Only a Week Left for 2020 Census

To the Editor: Census 2020 will be closing at the end of September. Newport’s response has improved, but we still have a ways to go. We need every resident’s help to make sure Newport has an accurate count. Whether Rhode Island will keep our two congressional seats and the amount of federal dollars the state (and Newport) will receive for […]

Bigger Hotel Needed

To the Editor: If I had one wish it would be to sell the Gateway Visitor Center to the Marriott so they could expand to 500 rooms and double their meeting space. We need a 500- room hotel to attract more groups. We can keep building all these tiny hotels, but the best thing we could do is to expand […]

Just Curious

To the Editor: As a Newport taxpayer, I was intrigued by the Letter to the Editor in your Sept. 17 edition from four “seasoned” Middletown councilors that stated “our team’s accomplishments include (at no cost to taxpayers)” a list of 14 items which collectively must have cost a lot of money. So, I am curious how all those things got […]

Unification Survey Results Revealing

To the Editor: Citizens Exploring School Unification (CESU), a grass-roots organization dedicated to improving the future education of our students, recently conducted a single question survey of candidates for Middletown’s Council and School Committee. This question was also asked during on-air forums and included Newport candidates. The question was: “Regardless of the impending vote outcome on a new Rogers High […]

GUEST VIEW Quality Development in North End Matters


I understand that some election rivals were perturbed at the use of the word “ghettoization’” by Councilor Susan Taylor to describe the condition separating the North End from the rest of Newport. I believe Newport voters will affirm that a basic and fundamental literacy should be seen as a value in council elections. Certainly use of that word when interviewed […]

Youthful Omission

To the Editor: In the Sept. 10 issue was a lovely photo of my mother, Lee Cobb, campaigning for Kate Leonard. In the article, you stated that Newport’s “young voters said they wanted change,” and also that “younger voters wanted new blood.” I find it somewhat disingenuous that I was cropped out of that photo, as, at 22, I was […]

Upholding Ginsburg’s Legacy

To the Editor: In 2004, Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave the keynote address at the annual George Washington Letter Reading Ceremony at Touro Synagogue in Newport. That year, we celebrated 350 years of Jewish life in America. Justice Ginsburg was the sixth Jewish justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. As Bernard Aidinoff, the chairman of the Touro Synagogue Foundation at the […]

Middletown Councilors Hijack Town Charter

To the Editor: A majority of Middletown councilors promote themselves as a “team” and then describe their “team’s” accomplishments (“Seasoned Middletown Councilors Have Delivered,” Sept. 17), arrogantly giving full credit for the listed accomplishments of the Town Council to just four of its members: Paul Rodrigues, Theresa Santos, Barbara VonVillas and Robert Sylvia. When you look carefully at the achievements […]

Basketball Grant Prompts Questions from Other Leagues


Mayor Jamie Bova called for a recreational and sports workshop in October after the Newport City Council unanimously accepted a $100,000 state grant to build a new basketball court at the Abruzzi Sports Complex. But other sports leagues, including Little League baseball with T-ball, began marking their territory. Proponents of a new skate park, which some say might cost $1 […]

Raptors Soaring Southward

NATURE in the NEIGHBORHOOD

Last Sunday, I noticed a bird staring at the sky, so I looked up in curiosity. A large dark raptor was circling high above and as it turned, the sun caught the distinct white of its head and tail and I smiled. The bald eagle rode the warm rising air without flapping a wing until it reached the peak and […]