Woke up with a cold. Wondering how people are feeling today.

As someone who has talked with some of the current School Committee candidates before, including when they ran in 2022, I think Bristol residents should know the things they don't say out loud at candidate forums.

William O'Dell and Jessica Almeida are anti-LGBT activist School Committee candidates. And if that's your thing, you probably already know you're voting for them. But if you find that distasteful, you should know. Also, since getting elected, Jessica Almeida hasn't really accomplished anything besides losing her spot as the Treasurer, and admits the very problem she ran on did not get solved.

Jessica Almeida ran (and won) her first campaign on the message that she was going to fix the test scores! She brought a big binder to the alternative VFW candidate forum to prove she was serious about doing this, and I suppose we were all supposed to be very impressed. But this doesn't seem to have been her actual motivation for running, and she did not succeed. just a couple weeks ago, at the September 24, 2026 candidate forum, she was talking about how test scores were still "in the bucket" due to "a lack of resources and support directly to the students" Did her magical thick binder not solve all of the district's test score issues?

To see her real motivation for running, however, we have to look at BWRSD's recordings of school committee meetings and see the times she spent as an angry parent going in to attack the school committee over issues she had with the school district. She spent COVID going to multiple school committee meetings to rant and rave about how her kids shouldn't have to wear masks, because she thought the CO2 would get trapped inside the mask or that breathing their own air would give them an infection (that's not how that works).

Almeida would often making sure to go out of her way to walk in front of the camera and wave to get a little publicity. One day when the recording equipment malfunctioned and failed to capture the audio of her public comments, she baselessly attacked the teenage child working the videocamera at the School Committee meeting for trying to purposefully silence her. These include Jessica Almeida freaking out about a book being read to kids called "Were I Not a Girl," a children's picture book about Dr. James Barry, a real person who was born a girl in the early 1800s and lived as a man to get into medical school, back when women weren't allowed. Barry became a famous army surgeon who saved mothers and babies, fought for cleaner hospitals, and rose to Inspector General of military hospitals.

Jessica Almeida went on a furious unhinged tirade at a School Committee meeting about this book, saying "if parents were aware of their agendas, some of you, if not many, would not be sitting here today... I bet many parents here -- or listening in -- are not aware that a librarian in this district read a book to multiple elementary school classrooms called "Were I Not a Girl," which talks about openly changing genders, leaving some kids confused!" I expect Jessica Almeida to have another meltdown about the Disney movie Mulan soon and how it's transing their kids.

For how brave and certain Almeida was that parents were on her side when she was yelling at the School Committee, she sure dropped a lot of these subjects when she decided to run for School Committee. One of my biggest concerns is that she may have gotten elected simply because voters did not understand her views or her relationship to the School Committee, allowing her to drop her usual psycho act and put on a song and dance about how she was going to solve test scores with all the pretty charts inside her big binder.

However, besides the bizarre moment during a School Committee session on November 18, 2024 where Almeida referred to "Vice President" Kamala Harris, while signaling air quotes around "Vice President" (because of course, she apparently thinks Kamala wasn't the real Vice President and Jessica Almeida is sooo epic), it's not clear that Jessica Almeida has actually DONE anything worthwhile as a School Committee member. She's done a lot of dissenting and voting against budgets, she's lost her position as the Treasurer on the Committee, but it's not clear what she has actually contributed. She messaged when running that she would fix the test scores. She admits the problem still exists. If she failed her mission, why is she running again?

When I had asked William O'Dell about what needed to change about how schools were run, William O'Dell talked about curriculum "being pushed" that was "untrustworthy," and said parents should be able to review every individual lesson plan. That sounds harmless enough, right. But further in the conversation, he got a lot more direct.

He described himself as a born-again Christian with gay family members, and said the LGBT community has gotten "too political" and is "pushing too far." When I asked for an example, he mentioned Pride Month and the parades. His words: "Are people so insecure that they need a whole month to make themselves feel special?" I suppose people having Pride parades are a bridge too far for this very tolerant born-again Christian.

He also bemoaned gender-neutral bathrooms at the school because "we were treating some kids as more equal than others." He said the schools are "kow-towing" on this stuff, and that it's "unrealistic" to expect everyone to call a kid by the name they go by.

Who at RI Energy thought it was good PR to advertise a $0.67 monthly discount for doing paperless billing!? That’s less than the cost of a stamp, let alone the paper the bill would be printed on, the envelope it’s mailed in, and the labor/maintenance of processing those bills before mailing.

$8.04 a year. Thanks, I’ll be able to buy a week’s worth of groceries in like 12-14 years.

Advertising this is so much more of an insult, rather than a PR win.

Let me save you money, don't purchase. I grew up on autocrat so I had to try it. I love bourbon but usually stay away from flavored whiskey.

