February 2015 – RI Future

February 28, 2015February 28, 2015

Economic growth, policy and the Pawsox

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The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its new economic growth numbers today and there are a few things I want to ruminate on.

“Real gross domestic product — the value of the production of goods and services in the United States, adjusted for price changes — increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the ‘second’ estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 5.0 percent.”

This is a good one. The good times rolled in the third quarter. At 5 percent we could keep up with China. We fell back to earth in the 4th quarter, 2.2 percent, which just so happens to match the growth rate in each of the last 3 years. Interestingly the biggest swings in spending were by the federal government, especially in the defense sector.

Real GDP increased 2.4 percent in 2014 (that is, from the 2013 annual level to the 2014 annual level), compared with an increase of 2.2 percent in 2013.”

The chart that followed also included the 2012 number, 2.3%. GDP growth in the last few years has been remarkably consistent the last few years, 2.2 percent to 2.4 percent. Actually the economy has been averaging something in the low two’s for quite a while. The national average includes things like the fracking boom towns of North Dakota (growth rate in 2013 15 percent) and Texas, the financial and entertainment centers of the universe, and the rural counties of Mississippi.

An honest assessment of Rhode Island puts us slightly below the national average in assets and growth potential. We are not a natural resource boom town, we are not a mega city and financial center. We are an old industrial place that lost out when the nation stopped being water-powered and we were no longer cheap labor. Despite the screams of the John Birchers (I was handed a John Birch Society pamphlet at a public hearing recently), the heroic efforts of the business climate obsessives, and the promises of the legislature the fundamentals of the Rhode Island economy remain those of a post industrial medium sized city that is vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change and the slowing global economy.

But Rhode Island public policy is predicated on rapid growth, 3.2 percent on average. A better understanding of ourselves, especially of how economy works in a 2 percent growth world, would go a long way towards aligning policy with bringing prosperity to our communities rather than just filling the coffers of the few.

The cause du jour for this sermon is the effort by some of the wealthiest men in New England to move the Pawsox to a park in Providence. Rhode Island has a sordid history on this sort of thing, Big money crushing communities and demanding subsidies or threatening to go elsewhere with their money. I do not like the deal, but who cares. The one thing you should care about is making sure that the whole deal gets a very full public airing and that this is followed by a series of public hearings in all the affected communities. Today I have been making calls seeking a hearing and CRMC says it will hold one if they get a formal application, but the effected cities should also hold hearings for the public to air their concerns.

The more I read about the land in question, the less I like the deal. Either stealing public parks and waterfront or admitting that the knowledge district is more fantasy than reality. Neither makes us look good. The first thing the lords of Triple A should do is state that since they believe they are high rent economic development they are willing to pay fair market value for any land they build upon including all of the land they use for parking. Let the public airing truly begin before this develops any momentum and any more palms get greased.

February 27, 2015March 1, 2015

Sheldon, progressive senators oppose free trade deals like TPP

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Have you heard about the Trans Pacific Partnership yet?

If not, that’s exactly what the corporate interests – like big pharma and Wall Street – who wrote this trade deal were hoping. The TPP would be the largest such multinational pact ever and it’s been crafted entirely in secret. “It’s a trojan horse in the global race to the bottom,” said Robert Reich, “giving big corporations and Wall Street banks a way to eliminate laws that get in the way of their profits.”

Thankfully, the progressives in the US Senate are finally starting to vocally oppose it – even though it puts them at odds with President Obama, who supports it. Elizabeth Warren had this op/ed in the Washington Post this week, and 8 senators spoke on the floor yesterday to oppose such “free trade” deals.

“I start with a state that has been on the losing end of these trade deals,” said Rhode Island’s Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “Rhode Island, not a big state, has lost more than 50,000 good paying manufacturing jobs since 1990.”

Whitehouse was joined by sens Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

“I don’t like the process very much either,” said Whitehouse on the senate floor yesterday. “It is secret, we are kept out of it and who’s is in it is some really big corporations and they are up to I think no good in a lot of these deals.”

