they’re gonna help him.”
Sutherland is outraged over the embarrassing oversight, and has already consulted with lawyers for advice on the matter.
“We are extremely disappointed that this error made it through the company’s quality control and production process,” he continued in his letter.
“We are currently working directly with the yearbook company and other local vendors to ensure the issue is corrected before any yearbooks are distributed to students.”
Others think the yearbooks shouldn’t be reprinted — and the school should just chalk it up to a funny mistake.
“I mean it does happen, and I’m sure it would be too costly to reprint everything,” parent Melanie DaSilva told NBC 10.
“So it might just be one for the books and probably get a laugh.”
Rhode Island
R.I. House Finance budget phases in millionaires tax over three years – The Boston Globe
In January, Governor Daniel J. McKee touched off a debate about a millionaires tax by proposing a state budget that would impose a 8.99 percent tax rate on personal income of more than $1 million — a 3 percentage point increase over the current top bracket that would have generated $67 million in fiscal year 2027.
The House Finance budget would phase in that millionaires tax by raising that top rate by 1 percentage point per year over three years — 6.99 percent for tax year 2027, 7.99 percent in 2028, and 8.99 percent for 2029. The move would generate an estimated $22 million in 2027, $68 million in 2028, $115 million in 2029, and $142 million in 2030.
Blazejewski said phasing in the millionaires tax will help Rhode Island deal with federal funding cuts as they take effect in the years ahead. Advocates see that tax as a crucial source of funding for essential programs amid federal cuts, he noted, while opponents predict it will hurt small businesses and drive away rich residents.
“We thought this strikes the right balance here for our state, given the situation we’re in with the federal government,” Blazejewski said. “We think this is a prudent way of increasing revenue over time, and then phasing it in, so it has less shock, it has more time to be absorbed, and then also comes online exactly when we need it.”
Rhode Island is pursuing a millionaires tax three years after Massachusetts imposed a 4 percent millionaires tax on top of its 5 percent income tax, raising billions in revenue. On May 25, the Globe reported that the Massachusetts surtax on that state’s highest earners has already generated more than $3.1 billion in revenue this fiscal year, with two months remaining — surpassing the $2.4 billion projected.
Inspector general
The House Finance budget includes $1.3 million to fund an independent inspector general’s office staffed with 12 full-time employees who will investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in state government.
Blazejewski called for creating an inspector general’s office soon after becoming House speaker on May 7. The move by the state’s most progressive House speaker came as a surprise to some because Republicans have long made the inspector general’s office a top legislative priority.
But Blazejewski noted he introduced inspector general legislation in 2015. On Friday, he said the federal government is cutting funding at the same time the state has seen “high-profile state failures” such as the closure of the Washington Bridge westbound and the botched rollout of a $99 million state payroll system.
McKee and Republican lieutenant governor candidate John J. Loughlin II questioned why Blazejewski wants the inspector general to oversee the executive branch — but not the Legislature.
On Friday, Blazejewski noted that voters approved a separation of powers amendment to the state Constitution in 2004 to ensure the three branches of government are separate and distinct, and that the inspector general’s office would be an administrative agency of the executive branch.
“If you allow the executive office to run roughshod over the Legislature, the judiciary, you no longer have three branches of government,” Blazejewski said. “It’s not original to Rhode Island. It’s a fundamental principle of government.“
RIDOT audit
The budget includes an audit of maintenance work by the state Department of Transportation. “We just have had too many high-profile failures, and we need to conduct an audit as to the maintenance program,” Blazejewski said.
The budget also removes the Department of Transportation director as chairman of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Former DOT director Peter Alviti Jr. began serving as chairman of the bus agency’s board in 2023. But Blazejewski said, “We just think it’s a conflict of interest.” The DOT director can continue to serve on the board, but not as chairman, he said.
No line-item veto
The House Finance budget rejects McKee’s call for placing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot asking voters to give the governor line-item veto power, which would allow him to strike specific items from the budget without having to approve or veto the entire bill.
