Rhode Island
As the budget gets closer, it’s getting louder at the RI State House. What advocates want.
Volume rising at RI Statehouse as budget demands mount
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Journal Staff
PROVIDENCE – You can tell the behind-the-scenes budget negotiations are at a critical point when the noise level at the State House reaches a fever pitch.
And that volume rose to its highest point yet on May 29 as megaphone-amplified voices chanted “tax the rich!” to raise a potential $190 million in new state dollars that would be used to, according to advocates:
Save RIPTA by closing the $32 million funding shortfall. Plug whatever cuts Congress makes to SNAP, Head Start and Medicaid. Pour many more millions into multilingual education for non-English speaking students. And fix the state’s health care crisis.
And it’s not just chanting, sign-carrying advocates rallying and making noise.
A day earlier, Attorney General Peter Neronha spelled out his proposal for fixing Rhode Island’s teetering health care system, including a multimillion dollar legislative increase in Medicaid reimbursements to primary care doctors.
A bill to do that was introduced at his behest the same day: H6373.
It would have the Executive Office of Health and Human Services allocate “sufficient state revenue to increase Medicaid payment rates for primary care services to … no less than 100% of Medicare rates … effective beginning July 1, 2025.”
“Let’s do a poll of Rhode Islanders and ask them, what should be at the center of our budget planning?” Neronha asked rhetorically during his press conference. “I guarantee you, health care will be in the top five, maybe in the top three. So that’s where we should start.”
What do RI’s ‘tax the rich’ advocates want?
The advocates leading Thursday’s rally had an even longer list of demands, starting with passage of legislation creating a 3% income tax surcharge on high earners to raise an estimated $190 million in new state revenue.
They included the RI AFL-CIO, Climate Action Rhode Island, the National Education Association of Rhode Island − headed by new Senate President Valarie Lawson – the Economic Progress Institute, the Revenue for Rhode Islanders Coalition, RI Working Families Party, SEIU-1199, Indivisible RI and Reclaim RI.
The focus of the event, according to the media advisory: “To demand leadership make the richest 1% pay their fair share in taxes to protect what’s on the chopping block – Medicaid, hospitals, food stamps, school funding, RIPTA and more.”
Their argument: That the richest 1% of Rhode Islanders pay just 8.6% of their income in taxes, while the lowest income Rhode Islanders pay over 13%.
“In Massachusetts, a similar tax that brought in $2.4 billion in the first year has helped fund free school meals for students and school repairs, free bus service and expanded public transit routes; seven thousand more child care seats, road and bridge improvements in every city and town and more,” the advisory said.
Will it actually pass?
Legislative leaders have made it known that “everything is on the table,” but a tax hike would not be their first choice.
“As we approach the final weeks of the session, there is no shortage of meritorious proposals that affect state resources,” House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi told The Journal.
“The magnitude of the uncertainty of the federal funding picture, and the numerous holes in the governor’s proposed budget, complicate both balancing this year’s budget and planning for the unknown,” he said.
The “holes” include: the McKee administration’s quiet withdrawal of a “cost-saving” proposal to close the minimum security prison that, on closer look, could cost $67 million to $92 million more; a $15 million under-estimate of the cost of his contract settlement with state troopers and prison guards and an unpopular McKee move to divert $26 million from the pension fund.
“I continue to keep many options on the table for this challenging task,” said Shekarchi, who tops the House budget negotiating team.
‘The top 1% are still going to be okay’
The rally was timed the same day the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Sen. Melissa Murray’s version [S329] of the “Tax-The-Rich” bill the House Finance Committee considered earlier this session.
And it’s a fair guess the senators will hear most of the same arguments their counterparts in the House heard early in May for and against the bill to create a new 3% surcharge on income above $625,000 – in practice, $750,000 in pre-tax total income
According to an estimate from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the top 1% of households in the country (starting at $743,000 a year) would get a $61,000 reduction in federal taxes a year if the federal tax cuts adopted during the first Trump Administration are extended. (The estimate comes from a January report from the Department of the Treasury.)
Under the proposed bill, a household making $1 million a year would pay an extra $10,500 in state taxes.