So does Pascoag resident Chris Currie, a member of the RI Progressive Democrats who has been sounding the alarm about the TPP locally since before many in the beltway even knew it existed.

“As we have seen in the recent mid-term elections, multinational corporations have been collectively spending billions … to rig and/or otherwise determine the outcomes [of] elections, and they have succeeded in that regard in many ways,” he said in a recent email. “But they are well on the way toward achieving such objectives in the future without having to spend anywhere near that much money by financing the implementation of the so-called Trans Pacific Partnership (“treaty” and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) “treaty” which have the full support of President Obama, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and most our Republicans in Congress. Once either of those two “treaties” are implemented, multinational corporations won’t have to worry about bribing our politicians anymore, because if our federal, state, or municipal government enact ANY KIND of legislation that impedes the “expected profitability” of multinational corporations.”

Currie has been sending warning emails about the TPP for years. Here’s an excerpt from one sent in August of 2013: “Promoting (and attempting to “fast track”) the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trans Atlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) treaties which will surrender our nation’s sovereignty to a cartel (world government?) of greedy multi-national corporations (that have no god but money) by empowering them to effectively nullify US federal, state, and local laws which “interfere with the profitability” of their corporations. It would be like surrendering our national sovereignty to greedy bastard (and deadly) corporations like Monsanto!”

February 26, 2015February 27, 2015

The ‘Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing

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Incarcerated students in my CCRI Introductory Sociology course are expected, like my students elsewhere, to write 1-2 page reflection papers each week on themes that we discuss in class. Writing is, of course, one of the most important liberal arts competencies, and it is part of my job as a professor to help students find their “voices”—their tones in writing that permit them to most clearly express themselves.

Sociology is the study of human society, and we talk about everything from gender to class to race to education to inequality to crime and deviance throughout the course of a semester. These weekly class reflection papers (we call them “thinkpieces”) are designed to give students the opportunity to apply theory to real life: to take ideas from the classroom and use them to make sense of their own experiences. This is sociology’s task and, of course, its promise.

These “thinkpieces” of students in prison are generally of extraordinary caliber, and offer both insights into the human beings who serve time, and into the social dynamics that contribute to all of our lives.

In the fall of 2014, a student at the men’s medium-security facility wrote a very compelling reflection paper on the subject of public education. We had been studying social institutions in class, and he had been reading both the textbook and a supplementary piece by well-known academic-turned-journalist Jonathan Kozol.

When grading his paper I noted that it had the skeleton of a good op/ed: it identified a relevant problem in the news, it explained why it was important, it offered a solution, and it was of unsurpassed eloquence, especially for someone that had initially been very hesitant to participate in discussion.

Publication demonstrated for Aaron that he can still make a positive, substantive impact on society. And for society, his publication demonstrated that incarcerated people can still make a positive, substantive impact. RI Future editor/publisher Bob Plain and I knew we had discovered a way to combine our crafts to facilitate constructive participation from people inside.

Thus began the Prison Op/Ed Project, an on-going series of timely op/ed writing to be published on RI Future by CCRI sociology students living in Rhode Island prisons.

With the assistance of Bob and myself, students learn to write sociological analyses of problems that use empirical evidence and consistent argument, rather than anecdote or hyperbole. They learn how to address different audiences, and how to shape those analyses for public consumption. They have a soapbox, and also get—in some cases for the first time—exposure to readership outside their inner circles.

Finding one’s voice and writing for a public is an important part of civic education, and writing has the potential to unlock some of the best of human nature. It is our hope that this project makes students better, more empowered, and more articulate actors and critics, for both themselves and the world.

Prison Op-Ed Project contributors are all students in CCRI’s Introductory Sociology Class, which itself is a part of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Special Education Program. Read a recent study by the staff of the Correctional Education Association, the US Department of Education, and the Indiana Department of Correction on the benefits of correctional education programs.

