Happy Saturday! Here’s another edition of my weekend column for WPRI.com — as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi@wpri.com and follow me on Twitter , Threads and Facebook .

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Nesi's Notes

1. Nobody seemed more stunned by the announcement that Providence’s still-new Catholic bishop Richard Henning would succeed Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley than Henning himself. “I am not worthy of this call — I was deeply shocked and surprised,” said Henning, who took over from Thomas Tobin just 15 months ago. The 59-year-old prelate, a native of Long Island, is poised to be one of the country’s most prominent churchmen for the next two decades — a sign of confidence in him from 87-year-old Pope Francis and the pontiff’s man in the States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre , the papal nuncio. Where does all this leave the Providence Diocese, which now needs a new leader for the second time in two years? It will likely be months before the pope makes a decision about filling Henning’s spot, leaving plenty of time for speculation about possible contenders. One name already being bandied about is Boston Auxiliary Bishop Mark O’Connell , a New Englander since childhood who is well-liked and, at 60, around the right age. Veteran Vatican expert Rocco Palmo flags another name that could be in the mix: Portland Bishop James Ruggieri , the beloved Providence priest who was dispatched to Maine only a few months ago. “In the handful of instances where this has happened before – then-Bishop John O’Connor’s seven months in Scranton before being launched to New York in 1984 comes to mind – taking care of the diocese making the sacrifice becomes a high priority,” Palmo told me. “What’s more, in cases like this, it’s easier than normal to arrange a quick replacement as the pre-Henning investigation into the state of the diocese (the longest part of an appointment process) is still current, and the recommendations of the departing bishop would normally be given significant weight.”

2. If Peter Neronha had his way, he’d definitely be on the ballot again in 2026 — for attorney general. “I love this job,” he said Friday. “I know it’s going to be my time to go, but I love this job.” Term limits that Rhode Island voters instituted in 1992 mean Neronha, like all general officers, can’t seek a third term. That’s one reason there has been so much speculation about whether the 60-year-old Democrat will run for governor, or another job, in two years. But Neronha has basically ruled out a gubernatorial bid at this point, sounding far more likely to back Helena Foulkes than to seek the job himself. “I think she would be a strong candidate for governor,” Neronha said on this week’s Newsmakers . “I think very highly of her.” Another option, floated by The Globe’s Dan McGowan back in May , would be a Neronha run for lieutenant governor as a ticket with Foulkes or another gubernatorial contender. What about that idea? “I think it would depend on whether the person who is running for governor and I reached an understanding that my voice would be an important one, and there would be issues that I could focus on that fit my strengths,” Neronha said, citing health care and climate as two examples. That said, he added, “You have to keep in mind that being lieutenant governor can be a very sleepy place, and I’m not sure that fits with my personality.”

3. More news from AG Neronha : he’s getting involved in the Washington Bridge litigation , which could be announced any day now. Also on the bridge beat, work is underway to prepare for the start of demolition next month .

4. Rhode Island’s budget picture keeps getting worse. In June, lawmakers enacted a state budget plan that their own experts acknowledge leads to a $262 million deficit in the 2025-26 fiscal year. That forecast led state budget officials to issue a memo on July 18 — barely two weeks into the new fiscal year — that put controls on new hires and purchases . Then on Friday, Governor McKee announced that his administration has inked new contracts with state labor unions, including 5% raises retroactive to last month. The administration reports those raises will cost $35 million in general revenue this fiscal year and $64 million next year — so the projected deficit is now well over $300 million next year. (The deal announced Friday doesn’t include correctional officers and state troopers, whose unions are still negotiating, either.) It all sets tough choices for McKee and his team as they prepare their next budget bill, due in January. That process has now begun, with the administration’s newly released budget instructions directing state agencies to submit two plans: one that would fund all current services, and one that would cut spending 7.5%. The document warns, “Constrained budget requests should be reasonable and realistic; budget requests that propose unrealistic or unattainable savings (i.e., ‘selling the Washington Monument’) may be returned to the agency as incomplete.” Plus, the uncertain outlook for the national economy means an uncertain outlook for state revenue growth, which has been helping cover deficits in recent years.

