Midterm elections 2026: Voter guide for Rhode Island - NBC Boston

(WJAR) — Michael Perik, the husband of the Rhode Island Democratic Party Chair Liz Beretta-Perik, has been indicted in the alleged theft of $20 million from a now-closed community college through educational grants, according to Ohio state officials. The Ohio Auditor of State's Office announced that Michael Perik, along with two other people, is accused of participating in a coordinated criminal scheme that diverted Pell grants, other federal aid and state subsidies through fraudulent reimbursements and illegal incentive payments. Officials allege the scheme also contributed to the closure of Eastern Gateway Community College. Perik faces a dozen charges, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activities, aggravated theft of $1.5 million or more, theft in office, telecommunications fraud, bribery, having an unlawful interest in a public contract, receiving stolen property, and money laundering, the auditor’s office said.

The Rhode Island Breakers are the United Football League's newest team. The team's name and logo were announced Sunday during a launch party.

Rhode Island’s state and local taxes and spending are consuming a growing share of residents’ incomes because incomes here are growing more slowly than the nation’s, according to a report released Monday by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council. The business-backed research group’s annual report, “How Rhode Island Compares: State and Local Taxing and Spending,” ranks the state across 32 revenue and spending categories using U. S. Census Bureau data through fiscal 2024, and compares those rankings with fiscal 2019.

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2026. There are 71 days left in the year. Birthdays: Rock singer Manfred Mann is 86. TV’s Judge Judy Sheindlin is 84. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 77. Film director Catherine Hardwicke is 71. Actor Ken Watanabe is 67. Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina is 55. Actor Andrew Scott is 50. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian is 46. Actor Glenn Powell is 38. Country singer Kane Brown is 33. Singer Doja Cat is 31. Actor Ashley Liao is 25. In 1797, the US Navy frigate Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” was christened in Boston Harbor. In 1805, a British fleet commanded by Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, was killed. In 1940, Ernest Hemingway’s novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was first published. In 1944, US troops captured the German city of Aachen — the first German city to fall to American forces in World War II. In 1959, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum opened in New York. In 1966, 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a school and some 20 houses in Aberfan, Wales.

U. S. envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg on Wednesday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as U. S. President Donald Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting. The visit came a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some European leaders in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. Witkoff planned to return to Oslo for more consultations after his trip to Russia, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said. “I think we may have entered a phase now where the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy,” Støre told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Wednesday morning. Zelenskyy was still in Oslo on Wednesday, where he was visiting the country’s Parliament and meeting lawmakers. Witkoff’s meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring momentum to U. S.-led peace efforts, more than 4 1/2 years after Russia’s army invaded. Efforts by the Trump administration since early last year to end the war have made no significant progress, and there was no suggestion of an imminent breakthrough.