Category: Nationally relevant

Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, identified by authorities as the suspect in both the Dec 13 mass shooting at Brown University in Providence that killed two and injured nine and the Dec 15 murder of MIT Professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in Brookline, MA, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Dec 18 in a storage locker in Salem, NH.

In a Thursday night press conference in Providence beginning around 9:30pm, local and federal police said that Valente, age 48, and Loureiro, age 47, had been undergraduate classmates together at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon (Portugal). Loureiro graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics in 2000, while Neves-Valente was “terminated” according to a report in Vanity Fair. In a press conference in Boston beginning around 10:30pm, US Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley confirmed the same suspect committed both crimes.

An affidavit filed by Providence Police in RI said Neves-Valente was a Portuguese national who was a PhD candidate in physics at Brown on a student visa during Fall 2000 and Spring 2001 semesters, taking a leave of absence and eventually withdrawing in Fall 2003. He then appears to have left the United States until receiving permanent resident status in 2017 through the “Green Card Lottery,” which has a 0.25% chance of success with over 20 million applications.

The suspect took considerable effort to evade capture, Foley said, switching out European SIM cards to prevent cellular telephone tracking and covering the Florida registration plate on his Boston rental car with a Maine plate not registered to any vehicle. Col Oscar Perez, Providence Police chief, said the suspect used side streets and avoided main streets to try to evade plate reading cameras.

There were two main breaks in the case, according to the affidavit. A Brown custodian told police he recalled meeting a suspicious person in the Barus-Holley Building, the site of the Dec 13 shooting, earlier on Nov 28 and Dec 1, and this person matched the appearance of the “person of interest” and walked with a limp. This report enabled police to find surveillance camera video from inside the building on Dec 1.

The second break resulted from an individual identified by police only as “John” who posted on Reddit, the social media web site, on Dec 15 at 9:30pm EST, by user “lamin_kaare” in the “r/providence” subreddit:

I’m being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. That was the car he was driving. It was parked in front of the little shack behind the Rhode Island Historical Society on the Cooke St side. I know because he used his key fob to open the car, approached it and then something prompted him to back away. When he backed away he relocked the car. I found that odd so when he circled the block I approached the car and that is when I saw the Florida plates. He was parked in the section between the gate of the RIHS and the corner of Cooke and George St.

According to the affidavit, police regarded this post as highly credible once they learned of it because a Brown faculty member reported on Dec 17 an encounter at 9:15am on Dec 11 with a suspicious gray sedan with Florida plates driving unusually slowly on Waterman Street toward Thayer Street.

When made aware that Providence Police wanted to speak with him, “John” approached two officers near Brown Alumni Hall and agreed to be transported to headquarters for a voluntary interview. He said he noticed the suspect because he was dressed inappropriately and inadequately for the weather, wearing a “flimsy” jacket and gloves. He said he first encountered the suspect in a bathroom in the Barus-Holly Building about two hours before the shooting, was in close proximity and “locked eyes” with him. After this encounter in the bathroom, the suspect exited the building into the parking lot.

“John” decided to follow the suspect along Manning Street and near the RI Historical Society saw him approach a gray or silver sedan which flashed its lights as if being unlocked by a key fob, but when the suspect saw “John” turned and walked away from the vehicle. “John“ looked inside and saw two “fanny pack” bags on the floor, then remained in the area, seeing the suspect return repeatedly but turn away each time he saw “John” in what was described as “a game of cat and mouse.” Finally, on George Street, the suspect began running away and “John” ran after him, “speed-walked” past him, and turned around to confront the suspect, saying “Your car is back there. Why are you circling the block?” The suspect then said, in what “John” said seemed an Hispanic accent, “I don’t know you from nobody. Why are you harassing me?” After that, the suspect walked back toward the car and “John” broke off.

Subsequently on Dec 17 at 11:12pm EST, ‘John” posted again on Reddit: 

The following is all I will say regarding the matter. This evening I spoke to Providence Police, the Rhode Island State Police and I imagine the FBI were listening in another room. They know who I am. I am not the individual posted in the recent round of photos. I wish that individual Godspeed and if they have yet to come forward I strongly encourage them to do so. All the law enforcement personnel that I interacted with today were extremely professional and worked hard to really put me at ease. Respectfully, I have said all I have to say on the matter to the right people. If any follow up is needed the right people know how to reach out to me. Though it is certainly your right to try, any news media attempting to reach out to me will not receive a response. This is a pseudo-PSA and my participation in the comments will be limited to upvoting reasonable takes. Thank you for your time and let’s hope the POI is apprehended soon so the authorities can get to the bottom of this. Hopefully you all are able to enjoy the holidays with your family and loved ones but if you are not may the following days treat you kindly.