Aaron Carpenter: Does racial injustice still exists? Look at our schools

February 25, 2015February 26, 2015

Experts agree: Criminalizing HIV transmission a ‘backwards step’

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If freshman legislator Robert Nardolillo accomplished anything with the introduction of legislation that seeks to criminalize the transmission of HIV, it was to demonstrate the hard won strength and unity of the LGBTQ and medical community in resisting a return to the ignorance, fear and stigma attached to the disease in the 1980s.

Though Nardolillo, in presenting his bill to the House Judiciary Committee claims to have done research on the issue, it became immediately obvious that he had not talked to any of the assembled experts in public health policy in the room last night. If anything, it looks like Nardolillo’s research amounted to little more than copying section 44-29-140 of a draconian and unhelpful South Carolina law passed in 1988, at the height of AIDS hysteria in the United States.

Nardolillo, who did not respond to my request to answer questions before the hearings, did speak to Zack Ford at ThinkProgress and when confronted with studies demonstrating the dangers of this kind of legislation, showed himself to be impervious to reason, saying,

‘Have I read the research? I did,’ Nardolillo confirmed, saying that he still felt that HIV was too serious not to prosecute in a distinct way.

Stephen Hourahan, Executive Director of AIDS Project RI strongly disagreed. The legislation’s passage, said Hourahan, “would mark a backwards step” in dealing with HIV. Since the bill criminalizes knowingly transmitting HIV, the bill will, “privilege the ignorance of not knowing your status.” We don’t want the mantra to be, “Take the test and risk arrest,” said Hourhan, adding that such a bill would create a “viral underclass” and should be opposed by all.

Paul Fitzgerald, executive director AIDS Care Ocean State, echoed Hourahan’s comments, adding, “I don’t believe that it’s smart” to pass such a bill.

Anthony Maselli, a healthcare worker and LGBTQ activist, said that transmission of HIV with “malicious intent is improbable and rare.” The law, says Maselli, “adds insult to injury” and is “a slap in the face.” At the conclusion of his excellent testimony, Maselli was greeted with applause from those crowded into the room.

Anthony DeRose, representing the Rhode Island Democratic Party LGBTQ Caucus and the Young Democrats of Rhode Island pointed out that as a country, we are in the process of rolling back similar laws. Laws such as the one Nardolillo introduced, said DeRose, are “outdated.”

Dr. Amy Nunn of Brown University, who I featured in a piece back in December during a State House event held for World AIDS Day, said that passage of such a law would set back decades of work here in Rhode Island. She called Dr. Michael Fine of the Rhode Island Department of Health a visionary for suggesting that Rhode island might be the first state to eliminate HIV transmission through sound public policy.

Rounding out the night’s testimony was Miriam Hospital’s Kristen Pfeiffer, chair of the RI HIV Prevention Coalition and Ben Klein, a Senior Attorney at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. Both were vociferous and forceful in firmly opposing the legislation.

In the face of such strong opposition, it seems extremely unlikely that this legislation will advance out of committee.

February 25, 2015February 26, 2015

Civil Rights-era activist Adele Bourne speaks against Raptakis highway protest bill

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In my opinion Adele Bourne, speaking in front of the Senate Judiciary committee on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee in opposition to Senator Leo Raptakis‘ bill to make blocking the highway during a political protest a felony, has put the last nail in the coffin of this ill considered legislative overreach.

“I would have a rap sheet a mile long if this were taking place in Webster Groves, Missouri in 1953,” said Bourne, who was a senior in high school at the time, “There were good reasons. I’m not a wild eyed pacifist or liberal but in 1953 in Webster Groves, Missouri, our religious leaders and our wonderful school teacher… black and white, they got us all together, the kids, and we got rid of a corrupt mayor. We opened up a new pool and recreation area, paid for by everybody, used only by whites: we changed that. So when school desegregation came three years later there was no problem whatsoever.”

Bourne spoke directly to the danger of passing laws that run contrary to civil rights, saying, “At the time there were real problems and my ministers and my teachers and I would have been put in jail because we had to cross a highway at one point or another.”

