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Rhode Island
How Smug Brewing and RI Beer Club are making ‘That’s so Fetch’ happen and helping pets
On crowded shelves, brewers stand out with catchy names, designs
In its 13 years, Proclamation has produced hundreds of different beers, and they strive for consistency between beer style, name and design.
The Rhode Island Beer Club has collaborated with Smug Brewing Company to create “That’s So Fetch.” Sales of the beer will benefit Animal Rescue Rhode Island.
Do you see what they did there?
The Belgian witbier was brewed with tangerines and cardamom beginning on March 5 at the Pawtucket brewery. “It’s light, refreshing, and just the right amount of spice – totally fetch,” goes the marketing.
Not only will $1 of every sale go to Animal Rescue, there’s an April event planned to gather a crowd and raise even more money.
The special release will debut at a launch party on April 5 from 1-4 p.m. at Smug Brewing, 100 Carver St., Pawtucket. A portion of the proceeds from each pint sold, and a portion of beer can sales, will go directly toward helping animals.
The event will also feature raffles and giveaways, with a representative from Animal Rescue Rhode Island present to share more about their mission, programs and the animals they serve. The RI Beer Club will also collect donations of items needed by the rescue group.
A food truck will be on-site for food purchases.
The initiative to pair beer and animal rescue came from Shannon Salisbury, co-founder of the Rhode Island Beer Club, who wanted to do something for the community.
“We wanted to create a beer that not only tastes great but also gives back to a cause that means a lot to us,” she said.
She approached Smug Brewing and owner/head brewer Rob Darosa because she knew they did a fair amount of collaborations. They were all in on the initiative.
“Partnering with Smug Brewing for this event allows us to bring the community together over a great brew while supporting a fantastic local organization,” said Salisbury.
The label was designed by Beer Club content and brand manager Morgan Schaffrick and invokes references to the film “Mean Girls” where the term “That’s so fetch” originated.
“She really brought the idea to life in the best way,” said Salisbury.
To help keep the margins higher for the donation portion, it will be sold only at the brewery while supplies last. They will be pouring pints as well as selling cans.
What is the RI Beer Club?
“It all began 14 years ago when Joyce Leisge and I wanted to start a beer club,” said Salisbury.
After college, it’s a challenge to make adult friends. They saw a beer club as a way to network with their peers. But there wasn’t a significant beer scene at the time and the club petered out, she said.
After the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to start it up again. They declared their mission to celebrate the craft beer scene in Rhode Island by bringing beer lovers together for networking, tastings, and collaborations with local breweries.
Since then, the RI Beer Club meets on the first and third Friday of each month at a different brewery. The meetings start at 7 p.m. Each brewery sets aside space for the group that is usually 20-35 people. Sometimes they offer some free food or beer.
The club posts its gatherings on Instagram, Facebook and Reddit. There’s no membership fee to belong to the RI Beer Club.
“We have people of all ages and they feel comfortable because they come back,” Salisbury said. Many are transplants to Rhode Island. They’ve had one engagement in the group.
With the club running well, Salisbury knew the time was right for a community project to help a worthy organization.
She chose Animal Rescue Rhode Island which in 2024 saved 526 homeless animals, provided families in need with over 80,000 pet meals through its pet pantry and educated nearly 1,500 students through its animal scholars program.
“That’s so Fetch” might be the first project, but Salisbury hopes it won’t be the last.
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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Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the free WPRI 12+ TV app.
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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