Rise & Shine! Your Newport County guide for Nov. 30
Rise & Shine! I’m Scott Barrett, digital editor for The Daily News, and today is Nov. 30, the 334th day of the year — 31 days remain in 2021. On this day in 1954, a grapefruit-sized fragment of a meteorite crashed through the ceiling of a Sylacauga, Alabama, home, into the living room and off a radio before striking homeowner Elizabeth Hodges, who had been sleeping on the couch. That fragment is now on display in the Smithsonian.
Here & Now
• Need an intimate gathering place, but don't want to rent out an entire hall or reserve a space inside a noisy restaurant? A new business in Newport might have the solution. Newport residents Desiree Halaka and Sierra Strattner recently opened Little Gold after they needed a place to accommodate a 10-person party the day after their wedding.
“We were like, there should be this space where you can gather,” Halaka said. “Where you can choose to make your own food, or get takeout from your favorite place, and you can have 35 people if you want, or you can have six.”
Read more from ace business reporter Savana Dunning here.
• The town of Portsmouth is spending the largest chunk of its $5.1 million in ARPA money to buy or rehabilitate apparatus for the fire department. That seems to fly in the face of the responses collected in a town-wide survey and puzzled at least one Town Council member.
“We did a survey, people responded to the survey, I read through the comments and people wanted infrastructure-related stuff. You know, water, sewer, internet, roads. And if you look at the list of what we’re spending money on, the single largest line item is the purchasing of fire apparatus which I think is not in alignment with what the people would like to see the money used on,” Daniela Abbott said told reporter Laura Damon.
Read the full story here.
• The teenager accused of murder outside a Memorial Day weekend party in Newport will now face his charge in a higher court. The Rhode Island Attorney General's office announced Monday that Tyrese Poulsen, 19, has been indicted by a statewide grand jury on one count of murder. Read more here.
• Police in Portsmouth are seeking information about two malnourished dogs that were left abandoned in a park on Thanksgiving morning. Read more here.
• The former Bank of America site on Narragansett Avenue in Jamestown soon could be home to a three-story, mixed-use residential and business space if the developers receive approval from the Zoning Board of Review for certain aspects of the design. Savana Dunning has the story.
• Rogers High School senior Luc Lavigueur will continue his baseball path at the NCAA Division I collegiate level, but he won’t be the only member of his family to wear the two-tone blue of the Maine Black Bears. Read my story on Luc here.
• Newport County continued to trend in the wrong direction in regards to new COVID cases, according to data released last week by the state Department of Health. Get the latest town-by-town figures here.
• Today is Giving Tuesday, a chance to support nonprofit organizations after days of holiday shopping. The Great Newport Chamber of Commerce has a list on its website of 75 nonprofit groups and organizations. Check it out here.
• Gov. Dan McKee will be in Newport today, joined by Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor and Newport Housing Authority Executive Director Rhonda Mitchell, to announce grants that would increase internet access for low- and moderate-income households statewide. Reporter Sean Flynn will be on hand.
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Born today
Kaley Cuoco (actress), 36
Ben Stiller (actor), 56
Billy Idol (musician), 66
Mandy Patinkin (actor), 69
Ridley Scott (filmmaker), 84
Weather report
Low tides: 9:48 a.m., 9:49 p.m.
High tides: 3:41 a.m., 4:02 p.m.
Sunrise: 6:50 a.m. Sunset: 4:18 p.m.
Water temperature: 53.8 degrees.
Municipal meetings
Newport
Cliff Walk Commission, 4:30 p.m.
Tree Commission, 6 p.m.
Portsmouth
School Committee — Finance Subcommittee, 6 p.m.
Local obituaries
Today is …
Giving Tuesday
National Mason Jar Day
National Computer Security Day
Trivia Tuesday
In 2001, a first-of-its-kind club that gave the 16- to 20-year-old crowd a place to hang out opened on Aquidneck Avenue in Middletown. It closed less than a year later because owner Chip Parker said it wasn't making money and had been put under a microscope by town officials. What was the name of that club? Send guesses to sbarrett@newportri.com.
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This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Rise & Shine! Your Newport County guide for Nov. 30