Webster Groves is only 14 miles from Ferguson.

Bourne brought up the case of Father Michael Doyle, a New Jersey priest arrested in 1971 as part of the Camden 28 for breaking into a draft office as part of a protest against the Vietnam War. “I’m old enough that I have been able to know some of the leading people for political change and social change in this country. That’s one advantage of being so ancient. Father Michael Doyle of Camden, New Jersey would be behind bars under mandatory sentencing.”

Instead, Father Michael Doyle has spent that last four decades, “feeding, housing, and educating the poor.”

It’s important to remember that the people blocking the highways today are the Adele Bournes and Michael Doyles of the future. We cannot let ourselves become so fearful of change that we criminalize our best and brightest.

You can view the rest of last night’s testimony on the Raptakis’ highway bill here.

February 25, 2015February 25, 2015

Raimondo toll plan deserves progressive support

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Tolls are the way to go, says Gov. Raimondo, and we need to have her back on that.

As Gov. Raimondo recently pointed out, Rhode Island has some of the highest per-mile costs for road infrastructure. In addition to that, as I’ve pointed out right here at RI Future, much of that road infrastructure is highway oriented, even in our cities. Providence is among a rogue collection of cities in the Rustbelt Midwest, Texas, and California for its lane-miles of highway infrastructure per capita.

That means that our poorest areas where people often don’t have access to cars are choked by highways, causing air pollution and congestion that would otherwise be avoided with a multimodal system. The costs of this type of highway infrastructure are many orders of magnitude higher than other projects, and also at the same time stand in the way of development in urban areas. These factors act as both a push and pull force against our economic development and climate change goals.

One way Gov. Raimondo has sought to fix the imbalance of spending is to use tolls to provide some of our road funding. I know that there’s going to be lots of howling from all sides, so I want to preempt it and say to the governor, “Thank you! Well done!”

Tolls are not popular on the left or the right. The right, of course, unaware of how socialized and unbalanced policies around driving have become, cries that tolls are a “war on cars“. In Rhode Island, we’ve seen tea party vandalism against toll collection efforts on the Sakonnet Bridge. Sometimes elements of the left don’t understand the issue well either, seeing tolls as a way of stepping away from the responsibility of government to pay directly for infrastructure costs through general funds. I believe both are mistaken.

It’s correct to use government to invest in public infrastructure and lessen inequalities. Road spending is simply the least efficient way to do it. Although all classes of people drive to some extent, the poorest drive the least. Certainly if you want to help the odd person who is poor and happens to drive, there are more direct ways to target the aid. Though road projects cause a blooming of development, the revenue from the development does not add up to enough over the long-term to pay back the costs of the maintenance on infrastructure. Tolls are an equitable way to pay for road infrastructure. Paying for roads in this way also means that the general funds we have can be repurposed to more important and directly progressive goals, like an increased Earned Income Tax Credit in the state.

I call on the governor not only to toll highway-type infrastructure, but also to look carefully at how we can reduce unnecessary road expenditures. We need long distance roads in parts of our state, but our urban areas are far too choked by highways. The Route 10 section of the 6/10 Connector is now the oldest highway in the state, cuts neighborhoods in Providence and Cranston off from one another, makes the Washington Secondary bike path less useful, and prevents development along a prime corridor of urban land. Removing highways like Rt. 10 and building them in less expensive, more multimodal ways would lower our state’s costs, allowing tolls to be less extreme (I think Rt. 6 should go too, but its infrastructure is newer–some of it, in fact, is being replaced at great cost right now–so that may have to wait).

