Portsmouth Abbey Honors Crimmins

Bill Crimmins, who co-founded the Newport Music Festival and helped establish the Norman Bird Sanctuary, is being honored by the Portsmouth Abbey School with the creation of the William A. Crimmins ’48 Scholarship Fund for Arts, Athletics and Civilization. Crimmins, now 91, attended what was then Portsmouth Priory. Although he later attended Notre Dame and lived in Maine and Florida, […]

Council Approves Breakfast Food Truck


As issues regrading food trucks continue to be debated in Newport, on April 28 the City Council unanimously approved a new food truck license. The license granted to SunnySide on the Street was one of two remaining. Owner Anthony Soly lives in North Smithfield and is assistant women’s basketball coach at Salve Regina University. “I’m always in Newport. It was […]

Slavery’s Link with American Commerce


“New England Plantations: Commerce and Slavery” by Robert A. Geake, posits that commerce in the early days of America was intimately linked to slavery. That story has become more extensively known only of late. Yet without this link, America likely would not have come to thrive economically as quickly as it did. Geake, a Rhode Island historian, opens with a […]

A Lively Conversation: Pro and Con

The announcement of the Waites Wharf demolition decision Tuesday morning on the Newport This Week Facebook page garnered the attention of hundreds of visitors in barely an hour. The post now shows 117 wide-ranging comments and more than 7,000 views. One writer, Lee B., says, “Private property. Everyone is crying about what they want, how about I want you to […]

Something’s Wrong in Newport

To the Editor: The recent Planning Board hearings regarding a demolition permit for Waites Wharf were sad examples of how Newport gets steamrolled by developers. The consequences of the City Council’s writing of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, combined with Planning Board members (appointed by the council) who interpret the CLUP, were on sad display. The playing field is tilted […]

No Biased Assessments in Newport

To the Editor: I am personally offended by Roger Warburton’s Guest View (“Report Shows Unfair Tax Burden on Blacks,” April 22) that implies that Newport County assessors intentionally overvalued properties owned by Black homeowners compared to white homeowners. I believe the author is attempting to incite outrage by obscuring local facts. I was with the Tax Assessor’s Office in Newport […]

Electric Cars a Walking Hazard

To the Editor: Newport neighborhoods are great areas to walk. However, I walk every day and rarely a day goes by that I don’t have to jump out of the way of an electric car silently backing out of a driveway. I especially worry about this hazardous situation because there are so many children walking with – and often ahead […]

Leno on Roadshow

Jay Leno’s 1936 oceanfront “Seafair” home was featured on an episode of PBS’s Antiques Roadshow on Monday, May 3. The former Tonight Show host and his wife, Mavis, bought the estate in 2017 for $13.5 million. According to PBS, they are celebrating the show’s 25th season with new, notable people from the worlds of comedy, film, TV, literature, music, and […]

Council Sets Public Budget Hearing


The Newport City Council agenda for April 28 was the shortest in months, resulting in a meeting that lasted just 23 minutes. There were hints that the tax rate proposed for the next fiscal year budget might be a subject of contention. Facing anticipated resident financial hardships in 2020, the council had unanimously voted not to increase commercial and residential […]

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