Local
Last Monday, a Rhode Island Superior Court judge ordered Hewlett Packard Enterprise to continue work on a computer system project for the RI Department of Motor Vehicles. The technology company threatened to quit the project altogether, after disagreements about contract requirements. This dispute led to a $13 million lawsuit by the state, alleging that the promised computer system was not fully completed according to the contract, while HPE said it has no further obligations.
An employee of Portsmouth Middle School was accused of sending sexually-explicit emails from an official account has resigned. The clerk, Courtney Kellogg, wrote the emails while at work on an email account provided by the school, as revealed by the Portsmouth School District investigation. The school maintains that no students were involved with or affected by Kellogg’s actions.
National
In the week following the presidential election, President-Elect Donald Trump has made two important appointments to his administration. Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, will be Mr. Trump’s chief of staff. In addition, Trump’s campaign CEO Steve Bannon will act as his chief strategist and senior counselor. Priebus has been in his position as chair since 2011, and is a well-established figure in the Republican Party. Bannon was formerly the head executive for Breitbart, a conservative media outlet, and is less closely associated with the mainstream Republican Party.
A man who left his 22-month-old son locked in a hot car in Georgia in 2014 has been found guilty of murder. Prosecutors argued that Justin Ross Harris, 35, intentionally left his son in the car in order to escape family responsibilities, as he was also found exchanging sexually-explicit material with multiple women and one minor. After an extensive trial, Harris was found guilty of all charges, including three counts of murder, two counts of cruelty to children and two counts of dissemination of pornography to minors.
World
On Monday, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks killed at least two people and stranded approximately a thousand tourists in the town of Kaikoura, New Zealand. Officials said that the total damage inflicted by the quakes is likely to total in the billions. According to the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, because of the area in which the quake struck the death toll is expected to remain low, but could cause massive damage to infrastructure. It was the highest magnitude earthquake in the nation since another 7.8 magnitude event in 2009.
The United Nations World Meteorological Organization claimed that 2016 will be the warmest year on record. The WMO report issue in Morocco on Monday at a global climate summit, stated that current average temperatures are getting very close to the upper limit of climate goals set in last year’s Paris Accords climate agreement.