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The Rhode Island State Police are hosting in South Providence on Monday night what a press release called a ““New Beginnings Community Outreach Forum: A Follow-Up to the Ferguson Decision.”
According to the press release, “The forum will address the recent issues surrounding the grand jury decisions in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City and the impact it has made on law enforcement and the communities they serve.”
The forum is Monday, December 15, 2014 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at South Providence Recreation Center 674 Prairie Ave. in Providence.
The press release says the forum is “in partnership with Project Night Vision, the Center for Southeast Asians, the Hispanic Ministerial Association of Rhode Island, the NAACP, the Multi-Cultural Center for All, the Mount Hope Neighborhood Association, the Chad Brown Alumni Association, the African Alliance, the Institute for the Study and Practice of Non-Violence, and other community groups.”
Jim Vincent, president of the Providence chapter of the NAACP, said the forum will be beneficial for both residents and police officer.
“The people in South Providence, they don’t know the police,” Vincent said. “And for too many people, they don’t trust the police. They see them as occupiers. We want the police in our communities, we need them in our neighborhoods. But we don’t need to feel in fear of them, we don’t need to feel threatened. It’s counter-productive.”
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Charon Rose, deputy field director for Jorge Elorza’s mayoral campaign, was elected the next president of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island at the group’s annual meeting on Saturday. Rose, who is a native of Providence’s Chad Brown neighborhood and an alumna of Classical High School and Rhode Island College, also co-chairs the New Leaders Council RI Chapter. Outgoing YDRI President Mark Gray did not seek re-election.
On Saturday, the Young Democrats of Rhode Island held their annual convention at URI’s Feinstein campus in downtown Providence. Since 2010, YDRI has grown substantially, with over 100 active members in 2014. Participants hailed from a broad array of backgrounds, ranging from campaign staffers to concerned citizens, and from newly-elected legislators to progressive activists. Attendees were united by a shared commitment to improving Rhode Island’s government—especially for young people—and most of the day’s dialogue focused on actions that could be taken to enact those improvements.
The convention also featured a discussion on YDRI’s legislative priorities for 2015. Attendees split into three groups to identify and discuss young people’s most pressing legislative priorities. When the groups came back together and shared their priorities, there was significant overlap of issues between groups, focusing on economic equality, social justice, and environmental justice. Discussion repeatedly turned to issues of racial profiling, police relations, ending drug prohibition, and supporting economic growth for young Rhode Islanders via topics like college affordability. YDRI looks forward to continuing to build its membership base for action on these issues in 2015.
Over the coming months, the group will engage with partner organizations, with the goal of rallying advocacy efforts for those initiatives.
Speakers at Saturday’s annual meeting included:
Outgoing YDRI President Mark Gray, who gave a compelling exit address regarding YDRI’s achievements and the priorities he would like to see the group approach in the future
Constantina Meis, who, as Women’s Caucus Chair for the Young Democrats of America, updated YDRI on the efforts which the national YDA is currently undertaking regarding growing women’s and minority caucuses.
Theo Groh, President of Young Democrats of New Hampshire, who shared updates on his work building chapters with the national YDA.
Theo also presided over YDRI’s elections for the 2015 Board of Directors. The new Board members are:
President: Charon Rose
Executive Vice President: Zack Mezera
Vice President: Amy Espinal
Treasurer: Jordan Day
Secretary: Alex Krogh-Grabbe
Communications Director: Michael Beauregard
Membership Director: Abby Godino
Policy Committee Chair: Juan Espinoza
YDA National Committeeman: Chris Tallent
YDA National Committeewoman: Kristina Fox
Congressional District 1 Representative: Amanda Clarke
Congressional District 2 Representative: Anthony DeRose
To learn more about the Young Democrats of Rhode Island, visit our website.
The Young Democrats of Rhode Island is the organization for young people 13-35 who wish to mobilize on behalf of the Democratic party and to advocate for issues facing young people in Rhode Island and America.