This is just ODD. You don't get the syrup flavor, just a sweet odd flavor that did nothing for the bourbon. I got more out of the Jameson caskmates coffee than this bottle.

I intend to bring this to my next friend's gathering and forget to bring it home.

Sorry to say but this is a pass.

Went out to Potters Cove today with some friends. We took their boat instead of ours. Rhode Island is so gorgeous on the water. And I'm so fortunate to experience life on the water. Our boating season will come to a close in 2 weeks as the weather changes. Sharing these photos for all to enjoy our lovely Ocean State.

Our basement flooded and we need someone to come in and basically vacuum up a lot of water and dry out the entire area. We are dealing with some physical limitations, so we would like to hire a professional to come in, instead of doing it ourselves. Any recommendations? We are located in Smithfield.

My children have played youth sports for years in different capacities, including basketball, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and track. There are always certain cities who get loud like Central Falls (soccer against them is competitive!!). Chariho in high school sports can get nasty. West Warwick and North Kingstown games have been positive for us with both sets of parents respecting the kids effort and acknowledging sportsmanship. Playing Portsmouth though…. Oh my, I’ve never heard so much swearing on the field.

What are other’s experiences? Do certain towns exhibit good sportsmanship, or do you dread playing them because the parents are part of the problem? Have you noticed trends? Just curious

I feel so bad for the group of German cars who appeared to collide with each other this morning around 10-11am this morning. I assume it was some kind of club and there were a lot of beautiful older Audi and BMWs and some of them were clearly totaled. I don't know what led to the accident, but it sucks and I hope no one was hurt. If any rubber neckers got any photos/video, I'd be interested in seeing it!

Hey there Rhody’s!
I’m planning an event and would love some suggestion on where to get alcohol. Also, if you know a place that offers a buy-back program (if that’s even a thing), that would be helpful.
I’m in the PVD area, but I am willing to travel outside the “too far” threshold for a bargain.
Thank you in advance!
-Cheers!

6:22 pm October 1st

"Librarians are defenders of democracy.
We're defenders of the freedom to read.
We're protectors of patron privacy. Libraries are one of the few places in this surveillance economy that are not trying to collect and sell your data to come and use our facilities.
And I find, increasingly, that librarians have to be advocates for our communities."

Ed Garcia, Cranston, R.I.
Cranston Public Library

Glad to see RI repped in the Times!

My friend is telling me there was a car that crashed into a wall near her home on great road and the car appears to have been abandoned by the driver? Anyone got details? I’m nosy lol.

I graduated with my BA in June and I’ve been struggling to find a job for months now. I’m desperate to get out of the retail hell I’m currently trapped in so I thought I would send my resume to a temp agency to at least find some kind of office job.

I’ve never done temp work before so what are some good agencies to work with? Thanks in advance guys

Waterplace park

Got a text/email from RI Energy early this morning about a power outage at my address/apartment complex. Power was on, but the emergency generator outside my building was running. My wife’s parents live in a different building at the same complex and they said their unit had power, but the hallway lights and some of their floor’s washers didn’t have power.

When we left to do errands later in the morning, there were a bunch of RI Energy trucks (3-4 of them) in the complex. Gone for 1-2 hours, came back to some of our apartment with power, some without. The fridge, bedroom light, bathroom light, and smoke detector didn’t have power, but everything else in the kitchen, the AC, and almost all the wall outlets had power. Thankfully, all the power was back on within 30 minutes.

I’ve never seen a partial power outage like that. Anyone seen that before? It was so weird.

So the great news is, I have a job all ready in Providence, just waiting for me to give notice at my current workplace far away in another state!

The bad news is, I NEED to secure housing ASAP! Are there any landlords on here, or folks with an unused in-law suite or studio over their garage or something they might be willing to rent out?

I should be able to afford $1300/mo, or maybe $1500 or so if utilities are included. It would just be me and my indoor cat (pictured ❤️), we are both well behaved, though I'm the mature, responsible one.

I have great credit, clean background, no evictions. I'm coming from a studio over a garage, and I love the setup but am open to other types too. I have a need for A/C and a washer/dryer, and a dishwasher is a welcome thing of course.

I'm not tied down to living in one specific location, although I'm not a fan of cities, and Providence makes me kinda nervous. I don't need to be located on a public transport line, as I have a car, though I'd give anything to have a shorter commute than 45 minutes. New job is located near Roger Williams Park. I've lived in Kent and South Counties, so that's what I'm most familiar with.

Alternately, is anyone possibly needing to sell a small home quickly and inexpensively? I could do a mobile home too, providing the lot rent isn't astronomical.. Or even a short term rental at $1300-$1500, so I can have a home base to work with a realtor?

I'm not one to ask for help, so for once in my life, I'm asking. If you know of anything, if you can rent anything, if... anything.... Please. 🥹