16-Year-Old Boy Buys Confiscated Storage Units to Help Owners Recover Family Treasures

16-year-old teen Shane Jones of Rhode Island has been helping the owners of heirloom possessions be reunited with their items.

By Roger Harper

25 June 43 Views

Birth For World's Critically Endangered Red Wolf Brings Rising Population to Nearly 250

Roger Williams Park Zoo has announced the birth of a red wolf pup, the world's most endangered canid species, as part of its red wolf breeding program.

By Jeanne Goddard

08 June 42 Views

Stranger Captures Humble Sidewalk Marriage Proposal in Magical Photo

Some marriage proposals are elaborately staged affairs, but for one Rhode Island couple, a simple and spontaneous engagement in the rain, on a New York City sidewalk, will always be remembered, thanks to the priceless photos by a stranger.

By Jeanne Goddard

24 April 44 Views

No More Textbooks: Students Read Better With Books They Choose

In Rhode Island, teachers in a local public school have overcome animosity with charter school educators. Instead, they have joined together to dramatically raise reading scores for young children who choose their own books.

By Jeanne Goddard

21 February 34 Views

Boy Wins Hero Award for Giving New Shoes to Thousands of Kids in Shelters

A 14-year-old from Rhode Island, Nicholas Lowinger, was chosen as a 2012 Huggable Hero, winning $10,000 for outstanding work in public service. His foundation, Gotta Have Sole, donates new footwear to children living in homeless shelters. New shoes not only provide the perfect fit for a child, but they also instantly increase a child's self-esteem. To date, Nicolas has purchased 5,000 pairs of shoes for homeless kids by raising tens of thousands of dollars.

By Jeanne Goddard

23 July 44 Views

Flickering Coastal Lights Bid Good Night to Kids at Children's Hospital (WATCH)

Every night at 8:30PM, business signs and flashlights start to blink as a sparkling goodbye to the sickly children watching from the hospital windows.

By Tiffani Spengler

03 October 37 Views

Brown University to Drop Fee for Low-income Applicants

The Rhode Island-based Ivy League school announced it will be waiving its application fee for the students who can't afford it.

By Tiffani Spengler

17 April 47 Views

Rhode Island Waitress Lands $458 Tip on $42 Pizza (WATCH)

The single mother of three has worked at Uncle Tony's Pizza in Cranston, Rhode Island for the last 15 years. She has regular customers that leave her good tips, but never like the cash she got from a couple last month to whom she served pizza.

By Jeanne Goddard

05 September 40 Views

Principal Announces Snow Day With Soulful Adele Cover Video (WATCH)

After school was canceled due to snow, a Rhode Island principal should be nominated for a Grammy for his announcement to stay home–to the tune of "Hello".

By Tiffani Spengler

14 February 46 Views

13-Year-old Recycles Cooking Grease into Heating Oil for Needy Families

After reading an article in the local newspaper, Cassandra Lin of Westerly, Rhode Island discovered that many residents could not afford to heat their homes. Inspired to do something, she formed a team of five seventh graders to recycle waste cooking oil and turn it into biofuel for distribution to needy families. Started in 2008, TGIF (Turn Grease Into Fuel) works with local biofuel companies to recycle the grease from residents and restaurants, and refine it into biodiesel. The award-winning project has been collecting more than 36,000 gallons of waste cooking oil a year, bringing an estimated value of $60,000 of alternative energy that keeps 92 needy families warm in the winter.

By Jeanne Goddard

15 July 33 Views

Famed Electric Guitar Sells for $965,000

The electric guitar Bob Dylan was playing at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when he got booed for playing rock 'n' roll, sold for $965,000 on Friday, which is a world auction record for a guitar. The 1964 Fender Stratocaster had been accidentally left on a private aircraft by the songwriter and his band in the months after the Rhode Island festival.

By Jeanne Goddard

07 December 48 Views

Humpback Whale Rescued off Rhode Island

Officials from Rhode Island's Mystic Aquarium freed a 30-foot juvenile humpback whale from entanglement in a fishing net Monday.

By Jeanne Goddard

20 November 42 Views

Congressman Touts Rhode Island's Switch to Hybrid Buses, Trollies

U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin is encouraging other agencies to follow the lead of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority that recently bought 53 hybrid buses and upgraded 10 trolleys to run on a hybrid system.

By Jeanne Goddard

05 May 40 Views

Rhode Island Passes Bill to Guarantee Rights of Homeless People

Rhode Island's governor is expected to sign into law the first Homeless Bill of Rights in the United States as early as next week, formally banning discrimination against homeless people and affirming their equal access to jobs, housing and services, and public places.

By Jeanne Goddard

14 June 40 Views

A Fiscal Hero, Rhode Island Treasurer Balances Interests to Reform State Pension Fund

Instead of getting abuse from state teachers whose pensions were cut, Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island's treasurer, who had quarterbacked the major reform, is receiving praise for saving the system from certain calamity. She is being called a fiscal Hero.

By Jeanne Goddard

24 September 43 Views