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This might be the strangest law I’ve ever seen, yet somehow, it just makes sense.
Rhode Island has officially passed a new regulation allowing residents to take home roadkill – yes, really – as long as they obtain a free permit within 24 hours of collection.
Now, before you gag at the thought, hear me out: this is actually a smart, sustainable move that reduces waste on our roadways.
Compare that to Massachusetts, where if you hit a deer, you’re required to call the Environmental Police and your local authorities. You can’t just toss it in the trunk and call it dinner. In contrast, Rhode Island cuts out the middleman, and honestly, I hope Massachusetts takes notes.
According to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, residents can legally salvage animals like white-tailed deer, turkeys, beavers, coyotes, muskrats, pheasants, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, woodchucks and even mute swans – again, with a permit required within a day.
Of course, common sense still applies.
Fresh roadkill is the name of the game; no one’s suggesting you scoop up a week-old raccoon and fire up the grill.
When properly handled, this can be a real source of meat. A single deer, for instance, can weigh around 150 pounds and yield up to 70 pounds of boneless venison. That’s plenty of steaks, roasts, shoulders and ground meat to fill your freezer for weeks on end, if not months.
The same goes for salvaged wild turkeys. Thanksgiving might just come early.
This isn’t just about filling plates, either. It also saves state workers from having to clean up carcasses, freeing them up for other essential tasks.
So hats off to Little Rhody for leading the way in practical sustainability. To that, I say: bon appétit, Rhode Island.
Now that it is legal to scrape and cook roadkill in Wyoming, you’ll need to know how to cook that.
The world has changed and yet some laws have stayed the same.
These are some of the strangest laws still on the books in Rhode Island.
Gallery Credit: Nancy Hall
There are a lot of strange laws still on the books in Massachusetts, many that also carry actual punishments and fines. Though we’re pretty sure no one has been arrested for the crimes we’re about to list, we’re also pretty sure you have violated at least one of these laws in the last month or so.
Gallery Credit: Nancy Hall
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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