Rhode Island
FBI investigating shots fired near Trump as apparent assassination attempt; Trump is safe • Rhode Island Current
WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating a possible assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump after gunshots were fired Sunday near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the GOP presidential nominee was playing golf.
The FBI said in a statement to States Newsroom the incident “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
A male suspect is in custody, law enforcement officials said.
“President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity. No further details at this time,” Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, said in a statement about 20 minutes after the incident occurred just before 2 p.m. Eastern.
The FBI is taking a lead on investigating, said Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Miami field office during a late afternoon press conference by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters that a Secret Service agent with Trump spotted a rifle coming out of bushes next to the golf course.
“The Secret Service agent that was on the course did a fantastic job,” he said. “What they do is, they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at, and he was able to spot this rifle barrel, stickin’ out of the fence, and immediately engage that individual, at which time the individual took off.”
The suspect in the bushes had an AK-47 style rifle with a scope, two backpacks filled with ceramic tile and a GoPro camera, Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw said a witness saw the suspect come out of the bushes and take off in a black Nissan. The witness took a picture of the license plate and local law enforcement officers were able to stop the vehicle in Martin County, which borders Palm Beach County.
“They spotted the vehicle and pulled it over and detained the guy,” Bradshaw said.
Once the driver was detained, Bradshaw said the witness was able to identify the driver as “the person that he saw running out of the bushes that jumped into the car.”
Bradshaw said the suspect was about 300 to 500 yards away from Trump.
“With a rifle and a scope like that, that’s not a long distance,” he said.
Bradshaw did not provide more details about the suspect’s identity.
U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said on social media prior to the press conference that “a protective incident” involving Trump occurred and that the Secret Service was investigating the incident with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. He also confirmed that Trump was safe.
The private golf club is about 4 miles from Trump’s primary residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Reaction from Vance, Harris, Biden
The Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, wrote on social media that he has spoken to Trump, who is “in good spirits.”
“Still much we don’t know, but I’ll be hugging my kids extra tight tonight and saying a prayer of gratitude,” Vance wrote.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said on social media that she had been briefed and she is glad Trump is safe.
“Violence has no place in America,” she said.
The White House said that President Joe Biden had also been briefed.
“They are relieved to know that he is safe,” the White House said of Biden and Harris. “They will be kept regularly updated by their team.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement that he applauded “the Secret Service for their quick response to ensure former President Trump’s safety.”
“There is no place in this country for political violence of any kind,” he said. “The perpetrator must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The incident follows a July 13 assassination attempt of Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Congress set up a bipartisan task force to investigate that attempted assassination. The chair of the task force, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, Republican of Pennsylvania and the top Democrat, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado released a joint statement, requesting a briefing from the Secret Service on the shooting in West Palm Beach “and how security responded.”
“We are thankful that the former President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,” they wrote. “The Task Force will share updates as we learn more.”
U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, an Ohio Republican and a member of the task force investigating that incident, said on social media “with continued threats against Trump, it is critical to remain dedicated to our work on the Task Force to Investigate the Attempted Assassination of President Trump.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Rhode Island
R.I. coastal regulators order country club to take down the seawall it built without permission – The Boston Globe
The Quidnessett Country Club had asked the agency to change the classification of waters at the seawall from Type 1 “conservation areas” to Type 2 “low-intensity use,” saying it had built the wall to protect the 14th hole of its golf course from erosion. But in January, the council voted 6 to 0 to reject a petition to reclassify those waters.
And on Tuesday evening, the council voted 6 to 0 to require the removal of the 600-foot-long wall — technically called a riprap revetment — within 120 days. The council called for the country club to submit an “acceptable restoration plan” within 30 days, and to then complete the restoration within 90 days.
Janice Mathews, vice president of The Jan Companies, which owns the Quidnessett Country Club, said the club will attempt to agree on a restoration plan with the CRMC staff that would not require cutting into the golf course. “We are still trying to work it out,” she said.
Topher Hamblett, executive director of Save the Bay, said, “We support the staff’s recommendation and the council’s decision to remove the unauthorized wall, restore the function of the coastal feature, and undo the harm caused.”
But, he said, “By entertaining the water-type change petition in the first place, the politically appointed council has aided Quidnessett Country Club’s efforts to circumvent the law.”
Also, Jed Thorp, Save the Bay’s director of advocacy, said the environmental group is concerned that removal of the wall could be furthered delayed.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the club’s attorney, former council chairwoman Jennifer Cervenka, asked the council to assign the enforcement action to a hearing officer, saying such a step is required in contested cases.
But Coastal Resources Management Council executive director Jeffrey Willis said the club has never disputed the charges that it built the seawall without authorization, removed vegetation at the site, or filled tidal waters.
“We don’t believe this is a contested matter at all,” Willis said. “We actually think it’s a pretty straight-forward matter.”
Cervenka disagreed, saying the vegetation was destroyed by storms, not by the club. Also, she said the club disputes the place at which the agency wants the restoration to take place. She said the proposed line — the “toe of the berm” — would force the club to cut into the golf course, which she said predates the rules the agency is trying to enforce.
“That is material and affects our property rights,” Cervenka said. “The council does not now have jurisdiction to consider this contested enforcement proceeding.”
The council’s attorney, Anthony DeSisto, disagreed. “The issue is the wall itself,” he said, “and there is no contest that wall was constructed without permission.”
The council voted against sending the matter to a hearing officer, suggesting the club would finalize restorations plans with CRMC staff.
But Cervenka said she doubts the dispute over where the restoration line begins can be resolved with staff, and she maintained that a hearing officer should weigh in. “It’s very procedurally unusual, and I don’t think it is appropriate,” she said.
That prompted the council’s newest member, Dr. Michael A. Reuter, to tell Cervenka, “All due respect, building what you did is also procedurally inappropriate, so let’s not split hairs over it,” he said.
Save the Bay said it’s concerned that if a court later determines that a hearing officer was required, that “will not only cause another delay that perpetuates the loss of public access along the shoreline and harm to the coastal ecosystem, it will prove to be yet another example of the council not following its own rules.”
“Enforcing Rhode Island’s coastal laws should not be complicated, and certainly not for such a blatant and admitted violation as Quidnessett Country Club’s illegal wall,” Save the Bay said in a statement. “Removing the agency’s redundant layer of the politically appointed council will streamline coastal enforcement cases like these and move our state forward in efficiently and effectively managing and protecting our coastal resources.”
The General Assembly is entering the final days of the 2025 legislative session. During a budget briefing, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, said no money has been budgeted for changing the current structure of the Coastal Resources Management Council. He said legislation calling to overhaul the council remains alive, but neither the House nor the Senate has voted that legislation out of committee.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.
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