To a standing ovation in state Senate chambers Tuesday afternoon, Rhode Island Supreme Court Acting Chief Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg, right, raises the hand of Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed after administering the oath of office to Rhode Island’s first female Senate president. Times photo/Butch Adams
By JIM BARON
PROVIDENCE — A get-down-to-business atmosphere replaced much of the usual first-day frivolity in both chambers of the General Assembly Tuesday as lawmakers confront a fiscal crisis more daunting than perhaps any since the Great Depression.
LINCOLN --- With all the pomp and circumstance of a June high school graduation, Tuesday night’s inauguration ceremony — conducted inside a two-thirds-filled LHS auditorium — brought forth an abundance of community spirit as newly-elected officials took their oaths.