Today’s Top Stories: Providence students with disabilities will continue to receive excused absences if they miss school due to the bus driver strike; Bill Reynolds joins a couple of guys from R.I. at a Patriots pregame party; Coggeshall Farm’s jonnyc

[View email with images]( [Providence Journal]( Newport students chat with orbiting astronaut Pell Elementary School became the first public school in Rhode Island to have a conversation with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station — with an invaluable assist from a ham-radio operator in Belgium. [READ MORE]( Transportation sought for special-needs students during bus drivers strike As the Providence walkout entered its fourth day, Mayor Jorge Elorza called a meeting with members of Teamsters Local 251 to discuss possible solutions for 1,000 students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs include transportation. [READ MORE]( Small Bites: Authentic jonnycakes from a R.I. expert | Video, recipe Coggeshall Farm Museum s newly themed Harvest-to-Table Fair, on Sunday, Oct. 14, promises to place the spotlight on East Bay restaurants serving local seafood and produce. But don t forget the jonnycakes, prepared over the fire in an authentic 18th-century kitchen. [READ MORE]( Gender identity, activism in the spotlight at URI Honors Colloquium Jennifer Finney Boylan s life in literature and academia as a transgender woman is what brought her to a place where she could accept her own gender identity, said the author, Columbia University professor and New York Times columnist. She was the speaker for the second talk of this year’s annual URI Honors Colloquium. [READ MORE]( GOP ad slamming Raimondo implies R.I. business closed; it actually expanded A Republican Governors Association-funded television ad attacking Gov. Gina Raimondo for business closures in the state appears to show the former home of a Providence business that did not close, but expanded in Pawtucket. "Gina Raimondo promised to fix our economy. She failed," a narrator in the ad says. [READ MORE]( Train 'derailment' to test response in Cumberland A virtual train derailment with chemicals spilled is planned for about 4 p.m. today near the Martin Street railroad crossing — a drill to prepare federal, state and local responders to practice for an actual emergency. Martin Street will be closed, except to allow access to local businesses, until midnight for the full-scale exercise. [READ MORE]( In first year of R.I. Promise, retention rate increases The Community College of Rhode Island released new data indicating that 62 percent of full-time, fresh-out-of-high-school students who entered the college in the fall of 2017 returned this fall, and 22 percent are on track to graduate within a two-year time frame. [READ MORE]( Bill Reynolds: At Patriots home games, the pregamers get fired up Consider two guys from Rhode Island, Larry Goldstein and Harley Frank. “We try to up our game every year,″ Goldstein says. They’ve been pregaming — or tailgating, as we used to call it — at most Pats home games for 25 years now. [READ MORE]( Bruins preview: Division foes may be catching up The Bruins are among countless clubs fond of saying they don’t worry about what they can’t control, and that they focus on what they’re doing as opposed to what competitors do. That doesn’t stop everyone else from worrying about where the Bruins stand when the 2018-19 season starts tonight against Washington. [READ MORE]( Editorial: Defeat of Burrillville plant would hurt Rhode Island seems to be on a terrible losing streak with large economic development projects. The Pawtucket Red Sox have announced plans to abandon their loyal fans for a lucrative deal with the politicians of Worcester. Providence officials seem to be turning up their noses at a $250-million skyscraper downtown. And the prospects for the $1-billion Clear River natural gas plant in Burrillville, have grown chillier. [READ MORE]( [providencejournal.com]( Connect with Us! [Facebook]( [Twitter]( Connect with Us! [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [WWW.PROVIDENCEJOURNAL.COM]( You are receiving this communication as a member of the Providence Journal. Providence Journal values your online privacy. For more information, view our [privacy policy]( now. Please do not reply to this message. [Manage Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe]( Providence Journal 75 Fountain St Providence, RI 02902 © 2018 Providence Journal. All rights reserved.