Once the police had the location and description of the car, a Nissan Sentra, they were able to use surveillance camera video from the RI Historical Society and city-operated Flock traffic cameras to determine the plate number, which led to the Alamo Rent-a-Car office on Boston, which had identifying data for the lessee including financial information and surveillance video of the rental transaction on Dec 1 at 11:36am. The first hit of the plate on the Flock readers was later that same day at 5:50pm, at the intersection of Camp Street and Doyle Avenue. The Flock readers detected the plate a total of 14 times.

With this financial information, authorities determined that the suspect had rented a locker at Extra Space Storage in Salem, NH. When the FBI SWAT team arrived, the suspect was already dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had the rental car and two handguns, one found near his thigh and the other near his leg.

As of early Friday morning, authorities said they do not know a motive for either crime and do not know why the suspect targeted Brown University or his former classmate from Portugal.

Strong public support has been expressed on social media for giving “John” the $50,000 reward offered by the FBl.

Michael Bilow of Motif attended the 3:30pm court hearing and is reporting based on his personal observations.

At a hearing in US District Court in Providence on the afternoon of Thu, Nov 6, Judge John J. McConnell Jr seemed incredulous that the option in his Oct 31 order to make partial instead of full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (formerly “food stamp”) payments for November, intended to speed up the process and get those partial benefits to recipients by no later than Wed, Nov 5, actually introduced delays that the government contended could add weeks or months. Because the federal government provides money to state governments for further disbursal to recipients, and states never before needed to calculate partial payments, the practical effect was to introduce substantial procedural delay in making benefits available for use, the judge was told.

The failure of Congress to authorize spending in the new fiscal year that began Oct 1 has resulted in a shutdown of the federal government, including monthly US Department of Agriculture (USDA) SNAP payments due Nov 1 to about 42 million recipients.

“The administration was required under this Court’s Order to immediately make the full payment for November SNAP benefits considering the finding of irreparable harm that would occur. And just to be clear, irreparable harm means harm to families, elderly, children, and others that cannot be undone. The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur. That’s what irreparable harm here means. Last weekend, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in our nation’s history. This is a problem that could have and should have been avoided,” the judge said from the bench.

Kristin Bateman of the Democracy Forward Foundation, arguing for the plaintiffs, used only three of her allotted 15 minutes of argument. “This court’s order gave defendants a choice. They could fully fund November SNAP benefits, or they could come up with a plan to partially fund those benefits using the contingency funds, so long as that plan allowed for expeditious and timely payment to the beneficiaries who rely on SNAP for food, and so long as that plan was not arbitrary and capricious The defendants have not done that. By their own admission, their plan will mean that in some states, beneficiaries don’t get the money they need for food for weeks or even months, and the reasons they have given for making that choice are facially implausible. They say that they are doing that to conserve needed funding for child nutrition programs like school lunches, but tapping into those funds now to fully fund the November SNAP benefits will not take needed money away from those child nutrition programs unless the government shutdown lasts until next June. Basing a decision on such a highly unlikely set of events is not reasoned decision making, and it’s particularly unreasonable because the defendants have not explained why they would choose to let 42 million Americans, including 16 million children, go hungry now, in order to guard against the extreme outside chance that come June, there won’t be enough money to fund child nutrition programs,” Bateman argued.

“In fact, the record shows that conserving money for child nutrition programs is not the reason; that’s a pretext. What defendants are really trying to do is to leverage people’s hunger to gain partisan political advantage in the shutdown fight. In these particular facts and circumstances, the defendants choice not to fully fund November SNAP benefits is arbitrary and capricious, and, in these particular facts and circumstances, the court should order defendants to provide that full funding immediately. It’s already six days into November. People are waiting for the assistance they need to be able to afford food, and there’s no more time to wait. So we would ask that the court enforce its existing order by requiring immediate release of the funds necessary to make full November SNAP payments,” Bateman said.

As a result, the judge issued a new order that the federal government make full rather than partial payments for November, and that this be done within one day on Fri, Nov 7. The judge held that in addition to contingency funds already consumed to make partial payments, the necessary funds could be drawn from reserves under Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935, derived from 30% of customs receipts on imports from the prior calendar year, and therefore constitute a permanent statutory appropriation by Congress.

