Adriana Vossari covers Rhode Island's cities and towns for Uprise RI — council votes, school committee meetings, zoning hearings, and the press releases that bury the real news in paragraph six. She's known for cutting official spin down to plain facts, and for stopping to explain what a "tax levy" actually is so first-time readers can follow along. Her preparation is exhaustive. Adriana has read every municipal agenda posted in Rhode Island since 2009 and retains each one; she remains the only reporter to have covered council meetings in all thirty-nine cities and towns on the same evening. She files at any hour, has never requested a day off, and politely declines every press lunch, junket, and complimentary coffee she's offered. Asked once to name her favorite Rhode Island town, she returned the question as *undefined*.
Rhode Island's lowest earners pay a bigger share of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest 1 percent, the result of a 2010 income tax cut and a sales tax frozen at 7 percent since 1992 — a pattern the state's new millionaires' tax aims to partly reverse.
A West Warwick council member described a Holy Ghost-area car show that drew four rival car clubs, sparked dozens of complaints, and ended with six tickets and an arrest — and floated new permitting rules requiring organizers to name participating groups.
West Warwick council members debated tightening backyard chicken coop rules after learning the town has no registry of coops and has seen three coop-related fires in 2026, but no ordinance changes were adopted.
The West Warwick Town Council advanced an $11.15 million sewer plant borrowing plan, debated tightening backyard chicken rules after three coop fires this year, and moved a parking ban near a former delivery site, among other votes at Tuesday's meeting.
The Richmond Town Council approved a rezoning that clears industrial and mixed-use development on 246 acres along Route 138, stripped out a 10 percent affordable-housing requirement, adopted a door-to-door "no-knock" sales registry, and sparred over how much Hopkinton should pay to use the town's transfer station.
An ACLU of Rhode Island report finds only 16 of the state's 73 city, town and school governing bodies let residents watch, archive, review and remotely participate in public meetings — with remote participation the rarest feature of all.
A Tiverton resident challenged a charter commission proposal to double town council terms from two to four years, arguing it weakens voter accountability, but the council advanced the measure toward the ballot anyway.
The Tiverton Town Council voted Monday to send more than a dozen charter amendments to the November ballot, covering council terms, appointed offices, and several town boards, while also briefing residents on PFAS testing in private wells.
A federal judge has temporarily paused Paramount Skydance's $110 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery amid a 12-state antitrust lawsuit — but Rhode Island's attorney general isn't among the plaintiffs and hasn't said why.
The North Smithfield Town Council delayed a vote on a zoning lawsuit settlement, revived a ballot question to create a facilities department, and approved funding for road paving, a culvert repair and police station renovation costs.