5. Governor McKee and Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green took a victory lap this week over falling absenteeism rates, touting a decrease of 4.2 percentage points during the last school year that they attributed to the governor’s Attendance Matters RI campaign. The decline lowered Rhode Island’s chronic absenteeism rate to 24.7%, meaning one in four Rhode Island students missed at least 10% of school days last year. “Governor McKee’s focus on attendance has made Rhode Island a national leader, one that has been held up as an example for other states to emulate,” said state Rep. Joe McNamara , longtime chairman of the House’s education panel. As the Projo’s Patrick Anderson pointed out in a fact-check piece , it’s hard to pin down how Rhode Island is doing on a comparative basis — Connecticut saw a smaller drop, but from a better starting point, while Massachusetts hasn’t published its data yet. But the governor’s team counters that the national recognition for their efforts is real, including a White House invitation earlier this year as well as a new FutureEd report that praises McKee for a “pioneering response” to the post-pandemic absenteeism crisis. The report’s author, Liz Cohen , argues that one lesson of Attendance Matters RI is “the fact that many school issues are best addressed by communities working across traditional agency boundaries — an often-under-appreciated concept in education policy circles.”

6. Kamala Harris made a somewhat surprise choice Tuesday in picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. While his name was less prominent in the speculation than those of Josh Shapiro or Mark Kelly , it’s a familiar one to multiple Rhode Island politicos. Dan McKee and Gina Raimondo both know Walz from their concurrent service as Democratic governors. “You’ve got a coach, you’ve got a teacher, and you’ve got a veteran that really connects with virtually anybody in the country, right?” McKee told reporters Tuesday. “So he’s a really good person there, and a great contrast between the idea of really joy that he talks about, and the idea that we want to be looking forward, not backwards.” Walz also served in Congress alongside Patrick Kennedy , Jim Langevin and David Cicilline ; in fact, just last fall Walz was a featured speaker at Kennedy’s annual Alignment for Progress conference on mental health. One interesting reaction to the Walz pick came from Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss , who’d been a vocal Shapiro backer and accused some of the Pennsylvania governor’s detractors of engaging in antisemitism. But Auchincloss defended Harris’s decision to pick Walz over Shapiro. “The online left was applying a double standard to Josh Shapiro that was unfair and unacceptable and antithetical to who we are as a Democratic Party,” he told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo . But, he continued, “I don’t think Kamala Harris listened to them. I don’t think she was influenced by them. And the reason I think that is because she’s a good person, number one, and because she’s a good politician, number two. And good politicians don’t run for president of Twitter, they run for president of the United States.”

7. Will Tim Walz be in Newport next Friday for a big fundraiser? That’s what an invitation circulating among top Democratic donors indicated earlier this week. But once I reported on the fundraiser Wednesday, organizers acknowledged that the campaign had committed to bringing Walz to the state for a fundraiser but not to the specific date on the invitation. R.I. Democratic Party Chair Liz Beretta-Perik told me Friday final details will be determined soon.

8. No, Jack Reed won’t be the defense secretary if Kamala Harris wins .

9. An important election reminder for Rhode Islanders: Sunday is the deadline to register to vote in the Sept. 10 primary election, and it’s also the deadline to disaffiliate from your current political party if you want to vote in the other party’s primary. You can do all that online — it’s always a good idea to check your registration status ahead of election season. We have all the key dates and links you need, for both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, in our newly launched WPRI.com Voter Guide .

10. CVS Health is revamping its inventory distribution as shopping patterns change .

11. Monday is a holiday in Rhode Island — and only in Rhode Island. Here’s why.

12. I’ll be a guest on this weekend’s edition of “A Lively Experiment,” breaking down the latest on local and national politics along with host Jim Hummel and fellow panelists Maureen Moakley and Ken Block . Tune in Sunday at noon on Rhode Island PBS or watch online here .

13. Set your DVRs: This week on Newsmakers — AG Neronha . Watch Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on WPRI 12 and 10 a.m. on Fox Providence, or listen on the radio Sunday at 6 p.m. on WPRO. You can also subscribe to Newsmakers as a podcast via Apple , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts. See you back here next Saturday.

Ted Nesi ( tnesi@wpri.com ) is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi’s Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter , Threads and Facebook .

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