“The top 1% are still going to be okay,” said Rep. Teresa Tanzi.
But there are two buckets of people in the 5,700 estimated Rhode Island taxpayers who would have slightly higher taxes – the very wealthy and small business owners who are incorporated as limited liability companies or corporations.
Might they forgo a new hire or not buy a new piece of equipment? Might they flee the state?The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council has warned that the wealthiest Rhode Islanders will likely flee the state if the income tax is increased.
In written testimony, Jon Duffy, of the advertising and public relations firm Duffy & Shanley, wrote that one of the partners in his business “has already become a Florida resident” to avoid paying Rhode Island’s state taxes.
But the Economic Progress Institute in March put out a paper that said: “There is simply no evidence – not in Rhode Island and not anywhere in the United States – linking changes in top tax rates with large-scale net migration of higher-income residents or of interstate migration in general.”
At the May 29 rally, the EPI’s police director Nina Harrison said Rhode Island has enough for everyone, but it’s not being shared fairly.
“Right now, people earning less than $23,000 a year are paying a larger portion of their income in state and local taxes than millionaires do in this state,” she said.
“That’s not only backwards, it’s unjust and it’s unacceptable.” Her argument:
- “Rhode Island has crisis level shortage of child care. Nine out of 10 families cannot afford quality childcare. The time to act is now.”
- “Rhode Island has a crisis level shortage of primary care doctors. I’m losing mine next month with the closure of Anchor Medical. The time to act is now.”
- “Public schools are failing too many of our children and they deserve better. The time to act is now and if we don’t act now, not only are we failing our children, we’re going to feel that in our state economy later when we need workers to do the essential jobs in this state.”
- “People and businesses and essential workers will leave this state. If we don’t have good schools, affordable housing, good public transportation, or enough doctors. The time to act is now.”
“If we want to stop having budget deficits and meet the needs of Rhode Islanders, we need to fix our tax system and have everyone pay their fair share. The time to act is now,” she finished.
Rhode Island
Boys And Girls Battle In Nearly 1,000 Wrestling Bounts At 2026 New England Championships
PROVIDENCE, RI — Hundreds of boys and girls from the six New England states competed at the 2026 CNESSPA New England Championships in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday and Sunday.
Boys from 176 high schools and girls from 125 schools participated in more than 960 bouts at the Providence Career & Technical Academy. The girls had 12 weight brackets while the boys had 14.
For the boys, Ponaganset High School in Glocester, RI, came in first with 128.5 points, Xavier High School in Middletown, CT, an all-boys Catholic school, came in second with 119 points, and Central Catholic in Lawrence, MA, came in third with 105.5 points. For the girls, Massabesic High School in Waterboro, ME, came in first, with 52 points, Salem High School in Salem, NH, came in second, and Woburn High School in Woburn, MA, came in third.
Find out what’s happening in Providencefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Boy Results
106-pound bracket: 1Samuel Floody (Scituate RI), 2Sam Winship (CENCTH), 3Josh Perez (XAV), 4Chace Armstrong (Ponaganset), 5Remington Grunhuvd (MSBC), and 6Matt Boucher (Timberlane).
113: 1John Woodall (Franklin), 2Antoine Jackman (GRLOW), 3Cole Desiano (RDGF), 4Caden Hughes (PNGT), 5Reid Grandmason (Exeter), and 6Kylan Berry (BNYE).
Find out what’s happening in Providencefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
120: 1Zack Dixon (Xavier), 2Lucas Copper (CENCTH), 3Cole Lemovitz (Ponaganset), 4Dominic Simpson (Belfast), 5Logan Barry (Scituate RI), and 6William Accorsi (SOMS).
126: 1Nick Desisto (Tewksbury), 2Mael Pierre-Paul (BUNL), 3Brayden Boccia (MLFD), 4Cahota LaFond (COLC), 5Josiah Martins Semedo (N-B), and 6Jisup Shin (Weston).
132: 1Evan Boulard (MSBC), 2Robert Newton (Scituate RI), 3Derek Marcolini (MLFD), 4Dylan Meyers (RDGF), 5Aplollo Bellini (Ponaganset), and 6Zaphyr Musshorn (Xavier).
