Schartner greenhouse; Trinity Brewhouse sale; best pizza in RI: Top stories this week
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RI protesters join 50 Protests, 50 States movement against President Donald Trump
Hundreds of Rhode Islanders joined a movement of 50 protests across all 50 states on Wednesday demonstrating against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
What was most popular with Providence Journal readers during the week of Feb. 2? Here are 5 stories that got people talking.
ICYMI: Catch up on where things stand with the redevelopment of former I-195 land; and how fears of deportation are rippling through RI's immigrant community.
The Patriots aren't in the Super Bowl, but there are some local connections to the big game.
Here are some of The Providence Journal's most-read stories for the week of Feb. 2,supported by your subscriptions.
Here are the week's top reads on providencejournal.com:
Farmer Tim Schartner and his gargantuan, 25-acre greenhouse project in Exeter averted disaster last week when his financial backers agreed to assume the existing debt on several parcels of property owned by his father, he said, heading off a foreclosure auction set for Friday.
Under the arrangement, the project's banks and private investors will absorb about $6 million in debt that Schartner's father, Richard, owes on several pieces of property, including the landmark farm on the Exeter/North Kingstown line where the greenhouse is being built.
The plan not only stops Friday's auction but frees up a $25.8-million loan in private investment money through the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank.
Read the full story to see what's next for this eye-popping project that has been in the planning stages since 2019.
Business: Schartner's mall-sized tomato greenhouse was on the brink of disaster. Here's what happened next.
PROVIDENCE – Former state Sen. Josh Miller has listed the iconic Trinity Brewhouse for sale for $2.25 million.
Miller has no plans to sell the hugely popular Hot Club he co-owns along the Providence waterfront. But he told The Journal that, as the sole owner of the Trinity Brewhouse, he felt the time was right to pull out of the daily demands of owning a restaurant.
"The main reason is I'm 70 and I'm a very active owner where I show up and work every day and I want to be free of that day-to-day activity. I've had a business downtown since 1975. I'm still very positive about downtown. I've just gotten old enough to want to be less active," he said.
Business: Trinity Brewhouse listed for sale at $2.25 million. Why it's on the market.
PROVIDENCE — In the search for its new football coach, La Salle wasn't trying to win a press conference. They were searching for someone who could win games and, more importantly, help their athletes grow on and off the field.
The school managed to do both.
After winning two Super Bowls – the NFL kind – with the New England Patriots, Dan Koppen is a name people in Rhode Island know.
Read the full story to see how and why a Patriots pro was drawn to coach a high school team, and what La Salle's program stands to gain from his experience at the sport's highest level.
High school sports: This former New England Patriot will lead La Salle football. Who is it?
Craving pizza? No problem. Rhode Island's offerings abound, with both the old and the new. Longtime favorites are popular as ever even as newcomers are staking their claim, too.
What's on the menu? Neapolitan, Sicilian or New York-style? Wood-fired, grilled or baked? Sourdough crust or gluten-free? Artisanal? Always.
You can have it all from Providence to Westerly.
The National Day calendar has declared Feb. 9 as National Pizza Day. Food editor Gail Ciampa helps you get started with the best pies the Ocean State has to offer, and what better day to sample them than Super Bowl Sunday?
Dining: Pizza comes in many styles. To get the best in RI start with these gems
Twenty-two years after a horse reunited with its trainer during a break in the Super Bowl action and took the top spot in the 2013 USA TODAY Ad Meter ratings, the NFL's grand finale arrives back on the doorstep of New Orleans and the Superdome.
With that, a lineup of mini blockbusters will look to grab the attention of a massive audience that topped 123 million in 2024 (re: The Taylor Swift Bowl) and become the latest marketing maestro among the competitive and creative crowd.
Super Bowl commercial fans — welcome to the 2025 USA TODAY Ad Meter!
We're kicking off the 37th edition of the commercial ratings that have been the benchmark for gauging consumers' opinions about the game's most prominent ads since 1989. And we're excited you're here to lend a viewpoint about the Super Bowl 59 national block of commercials.
Check out the full story to see how you can rate your favorite commercials during the big game.
Super Bowl LIX: Let the Super Bowl commercial rush begin: Welcome to USA TODAY Ad Meter 2025
To read the full stories, go to providencejournal.com. Find out how to subscribe here.