The progressive community needs to put its elbow grease into supporting tolling as one of the tools we use in transportation. It’s up to us to organize and educate constituencies for this, or else the governor’s proposal will fail.

~~~~

February 24, 2015

PVD Planning Dept. wants to know your neighborhood priorities

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YOU ARE INVITED TO DISCUSS YOUR PRIORITIES FOR OUR COMMUNITIES AND NEIGHBORHOODS

The City of Providence, Department of Planning and Development invites you to a series of conversations about your priorities for housing and community development needs throughout the city.

The Community Development Division will be gathering the input from these meetings and using it to shape future spending and project priorities and to update the City’s Consolidated Plan – which guides the city’s spending on housing and community development.

Some of the topics covered will be: affordable housing; homelessness; senior services; parks and recreation; services for families, adults, and children; accessibility and mobility; persons with HIV/AIDS; lead paint and other unhealthy or unsafe housing issues; economic development; and public safety.

PLAN TO PARTICIPATE AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

Date	Time	Location
Tues. March 3	6:30pm	Webster Avenue School 191 Webster Avenue
Wed. March 4	6:30pm	Fox Point Boys & Girls Club 90 Ives Street
Tues. March 10	6:30pm	West Broadway Neighborhood Assn. 1560 Westminster Street
Wed. March 18	6:30pm	SWAP 500 Broad Street
Tues. March 24	6:30pm	Washington Park Community Center 42 Jillson Street
Mon. April 6	6:30pm	DaVinci Center 470 Charles Street
Thurs. April 9	6:30pm	Dr. Martin Luther King School 35 Camp Street

To RSVP, please contact Donna Miele at dmiele@providenceri.com.

Please complete our Community Needs Survey:
http://tinyurl.com/ProvidenceCDBGSurvey.

February 24, 2015February 24, 2015

Climate Coalition demands a ‘just transition’ to clean energy

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Though RI’s Sheldon Whitehouse is the foremost climate champion in the US Senate, many environmentalists find themselves at odds with the Senator’s position on the Spectra Pipeline expansion in Burrillville, since he sees fracked natural gas as a potential bridge between today’s dirty fossil fuels and the clean renewable energy sources of the future.

Locally, FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas) has engaged in non-violent direct action and civil disobedience when members occupied Whitehouse’s offices in December and Senator Jack Reed’s offices in October.

One of those arrested in Senator Reed’s office was Sherrie Andre, who was part of a panel, Energy in Rhode Island: Reframing the Debate, organized by RISCC (Rhode Island Student Climate Coalition, pronounced “risk”) at Knight Memorial Library in Providence. Andre was joined by Kathy Martley and Amanda, representing BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion) and Kat Burnham, representing People’s Power & Light.

Andre has come to the climate struggle from a background in domestic violence prevention, noting that “areas where gas is fracked see a 300% increase in domestic violence.” When an oil company comes to town and begins fracking operations, the town booms in size, bringing itinerant short term workers pulling long shifts and a host of social problems including increased substance use and car accidents. Small communities struggle with these costs.

“How much does cleaning up a meth lab cost?” asked Andre, noting that most communities have never had to deal with such an issue. Communities are forced to invest in emergency services, such as additional full time EMTs, which they can ill afford.

Kathy Martley helped to form BASE in part because the Spectra Pipeline maintains a compressor station virtually in her backyard. The pipeline has been in continuous use since 1952, says Martley, and runs on a 22 horsepower compressor. The noise from the compressor ebbs and flows, and is made bearable only by a copse of trees that separates Martley’s home from the compressor station. Plans for expansion include adding a 16,000 horsepower compressor, and eliminating all the trees between the compressor station and her home.

Martley is also concerned about the chemicals the station is using. Fracked gas is dirtier, she says, and requires an additional 25 chemical additives to make it run smoothly through the pipeline. Many of these chemicals are industrial secrets, meaning there is no information available to the public as to what they are. In the event of a leak, Martley and her family and neighbors may be exposed to an unknown toxic brew.

Burrillville is well known for its farming, fishing and camping. The pipeline doesn’t run far from Wallum Lake, which crosses the border between Rhode island and Massachusetts. An accident would ruin this pristine natural habitat.

Martley was blunt about the environmental impacts, saying, “Burrillville is Rhode Island’s sacrifice zone.”

