Five of the Best Rhode Island Stories of 2016

NEWPORT, RI — A huge fire billowing over Newport, a wily coyote in danger, a Cranston couple even death couldn't separate, a generous Coventry student who gave her scholarship money to a friend in need, and the Boston Bomber widow's unhappiness about a new film rank among the year's top stories.

Here's a recap.

Cliff, the Coyote

Cliff came within a day of being hunted down and destroyed because he'd been deemed a threat to public safety. But public outcry (and a little political pull from Newport Councilor John Florez) persuaded Middletown police to rescind a standing order to shoot him. After evading a sharpshooter armed with a tranquilizer gun, Cliff was captured on Oct. 5 and relocated in the Rhode Island wild.

Dr. Scott Marshall, the state veterinarian, said at the time Cliff's whereabouts were being kept a secret.

Speculation did arise that the state had destroyed Cliff and kept it a secret, but the state Department of Environmental Management's Gail Mastrati said Cliff was moved to a remote location where he would have the best chance to survive.

"It will be difficult for him," Dr. Marshall predicted. Most likely, Cliff will confront another coyote defending his territory. He may be injured fighting. Or he may even be killed.

"No one wants a wild animal to be shot," Marshall said. This outcome is not "a sure death," but "this is far from a happy ending." He called the entire situation "unfortunate" and said the state did consider moving Cliff to a zoo but ultimately felt it was not right to keep a wild animal in a cage.

"We had very few options," he said, " none ideal."

Cliff's special collar was removed when he was captured, so it is not possible to track him anymore, he said. The collar was a geographical positioning system device, which Numi Mitchell, the biologist with the Narragansett Bay Coyote Study, had fitted on Cliff. She was using him and other coyotes to study their habits and particularly find their food sources.

Over the summer, she concluded Cliff had become habituated to people, posed a public safety threat and would have to be killed. But before he could be destroyed, almost 40,000 people signed a petition to save him.

Efforts to teach people not to feed coyotes are supposed to be continuing.

Stonor Lodge Fire

When Stonor Lodge went up in a blaze on Feb. 25, the fire could be seen from Middletown, as smoke billowed over the Cliff Walk. But the impact had more to do with memories of the one-time owners, the late John and Noreen Drexel, according to their daughter. Stonor Lodge was not an architectural treasure, Noreen Drexel O’Farrell said, but people from many walks of life had happy memories of the house because of her parents.

She debunked a story that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy had gone to Stonor Lodge for a rest the day before her marriage to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. O'Farrell doubts that ever happened.

“The house was really about the people who lived in it,” she said. “My parents.

Noreen Drexel is remembered in Newport for her philanthropy, particularly on behalf of Newport Hospital, the Red Cross and Salve Regina University. She threw many garden parties and galas for good causes at Stonor Lodge.

The house was the center of fun, she said.

Coventry Student Gives Scholarship Away to Another Student Battling Cancer

Dakota Grenier was a senior at Bay View Academy when she entered the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Student of the Year competition. The winner would receive a $5,000 scholarship for raising the most money for research. But Dakota had an extra incentive to raise money to fight the disease because her mother survived Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

She and her team came in second and won a $2,500 scholarship. Then Dakota decided to give her share to another student battling leukemia. The team liked the idea and donated their shares, too.

Photo Caption: Dakota, right, and her mother Holly. Credit: Chestnut Hill Studios

Cranston Couple Married 67 Years Die the Same Day

Carmine Luigi Ragosta, 90, and his wife, Francesca (Pagliuca) Ragosta, 88, died March 28 at home. They passed away holding hands.

They had been married for 67 years. They were the loving parents of Robert Ragosta, Esq. and his wife Karen of Cranston, Michael Ragosta and his wife Gloria of Naples, FL and Carol Ragosta Mucica and her husband Dana of Bailey Island, ME. Grandparents of Michael C. Ragosta, David R. Ragosta, Kristen Ragosta-Sparks, Jason Ragosta, Jessica Ragosta Early, Brandon Hawkins, Jared Hawkins and Stephen Ragosta , and Great grandparents of 7.

Boston Marathon Bomber's Widow Unhappy with Movie Depiction

One-time North Kingstown resident Katherine Russell was back in the news Dec. 22 when her Providence lawyer let the media know she's displeased about the way she was depicted in a new movie.

Russell is the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two brothers responsible for killing three people and injuring more than 260.

She was never charged with a crime, although there has been speculation she may have known in advance about the plot.

"Patriot's Day," the new movie about the Boston Marathon bombings, suggests she didn't cooperate with authorities, according to her lawyer Amato DeLuca,

"It's just not true," he told The Associated Press. "I have no objection to them making a movie. ... What I quarrel with is the license they take in portraying Katie as someone who did not cooperate and try to save lives. She did everything she could."

Russell was graduated from North Kingstown High. She and Tsarnaev were living in a Cambridge, Mass., apartment before the bombings.

DeLuca said that Russell was working 80 hour weeks as a home health aide in the Boston area and had no idea that her husband was involved in terrorism.

She has since moved to New Jersey with her daughter.

Cliff the Coyote Photo Courtesy of Tracy Donovan O'Malley