From the Newsroom: The Providence Journal

Dr. James McDonald is the medical director for the R.I. Department of Health. If you watch Gov. Gina Raimondo's press conferences, you see him every Sunday. Listen as he takes us behind the scenes of protecting public health during the coronavirus pandemic -- and philosophizes about the stories all of us are writing daily as we live the COVID-19 crisis. @gwaynemiller #podcast for @projo. Story at...

More than a decade in the making, the Netflix original documentary “Have a Good Trip,” an exploration of LSD and other psychedelics starring Sting, Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman and many other A-list performers, premiers on Monday. Latest production from Mike Rosenstein, Rhode Island native and son of Benny's family. @gwaynemiller #podcast for @projo story at providencejournal.com

'Four or five weeks ago, if I had to be honest, I was scared about our ability to manage this crisis." Dr. Timothy J. Babineau, president and CEO of Lifespan, Rhode Island's largest hospital and healthcare system, discusses the #coronavirus pandemic -- and reflects on his previous career as a surgeon, and his 'Normal Rockwell' father doctor. @gwaynemiller #podcast for @projo. story at: https://bit...

Rhode Island’s transition to social distancing, which came earlier than most other states’ and has been strictly practiced by most residents, has significantly mitigated the impact of coronavirus disease here, Lifespan and Brown University Dr. Mitchell Levy one of the local and national leaders in the fight against the pandemic, told The Journal on Tuesday. @gwaynemiller #podcast for @...

On April 12, Rode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo and Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the state Health Department, instruct people to stay home for Easter, as difficult as that will be, to help contain spread of #coronavirus disease. @gwaynemiller #podacst for @projo. Story and photos: https://bit.ly/2XvcUeW

“From the get-go the idea was to take an underutilized park, bring some life to it, bring some children to it, make it so it’s usable,” DaSilva said. “ My goal is to see if we can make something beautiful out of something that has been ugly.”

“I knew when she (had a game) all of the parents would show up in separate cars because the kids would have to be there half an hour earlier. “My parents at that time were healthy and driving, they’d come to watch my daughter’s game. Then you have the next team come in and you haven’t finished yet and left, and certainly there were always problems parking when we had...

 “I don’t care how many years go by, you’re not going to make the streets wider, you’re not going to be able to redesign the property leading into that playground,” she said, adding that the neighbors’ opposition has been twisted by the mayor and other neighbors who support the pending proposal — making it seem like they hate children. “It becam...

Marc Pappas, director of the Rhode Island Emergency Agency, discusses plans and preparations regarding #coronavirus disease, COVID-19 -- and the role state residents should play in helping to curb the outbreak. This is no hurricane or blizzard, Pappas tells The Providence Journal. @gwaynemiller #podcast, story at providencejournal.com - all coronavirus coverage at http://bit.ly/2TO4KvX

Join Providence Journal sports writers Eric Rueb (@EricRueb) and Bill Koch (@BillKoch25) for a podcast preview of the upcoming Interscholastic League state basketball tournaments, which are scheduled to start Thursday. Boys and girls are set to open play and the games were still on as of Wednesday afternoon's recording. We look at the potential impact of the coronavirus on scheduling and venues (1...

Weeks before Rhode Island’s first case of #coronavirus, COVID-19, was confirmed, the staff at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and throughout the Lifespan system began planning for a potential spread, says nurse Lindsay McKeever, Hasbro’s Director of Pediatric Emergency Services. Those plans, being updated daily, include preparations to keep frontline workers at emergency departments a...

Margaret R. Paccione, PhD, Director of Clinical Innovation at Bradley Hospital, discusses how the coronavirus disease can prompt anxiety and fear in children and adolescents -- and what they and their parents and other adults in their lives can do about it. @gwaynemiller #podcast for @projo. Story at providencejournal.com

Rhode Island Department of Health director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott provides an update on COVID-19, the #coronavirus disease, Monday morning, March 2, 2020. @gwayne miller #podcast for @projo. Stories at providencejournal.com

Brown University School of Public Health epidemiologist Mark Lurie discusses the origins and spread of COVID-19, and the prospects for a vaccine – and what the future may hold as the number of confirmed cases surpasses 85,000, with nearly 3,000 deaths, in more than 60 countries and counting. @gwaynemiller #podcast for @projo, coronavirus stories at providencejournal.com

Penelope (Penny) Muse Abernathy, a former executive at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, author of “The Expanding News Desert,” and now the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina discusses changes in journalism – and the effect on American democracy -- in this week's national broadcasts of "Story in the Public Squa...

Osheen Emdjian talks to Providence Journal columnist, Mark Patinkin, about his four huskies and the memory of his daughter, Ani. 

“We can do an area, then we move on to another area and the area we did maybe a month or two ago has slipped back,” said DPW Director Leo Perrotta, noting that having residents speak dozens of different languages across the city has made getting the message across more challenging. Providence paid $459,000 in 2018 for rejected loads; in 2019 it increased to $476,000. This year, the cit...

North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi has been a member of the Resource Recovery Board of Commissioners for more than a decade. North Providence paid only $628 in 2018 for contaminated loads. But that number tripled in 2019 and this year the town is on pace to pay $7,540.“We’ve had a couple of contaminated loads,” Lombardi said. “Do I like it? Absolutely not. Do I know wh...

“Some municipalities will try and debate that. If we had a person up there watching our loads come in we could make the argument maybe only 50% percent of that load should be rejected. Even if we were doing that we would still be paying the $250 equipment charge to move the rejected material from the recycling pile to the trash pile,” Earls added.

Rhode Island Health Department director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott discusses a 38-page report from the Rhode Island Commission for Health Advocacy and Equity outlining areas where the state and local communities must do better in resolving health disparities. She spoke during a wider discussion at the R.I. Convention Center about the long-term strategic plan “Health in Rhode Island: A Long T...

Lifespan and Coastal Medical, an organization with more than 125 primary care physicians around Rhode Island, have signed a letter of intent to pursue an affiliation that would bring Coastal into the Lifespan health-care system. Lifespan president and CEO Dr. Timothy J. Babineau and Coastal president and CEO Dr. G. Alan Kurose discuss the relationship and what it will mean for patients. @gwaynemil...

Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin interviews Twyler Boyce, 94, of East Providence and discovers how she reacted to seeing her husband, John, return seriously wounded from World War II.

Linda Tropp, professor of social psychology at the University of Massachusetts and a leading force for social justice, discusses effective inter-group dialogue and resolving conflict on this week’s coast-to-coast broadcasts of “Story in the Public Square.” To watch the episode, find your local station and times at  http://bit.ly/2SSdxhv

Eleven superintendents have come and gone in the last 20 years. Now there’s another new school chief in town — Harrison Peters, the man charged with transforming the city’s struggling school system. In a district that has been roiled by turnover at the top, Peters’ contract stipulates a three-year commitment at $225,000 a year. In recent years no superintendent has lasted m...