Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not - June 12, 2026

HOT

A New Girls' Flag Football League is Launching in Providence

Lorenzo Perry is looking for flag football players this summer in Providence - specifically, girls.

With the growing popularity of the sport - and opportunities for female athletes - the seasoned football coach who runs GameDay Fitness is launching a middle school summer flag football league.

“It’s for girls in grades six, seven, and eight,” said Perry, who was a standout for La Salle before playing for Bryant University. “At the high school level, there’s a huge push to make it a sanctioned sport.”

Last summer, the Rhode Island Interscholastic League recommended that girls’ flag football become a sanctioned RIIL sport beginning in the spring of 2027.

The GameDay Fitness program runs from June 21 through July 26 at Hope High School, and this week, GoLocal spoke with Perry about his new summer program.

READ MORE
 

HOT

Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore has a fitting tribute to Gordon Wood. Tragically, Wood died this week.

Amore wrote:

Gordon Wood claimed that being mentioned by Matt Damon’s character in the famous bar scene in Good Will Hunting was his two seconds of fame and that “more kids know about that than any of the books I have written,” like his seminal works Creation of the American Republic (1969) and The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992). But, generations of historians, history teachers like me, and millions of Americans were, whether they knew it or not, taught to think about America’s origin story through the historiographic perspective of Gordon Wood. His untimely death has prompted me to reflect on his incredible legacy.

Wood believed deeply that the American Revolution was the most important event in American history because it was fought and won on behalf of our highest aspirations and most noble values. The most important of these values was the radical idea of equality, which he believed was the single most transformational force in the story of America and, more broadly, in the story of the world in the years after the American Revolution. READ MORE

HOT

World Cup

The World Cup is the ultimate global sports event. The event is being overshadowed by controversies—ticket prices, politics, and other financial schemes.

FIFA, the governing body, has become intertwined with fraud over the past decade.

But ultimately, the game will overcome. After all, it is the beautiful game.

PHOTO: Peter Glaser, Unsplash

NOT

The Continued Decline of Federal Hill

There are some wonderful businesses working to stabilize the area, but sadly, there are just too few.

This past weekend's violence was just another example of what appeared to be a never-ending number of episodes of violence.

The business owners are split, and the Smiley administration seems inept at addressing the issues.

NOT

Foulkes Says She’ll Stand Up to Trump. As CVS President, the Company Was a Major Donor.

In a new ad released by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Helena Foulkes, she looks into the camera and says, “ I've got lots of experience dealing with a guy like Donald Trump.”

And she does, according to federal campaign records, a report in the Wall Street Journal, data from the Center for Responsive Politics, and a GoLocal story, as President of CVS, the company in 2017 was a leading donor to Trump.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

The largest donors to Mr. Trump’s campaign include political committees for CVS Health Corp. and LendingTree Inc., a loan servicing company, FEC reports show.

Foulkes served as President of CVS from January of 2014 to February of 2018.

CVS Financial Backing of the GOP

At that time in 2017, CVS PAC had donated $35,000 to Trump Victory PAC that cycle. The PAC is funded in part by the top executives at CVS.

Donors to CVS’s PAC include top executives, CEO Larry Merlo, CFO David Denton, Executive Vice President Helena Foulkes, Dr. Troyen Brennan, Executive VP and Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Legal Counsel Thomas Moriarty, as well as many other top CVS officials.

The CVS PAC had already funneled over $526,000 primarily to Republicans in Congress and the Trump campaign.  

The last report was filed on December 31, 2017, according to data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics. READ MORE

NOT

Inflation Jumps to 4.2% — Highest in 3 Years

The inflation numbers from Washington continue to worsen. Year-over-year inflation hit a three-year high of 4.2% in May, according to the Trump administration numbers released by the Department of Labor.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “That was the highest year-over-year print since April 2023 and a sign that high energy costs stemming from the conflict with Iran are continuing to push up price pressures.

Yet the month-over-month rate of increase cooled slightly compared with April, a sign that the sharp rise in energy prices may have peaked and be softening.”

“Economists said May’s reading, which was in line with expectations, is likely to be the high-water mark in the recent run-up in inflation from this year’s energy-price shock. That’s assuming gasoline prices, which have ticked down in June, don’t accelerate again on renewed conflict in the Strait of Hormuz,” added the WSJ.

The impact is eroding paychecks and making homeownership more difficult as a rate cut becomes increasingly unlikely in the short run.

NOT

McKee and the Washington Bridge

Governor Dan McKee should just skip the press conferences about the Washington Bridge.

Wednesday, he claimed that the bridge was ahead of schedule. But a previous schedule had promised that at the latest, the bridge would be completed this summer.

NOT

A Providence firefighter has been charged after allegedly assaulting a juvenile at a high school boys’ lacrosse game over the weekend.

The incident took place adjacent to the Division III Championship between Lincoln High School and Mt. Hope High School at Brown University on Saturday afternoon.

Rhode Island Interscholastic League is investigating.

According to police, parents of the juvenile victim are pressing charges against Derek Campbell, a Providence firefighter and father of a Lincoln High School player, after they said he grabbed their son during a fight.
About Incident

Providence Police were called to Lloyd Avenue shortly after 6 PM on Saturday, after dispatch advised there was “an adult male attempting to fight with juveniles on scene.”

According to police, when officers arrived, the suspect had fled the scene - but witnesses provided a description of what they said took place.

Witnesses told police that they believed the suspect, later identified as Campbell, “was drinking in the Moses Brown parking lot across the street prior to the game.”

According to witnesses, when the Mt. Hope team was walking to their bus after winning the game,  the “Lincoln team along with Campbell were upset and yelling obscenities towards the team.”

The victim told police he had yelled, “Get the f-ck out of here” toward Campbell, at which time Campbell “turned towards [his] direction grabbing him by the shirt collar and shaking him.” The victim told police that Campbell had not physically struck him.

His parents told police they wished to press charges.

Campbell is now being charged with one count of “simple assault or battery.”

Lacrosse Parents and Arrests

In 2019, GoLocal broke the story of the father of a La Salle Academy boys lacrosse player who was arrested days after the Rhode Island boys lacrosse championship at Cranston Stadium, for simple assault and disorderly conduct. 

Scott Young, 51, of Douglas, Massachusetts, was arrested on June 7, 2019, by Cranston police after an investigation into the incident at the game on Sunday, June 2. 
 

About the Incident -- and Arrest

According to sources at the game, Young approached the coaching staff of Moses Brown team following the game and slapped one of the coaches, after La Salle won 7-6. 

Young was then escorted off the field.  READ MORE