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New development on I-195 lands, as well as other public construction projects, violate a state law if 10 percent of a project aren’t awarded to minority business enterprises, said Lisa Ranglin, president of the Rhode Island Black Business Association.
“There is a law on the books,” Ranglin said. “Put it in the contracts, or it’s meaningless.”
Ranglin and the RIBBA say the I-195 Commission is neglecting to enforce a 1986 law as it moves forward with selling state land to private contractors for redevelopment. “RIBBA is putting together a team of professionals, business experts and local contractors committed to full enforcement of the MBE 10% set aside within this project to be developed by PPC Land Ventures,” according to a press release from the RIBBA.
A state law dictates that minority-owned businesses are to be awarded 10 percent of the value of public construction projects and procurements, Ranglin said.
RI law 37-14.1, passed in 1986, reads, “Minority business enterprises shall be included in all procurements and construction projects under this chapter and shall be awarded a minimum of ten percent (10%) of the dollar value of the entire procurement or project. The director of the department of administration is further authorized to establish by rules and regulation formulas for giving minority business enterprises a preference in contract and subcontract awards.”
The law has been systematically ignored over the years, said Ranglin.
Dyana Koelsch, a paid spokeswoman for the I-195 project, could not be reached for comment (updated below). But on Twitter yesterday she said Ranglin made a “good point” about the 10 percent minority business enterprise law. Here’s the exchange between Koelsch and Ranglin:
@LisaRanglin @JournalKate @projo Looks like you got some bad info Lisa. No PLA in P&S. In fact P&S specifically encourages MBE/WBE
Ranglin said the RIBBA decided at a strategy meeting on Saturday to force the state and the I-195 Commission to enforce the law. “The strategy meeting on Saturday is the start of a new day,” Ranglin said in a press release. “For black and minority contractors, the existing legislatively approved 10% set aside for minority and women contractors has proven to be almost meaningless in practice.”
Ranglin, in an interview with RI Future, said the RIBBA is working with NAACP legal experts om how to force the state to comply with the law.
“We’re going to be out there in full force to make sure our community is thriving,” she told RI Future. “People in under-served communities, are stories are never told because we’re not powerful.”
But, she added, “We’re on the right side of the law here. It’s right there in black and white.”
Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s office was contacted for an opinion on whether the I-195 Commission needs to comply with this law. The Secretary of State office’s and the city of Providence have also been asked for data on historical compliance. This post will be updated if and when they respond.
UPDATE: Dyana Koelsch sent this statement on behalf of the I-195 Commission:
The 195 Redevelopment Commission explicitly encourages the participation of MBE/WBE firms in the development of The LINK. This is reflected in the Purchase and Sale Agreement with Lincoln/ Phoenix Properties and its affiliate firm, “Friendship & Clifford” which is the developer of Parcel 28.
The Commission welcomes an open and productive dialogue with the Rhode Island Black Business Association regarding its concerns. By way of a correction and clarification, the RIBBA incorrectly stated the P&S includes a Project Labor Agreement. It does not. The P&S, which is public record, does include specific language on the utilization of MBE/WBE resources, firms and employees. The text of Paragraph 13 from the P&S is included below:
PURCHASER’S AGREEMENT REGARDING CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECT.
Purchaser agrees in connection with the development and construction of the Project that it will endeavor to employ and source from Rhode Island-based firms and employees to the extent reasonably possible. Purchaser also agrees that it will use its best efforts to employ minority- and women-owned firms and contractors to the extent reasonably possible and to encourage any contractors or subcontractors to do the same. Purchaser will register job vacancies as it deems appropriate with the City of Providence Department of Economic Development for inclusion in their First Source database and further agrees to use its best efforts to fill job vacancies with minority and women candidates from the First Source List. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Purchaser shall comply with the provisions of each and every term of the Tax Stabilization Agreement with respect to employment of Rhode Island residents, minorities and women.
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Scott Nystrom, a senior economic associate Regional Economic Models (REMI), gave a talk at Brown University about Fee-and-Dividend Carbon Tax, a plan proposed by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL). The talk presented the effect on the economy and power generation of a steadily rising fee imposed on the CO2 content of fossil fuels. The presentation was a condensed version of a report prepared for the CC by REMI and Synapse Energy Economics.