“The administration erroneously and unintentionally conflates Section 32 funds and the child nutrition programs by referring to them in tandem, as though they were one and the same. In essence, they erroneously claim that Section 32 funds are to be used exclusively to fund the child nutrition program, but that is incorrect,” the judge said from the bench. “While much of this funding has been appropriated for the child nutrition program, USDA has statutory authority under 7 USC §2257 to authorize transfers of these funds interchangeably for the ‘miscellaneous expenses of the work of any bureau, division, or office of the Department of Agriculture.’”

The judge noted that USDA had previously used Section 32 funds to keep the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program running, undermining any legal objection to doing it for SNAP, and drawing $4 billion from Section 32 reserves to fully fund SNAP for November would still leave more than $19 billion in the fund. While the government contends that drawing from Section 32 reserves could put 29 million children at risk of there being insufficient funds for child nutrition programs traditionally funded this way, the judge said that the evidence was that would not happen unless the government shutdown extended past May 2026, which he deemed “implausible,” and if Congress did not act to restore SNAP funding and replenish the account. “More importantly, without SNAP funding for the month of November, 16 million children are immediately at risk of going hungry. This should never happen in America. In fact, it’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” the judge said from the bench.

Judge McConnell repeatedly referenced a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump, “The president stated his intent to defy the Court Order when he said, quote, SNAP payments will be given only when the government opens, unquote.” (What Trump actually wrote was, “SNAP BENEFITS… will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”) The judge at the end of the hearing, which lasted less than a half-hour, returned to this point, “The defendant’s stated desire to conserve funding for the child nutrition program is entirely pretextual given the numerous statements made in recent weeks by the President and his administration officials who admit to withholding full SNAP benefits for political reasons.”

Despite outright finding that the government claims were “pretextual,” a blunt way of accusing the government of lying, the judge was careful to acknowledge the difficult if not impossible position the attorney representing USDA, Tyler Becker, found himself in: “I’m not accusing you, and I don’t think the plaintiffs are either, of bad faith in it, or of acting inappropriate. I think what the plaintiffs are saying – I mean, they’ve not, and I think rightly so, haven’t asked for contempt – what they’re merely saying is: enforce the order that is plain and straightforward, and clearly the government didn’t read the order in its plain language in that regard…”

Indeed, the judge noted that, as federal employees, Becker and the Court staff needed to hold the hearing were all working without pay.

Judge McConnell in Providence appeared so angry that, without any actual request from the government, he preempted such a request and said from the bench, “The request for a stay of this decision, either a stay or an administrative stay, is denied. People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable.” Such a stay, which would delay the effect of his order, is relatively ordinary if the case is appealed, as he clearly expected.

After the close of the hearing, the court issued a 27-page written opinion detailing the terms of its order. Almost immediately, the government filed a notice of appeal to the First Circuit in Boston.

The case in Providence at the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island is Rhode Island State Council of Churches et al. v. Rollins et al. (1:25-cv-00569). The case in Boston at the US Court of Appeal for the First Circuit is Rhode Island State Council of Churches et al. v. Rollins et al. (25-2089).

UPDATE: The First Circuit in the early evening of Fri, Nov 7, denied the government request for an administrative stay of the lower court order, effectively allowing the payment of full SNAP benefits by the end of the day. The government then asked the US Supreme Court for an emergency stay, which was granted by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her capacity as the duty justice assigned to handle emergencies from the First Circuit, which she granted late that night, providing that full SNAP benefits need not be paid until 48 hours after the First Circuit makes its decision, allowing time for a further appeal by either side to the Supreme Court.

UPDATE: The First Circuit at 11:49pm, Nov 9, issued a 29-page opinion in favor of the lower court order that full SNAP benefits be paid.

See our coverage of the SNAP crisis:

• “SNAP Benefits Must Be Paid, PVD Federal Court Rules: Contingency funds must be used despite government objections”, by Michael Bilow, Oct 31, 2025.

• “SNAP (Food Stamps) Emergency: RI announces support during federal shutdown”, by Michael Bilow, Oct 29, 2025.

Michael Bilow of Motif attended the 1:00pm court hearing and is reporting based on his personal observations.

In a case with national significance and effect, Judge John J. McConnell Jr of the US District Court in Providence today granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) requiring the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to make Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (formerly “food stamp”) payments due Nov 1 to about 42 million recipients. Citing the failure of Congress to pass financial authorization for the fiscal year beginning Oct 1, 2025, the government issued notices on Oct 24 that SNAP payments would be interrupted due to insufficient funds.

