Happy Thursday! I'm Dan McGowan, and Thorr Bjorn has been a treasure to URI athletics. Follow me on X (Twitter) @DanMcGowan, on Bluesky @DanMcGowan, or send tips to
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The 2025 elections are over, the federal government is still shutdown, and there is deep uncertainty about whether the Trump administration will pay SNAP benefits this month.
With the holidays right around the corner, the Rhode Island Foundation and Trinity Rep have come up with a creative way to help needy families in the state.
Trinity’s annual run of “A Christmas Carol” begins tonight, and for every donation made to the award-winning theater company between now and Dec. 31, the foundation will make an equal donation to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank up to $50,000.
“Hunger is always looming for many of our neighbors, but this is unprecedented,” Foundation president and CEO David Cicilline said. “The safety net that so many Rhode Islanders depend on to feed their families is on the verge of disappearing. For anyone considering giving to Trinity, there has never been a more urgent time to be generous.”
It’s a fitting partnership. “A Christmas Carol” has always been about seeing poverty not as someone else’s problem, but as everyone’s responsibility. As Juliet Penningtonwrote earlier this week, this year’s performance focuses on delves further into Ebenezer Scrooge’s character.
Who was the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence?
(Answer at the bottom.)
Do you have the perfect question for Rhode Map readers? Don't forget to send the answer, too. Shoot me an email today.
The Globe in Rhode Island
⚓ On this week's edition of the Rhode Island Report podcast, Ed Fitzpatrick talks to US Senator Jack Reed about his concerns regarding President Trump's attempt to politicize the military. Read more.
⚓ My latest column: It's hard to imagine that Dominick Ruggerio would have been this quiet and timid when it comes to the potential closings of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center. Read more.
⚓ With Prospect Medical, Rhode Island patients face a hospital crisis years in the making. My colleague Alexa Gagosz has been all over this story, and continues to break important ground. Read more.
⚓ Speaking at Brown University, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “the only person who matters in the decision to end this war" in Ukraine. Read more.
⚓ Smithfield Schools Superintendent Dawn Bartz is on paid administrative leave pending a legal review of how she handled a report of antisemitic hazing on the high school football team, the school committee chairman announced Wednesday. Read more.
You can check out all of our coverage at Globe.com/RI
Also in the Globe
⚓ The Hotel UMass at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is known for its prime location in the heart of campus, its stark Brutalist architecture, and its prominence as a teaching hotel for students majoring in hospitality and tourism management. Now it’s also drawing attention as one setting in an elaborate cocaine sting. Read more.
⚓ The Boston School Committee Wednesday night approved changes to the admission policy for the city’s three competitive exam schools that supporters say were needed to simplify the regulations and make them more fair. Read more.
⚓ Had Trevor Story exercised his right this offseason to opt out of his six-year, $140 million deal with the Red Sox, there’s a chance he could have secured more money and/or more years on the open market than the $55 million he’s owed for the next two years. But he didn’t want to make a move that might risk leaving the Red Sox. Read more.
⚓ Rhode Map readers, if you want the birthday of a friend or family member to be recognized Friday, send me an email with their first and last name, and their age.
RHODE ISLAND REPORT PODCAST Ed Fitzpatrick talks to US Senator Jack Reed about President Trump's attempt to politicize the US military. Listen to all of our podcasts here.
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