Woonsocket Radio News Room

 

Speaker Shekarchi statement on the resignation of Housing Secretary Josh Saal

 

Below is a statement from Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi on the resignation of Rhode Island Housing Secretary Josh Saal:

 

“I am disappointed by the lack of progress that was made under Secretary Saal’s leadership and the inadequate reports he recently submitted to the legislature. The General Assembly committed unprecedented resources to address affordable housing and homelessness in the last two budgets, and there has been very little funding spent so far. 

“We need immediate production and I look forward to working with Governor McKee and a new secretary. The time to act is now! The position of housing secretary was created through legislation that I sponsored, and it is vital to have one point of contact responsible for heading our state’s efforts to address the critical housing shortage. I hope the new secretary will be a person of action with a record of getting things done in Rhode Island.”

 

 

 

The U.S. Capitol Police force says it isn't tracking any credible threats ahead of a possible indictment of former President Trump. Still, agencies around Washington are on standby just in case. Trump is under investigation in New York City for paying hush money to an adult film actress he allegedly had an affair with years ago.       California's largest school district will be closing its campuses today. Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho says a last ditch effort to negotiate and avoid a strike fell through on Monday. Sixty-five-thousand district employees will walk out.       President Biden is taking action to protect more than half a million acres of public lands. He's expected to establish two national monuments in Nevada and Texas. He'll sign proclamations to protect Castner Range in El Paso and sacred tribal site Avi Kwa Ame [[ ah-VEE-kwah-may ]] in southern Nevada.       Mother Nature is at it again today in California as a new atmospheric river is slamming large parts of the already rain-soaked state. The storm will be especially dangerous in Southern and Central California where millions are bracing for even more flooding. Los Angeles and San Francisco are already getting hit with rain this morning.       The public is now getting a chance to see what eventually led to Irvo Otieno's death in Virginia. It happened earlier this month near Richmond and security camera footage from Central State Hospital has been released. It shows Otieno handcuffed and shackled as he's in an admissions area of the hospital around 4:20 p.m. before a white sheet is then put over his body nearly an hour and a half later.       The sprawling southern California ranch owned by John Wayne in the 1970s is on the market again. The two-thousand-acre property is just south of Hemet at the foothills of Palomar Mountain. The property boasts a three-bedroom, three-thousand square-foot single-level living space on ten parcels of land, a barn, three wells, and miles of horse and hiking trails.       

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