Dominick Ruggerio, Rhode Island's longest-serving legislator, dies at 76

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Dominick Ruggerio, Rhode Island's longest-serving legislator, dies at 76

2025-04-22 02:57 Last Updated At：03:03

Dominick Ruggerio, Rhode Island's longest-serving legislator at nearly 44 years and its Senate president since 2017, died Monday, his office said. He was 76.

Ruggerio, a Democrat, died at Fatima Hospital in North Providence, said Greg Pare, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Senate. He was hospitalized last week.

Ruggerio announced last April that he was receiving treatment for cancer, but he still sought reelection to the Senate and won in November.

In a statement, Gov. Dan McKee, a fellow Democrat, called Ruggerio “a great friend and true public servant who dedicated his life to lifting up the state he loved.”

McKee said Ruggerio “will always be remembered for his unwavering commitment to supporting working families and strengthening Rhode Island’s economy.”

He directed U.S. and Rhode Island state flags to be flown at half-staff at all state facilities and buildings through the day of Ruggerio's internment.

U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both Democrats, expressed their condolences.

"I will miss Donny’s friendship and his unwavering advocacy for our state and the people who make it a special place,” Reed said in a statement. ”Rhode Island is better today because of Senate President Ruggerio’s leadership and dedication.”

Ruggerio was first elected to the House in 1980, where he served two terms before joining the Senate. He had been Senate majority leader before becoming president. As the chamber's most senior member, he was referred to as its “dean.” He represented District 4, which includes parts of North Providence and Providence.

His legislative biography says he co-sponsored initiatives to “make it easy to do business in Rhode Island by reforming the income tax code, cutting red tape, improving access to capital, and building the skills of the workforce.”

Ruggerio was a big advocate for legalized sports betting in Rhode Island, which started in 2018. He also was a leader on legislation requiring that the state be powered completely by renewable energy by 2033. McKee signed the measure into law in 2022.

"It will keep Rhode Island, home to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, on the forefront of renewable energy innovation. And it will help us harness the power of clean energy as a driver of economic growth and opportunity,” Ruggerio said in a statement at the time.

Ruggerio also successfully sponsored bills to address the opioid epidemic.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said Ruggerio “championed efforts to improve public health and increase access to lifesaving cancer screening tests." It inducted him into its Rhode Island Cancer Caucus in 2022.

Kathleen Layton, a volunteer with the Rhode Island chapter of Moms Demand Action, said Ruggerio also would be remembered for his support for gun safety measures, including strong storage requirements and prohibitions on high capacity magazines and banning guns from schools.

“We mourn alongside the rest of Rhode Island to have lost a great leader, and we are thinking of his family during this difficult time,” she said.

Ruggerio, who was anti-abortion, did not support legislation to preserve federal abortion protections in state law. But he said he was determined not to impose his personal views on other Senate members. Lawmakers passed the bill.

Before joining the General Assembly, Ruggerio was a policy aide for the Office of the Lieutenant Governor from 1977 to 1981. He was an administrator for the New England Laborers Labor Management Coop Trust.

Valarie Lawson, Senate Majority Leader, said Monday at a news conference that the Senate will be canceling all its business “until further notice.”

“As many of you know, whether you agreed with him or not on an issue, his door was always open,” she said. “Many times he put is own point of view aside to listen to the members of this chamber and for the good of the Senate chamber he loved.”

Several countries sending firefighting planes to Israel to help tackle major wildfire

2025-05-01 21:21 Last Updated At：21:31

JERUSALEM (AP) — Several countries were sending firefighting aircraft to Israel on Thursday as crews battled for a second day to extinguish a wildfire that had shut down a major highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and sent drivers scrambling from their cars.

The fire broke out around midday in the hills outside Jerusalem on Wednesday, fueled by hot, dry conditions and fanned by strong winds that quickly whipped up the flames burning through pine forests. Several communities were evacuated as a precaution as the smoke turned the skies over Jerusalem gray. Many of the country's independence day celebrations were cancelled as security forces were diverted towards the fire.

The fire has burned about 5,000 acres (20 square kilometers) and is the most significant fire Israel has seen in the past decade, according to Tal Volvovitch, a spokesperson for Israel’s fire and rescue authority. She said the fire has “miraculously” not damaged any homes.

Israel’s fire and rescue authority warned the public to stay away from parks or forests, and to be exceptionally careful while lighting barbecues. Thursday is Israel’s Independence Day, which is typically marked with large family cookouts in parks and forests.

At least 12 people were treated in hospitals on Wednesday, mainly due to smoke inhalation, while another 10 people were treated in the field, Magen David Adom Ambulance services said. Twenty firefighters have been lightly injured, Volvovitch said.

Italy, Croatia, Spain, France, Ukraine, and Romania were sending planes to help battle the flames, while several other countries, including North Macedonia and Cyprus, were also sending water-dropping aircrafts. Israeli authorities said 10 firefighting planes were operating on Thursday morning, with another eight aircraft to arrive during the course of the day.

Israel's fire and rescue authority lifted the evacuation order on approximately a dozen towns in the Jerusalem hills on Thursday.

Three Catholic religious communities who were forced to evacuate from their properties on Wednesday were also able to return on Thursday, said Farid Jubran, the spokesperson for the Latin Patriarchate. He said their agricultural lands, including vineyards and olive trees, suffered heavy damage, and some of the buildings were damaged. But there were no injuries, and historic churches were not affected.

The main highway linking Jerusalem to Tel Aviv reopened on Thursday, a day after the flames had encroached on the road, forcing drivers to abandon their cars and flee in terror. On Thursday morning, broad swathes of burned areas were visible from the highway, while pink anti-flame retardant dusted the top of burned trees and bushes. Smoke and the smell of fire hung heavy in the air.

Israel often sees fires in the summertime, but such strong fires this early in the year are unusual. Many of Israel's forests are planted rather than natural.

One of the organizations that manages Israel's' forests said that the fires had perfect conditions to spread: a winter with little rain, hot and dry weather, and exceptionally strong winds that are shifting direction constantly.

Anat Gold, the director of Israel's central region for the Jewish National Fund, known by its Hebrew acronym KKL, which manages forests, plants trees, and promotes settlement in the Holy Land, said the fire was mostly contained. But she added that workers were struggling to plow buffer zones and fire breaks as the same spots ignited repeatedly in the quickly changing winds.

Gold said climate change, which has resulted in decreased rainfall in the region, contributed to the fire's ferocity. “Of course when there's a series of drought years, it's a fertile ground for fires,” she said.

In 2010, a massive forest fire burned for four days on northern Israel’s Mount Carmel, claiming 44 lives and destroying around 12,000 acres, much of it woodland.