Health Care For Immigrant Children + Charter Schools + Local Beer

Greetings! Welcome to the Pawtucket Patch Daily — the quickest way to get caught up on the city's top news stories, right in your inbox. I'm your host, Mary Serreze. I can be reached at mary.serreze@patch.com. Feel free to send me your tips, thoughts, and ideas for this daily newsletter.

First, the weather:

• Friday: Possible light rain until evening. Temps: High of 73, low of 61.
• Saturday: Partly cloudy throughout the day. Temps: High: 87 low: 70.
• Sunday: Partly cloudy throughout the day. Temps: High of 92, low of 70.

Today's Top Five Stories From Pawtucket:

1. Sen. Sandro Cano (D-Dist. 8, Pawtucket) wants to ensure that all low-income children, regardless of immigration status, qualify for health insurance under the state’s RIte Care program. Cano and Rep. David Morales (D-Dist. 7, Providence) delivered remarks on the State House steps to advocate for their legislation. “We are stronger and safer when everyone in Rhode Island has the health care they need,” Cano said on Thursday.

2. The General Assembly will be considering a moratorium on new public charter school seats. But the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council is pushing back. According to RIPEC, charter schools outperform their sending districts and do a better job serving low-income students of color. In a new report, RIPEC says approximately 80 percent of charter public school students reside in the state’s four poorest communities: Providence (47.3%), Pawtucket (14.0%), Central Falls (13.6%), and Woonsocket (4.4%). Read it at GoLocalProv.

3. Annie Jacke Burch, a Pawtucket resident and veteran lieutenant in the Nurse Corps during Vietnam, was honored with a quilt at a May 15 event in Cumberland. The mission of the Quilts of Valor Foundation is to cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing quilts to remind them that there’s a nation full of people who are grateful to them. Ethan Shorey at The Valley Breeze has the story.

4. The Cranston City Council on May 24 acknowledged the recent shooting death of 19-year-old Tatanya Francois. Francois, a 2020 Cranston High School East graduate, was killed last month as she sat in a car outside a home on Japonica Street in Pawtucket. Councilors said Francois’s killing has been hard for the local Haitian community. “Gun violence is not a Providence problem. It’s not a Pawtucket problem, it’s not a Cranston problem. It’s our problem as a community,” said Ward 2 Councilwoman Aniece Germain. Read about it at the Cranston Herald.

5. A summer beer brewed and packaged at The Guild Brewing Company in Pawtucket is getting some love. “This beer is definitely for anyone who’s tired of the heavy double IPAs, the hazy New England IPAs or the super fruity sours,” remarked brewer Mike Reppucci. “Don’t get me wrong, those beer styles can be truly amazing, but sometimes you just want to kick back with a traditional, light and crushable beer.” Read about Chair 2 Light Lager in The Providence Journal.

Events:

Sims Market, Farm Fresh Rhode Island
Saturday, June 5 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
1005 Main St #8130, Pawtucket

ESL Class Registration and Testing
Saturday, June 5 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Pawtucket Public Library Dome Room

Sports: Boys’ Varsity Volleyball: Barrington vs. Tolman/Shea at Tolman High School. Game time is 6:30 p.m. Boys' Tennis Main Draw: Slater Park, 3 p.m.

Friends of the Ten Mile River are looking for volunteers to help pull invasive water chestnuts on Saturday. The work starts at 9 a.m. People who want to help should email tenmilefriends@gmail.com for instructions and the location.

You're all caught up. Follow Pawtucket Patch on the web, and if you like what we're doing, ask your friends to sign up for our newsletter. Have a great day.

About me: Maine native, UMass Amherst Regional Planning alum. Stick-shift driver, explorer. I believe in good government and the public's right to know. Interested in just about everything. Former reporter with The Republican/MassLive. Did my time as news director at WBSM 1420 AM in New Bedford. I still like paper maps. Reach me at mary.serreze@patch.com.

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