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A whale in “poor condition” was found stranded in a pond in Rhode Island on Thursday, officials said.
Rescuers with Mystic Aquarium and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) responded Thursday morning to Potter Pond in South Kingstown, R.I. for reports of a stranded whale, Meagan Seacor, a spokesperson for Mystic Aquarium, told Boston.com.
The animal, a 42-foot fin whale, was “emaciated and in a compromised state,” Seacor said.
“After evaluation by our veterinary team and consultation with NOAA and other network partners with large whale expertise, the decision was made to see if the animal would refloat and navigate out of the area with high tide,” Seacor added.
However, the animal was not able to leave the pond on Thursday.
“With welfare as our top priority and considering the poor condition and low likelihood of survival for this compromised animal, the decision was made to use medical intervention to make this whale more comfortable and mitigate prolonged suffering,” Seacor said.
The whale is still alive and shows “no signs of obvious injury” like a vessel strike or entanglement in fishing gear, according to DEM. Despite this, DEM confirmed the whale is in “poor condition.”
DEM said that if the whale was unable to navigate out of the lake on Thursday, “the team [would] evaluate additional options.”
Sarah Callan, a manager of the animal rescue program at Mystic Aquarium, told WJAR that additional options could include euthanasia if the whale is in poor health and compromised. Callan told the news station that it’s “unusual” for animals to become stranded and that it sometimes happens when they are having health problems.
DEM asked the public to keep an “appropriate distance” from the whale.
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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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