12/30/2020
Cumberland shows character, care as COVID-19 rages
Organizers Joyce Hindle Koutsogiane, left, and Mike Tusoni attached an American flag to a car when they were preparing for the start of Cumberland’s 94th annual Arnold Mills Fourth of July Parade and Road Race on Saturday, July 4, along Nate Whipple Highway. The traditional parade was replaced with a motorcade along the major roadways in town and a virtual road race. (Breeze File photo by Robert Emerson)
Pandemic impacted every area of life
CUMBERLAND – An unprecedented modern health crisis upended every aspect of life in 2020, from the way Cumberland residents worked and played to the way they learned and gathered socially or for entertainment.
12/30/2020
Local activists on the fight for racial justice: ‘We’re not done yet’
Isaiah Figueroa, left, and Dewayne Hill, both from Woonsocket, marched in a youth-led Black Lives Matter protest in Woonsocket in June. (Breeze File photo by Lauren clem)
WOONSOCKET – While much of the focus of 2020 was on the COVID-19 pandemic, events of this past spring threw another kind of national crisis into the spotlight.
In May, the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer set off a national reckoning over race and use of force that spread to communities across the country. In Woonsocket, groups held peaceful protests along Main Street even as fears those protests could turn violent went unfulfilled.
Former educator, historian honored on New Cumberland arboretum’s ‘Path of Leadership’
Updated Dec 28, 2020;
Posted Dec 28, 2020
Former West Shore educator and historian Gerald Brinton was the 2020 honoree whose contributions to his community are memorialized on a plaque along the Path of Leadership at the Peiffer Memorial Arboretum and Nature Preserve in New Cumberland.
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A former West Shore teacher and history buff is the 2020 honoree chosen to be memorialized on a bronze plaque along the “Path of Leadership” at the Peiffer Memorial Arboretum and Nature Preserve in New Cumberland.
Gerald Brinton, who died in 2013 at the age of 94, served many years as the curriculum director in the West Shore School District following years of service as a teacher at Cedar Cliff High School and New Cumberland High School as well as three other schools before that.
Rhode Island House Majority Leader Blazejewski lays out his priorities
The Providence progressive says he chose âa seat at the tableâ over rebellion and now holds the No. 2 House position
By Edward Fitzpatrick Globe Staff,Updated December 16, 2020, 6:48 a.m.
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Rhode Island House Majority Leader Christopher R. Blazejewski, a Providence DemocratCourtesy of Christopher R. Blazejewski (Custom credit)
PROVIDENCE â In November 2018, a group of progressives rebelled against House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, a conservative Democrat from Cranston. But one Providence progressive, Representative Christopher R. Blazejewski, did not join them.
Though he was inspired by former President Barack Obama, had organized a local chapter of the progressive social club âDrinking Liberally,â supports abortion rights, and has an âFâ rating from the National Rifle Association, Blazejewski chose to remain on Mattielloâs leadership team as deputy