内容摘要：Charbel Joseph Antoun, 37, portrays Jesus as he carries a wooden cross while being whipped by a Roman soldier during a Good Friday reenactment in Quraye, near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Charbel Joseph Antoun, 37, portrays Jesus as he carries a wooden cross while being whipped by a Roman soldier during a Good Friday reenactment in Quraye, near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

In a statement, Gov. Dan McKee, a fellow Democrat, called Ruggerio “a great friend and true public servant who dedicated his life to lifting up the state he loved.”McKee said Ruggerio “will always be remembered for his unwavering commitment to supporting working families and strengthening Rhode Island’s economy.”

He directed U.S. and Rhode Island state flags to be flown at half-staff at all state facilities and buildings through the day of Ruggerio’s internment.U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both Democrats, expressed their condolences.“I will miss Donny’s friendship and his unwavering advocacy for our state and the people who make it a special place,” Reed said in a statement. ”Rhode Island is better today because of Senate President Ruggerio’s leadership and dedication.”

Ruggerio was first elected to the House in 1980, where he served two terms before joining the Senate. He had been Senate majority leader before becoming president. As the chamber’s most senior member, he was referred to as its “dean.” He represented District 4, which includes parts of North Providence and Providence.His legislative biography says he co-sponsored initiatives to “make it easy to do business in Rhode Island by reforming the income tax code, cutting red tape, improving access to capital, and building the skills of the workforce.”

Ruggerio was a big advocate for legalized sports betting in Rhode Island, which started in 2018. He also was a leader on legislation requiring that the state be powered completely by renewable energy by 2033. McKee signed the measure into law in 2022.

“It will keep Rhode Island, home to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, on the forefront of renewable energy innovation. And it will help us harness the power of clean energy as a driver of economic growth and opportunity,” Ruggerio said in a statement at the time.Khalid Nassar, 61, sits with his wife, Khadra Abu Libda, 59, and his grandchildren for lunch, with fabric covering the hole in a wall of their destroyed house in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Coming home after months — or more than a year — of living in tents or other shelters, families have no means to do any serious rebuilding. So they find little ways to settle in.Apartment buildings that were reduced to hollowed-out skeletons have been draped with colorful bed linens serving as walls — as if the houses have been turned inside-out. Families dig chunks of concrete and mangled metal out of the interior to make them semi-habitable. Rooms look like fragmented movie sets, with furniture arranged in any intact corner, while the remaining walls are shattered.

Clothes hang to dry outside a destroyed room belonging to the Nassar family in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)Clothes hang to dry outside a destroyed room belonging to the Nassar family in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)