News & Commentary

 

The RI Department of Transportation (DOT) is holding a public hearing tomorrow afternoon on proposed regulations addressing the imminent installation of toll gantries for the state’s new truck toll program – but the proposal contains no provisions addressing critical privacy issues raised by the system.

Rhode Island Department of Education Commissioner Ken Wagner announced his commitment tonight to require all school districts in the state to adopt comprehensive policies affirming the civil rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students. The announcement, made at a meeting of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, supports a petition that the ACLU of RI and nine other organizations filed last month seeking the adoption of a regulation to provide this protection.

One Year After Disastrous UHIP Rollout, ACLU Is Heading Back to Court To Seek Additional Remedies for Needy Food Stamp Applicants

Yesterday, Governor Gina Raimondo signed into law a bill providing for the release of various state records from the investigation of the 38 Studios scandal. She criticized Attorney General Peter Kilmartin for standing in the way of getting the records released, stating: “It's time for Attorney General Kilmartin to stop opposing the will of the people, and to disclose all 38 Studios investigation records that his office has done everything to block from public view."

In an important victory for the rights of medical marijuana patients in the state, R.I. Superior Court Judge Richard Licht today issued a preliminary injunction against a Smithfield ordinance that the ACLU argued was an attempt to undermine the state’s medical marijuana law by imposing significant burdens on patients’ access to treatment in conflict with state law. The decision establishes an important precedent because a number of other municipalities have adopted, or are considering adopting, similar troubling restrictions on the rights of medical marijuana patients, although Smithfield’s appeared to be the most egregious.

It's possibly the most adorable banned book some children will never see. It's a story about love, family, and a fuzzy baby penguin whose parents have waited for her for years. Yet, And Tango Makes Three, the true story about a family of penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo, has been among the top ten challenged books in the United States seven times (and was the most challenged book of the year for four of those times).

Five members of Governor Gina Raimondo’s Justice Reinvestment Working Group and six other groups active in criminal justice reform today issued a sharp response to Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s recent attack on the passage of justice reinvestment legislation by the General Assembly.

By Johanna Kaiser