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Rhode Island
First meeting with Rhode Island ends all square – Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
(April 13, 2024) — The Pittsburgh Riverhounds crossed paths with Rhode Island FC for the first time ever, and their initial visit to the newest USL Championship team finished as a 0-0 draw Saturday night at Beirne Stadium in Smithfield, R.I.
The match pitted the Hounds (0-3-2) against former striker Albert Dikwa, last year’s Championship Player of the Year, but it was the goalkeepers who had the best outcomes on the day. Eric Dick made three saves as the Hounds recorded their second straight shutout, while Rhode Island (0-1-4) goalkeeper Jackson Lee also had three stops, including two in a critical late flurry.
First half
Shots on target were tough to come by in the early stages until Langston Blackstock tried a left-footed attempt in the 21st minute that didn’t have enough pace to challenge Lee. Three minutes later, Luke Biasi was well-positioned to block a chance by Rhode Island’s Noah Fuson, and Dick made his first save by stopping a curling attempt on the rebound by Marc Ybarra, another former Hound.
Mark Doyle had one late chance in stoppage time after the ball ricocheted off Hounds defenders, but his off-balance stab at the ball went into the hands of Dick.
Second half
The intensity picked up in the second half, which saw eight yellow cards issued after none in the first half. Emmanuel Johnson entered as a halftime substitute, and he was involved early and often, beginning with a tricky cross that Rhode Island struggled to deal with minutes after the break.
The best chance of the night came in the 77th minute, as the Hounds made a sweeping move with numbers down the left side. Babacar Diene received the ball in the box and smartly cut a pass back to the front of goal, where Edward Kizza’s close-range effort was stopped by Lee. The rebound fell to Johnson, who struck the follow-up with power, but Lee recovered across goal to tip the ball over the bar and deny the Hounds with a highlight-reel save.
Dikwa had his most dangerous chance getting behind the Hounds in the 80th minute, but Dick was fast to advance off his line and deny the striker any angle to hit the goal from the left side.
The Hounds nearly had a golden chance deep into stoppage time as Johnson took a touch blowing past the defense after a turnover. Collin Smith opted to haul Johnson down with a two-armed tackle, and the Rhode Island defender’s gamble paid off by stopping the chance and earning only a yellow card for the last-man foul.
Modelo Man of the Match
Edward Kizza put on an excellent display of hold-up play as a forward for the full 90 minutes, connecting on 81.8 percent of his passes and winning possession five times. He also won a whopping seven free kicks; he was fouled more than double any other player on the pitch.
What’s next?
The Hounds will have a late-night tilt next Saturday, when they go on the road to face Phoenix Rising FC (1-3-1) in a 10:30 p.m. kickoff April 20. The defending USL Championship winners also play later tonight at home against Colorado Springs.
Riverhounds SC lineup (5-3-2) — Eric Dick; Junior Etou (Sean Suber 90’), Luke Biasi, Pat Hogan, Illal Osumanu, Langston Blackstock (Dani Rovira 75’); Kenardo Forbes (Bradley Sample 75’), Danny Griffin, Robbie Mertz (Babacar Diene 75’); Edward Kizza, Kazaiah Sterling (Emmanuel Johnson 46’)
Rhode Island FC lineup (4-5-1) — Jackson Lee; Gabriel Alves, Frank Nodarse, Clay Holstad, Jojea Kwizera (Karifa Yao 65’); Marc Ybarra, Joe Brito (Nathan Messer 79’), Mark Doyle (Prince Saydee 65’), Stephen Turnbull (Collin Smith 65’), Noah Fuson; Albert Dikwa
Scoring summary
None
Discipline summary
RI — Clay Holstad 50’ (caution – tactical foul)
PIT — Illal Osumanu 62’ (caution – reckless foul)
PIT — Langston Blackstock 68’ (caution – tactical foul)
PIT — Luke Biasi 88’ (caution – reckless foul)
PIT — Babacar Diene 90+2’ (caution – reckless foul)
RI — Head coach Khano Smith 90+4’ (caution – dissent)
PIT — Emmanuel Johnson 90+4’ (caution – unsporting behavior)
RI — Collin Smith 90+8’ (caution – tactical foul)
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
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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