138: 1Lukas Boxley (LDYD), 2Kai Ly (MINN), 3Jason Ballou (ANDV), 4Jack Sauer (Franklin), 5Coleson Tully (Carver), and 6Asa Reis (Mt. Anthony Union).
144: 1John Carrozza (RDGF), 2James Lally (SJP), 3James Rocco (BARR), 4Duncan Harrington (Mt. Anthony Union), 5Jordin Agosto (AGWM), and 6Evan Madigan (EDL).
150: 1Isaiah McDaniel (MIDD), 2Alex Lamarre (BC), 3Henry McElligott (HOLL), 4Dan Greaney (LEOM), 5Leo Moore (RDGF), and 6Nicholas Genin (NWTS).
157: 1James Tildsley (SHAW), 2Carnell Davis (Ponaganset), 3Antonio Arguello (NTWN), 4Daniel Woods (WELL), 5Anthony Lombardi (MTHP), and 6Ben Byrne (Nashua South).
165: 1Colby Vital (Ponaganset), 2Matt Pappas (BHEN), 3Evan Schibi (GLBT), 4Harry Marino (COND), 5Jacob Critchfield (Hollis Brookline), and 6Brady Ouellette (Noble)
175: 1Cyrus Jones (SHRN), 2Harrison Muller (Danbury), 3Vincent Rivera (Xavier), 4Rhys Dewar (CENCTH), 5Cooper Theriault-Dinielli (PLNV), and 6Adryan Urena (LSA).
190: 1Sam Josey (SJP), 2Chase Catalano (XAV), 3Dylan O’Brian (FWRD), 4Logan Holmes (SHAW), 5Dante Richardson (CHSW), and 6Grady Pease (MDMK).
215: 1Matt Harrold (HAV), 2Owen Pavao (S-B), 3Shamus Pease (MDMK), 4Taiyo Gemme (OLWB), 5William Buffington (TAUN), and 6Merlin Smith (EDL).
285: 1Kaz Morosetti (NKNG), 2Brian Waller-Reitano (CENCTH), 3William Martinez (WLLS), 4Bishop Kearns (Bishop Guertin), 5Chris Levesque (OXFD), and 6Chase Galke (SHLT).
The full results for the boys are available here on Arena Flo Wrestling.
Girl Results
100: 1Ella Paris (Salem NH), 2Parker Theriault (Mattanawcook/PVHS), 3Sophia Gordon (SWIN), 4Riley-Anne Tarmey (TRIT), 5Abigail Garland (MTBL), and 6Hannah Perro (Noble).
107: 1Sora Bukoski (Penobscot County Wrestling), 2Elsa Scott (SHRN), 3Maggie Campbell (Woburn), 4Amelia Hough (Milford), 5Kelsie Strong (MARSH), and 6Clara Reynolds (NMIL).
114: 1Allison Patten (PILG), 2Kennedie Davis (BR), 3Ava Gamberdella (BRNF), 4Addie Smith (VERG), 5Mia Annello (BILL), and 6Ella Libiszewski (LUD).
120: 1Jillian Blake (TRUMB), 2Hannah Dyckman (Bristol County/Dighton Rehoboth), 3Maleeah Rios (BC), 4Alanna Smith (CMHL), 5Lauren McAteer (WPO), and 6Monica Flores Romero (Fairfield Warde).
126: 1Adelina Tate (ELTC), 2Caitlin Castoldi (Woburn), 3Delaney Frost (Noble), 4Maisa Allen (OTV), 5Ashlynn Cummings (FLUD), and 6Luca Marshall (TCTY).
132: 1Madeline Ngo (Newton North), 2Alexia Coleman (Salem MA), 3Eliana Selerais (AMTY), 4Kaydn Hansen (MTBL), 5Kylie Biter (OXFD), and 6Faith Young (Middleborough).
138: 1Adriana DeGroat (FRMG), 2Nevaeh Grunhuvd (MSBC), 3Winner Tshibombi (STRF), 4Keira Lynch (Salem NH), 5Daphen Nyan (Davies Career & Tech Academy), and 6Ania Konieczna (SHRN).