The expected halt in SNAP payments set off widespread panic among state and local governments, as well as non-profit organizations such as community food banks and churches who would have to take up the slack to feed people. RI Governor Daniel McKee declared a state of emergency and, with the RI Foundation, committed millions of dollars to address the problem.

A similar case brought by 25 states and the District of Columbia in the US District Court for Massachusetts emerged from a hearing at 11:00am with the motion for emergency relief remaining under advisement without resolution.

Judge McConnell found in favor of the plaintiffs on both prongs of their case. First, they argued that the law commanded the payment of SNAP benefits as an entitlement and the refusal to use available contingency funds was arbitrary and capricious. For example, holding the congressionally-authorized “emergency reserve” for a possible future emergency such as hurricane relief did not justify failing to use it for an actual present emergency such as the failure of Congress to authorize funding specifically. Second, they argued that although the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (HR. 1) passed by Congress in a sharply partisan division prohibited new waivers for work requirements in high-unemployment areas, it did not authorize the early cancellation of previously granted waivers.

The judge addressed the requirements needed to grant equitable relief to the plaintiffs: likelihood of success of the case on the merits and risk of irreparable harm.

“On the issue of likelihood of success. It is very clear to the Court, having put the issue through a very high standard, that the October 24 letter ordering the stop of SNAP funds violates the Administrative Procedure Act, both in terms of it being contrary to law as well as it being arbitrary and capricious,” Judge McConnell said, ruling from the bench. “SNAP is, to use a colloquial term, an ‘entitlement’ where those benefits are guaranteed. Obviously, to the extent there are appropriated funds, there is no doubt that the $6 billion approximately contingency funds are appropriated funds that are without a doubt necessary to carry out the program’s operation.… There could be no greater necessity than the prohibition across the board of funds for the program’s operations. In addition, SNAP benefits have never, until now, been terminated, and the United States has, in fact, admitted that the contingency funds are appropriately used during a shutdown, and that occurred in 2019.”

“There is no doubt, and it is beyond argument, that irreparable harm will begin to occur, if it hasn’t already occurred, in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food for their family,” Judge McConnell said, ruling from the bench. “It’s clear that, when compared to the millions of people that will go without funds for food, versus the agency’s desire not to use contingency funds in case there’s a hurricane need, the balances of those equities clearly goes on the side of ensuring that people are fed.”

The judge was even more scathing in criticizing the government cancellation of work waivers. “The failure to honor existing waivers is contrary to law. The waivers have been granted. They’re time limited. The time in many of them has not yet expired. The HR. 1 bill that was passed does not give the agency authority to retroactively apply new waiver requirements, it does not give the agency the power to take back existing and relied upon waivers that have been given to certain states. That certainly is arbitrary and capricious, because there is no logical or rational reason why that was done, and it’s particularly egregious, as the Court has pointed out in the past, when you consider the reliance on it, the balance of the equities again balance out and the public interest to requiring that waivers that have been granted be honored for their duration,” Judge McConnell said from the bench.

The lawsuit before Judge McConnell in Providence (Rhode Island State Council of Churches v. Rollins) was brought by RI non-profits the State Council of Churches; the United Way of Rhode Island; Amos House in Providence; the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Newport; the East Bay Community Action Program (EBCAP); Federal Hill House; The Milagros Project in Woonsocket; and the RI cities of Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls. National co-plaintiffs are the National Council of Nonprofits; Service Employees International Union (SEIU) AFL-CIO; Main Street Alliance; and the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). Additional plaintiffs include the cities of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Baltimore, Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; Durham, North Carolina; and New Haven, Connecticut.

 

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known by its old name, “food stamps,” is funded primarily by the federal government but run by state governments. The money ordinarily placed on Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards on the first day of every month is expected not to be available on Nov 1 due to the shutdown of the federal government.

RI Governor Daniel McKee declared a state of emergency in Executive Order 25-02, directing all components of state government to co-ordinate efforts to get food to people who need it, including prohibiting price gouging. McKee is directing immediate payment of $6 million through Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), which uses the same EBT cards as SNAP, to qualifying families with children, assisting 20,000 families comprising 65,000 individuals. He is also providing $200,000 to the RI Community Food Bank, which gives free food to those in need. The RI Foundation is disbursing $1 million, of which $200,000 goes to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank directly and $800,000 to its local non-profit partners. The RI AFL-CIO trade labor union consortium announced a donation of $10,000.

The state government created a special web page to keep the public informed during the emergency: SNAPsupport.ri.gov. United Way of RI operates its telephone help center 24×7, 365 days of the year, supporting more than 200 languages, reachable by dialing 2-1-1. United Way is also enhancing accessibility for in-person consultations at its 50 Valley Street headquarters in Providence.