Here are my impressions, based both on the talk and the report. Nystrom started with an overview of the plan, which can be found on CCL’s beautifully-organized web page:
Place a steadily rising fee on carbon-based fuels
Give all of the revenue from the carbon fee back to households
Make border adjustments to ensure fairness and competition
This will be good for the economy AND even better for the climate
Border adjustments is short for fees on products imported from countries without a carbon tax, along with rebates to US industries exporting to such countries. Such adjustments serve to level the playing field for international trade.
Based on model calculations, REMI*Synapse makes the following predictions about what implementation of this plan would look like nationally by 2025 by comparing projections with and without the Fee-and-Dividend carbon tax:
2.1 million more jobs
33% reduction in CO2 emissions
13,000 premature deaths saved from improvements in air quality
The fundamentals of the CCL model legislation are perfectly solid, namely that burning of fossil fuels is causing rising global temperatures and poses an imminent threat to the natural environment and an unacceptable risk of catastrophic impacts to human civilization. Also the principle of letting the polluters pay is sensible. The problem, as I see it, is the unsatisfactory implementation of these principles resulting from incomplete understanding of climate science.
The proposal is to put a fee on carbon pollution, but it fails to account for fugitive fracked gas leaking into the atmosphere at the well, from the pipelines or anyplace else down stream. Clearly, the study predates our current understanding of the effects of fracked gas. The unburnt gas that escapes in copious amounts is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. The net result over the next couple of decades is that conversion to natural gas, as called for in the President’s Climate Action Plan, is very likely to be more dangerous for the global climate than coal and oil.
The Fee-and-Dividend puts a price on CO2 while pollution by fugitive fracked gas continues merrily free of charge. Summing up the climate impact exclusively in terms of a reduction CO2 emissions, as the REMI*Synapse study does, is simply wrong.
Similar criticism applies to the reduction by 13,000 of premature deaths that will result from near-absence of pollution caused by coal fired power plants. The effect of the poisoning of air and water due to fracking are very difficult to quantify with our current understanding.
What we do know does not look good; we are waist deep in the big muddy of an uncontrolled fracking experiment with public health. Notice that we’re not even talking about the effects of the nuclear power generation featured prominently in the study. I guess that the study also manages to suspend the possible health impacts of climate change.
If you can temporarily suspend your disbelief, follow me on to the prediction about power generation. Let’s look at the following figure lifted from the REMI*Synapse study. The figure compares power generation with and without Fee-and-Dividend Carbon tax. The impact on total power generation even as far into the future as 2040 is small. By that time, according to the study, roughly half of the power will be green. The other half will be a a toxic mix of fossil fuel and nuclear energy. The plan will be essentially phase out coal, and the share of nuclear energy will double nationally. Renewable energy increases by about a third relative to the no-fee baseline.
The talk left some of us wondering why the South is projected to have only a minuscule fraction of power generated by wind and solar, while there is a big chunk of nuclear power. Compared this to a proposal by the Solutions Project, a plan for how the world can transition to 100% renewable energy based exclusively on wind, water and sun, with no nuclear power whatsoever.
Time to wrap up. As mentioned, the REMI*Synapse study of pricing carbon emissions fails to price fugitive methane. The results might be interesting for some, but they have no relevance for the world we live in. Computational science has a phrase for such studies: garbage in, garbage out. Of course, this particular problem could be addressed by redoing the study and incorporating our current insights, but there is a more fundamental problem. The study seeks exclusively for market driven solutions. Those proposed by the Solutions Project are simply not in the realm of possible outcomes of any study that take the rules of predator capitalism for granted.
The good people of CCL may think that they have to speak the language of the ruling class to get its attention and they may have a point. It’s not my style, but as long as they do not really hope to get what they seem to wish for, they have my blessing. After all, we’re in this together, and to change everything, we need everyone.
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