145: 1Sophie Grunhuvd (MSBC), 2Gabriella Kiely (STRF), 3Josephina Piel (NMIL), 4Gabriella Ramos (AGWM), 5Regan Murphy (Canton), and 6Hailey Isham (MT ABE).
152: 1Ava McGinnis (NOKO), 2Nmachukwu Okoli (BR), 3Zady Paige (BLFS), 4Rileigh Fagan (BP), 5Nora Demaine (Lake Region), and 6Mackenzie Lacoss (Spaulding).
165: 1Kaydence Atkinson (NBHS), 2Gabriella Mighty (STAM), 3Bethany-grace Dean (Bristol Eastern), 4Sadie Nadeau (Spaulding), 5Jordyn Reynolds (GLTS), and 6Stella Christopher (AGWM).
185: 1Kayli Morris (PLATT), 2Madi King (BBA), 3Madison Beauregard (Concord), 4Leanna Watson (Putnam), 5Emma Leonido (HANV), and 6Jillian Boncore (Alvirne)
235: 1Jeily Euceda (NRWK), 2Hillary MacDonald (LAWR), 3Lillian Soper (BUCK), 4Elaine Pinto (DURF), 5Jadaliz Acosta (Bloomfield/Weaver), and 6Alei Fiatoa-Fautua (NPRO).
View the full results for the girls here.
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- Timberlane Wins NH JV Tourney; Salem 4th, Milford 5th, Nashua North 8th, Bedford 10th: Wrestling Roundup
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- Bedford, Exeter, Salem Win Bouts | North Beats South In Nashua | More: NH Wrestling Results, Part 2
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- Rhode Island’s Bishop Hendricken High School Again Wins NH’s Capital City Classic Wrestling Tournament
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- Concord’s Wrestlers Continue Their Winning Ways With Victories Against Souhegan, Bow, And Plymouth
- Londonderry, Merrimack, Portsmouth, Souhegan, And Salem Win At Weekend Wrestling Quads: NH Roundup
- Bow, Exeter, Londonderry, Milford, Nashua North, And Souhegan Win Wrestling Matches: New Hampshire Results
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- A Dozen Schools Battle On The Seacoast | Souhegan Takes 3 At Quad | Merrimack Duals: NH Wrestling Results
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- Salem Girls, Milford Boys Place 1st At Nashua Tourney | Londonderry Sweeps At Bow Quad: NH Wrestling Roundup
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- Concord Wins 2026 Minickiello Tourney; Souhegan 5th; Portsmouth 6th: NH High School Wrestling Roundup
- Concord Boy Wrestlers Place 5th, Souhegan 7th; Salem Girls 2nd At 2-Day Maine Tourney: NH Wrestling Results
- Crimson Tide Places 5th; Salem Girls 3rd At George Bossi Holiday Tourney: New Hampshire Wrestling Roundup
- Central Catholic Places 1st, Shawsheen Tech 2nd, And St. John’s Prep 3rd At Historic Wrestling Tourney
- Crimson Tide Beats Jaguars, 75-5, While Bedford, Salem, And Souhegan Notch Wins: NH Wrestling Results
- Concord’s Crimson Tide Places 2nd At 2025 Salem Blue Devil Tournament: New Hampshire Wrestling Results
- Wrestlers From 5 Schools Scrimmage At Concord High School In First Bouts Of The Season
Do you have a news tip? Email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella’s YouTube or Rumble channels. Patch in New Hampshire is now in 217 communities — and expanding every day. Also, follow Patch on Google Discover.
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Rhode Island
RI’s Civil War history reveals an overlooked soldier | Opinion
Watch President Trump announce ‘Patriot Games’ for 2026
President Donald Trump touted the “Patriot Games” next year in a video address that also emphasized “no men playing in women’s sports.”
As Rhode Island joins the nation in marking its 250th anniversary, I’ve been asked a fair and important question: Why highlight Amos (Ramos) Butler? Why elevate one individual when there are so many well-documented figures already woven into our state’s history?
My answer is simple: because history is not only about what we have long remembered, but about what we failed to see.
