PROVIDENCE – The General Assembly this month approved legislation toughening penalties for underage smoking. more

PROVIDENCE – Rainwater for Humanity, a student group launched in 2009 by a collaboration of Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design students, plans to become an official nonprofit agency. more

Game designers work on the art and programming code for their game during the 2013 Global Game Jam at New England Institute of Technology. The 48-hour, game-design event was held Jan. 25-27 at 317 jam sites in 60 countries and included tens of thousands of participants. NEIT had 54 contestants, including from left, Matthew Karn, NEIT graduate, Chase Hermanson, NEIT graduate, Rhode Island School of Design senior Chris Culbertson and Allisandra Briggs, RISD senior. more

Brown University has expanded its student health insurance to include coverage for sex-change surgery, one of 37 colleges and universities in the U.S. to cover hormone and gender reassignment/confirmation surgeries, according to the Transgender Law and Policy Institute. more

There’s a buzz around beekeeping in Rhode Island, with hundreds of people involved and numerous small businesses selling honey and related products like lip balm and beeswax candles. more

More than 100 members of the legal community, along with students, faculty, staff and alumni of Roger Williams University School of Law, recently gathered for the third annual Pro Bono Collaborative Cocktail Reception. more

Claudia Lowe was recently honored as the 2012 outstanding advocate by the University of Rhode Island’s Council for Exceptional Children. After her daughter, Katie, now 32, was born with Down syndrome, Lowe and other parents and families founded the Down Syndrome Society of Rhode Island in 1982. At the time, no other parent support groups existed. Lowe went on to serve as the organization’s president for three years before becoming the organization’s coordinator. In addition, she’s served on several other boards focusing on disability advocacy. more

Brown University will use proceeds from the Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence to provide scholarships for Providence public high school graduates accepted to accredited two- or four-year institutions of higher education, the school announced Thursday. more

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Department of Education has launched its Academy for Transformative Leadership, an initiative meant to recruit, prepare and support leaders who can help transform the state’s lowest-performing schools. more

PROVIDENCE – Patrick T. Conley, a former Providence College professor who unsuccessfully attempted to develop Conley’s Pier along Allens Avenue in the city, has been appointed the state’s historian laureate, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis announced last week. more