In answer to a question about potential jobs being lost if the Spectra Pipeline expansion is stopped, Martley pointed out that right now the plant runs with two full time employees working nine to five. The rest of the time the plant is run by computers. The expansion will raise the number of employes to seven, and these will not be local jobs in Martley’s opinion, but outsourced.

This dovetailed nicely into a short discussion of the necessity for a “just transition.” A smart transition to green energy and energy independence for Rhode Island will include trades unions in the discussion. We need policies that create jobs and opportunities for Rhode Islanders, not wealth for multinational corporations.

“We want good, sustainable jobs,” said Andre.

February 24, 2015February 25, 2015

How the community can take control of the police

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“Any movement that seeks to establish community control of the police must begin by challenging the legitimacy of the police,” said Glen Ford, journalist and executive editor of the Black Agenda Report and former member of the Black Panthers, “With Ferguson we saw a burgeoning movement that challenged the legitimacy of the system itself.”

Ford was speaking at New Urban Arts in Providence as part of a panel sponsored by End Police Brutality PVD entitled The Struggle for Community Control Past and Present: From the Black Panther Party to Providence Today. Also on the panel were Monay McNeil, a student at Rhode Island College, Steve Roberts and Servio G., protesters awaiting trial for allegedly blocking the highway during a Black Lives Matter protest last November, Suzette Cook, whose son was allegedly assaulted by members of the Providence Police Department in 2013, Justice, founder of the “Original Men” and Ashanti Alston, black anarchist and former Black Panther.

Over 100 community members were in attendance. My only quibble with the excellent discussion was that the number of panelists meant that some speakers were not afforded the time needed to fully expand upon their ideas. Still, this was a fascinating discussion in which the new movement is seeking to learn from civil rights movements of the past.

Moderator Andrea Sterling loosely set the parameters of the discussion as being about “Black Autonomy” and “Community Liberation.” The panel was concerned with the classic problem all nascent social movements must confront: “Where do we go from here?” The description of the event asserts that “activists must choose whether to challenge the foundations of the system that made Black lives immaterial in the first place, or be sucked into the morass of patchwork reforms that enfeeble the movement while failing to alter relationships of power.”

In other words, does the movement seek to reform or overthrow the system? Most of the panelists seemed to think that there was a need for system change, and that such change will not come easily.

“The system is a very racist system,” said Justice, who spent 10 years in prison, “We have to acknowledge that. The relationship between African Americans and establishment power in this country has always been based on violence.”

Suzette Cook, after outlining some of the circumstances in the beating of her son, agreed, “We are literally in a state of war in our own country.”

“I was a soldier in the Black Liberation Army,” said former Black Panther Ashanti Alston. Things in America are no different “than in Palestine. We’ve got to fight.” Then Alston grew philosophical, “The acceptance of death allows us to live for our highest ideals.”

Servio has been involved in radical movements for a few years, starting with Occupy, but quickly became disillusioned. “I found out that the Occupy movement didn’t care about anyone who wasn’t white.” Still, he is unwavering in his commitment to system change, observing that, “This is a system of power that uses the police to keep us in our place.”

Minor reforms won’t do, in Servio’s opinion, “The change has to be way more fundamental than that.”

February 23, 2015

EG mulls moratorium on medical marijuana compassion centers

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The East Greenwich Town Council is considering implementing a moratorium on medical marijuana compassion centers at a meeting tonight to which Steve Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU, said “I do not believe municipalities have the authority to essentially halt the implementation of the law at their borders.”

The formal Town Council agenda is broadly worded. It says under new business, “A moratorium on marijuana compassion centers, hookah bars and the growth, sale or distribution of marijuana.” But Council President Michael Isaacs said in an interview that a moratorium is only intended to apply to medical marijuana dispensaries, where patients can legally obtain medical marijuana.

“It was supposed to be narrowly focused,” Isaacs said, noting he hasn’t yet seen the language – but he said he expects the council will vote on it tonight. The Council decided to consider this because of “articles in law review journals about potential zoning conflicts,” he said. “Zoning has to do with the appropriateness of an activity in the community or in a particular part of a community.”

