RI's James Beard Award winner; Tiverton 'castle'; Devers trade: Top stories this week
Here are some of The Providence Journal's most-read stories for the week of June 15, supported by your subscriptions.
Like many states, Rhode Island is struggling with a nursing shortage, with close to 1,300 openings in the first quarter of 2025, up from 980 in the fourth quarter of 2024. The reasons range from low wages compared with neighboring states, COVID burnout and a bottleneck in nursing school admissions. Nurses at Butler Hospital have been striking since mid-May, demanding better pay, increased staffing and safer working conditions, and nurses are organizing at Rhode Island Hospital. The Journal's Jonny Williams looks at what the state is doing to improve the situation.
Need to catch up with the end-of-session whirlwind at the General Assembly? Here's our guide.
The June 18 Providence Journal All-State Awards show recognized more than 300 first-team All-State athletes and awarded Player of the Year honors to more than 30 high school athletes, with remarks by guest speaker Clay Holstad, midfielder for Rhode Island FC. Here's our report on this marquee event event in Rhode Island high school sports. For more sports news, go to .
Looking for reading material? Check out which books Rhode Island's top elected officials will be toting to the beach. It's part of our Summer Guide coverage, which also includes food editor Gail Ciampa's roundup of where to find the best adult beverages to chill out when the mercury rises. Keep reading for more Summer Guide suggestions below.
Here are the week's top reads on providencejournal.com:
Sky Haneul Kim, chef at Gift Horse in Providence, has been added to the prestigious list of local James Beard winners after being named Best Chef: Northeast at the 2025 James Beard Foundation Awards.
The 35th Restaurant and Chef Award gala was held at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on June 16. The James Beard awards are considered the Oscars of the food world.
Wins have been rare for Rhode Island restaurants, but Kim's victory makes her the third best chef winner from Rhode Island and the second in three years. In 2023, Sherry Pocknett and her Sly Fox Den Too restaurant in Charlestown took home the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Northeast. The restaurant has since closed.
Al Forno's Johanne Killeen and the late George Germon won the regional best chef award in 1993.
Read Journal food editor Gail Ciampa's report from Chicago, including the three other Beard finalists from Rhode Island who fell just short.
Food: A Providence chef joined the ranks of James Beard Award winners. See who took the honor
In April, the newly elected Narragansett Town Council proposed more than a dozen amendments to zoning regulations to make it easier to build in town, seeking to roll back changes made by the previous Town Council that made it harder to build new housing and flew in the face of state zoning laws.
But the sheer number of changes rattled residents and led to an effort to recall three members of the Town Council. The recall has, for the moment, been called off after the council decided to workshop the zoning amendments, but the threat of it still looms.
That leaves the town's housing war simmering, as Narragansett's population gets older, enrollment in its schools drops and its existing housing gets more expensive. How long can the town afford to fight efforts to increase its housing stock? Political Scene looks at the issue from both camps.
Political Scene: A new Town Council aimed to fix Narragansett's housing problems. They could face a recall
The state Supreme Court on June 16 suspended for six months and a day longtime Rhode Island lawyer 's license to practice after an investigation in Massachusetts found that he gave a client bad information about immigration consequences.
DiLibero advised a client that a plea deal would not have negative immigration consequences, despite it being an aggravated felony, making the client immediately deportable and permanently inadmissible to the United States and ineligible for citizenship. DiLibero then falsely claimed to have provided correct advice and failed to cooperate with the client's new lawyer.
Read the full report for more details on the case.
Courts: RI lawyer has license suspended for six months for 'incompetent' advice. Here's why.
Sunday, June 15, brought yet another trade that should be reserved for lesser franchises in Major League Baseball, says Journal sportswriter Bill Koch. The Red Sox aren't supposed to be shipping out club cornerstones.
But that's what happened on Sunday night, with the jaw-dropping news that Rafael Devers had been traded to the San Francisco Giants, immediately dampening what should have been a statement weekend at Fenway Park with Boston's sweep of the New York Yankees.
The immediate losers in all this are the fans, says Koch. And he offers his look at what the ripple effects might be for the franchise, from ownership through the active roster.
: Four big takeaways from the shocking Rafael Devers trade from Boston to San Francisco
TIVERTON – A lot of people think "castle" when they see Todd and Deborah Martin's house set off in the woods on Lake Road, but Todd had a different medieval inspiration in mind when they added to what was already a one-of-a-kind residence.
Think Heorot, the mead hall of legendary Danish King Hrothgar that comes under attack in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem "Beowulf."
What started as a 32-foot-diameter round stone house in the woods, sans kitchen, has been transformed by the Martins with the addition of two wings, bringing it up to 5,564 square feet and incorporating salvaged building materials from the 1870s through the 1920s.
Check out the full story, including a gallery of the finished house, which is being showcased on the Zillow Gone Wild Instagram page.
Real estate: Dreaming of living in a castle in the woods? A Tiverton house could make it come true
To read the full stories, go to providencejournal.com. Find out how to subscribe here.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence James Beard Award winner; Tiverton 'castle'; Devers trade
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