Monday, April 27, 2026 | Edition #29
GOOD MORNING, WARWICK. What a weekend. A bridge in Cranston decided to do its best impression of Route 37, except instead of just being perpetually under construction, it skipped straight to collapsing onto the Amtrak tracks. Progress, technically.
The Yankees swept the Red Sox, which hurt. Then the Red Sox responded by dropping 17 runs on Baltimore, which felt like sweet justice, until they fired Alex Cora right after the game. Win by 16, get fired. Still unclear what the winning margin was supposed to be.
Meanwhile, ten days ago it was 80 degrees and we were all acting like summer had finally arrived for good. Lately we’ve been back in 50-degree purgatory, digging the same sad hoodie out of storage and quietly judging every life choice we've ever made.
But hey, today is 65 and sunny, which in late April Rhode Island is rarer than a Newport Creamery with no line on a mid-summer Monday night.
TODAY’S SNAPSHOT
⏱️Sunset Time: 7:39PM
🌔 Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous
⛽ Avg. Gas Price: $4.06 (click here to find the cheapest gas near you)
💧 Chance of Rain: 0%
WHAT’S GOIN’ AHN
💥Cranston's Bridge Problem Became Everyone's Problem
Image: WPRI
Friday night around 7:30, structural parts of the Route 10 North on-ramp to I-95 detached and fell onto Amtrak tracks near Wellington Avenue in Cranston, and the damage rippled up and down the entire Northeast Corridor. Amtrak halted all service between Boston and points southwest, including Kingston, New Haven, and New York. The MBTA canceled a Providence Line train out of Wickford Junction. Trains already in motion were stopped mid-route, with Amtrak personnel scrambling to coordinate transportation for stranded passengers.
Governor McKee and Cranston Mayor Hopkins were both on scene as roughly two dozen crews from Amtrak and RIDOT worked through the night to assess the damage. Wires were down across the tracks. The electricity on the rails was shut off as a precaution. Media was pushed back due to structural concerns, which is never a great sign.
Crews worked overnight to remove debris, and by Saturday Amtrak was running limited service with diesel locomotives while repairs to the overhead electrical system continued. Several Acela and Northeast Regional trains were canceled outright through the weekend. No injuries were reported, which is about the only thing that went right Friday night.
🚽 What Happens After You Flush (No, Seriously)
Most of us don’t think twice about it. Flush, forget, move on.
But last week, the Warwick Sewer Authority opened up its wastewater treatment plant to the public, giving residents a behind-the-scenes look at where it all actually goes.
The quick version:
Roughly 5 million gallons of wastewater flow through the system every day
It travels through nearly 400 miles of pipes
And within 24 hours, it’s cleaned and discharged into the Pawtuxet River
Along the way, operators showed off everything from debris caught in the system (including toy figurines and an AirPods case) to the bacteria, aka “the bugs,” that break down waste at the microscopic level.
Also worth noting: those “flushable” wipes? Yeah… they’re not. Some were still fully intact after two years.
It’s one of those systems you never think about… Turns out a lot has to go right every day so that nothing goes wrong in your bathroom. Think about that next time you flush a wipe.