Brown, longtime director of the RI ACLU, said the town can’t decide which state laws it wants to follow. “State law establishes a very detailed scheme for the medical marijuana program and compassion centers,” he said. “It completely undermines state policy as reflected in the Medical Marijuana Act.”

Brown said there exists procedures for municipalities to weigh in if a compassion center applies to locate there, which none have done, according to the state Department of Health.

“Regarding compassion centers,” Brown said, “it is important to note that exclusive jurisdiction is vested in the Department of Health to issue compassion center permits. One of the criteria to be used by the Department is to consider is “the interests of the city or town where the dispensary would be located.” Other than providing that input, a municipality should not be able to then undermine the detailed regulatory analysis the Department has undertaken, in accordance with the law, in making its decision as to whom — and where — to grant a compassion center license.”

Brown said there are different issues if the Council were to try to ban individual care providers who grow medical marijuana.

“The problem is just as acute for medical marijuana users,” Brown said, “They have the right under state law to cultivate medical marijuana for their own use. A municipal attempt to bar medical marijuana users from growing the medicine is a direct attack on the right the Medical Marijuana Act gives them and cannot be lawfully imposed. As a practical matter, a moratorium would have the ironic effect of actually encouraging legitimate medical marijuana users to obtain their marijuana illegally.”

Jared Moffat, director of Regulate RI, a group pushing to tax and regulate marijuana in Rhode Island, echoed Brown’s concerns.

“Banning state-sanctioned compassion centers and licensed caregivers from cultivating marijuana will only reduce access to an important medicine for chronically ill patients and might force more patients to turn to the illicit market,” he said. “Outright prohibition is the worst possible policy for marijuana, and it is disappointing to see East Greenwich potentially going down that road.”

February 22, 2015February 22, 2015

American Hackers Unite

‘Robin Hoods of the Internet’
A bold headline young hackers get
When they’re successful breaking code
To steal a data mother-load

It’s true what they do is a crime
We all agree they should serve time
Normal crooks would be no fuss
But hackers? They’re smarter than us

Computers handle all we do
Imagine life before we knew
That friends were just a text away
And headlines on our phone display

But world wide web means terror too
Social networks attract those few
Who feel that ISIS is their chance
To join the rebels’ pagan dance

American Hackers unite!
We need your genius in this fight
Crashing their communication
Guarantees recruit stagnation

c2015pn
Click here for more political poetry from Peet Nourijian

February 21, 2015February 24, 2015

Paiva Weed, Mattiello have different agendas on racial issues

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Legislative leaders offered a glimpse into their plans to address institutional racism in Rhode Island this session when commenting on a new ACLU report that shows often wide racial disparities in school discipline, traffic stops, arrests and prison populations – “the school-to-prison pipeline,” according to the report.

“The troubling issues raised in the ACLU report point out how far our society has yet to go before we achieve true equity,” said Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, noting statewide all-day kindergarten in particular and education in general are policy areas where the Senate would seek reform to address systemic racial disparities in Rhode Island.

“The Senate’s focus on education acknowledges the outcome gaps that exist in our state, and we will continue to prioritize making investments that will help eliminate disparities,” she said. “An important priority for the Senate this session is legislation to promote full day kindergarten in all Rhode Island school districts. Full day kindergarten is a proven, effective method to help close achievement gaps. More work needs to be done on many fronts, and the Senate remains committed to working towards the ideal of true equity for all Rhode Islanders.”

House Speaker Nick Mattiello was less specific.

“I have not yet had the opportunity to review the ACLU report, but the House of Representatives will always work to enact policies that treat all persons fairly, equally and without discrimination,” he said. “In particular, I will continue to work with the members of the Legislative Black and Latino Caucus on racial equality issues in our state. I look forward to reviewing any legislation they may propose, as well as other bills on these issues that may come before the House.”

The House passed an ACLU-supported bill in 2012 that prevents schools from suspending students for chronic absenteeism, said spokesman Larry Berman. School suspensions is an issue raised in the new ACLU report. Last session, that bill’s sponsor Providence Rep. Grace Diaz said there is more work to be done in this area in particular.

