Woonsocket Radio News Room

 

Redistricting Commission OKs new districts; maps now move to General Assembly for approval

 

STATE HOUSE — The Special Commission on Reapportionment approved new House, Senate and Congressional district maps during its final meeting on Wednesday.

Legislation enumerating the district boundaries will now be drafted and introduced in the House and Senate chambers. These bills will be assigned to committees and go through the same process as other bills. Once the General Assembly has codified the new districts into law, city and town clerks will be tasked with notifying the voters in their communities of any changes in their districts.        

The new maps, which can be found at riredistricting.org, are the result of months of hearings around the state, all of which were open to the public and televised live on Capitol TV. 

The 18-member commission was tasked with providing recommendations to the General Assembly by January 15. According to the legislation passed by the General Assembly last year and signed into law by the Governor, the commission included six House and six Senate members, requiring each chamber to have four members from the majority party and two from the minority party. Three members of the public were appointed by each chamber as well.  The co-chairs were Sen. Stephen R. Archambault (D-Dist. 22, Smithfield, North Providence, Johnston) and Rep. Robert D. Phillips (D-Dist. 51, Woonsocket, Cumberland).

The state constitution calls for the General Assembly to reapportion its districts as well as the two congressional districts after each 10-year federal census to reflect population shifts. The most recent census took place in 2020.

 

The FBI is working with colleges to warn of antisemitic threats of violence. That comes as campus protests pop up across the country over the Israel-Hamas war. FBI Director Christopher Wray told NBC News the agency doesn't directly track university protests, but is giving schools information to deal with potential threats.       Former President Trump returns to court in New York City this morning for his criminal hush money trial. Trump faces felony charges of falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged affair.       The Biden administration is making a preliminary agreement with semiconductor maker Micron, another investment through the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. The President will announce the six-billion-dollar deal with the Idaho company today in Syracuse, New York. The money will go to support two chip manufacturing hubs in New York and Idaho.        Google has fired another 20 employees for their involvement in protests over its dealings with Israel. The tech giant has a cloud computing contract with the Israeli military, and pro-Palestinian workers have been staging sit-ins and other forms of protest. This brings the total number of employees fired over the matter to fifty.        A U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President Harris has been hospitalized after showing what is being described as "distressing behavior" Monday morning. The incident took place at Joint Base Andrews, with Harris not present at the time. According to CBS News, the agent was speaking incoherently, eventually physically provoking another officer.        A Beatles guitar that's been missing for over 50 years has been discovered in the attic of a British house. Julien's Auctions says the 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar is the same one John Lennon played on classics like "Norwegian Wood," and he can be seen playing the guitar in the movie "Help!"        

Old News Archives