Vermont’s Department of Children and Families was at the center of two recent lawsuits regarding the state’s policy of stripping foster parent licensing in families with anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs. Now, the state has revised its foster parenting guidelines: families are no longer required to endorse or affirm their foster children’s “specific identities,” clearing a path for placements in religious households that clash with queer ideology.
Arnie Arnesen, host of “The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen” on New Hampshire’s WNHN, said she ultimately agreed with the ruling. In the 1980s, when she was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Arnesen voted against a bill that would have banned gay and lesbian couples from being foster parents. He says these cases — which revolve around Fundamentalist Christian couples — are a “bookend.”
“It’s a hard decision for a lot of us, but I think it’s the right decision,” Arnesen said. “Having been on the other side back in the ‘80s and seeing where we are in 2026, the focus is now back on children. And I think it just puts an additional responsibility on placement… Let’s make sure we have as many families as possible that will love children, and then just make sure that they don’t harm the children they love.”
Meanwhile, New Hampshire has made headlines for scrapping a proposed ICE facility in Merrimack that would have seen targets of immigration enforcement held in a warehouse-turned-detention center. Frustration over New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s delayed response to the plan had spread across state lines, resulting in Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey voicing strong opposition to ICE’s “horrific deportation tactics.”
“I’ve covered politics a long time, [but it’s] pretty unusual, even from governors of different parties, to call each other out that directly on a hot-button issue across the border [in] neighboring states,” said Ted Nesi, politics editor and investigative reporter at WPRI in Rhode Island. “I thought that was interesting and said something about just where the level of concern on ICE issues is right now.”
And on the Cape, a lawyer is trading the courtroom for the ice, competing in wheelchair curling at the 2026 Milano Cortina Paralympic Games. Sandwich resident Sean O’Neill will debut against No. 1-seeded China on March 7, fewer than four years since he began training at Falmouth’s Cape Cod Curling Club.
“[They] had a president of the club several years back who really wanted to make sure that the club was not just welcoming wheelchair curlers, but making it a priority,” said CAI reporter and producer Jennette Barnes. “O’Neill is actually the fourth wheelchair curler out of the Cape Cod Curling Club to go to the Paralympics.”
All of this, plus a Vermont cycling company battling Trump’s tariffs, the intersection of domestic violence and the shooting in Pawtucket — as well as a $70,000 rug snafu in Rhode Island — are on this week’s regional news roundtable.
Guests
- Arnie Arnesen, host of “The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen” on WNHN in New Hampshire
- Ted Nesi, politics editor and investigative reporter at WPRI in Rhode Island
- Jenette Barnes, reporter and producer at CAI on Cape Cod
Stories featured in this week’s roundtable
- Vermont Digger: Vermont settles lawsuits over foster case licenses denied due to anti-LGBTQ beliefs
- CAI: Cape Cod Potato Chips will no longer be made on Cape, as Hyannis factory set to close
- WPRI: $70,000 new rug at RI State House gets state seal wrong
- Seven Days: Burlington Company Helps Topple Trump’s Tariffs
- Ocean State Media: After Pawtucket shooting, advocates urge awareness of domestic violence warning signs
- WPRI: Nesi’s Notes: Feb. 21
- WMUR: Plan for ICE detention center in Merrimack has been scrapped, governor says
