PROVIDENCE The 2021 Rhode Island legislative session opens Tuesday with COVID-19 still raging, vaccinations months away for much of the population and disruption still dominating almost every facet of life.
In a sign of the times: Rhode Island s legislators will not start the new session in their ornate chambers, which got new paint, new rugs and new leather upholstery only a year ago and $166,000 worth of plexiglass partitions in mid-pandemic.
They will instead meet, take their socially distanced oaths of office, and elect their leaders at Veterans Memorial Auditorium (for the House) and Rhode Island College s Sapinsley Hall (for the Senate).