PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Two Rhode Island men authorities say touched off a needless and expensive ocean search-and-rescue effort when they fired maritime distress flares to celebrate a friend's wedding have agreed to pay $5,000 each to settle the case, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The Coast Guard and the town of New Shoreham spent more than $100,000 combined responding to the flares off Block Island on June 6, 2020, when there was no one in distress, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Providence.

Perry Phillips, 31, and Benjamin Foster, 33, "knowingly and willfull...