Rise & Shine! Your Newport County guide for Jan. 21
Rise & Shine! I’m Scott Barrett, digital editor for The Daily News, and today is Jan. 21, the 21st day of the year — 344 days remain in 2022. On this day in 2020, the first confirmed U.S. case of COVID-19 was identified in a 35-year-old man from Washington state.
Here & Now
• The state COVID-19 testing site at the Knights of Columbus on Valley Road will permanently close on Sunday as the operation moves to a larger location — the former Benny's store at 1400 West Main Road.
According to the state Department of Health, the doors will open at the former department store on Monday at 8 a.m. There will be 1,000 appointments per day. Rapid antigen and PCR testing will be available. Learn more here.
• Speaking of COVID, there will be several vaccine clinic options being held locally today. One will be conducted from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Raytheon facility in Portsmouth. Another will be held at St. George's School in Middletown from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the a third at the Melrose School in Jamestown from 3 to 6 p.m.
Registration is recommended for these clinics. To register, visit C19VaccineRI.org and click “Upcoming Community Vaccination Clinics.”
• Last week, Portsmouth resident William Trezvant was sworn in as an associate justice of the District Court in Rhode Island, becoming one of only a handful of Black judges throughout the state.
"It was a big deal. I can't describe how happy and thankful I am to finally reach this opportunity, and I look forward to the challenges and seeing what I can do," he told reporter Bethany Brunelle-Raja. Read her story here.
• Tickets go on sale this morning for the Newport Beer Festival, which will be held at Fort Adams State Park at the end of April. A few tweaks have been made to the event, now in its 10th year, and reporter Savana Dunning tells you everything you need to know here.
• Police in Middletown are seeking information about an incident in which the soccer fields at the Wyatt Road complex were damaged by a vehicle. Read more here.
• In his weekly Spare Change column, Jim Gillis writes the now former Rogers High swim coach waded into some troubled waters with his text messages to student-athletes. Read his column here.
• Harp Donnelly IV, a native Newporter and 23-year veteran of the Newport Fire Department, has been named the city’s new fire chief. Read more here.
• Rogers High junior forward Maeve Crowley is putting up about 20 points per game, which ranks among the top average scorers in the state. And she can put the ball in the basket in a multitude of ways. Sports reporter Steve Rogers has the story.
• Speaking of Maeve Crowley, with more than 8,700 votes, she was chosen at The Newport Daily News Athlete of the Week for Jan. 10-16.
• In honor of what would have been her 100th birthday on Monday, the Betty White Challenge sprang to life across social media with a simple goal: Donate to your local animal shelter or any animal charity in White's honor. The Potter League for Animals in Middletown benefited greatly, Editor Will Richmond writes here.
• On this day three years ago, National Grid announced it was temporarily cutting gas service to roughly 7,000 local customers in a week-long incident that became known as the Newport Gas Outage. Read our very first story from that week here.
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Born today
Hakeem Olajuwon (athlete), 59
Geena Davis (actress), 66
Billy Ocean (singer), 72
Jack Nicklaus (athlete), 82
Weather report
Low tides: 2:57 a.m., 3:31 p.m.
High tides: 9:44 a.m., 10:15 p.m.
Sunrise: 7:04 a.m. Sunset: 4:48 p.m.
Water temperature: 43.3 degrees.
Municipal meetings
Jamestown
Library Board, 5 p.m.
Local obituaries
Today is …
International Sweatpants Day
National Granola Bar Day
National Hugging Day
Blast from the Past
Got a news tip, story idea or just want to drop me a line? Don't be a stranger. Send an email to sbarrett@newportri.com.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Rise & Shine! Your Newport County guide for Jan. 21