The RI Community Food Bank posted a list of resources on Facebook – facebook.com/100064778588074/posts/1254541556715119 – and created a web page for those looking to help – rifoodbank.org/shutdown – through volunteering or donating. The City of Providence – providenceri.gov/food – also created a dedicated page. A searchable list of food pantries can be found at rifoodbank.org/find-food.

About 145,000 residents of RI, 13% of the population, receive $29 million from SNAP monthly, with an average benefit of $199 per month, and in almost all cases this makes the difference in rescuing them from food insecurity. According to the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, SNAP recipients in RI are in families with children 49% of the time, with elderly or disabled members 46% of the time, and in families with working members 32% of the time. Of SNAP recipients in RI, 25% have income below 50% of the poverty line, 46% have income between 51% and 100% of the poverty line, and only 29% have income above 100% of the poverty line; without SNAP, 20,000 recipients, including 6,000 children, would otherwise fall beyond food insecurity into actual poverty. SNAP usage nationally doubled from about 20 million people to over 40 million following the 2007 – 2009 Great Recession.

The federal government shutdown results from partisan political disputes that prevented Congress from passing legislation authorizing expenditures for the fiscal year that began on Oct 1, 2025. This resulted in a furlough of up to 900,000 federal employees deemed “non-essential.” About half are civilian defense employees, while many others who are deemed “essential,” such as air traffic controllers and weather forecasters, are required to continue working without pay. It is estimated that each week of shutdown causes 0.1 – 0.2 percentage points in decline of GDP growth.

This is the 11th shutdown of the modern era, and in all past shutdowns payments continued to be made for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP. Why this shutdown is halting SNAP payments is a major political controversy: the Trump administration claims they have no choice other than to halt SNAP, but 25 states, including RI, sued claiming it is illegal to do so. The case is Commonwealth of Massachusetts, et al. v. United States Department of Agriculture, 1:25-cv-13165, filed in federal district court in Massachusetts. According to the complaint:

• For decades, low-income Americans have relied on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to put food on the table.
• Across various previous federal government shutdowns, SNAP benefits have never been interrupted by a lapse in appropriations.
• Until now: earlier this month, Defendant U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suspended SNAP benefits for November.
• Because of USDA’s actions, SNAP benefits will be delayed for the first time since the program’s inception.
• Worse still, USDA suspended SNAP benefits even though, on information and belief, it has funds available to it that are sufficient to fund all, or at least a substantial portion, of November SNAP benefits.
• Suspending SNAP benefits in these circumstances is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.
• USDA’s suspension of SNAP benefits is irreparably harming Plaintiff States — a harm that increases every day SNAP benefits are delayed.

“President Trump’s failure to act is cruel and unacceptable,” said McKee in a statement. “I’m continuing to call on the President to use all available options to cover November benefits. But make no mistake, Rhode Island will not stand by and allow families to go hungry. We’re taking decisive action to protect food access wherever possible and strengthen our local food banks.”

“When the President and his Administration blame lapsing SNAP benefits on the government shutdown, they are lying to you,” said Attorney General Peter Neronha in a statement. “The USDA has billions in contingency funds for this express purpose – so that Americans don’t go hungry waiting for their federal government to get its act together. Forty-two million Americans rely on SNAP to feed themselves and their families, including nearly 150,000 Rhode Islanders, for whom this is potentially a life-threatening situation. So, as the President prioritizes golden ballrooms over access to food, we will continue to fight on behalf of all Americans.”

Neronha’s office further said, “USDA has funded other programs with emergency funds during this shutdown, but has refused to fund SNAP, leaving millions of Americans without the assistance they need to buy food. It is clear the federal government is making a deliberate, illegal, and inhumane choice not to fund this crucial program. The lapse in benefits will have dire consequences for the health and well-being of millions across the country, who rely on the program to feed themselves and their families. This lapse will also put unnecessary strain on state and local governments and community organizations, as families increasingly rely on emergency services and local food pantries that are already struggling to fill a growing nutrition gap.”

The governor’s office also collected statements from government and community leaders contributing to emergency relief efforts, including Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos; Bob DaSilva, mayor of East Providence and president of the RI League of Cities and Towns; David N. Cicilline, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation; Patrick Crowley, president of the RI AFL-CIO; Melissa Cherney, RI Community Food Bank CEO; Cortney Nicolato, president and CEO, United Way of RI; and Kimberly Merolla-Brito, director of the RI Department of Human Services.