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A coal-fired plant in Michigan was to close. But Trump forced it to keep running
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'I was flabbergasted when the administration said they had stopped it shutting down,' he said. 'Why are they inserting themselves into a decision a company has made? Just because politically you don't like it? It's all so dumb.' The 23 May order, by the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, warns that the regional grid would be strained by the closure of JH Campbell with local homes and businesses at risk of 'curtailments or outages, presenting a risk to public health and safety' without it. But Miso, the grid operator for Michigan and 14 other states, has stressed it has had 'adequate resources to meet peak demand this summer' without JH Campbell and Consumers Energy had already set about making plans for life after its last remaining coal plant. 'What's remarkable is that this is the first time the energy secretary has used these powers without being asked to do so by the market operator or power plant operator,' said Timothy Fox, an energy analyst at ClearView. 'It shows the Trump administration is prepared to take muscular actions to keep its preferred power sources online.' Wright – whose department has bizarrely taken to tweeting pictures of lumps of coal with the words 'She's an icon. She's a legend' – has said the US 'has got to stop closing coal plants' to help boost electricity generation to meet demand that is escalating due to the growth of artificial intelligence. The administration has also issued a separate emergency declaration to keep open a gas plant in Pennsylvania, although it has sought to kill off wind and solar projects, which Trump has called 'ugly' and 'disgusting'. The president, who solicited and received major donations from coal, oil and gas interests during his election campaign, has signed an executive order aimed at reviving what he calls 'beautiful, clean coal' and took the remarkable step of asking fossil fuel companies to email requests to be exempt from pollution laws, again under emergency powers. So far, 71 coal plants, along with dozens of other chemical, copper smelting and other polluting facilities, have received 'pollution passes' from the Trump administration according to a tally by the Environmental Defense Fund, allowing greater emissions of airborne toxins linked to an array of health problems. Coal is, despite Trump's claims, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels and the leading source of planet-heating pollution. Trump has launched a 'political takeover of the electricity grid' to favor fossil fuels, according to Caroline Reiser, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. 'The result of this will be higher electricity bills, more pollution in our communities and a worsening climate crisis,' she added. In Michigan, the cost of keeping JH Campbell open is set to be steep. Consumers Energy initially estimated its closure would save ratepayers $600m by 2040 as it shifts to cheaper, cleaner energy sources such as solar and wind. Reversing this decision costs $1m a day in operating costs, an imposition that midwest residents will have to meet through their bills. It is understood the company privately told outside groups it fears the administration could keep adding 90-day emergency orders for the entire remainder of Trump's term. 'Consumers Energy continues to comply with the [Department of Energy] order and will do so as long as it is in effect,' a company spokesperson said. 'We are pursuing recovery of the costs of running the Campbell plant in a proceeding currently before [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission]. Timely cost recovery is essential.' Should the Trump administration go further and force all of the US fossil fuel plants set to retire by 2028 to continue operating, it will cost American ratepayers as much as $6bn a year in extra bills, a new report by a coalition of green groups has found. This would almost certainly be met by legal action – Dana Nessel, Michigan's attorney general, has already filed a lawsuit arguing the 'arbitrary and illegal order' to extend JH Campbell's lifespan will unfairly heap costs upon households in the state. Trump's efforts may bear some fruit, with US coal production expected to tick up slightly this year, although the longer-term trend for coal is one of decline amid cheaper gas and renewables. 'The administration may slow the retirement trend although they are unlikely to stop it,' said ClearView's Fox. 'The economics don't change but the administration could be a savior for these plants at least while Donald Trump is in office.' For those living next to and downwind of coal plants, there is a cost to be paid that isn't just monetary. Tiny soot particles from burned coal can bury themselves deep into the lungs, causing potentially deadly respiratory and heart problems. The closure of such plants can lift this burden dramatically – a recent study found that in the month after a coal facility was closed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2016, the number of childhood asthma visits to local hospitals declined by 41% and then continued to fall by about 4% each month. The study shows 'the closure of a major industrial pollution source can lead to immediate and lasting improvements in the lung health of the those who live nearby', said Wuyue Yu, research co-author and postdoctoral fellow at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. For those living in the township of Port Sheldon, a mostly bucolic setting on the shore of the vast Lake Michigan, a pollution-free future beckoned once JH Campbell had been scheduled to close, with lofty plans for new parkland, housing and a battery plant touted for the site. Now there is uncertainty. Last week, a few dozen residents and activists held a protest event next to the sprawling plant, which hummed and whirred in the summer heat, one 650ft chimney puncturing the horizon, another, smaller flue striped red and white, like a candy cane. Dozens of train cars full of coal, hastily procured after the plant's supply was used up ahead of a closure that has been scheduled for four years, backed up in the sunshine. When burned in the huge 1.5GW plant, this coal emits about 7.7m tons of carbon dioxide a year. 'Trump is just trying to keep the money coming into coal companies as long as he can, I suppose,' said David Hoekema, who has lived a couple of miles from the plant since 2006 and has had to clean coal dust from his windows. Trump easily won this county, called Ottawa, in last year's election, but Hoekema said even his staunchest conservative neighbors don't want the coal plant. 'I've not met anyone along the lake shore who says, 'Oh yeah, let's keep this open' – even the conservative Republicans are concerned about their health,' he said. 'Republican ideology says local control is best but the Trump administration is saying, 'We don't care what the hell states do, we will impose our order on them.' I know there's a lot of competition, but this would have to be one of their craziest decisions.' The Department of Energy did not respond to questions about its plan for JH Campbell once the emergency order ends on Thursday. The battle over the coal plant's future has taken place to a backdrop of a scorching summer in Michigan, one of its hottest on record, with algal blooms sprouting in its lakes, both symptoms of an unfolding climate crisis. 'The talk in neighborhoods has been how hot it's been this summer – my kid was prepared to be outside every day and it's been so hot so often it's been irresponsible to do that,' said Stephen Wooden, a Democratic state lawmaker who added that Michigan residents are also 'pissed off' about increasing power bills. 'We're seeing the impacts of climate change daily, it is impacting our state,' Wooden said. 'And this is being caused by the continuation of outdated, expensive fossil fuels that Donald Trump wants to prop up.' Solve the daily Crossword
The Hill
4 minutes ago
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US and EU frame the ongoing deal between the trading partners and solidify some commitments
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4 minutes ago
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Walmart reports solid second-quarter sales and profits despite a challenging tariff environment
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