From the Newsroom: Gatehouse Media

Audio from a Feb. 7 press conference held by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro who announced he negotiated with UPMC and Highmark so the Pittsburgh-based health systems would continue accepting each other’s insurance subscribers at their hospitals and physician offices.

21-year-old mother of two vanished from her Titus Road home in mid-May 1976. Law enforcement have treated the case as a homicide, but lacked the evidence to bring anyone to justice. Susan Oost, Joanne's younger sister, speaks about the kind of person her sister was and what she would like to tell her.

In Episode 39 of Crime Time, a Rockingham woman was charged for making a false report about a missing baby and woman. Observer reporters Paul Woolverton and Michael Futch recap the events. A potential seventh victim has come forward in the Ramsey Street rapist case that was in the news more than a decade ago. A man urinating on the side of a building led to three men being charged with cocaine possession.

Rhode Island’s miserable performance on standardized tests ought to wake up even the state’s fat and moribund education establishment. Results from Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System tests, released last week, showed that if Rhode Island were a single school district in Massachusetts, it would fall among the bottom 10 percent of its districts.

Rich communities in Massachusetts far outperformed rich communities in Rhode Island. Poor communities in Massachusetts far outperformed poor communities in Rhode Island.

But there were some interesting anomalies. They showed that Rhode Island’s poor performance is not a matter of indomitable fate. It is a question of caring.

Blackstone Valley Prep Middle School, for example, which serves some of the poorest neighborhoods in the state along with suburban students, achieved the highest sixth-grade scores in math. The Learning Community in Central Falls also did well. Cumberland schools far outperformed Lincoln next door, while spending about $4,000 less per pupil.

But the gem of the state — the greatest outlier — was Achievement First in Providence, a public charter school that serves many poor, minority and immigrant children, a huge percentage of them eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, a measure of poverty.

Its Iluminar Mayoral Academy Elementary School, 70 percent of whose students are Hispanic, ranked as the top performer in the state — number one in English language arts (80 percent proficient) and number one in math (76 percent proficient). That’s right. It beat the suburban schools.

The fourth-graders at the Achievement First Providence Mayoral Academy Elementary School topped the state by 5 percentage points in English and an astounding 34 percentage points in math.

Two people have been arrested and charged with several felonies after a search of their home resulted in the discovery of a large amount of drugs and distribution equipment.

According to their arrest reports, a search warrant was executed by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 1 at 342 N.W. Linda Lane near Fort Walton Beach High School and about 800 feet from Edwins Elementary School.

Deputies found 7 pounds of marijuana and 80 cartridges containing THC in a safe in the bedroom, along with 1 pound of edible cookies containing THC in the kitchen.

Deputies also found a digital scale, vacuum-sealing equipment, sheets documenting drug transactions and other distribution evidence, the reports said.

Karrah Woram, 26, and Logan Hopper, 24, were arrested and charged with possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and two counts of possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school.

The arrest report stated Woram was wearing a shirt that displayed images of marijuana leaves at the time of her arrest.

Woram was also charged with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription after deputies found a non-resident’s name on a prescription bottle with 10 pills of Lorazepam on her nightstand, Woram’s arrest report said.

According to Hopper’s arrest report, he was also charged with obstruction of a search warrant after denying deputies the pass code to his phone found in the home.

Stark County Sheriff George Maier and criminal defense attorney Ian Friedman talk about how medical cannabis might present challenges for law enforcement and patients.

Parkland's political impact a year later, Gov. Ron DeSantis' surprising budget, James Comey visits Florida. With host George Bennett of The Palm Beach Post, Sarasota Herald-Tribune Politics Editor Zac Anderson and GateHouse State Capital Bureau Chief John Kennedy.

New developments in Mount Carmel painkiller investigation

In our first segment, Victor Infante and Craig Semon talk about comedian Conan O'Brien's "diss" of Worcester, and the #WooConan campaign to get him to visit the city of his ancestors. Then, Victor and Richard Duckett discuss the play, "bare stage," by Sutton playwright Michael Walker. All this, and the song "Crumbs," by the Duende Project.