QUICK HITTERS
🍽️ Rhode Island Red Food Tours just landed on USA TODAY's list of the Top 10 Best Food Tours in the country, one of only two New England tours to make the cut. Turns out the rest of America is finally figuring out what we already knew about the food here. [Read more here]
🍼 Newport 16-year-old Grace Muenter turned a spare closet into a home diaper bank, hand-delivering diapers and baby supplies to families across the state, including right here in Warwick. Over 1,000 diapers donated, zero closet space for clothes, zero complaints. [Read more here]
👷🏼♂️ Former Warwick mayor and governor Lincoln Chafee was back in the city last Thursday for the groundbreaking on Skye City Centre, a 297-unit apartment complex going up near T.F. Green, complete with a five-story parking garage and ground-floor retail, with doors expected to open in winter 2027. The vision for transit-oriented development around the airport has apparently been in the works for decades, which means Warwick is only about 30 years behind schedule. [Read more here]
🏠 The Warwick Housing Authority completed its first single-family home modernization this year, giving a Friendship Avenue property in River View a $212,000 makeover including new siding, windows, flooring, bathrooms, and a deck. A family of five who has been on the waitlist since 2019 will be moving in at $873 a month instead of the $2,480 market rate. Six years on a list. One ribbon cutting. And finally, a kitchen that doesn’t look like 1983. [Read more here]
🌉 Rhode Island settled with Deloitte last week for $7 million over the 2024 RIBridges data breach, bringing total recovery to $12 million, after a cybercriminal group called Brain Cipher used a stolen Deloitte password to sit inside Rhode Island's public benefits system for five months while the firewall sent nearly 400 unread alerts. Deloitte found out not through its own monitoring, but because Brain Cipher posted about it on their own website, which is one way to run a cybersecurity operation. [Read more here]
Image: Yahoo
WEATHAH THIS WEEK
Welcome to Purgatory.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tue, Apr 28 | Statewide Business After Hours | Link | The Central RI Chamber hosts its monthly mixer at the Crowne Plaza on Greenwich Ave, free to attend and a solid excuse to network with people who are also just there for the appetizers.
Tue, Apr 28 | Pints & Pages: Brewery Book Club | Link | A book club at Apponaug Brewing on Knight Street, which means you can show up having only read the back cover and still have a great time. This month's suggested reads are Yellowface by R.F. Kuang or How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. 6:30 to 8:30 PM, all are welcome.
Thu, Apr 30 | Comedy Night at O'Rourke's | Link | Dinner and a show in Pawtuxet Village, with comedians from John Perrotta's Comedy Factory taking the stage at 7:30 p.m. and live music from M2 carrying you through the $60 buffet beforehand. That buffet includes Guinness mac and cheese and whiskey-glazed chicken, which is honestly reason enough to go before anyone tells a single joke. Reservations at 401-639-7726.
Sat, May 2 | Women's Boxing Class | Link | An all-levels women's boxing class with local coach Destinee, beginner friendly with advanced options, drop-in is $20-$30. DM @dezzyfitness to lock in your spot before it fills up.
Sat, May 2 | Breath of Hope RI 5K | Link | The annual 5K at Goddard Park kicks off at 10:30 a.m. to raise money for IPH, a rare lung disease that a Warwick-area child named Landon was diagnosed with at age 4. He's now in second grade playing soccer. Run, walk, or just donate.
Sun, May 3 | RI Women's Expo | Link | Over 90 local vendors, cooking demos, a fashion show, and wellness speakers at the Crowne Plaza from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Men are technically welcome too, per the website, which feels like a dare.
BRAIN FOOD
🧠 Where in Warwick?
This is a photo from one of Warwick’s roads from the late 1920s. Can you guess where it was taken?
Image: Rhode Island Memories
Answer below.
📖 The Warwick Word of the Day
Loquacious (lo-KWAY-shus) | adjective | tending to talk a great deal.
From the Latin loqui, meaning "to speak." A loquacious person does not simply tell you a story. They tell you the story, the backstory, a tangent about something that happened in 1987, and a correction to the tangent. You have a loquacious aunt. You have a loquacious neighbor. You have sat next to a loquacious stranger at a diner and learned their entire medical history before your coffee arrived. They mean well. They just have a lot to say. All of it.
Thanks to an anonymous subscriber for submitting today’s word of the day! You can submit one yourself, here. I’ll be sure to include it in the next edition!
ONE LAST SIP
✅ Where in Warwick Answer: That’s Narragansett Parkway. On your next drive down to O’Rourke’s, see if you can find exactly where this was taken.
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That's it for today. Take a few minutes to sit in the sun today. It’s good for you. Thanks for reading! Keep smiling.