I did not set out to find Amos Butler. I encountered him while researching Civil War records connected to Rhode Island: lists of names, enlistment dates, regiments. In those records, I found a man listed as “Amos Butler,” born in Mexico, who served in the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment (Colored) during the Civil War. His name alone gave me pause. Amos is not a common Mexican name. That detail led me deeper into the archive, where questions of identity, language and recordkeeping began to surface.
What emerged was not a heroic legend or a tidy narrative, but something more historically instructive: a glimpse into how 19th-century bureaucracies recorded – or misrecorded – immigrant lives.
Amos Butler served alongside Black soldiers in a segregated regiment at a moment when the nation was redefining freedom, citizenship and belonging. His likely Spanish surname, Ramos, appears to have been Anglicized – or misunderstood – by the very system charged with preserving his service. That single alteration tells us a great deal about how people like him moved through official history: fully present and contributing, yet partially obscured.
This is not about retroactively assigning modern identities or reshaping the past to fit contemporary frameworks. It is about acknowledging what the records themselves reveal. Civil War historians know well that military documents often flatten race, erase origin, and simplify identity. Butler’s story fits squarely within that established scholarship. What makes it notable is that it unfolds here, in Rhode Island.
State histories tend to emphasize regiments, battles and leadership. Far less attention is given to the individual enlisted men whose lives complicate our assumptions about who served and why. Butler’s story adds texture to Rhode Island’s Civil War narrative by reminding us that migration, race and service were already intertwined long before the 20th century.
The 250th anniversary of the United States invites reflection, not revisionism. Major commemorations have always prompted historians to revisit archives, ask new questions, and consider whose experiences were overlooked. But commemoration is also, at its best, an act of recognition. To name and remember people of color who lived, labored and served in earlier generations is not to diminish the past – it is to honor it more fully. Their lives are not footnotes to history; they are part of its foundation.
We often say that history is written by those who leave records. But it is also shaped by how carefully we read those records – and whether we are willing to notice the irregularities, the misspellings, the lives that don’t quite fit our expectations.
Honoring Amos Butler is not about elevating one person above others. It is about acknowledging that the American story, and Rhode Island’s story within it, has always been broader and more diverse than the version many of us inherited.
At 250 years, we have an opportunity not only to look back, but to commemorate those whose presence affirms that people of color have always been here – living, serving and shaping this country in ways we are only beginning to fully recognize.
Marta V. Martínez is the executive director of Rhode Island Latino Arts. She serves on the RI250 Commission. Martínez is producing a first-person monologue of Amos (Ramos) Butler, which will be presented as part of the RI250 celebration.
Rhode Island
Michael Flynn attends ‘Rhode Island First’ rally in Warwick
WARWICK, R.I. (WJAR) — Former U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn appeared at a “Rhode Island First” rally in Warwick Saturday night with Vic Mellor, a congressional candidate running to unseat Rep. Seth Magaziner in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District.
Protestors gathered near the entrance of the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick ahead of the rally, where Flynn and Mellor gave remarks along with other conservative speakers and musicians.
“The purpose of this is to motivate the base, because there’s such a high percentage of Republicans and Independents that don’t vote,” Mellor said.
Devin Bates reports on a rally for Vic Mellor, a Republican challenger to Rep. Seth Magaziner, that featured Michael Flynn. (WJAR)
Protestors picketing outside the hotel felt differently, with organizers calling out the hotel’s owners for hosting “individuals associated with the January 6 insurrection, election denialism, and extreme rhetoric.”
“We don’t agree with Crowne Plaza letting them be here, we think it’s kind of sad that they do,” said Kristen Lancaster. “They’re not pro-democracy, they’re anti-healthcare, anti-science.”
Ahead of the rally, Flynn shared his thoughts about Rhode Island’s current federal delegation as Mellor seeks to become the first GOP candidate elected to statewide office since 2006, when Donald Carcieri was re-elected as governor.
“You’ve got manufacturing potential here, you have a workforce that really could be first class, but you don’t have a federal elected body of people right now that are bringing that back, because they’re fighting opportunity,” Flynn said.
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NBC 10 News reached out to IHG Hotels and Resorts for comment on protestors’ frustration over the Crowne Plaza hosting this event, but the company had not responded.
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