Last year, McKee refused to sign the state budget approved by the General Assembly because it raised taxes and fees, but he did not veto the bill. And McKee noted that 43 other states have some form of line-item veto authority.
But Blazejewski said, “That line item veto is about changing the power structure between the governor and the General Assembly,” and the current process works with the governor proposing a budget and legislators passing a budget. Other states have had “issues” with the line item veto, he said, noting Wisconsin’s governor used that power to delete words, numbers, and punctuation from a bill to change its meaning.
Budget exceeds $15 billion
The budget totals a record $15.2 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1, marking an increase over the $14.859 billion proposed by McKee.
In August, the business-backed Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council warned that the state’s rate of spending was not sustainable. And in the Republican response to McKee’s State of the State, House Minority Leader Michael W. Chippendale said the state budget has grown by 200 percent since 2000, when it was about $4.5 billion.
URI medical school funding
The House Finance budget includes $5 million as an initial investment in creating a medical school at the University of Rhode Island.
The Senate had included that proposal in a 17-bill package aimed at strengthening the state’s strained health care system. Blazejewski said the medical school will help alleviate the state’s severe shortage of primary care doctors in the future.
Tax on Social Security
The House Finance budget includes the first year of McKee’s proposal to eliminate state personal income taxes on Social Security benefits over three years.
Under current law, taxpayers who have reached full Social Security retirement age (67 or older) and have incomes of less than $107,000 for single filers, or $133,750 for joint filers, are exempt from state income tax on Social Security income. The House agreed to eliminate the current minimum age threshold.
Child tax credit
The House Finance budget does not adopt McKee’s proposal to replace an existing tax deduction for dependents with a new child tax credit that would refund families $325 on their taxes per child, per year.
But it does build on the existing tax deduction structure and adds a $330 child tax credit to help lower income families. Blazejewski said the new system “costs a little bit more but gives even more of a benefit to families in Rhode Island.”
Bond questions
The budget includes a record $600 million in bond questions on the November ballot, but it modifies some of the proposals in McKee’s budget.
- Blazejewski said McKee’s budget “underfunded” an integrated health building at URI. So the budget provides $275 million (rather than $215 million) for the state’s three colleges, including $165 million (rather than $105 million) for the URI building, $50 million to renovate Rhode Island College’s Adams Library; and $60 million for a workforce innovation center at the Community College of Rhode Island.
- $120 million for housing, including $25 million for producing housing units for homeownership.
- $100 million (rather than $115 million) for economic development, including $55 million (rather than $70 million) for site development at the Quonset Business Park and I-195 District.
- $50 million for the “cultural economy,” including $45 million for a State History Center that would display the state’s founding documents.
- $55 million for “green economy bonds.” Blazejewski said, “Our caucus spoke over and over about making the green bond greener, and we’ve done just that.“
- The House budget eliminated the $50 million McKee proposed for Career and Technical Education. Blazejewski said testimony indicated the proposal was underfunded even at $50 million, “so we’re going to go back to the drawing board.”
Energy proposals
The House Finance budget adopts some, but not all, of McKee’s proposals for lowering energy bills.
House Majority Whip Katherine S. Kazarian, an East Providence Democrat, said the budget expands the renewable energy standard to including hydro and nuclear energy, which will result in savings.
But she said the budget would reject McKee’s plan to push back the 2033 deadline to reach 100 percent renewable energy sources for state electricity until 2050. “We’re going to continue to keep that 2033 deadline, which is really important to our caucus and, frankly, to the renewable energy investments that have come to the state,” she said.
Central Falls schools
The budget returns the Central Falls school district to local control after 35 years of state control. Blazejewski said this was a priority of Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera.
Domestic violence calendar
The House budget includes $600,000 to hire three full-time employees and create a domestic violence calendar in state Superior Court to address a backlog of 1,200 felony domestic violence cases.
The House Finance Committee voted 11 to 2 to send the budget to the House floor for a vote next Friday, June 5.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.
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