“We’re still working to address racial disparities in overall suspensions and attendance rates, especially in our city schools,” Diaz said in a press release. “We need to continue to be creative in how we address problems in education while stamping out racial bias.”

Also last session, a bill that would authorize the Department of Education to analyze school suspensions for racial implications was held for further study. It reads, “The commissioner shall develop a method to analyze local school system discipline data collected in accordance with §16-60-4(21) to determine whether the discipline imposed has a disproportionate impact on students based on race or ethnicity. If such a racial or ethnic disparity is found, the local school system shall prepare and present to the department a plan to reduce that disparity.”

Paiva Weed said last session a bill to address racial profiling in traffic stops passed in the Senate. It was called the Comprehensive Community-Police Relationship Act. “Unfortunately, the bill died without a hearing in the House,” according the the ACLU.

“Senators Harold Metts and Juan Pichardo have been particularly diligent leaders in the Senate in examining equity issues in schools, law enforcement, corrections, and economic development,” Paiva Weed said. “We will continue to pursue their worthwhile efforts, such as the annual Education Summit which Senator Pichardo hosts, and winning enactment of the racial profiling prevention legislation which Senator Metts drafted and the Senate passed last session.”

February 20, 2015February 21, 2015

ACLU calls on state leaders to address racial disparities

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The Rhode Island ACLU chapter is calling on state leaders to “examine policies, practices and procedures that lead to discriminatory treatment of black Rhode Islanders” and issued a new report that the civil liberties activists say “offers a brief but systematic examination of racial disparities in Rhode Island, and how those interconnected disparities can lead to a lifetime of unequal treatment.”

You can read the full report here. It examines school discipline, juvenile justice, traffic stops, arrests and prison representation.

“This report demonstrates what many have known for a long time to be true: life in Rhode Island is different, depending on your skin color,” said Hillary Davis, an ACLU policy associate. “It is our hope that this report will no longer allow these experiences to be discounted and ignored, and that Rhode Island’s leaders will come together to address the problem of racial disparities in Rhode Island before a larger crisis occurs.”

The report calls for six actions to be taken:

Passage by the General Assembly of legislation limiting the use of out-of-school suspensions and requiring school districts to look seriously at their racial disparities in meting out discipline and coming up with concrete ways to reduce them.
Passage by the General Assembly of strong, comprehensive racial profiling legislation that seriously confronts racial disparities in traffic stops and searches.
Passage of legislation – already enacted in a few states – to require the preparation of “racial impact statements” prior to the consideration of bills that would have the effect of increasing the prison population.
An acknowledgement by state and municipal leaders that racial disparities are a significant problem that demands action.
A commitment by state and municipal leaders, and particularly law enforcement personnel, to regularly examine policies, practices and procedures which appear to have a disparate impact on racial minorities, and to develop ways to minimize those disparities.
The annual adoption of specific and measurable plans of action by school districts and law enforcement agencies to address the racial disparities documented in this report and in other data.

February 19, 2015

Climate protester pays $300 for arrest at Sen. Whitehouse office

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Peter Nightingale, the University of Rhode Island physics professor arrested during a civil disobedience sit-in at Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s Providence office last December, left court today after settling all charges by agreeing to pay a $300 fine.

Shortly after the court decision, at a press conference held outside the Garrahy Court Complex, Nightingale reiterated the science behind his position, saying that when he thinks about the future, “and my grandchildren in particular, I do not know how to explain the destruction we are visiting upon the Earth they shall inherit.”

Though Senator Whitehouse “is the one of the nation’s most well-known climate activists and the senate’s most committed member to addressing climate change,” many environmentalists feel that the Senator’s continued support of plans to expand the Spectra natural gas pipeline calls this reputation into question.

Citing studies from scientific journals, Nightingale notes that “shale gas and conventional natural gas have a larger GHG (greenhouse gas footprint) than coal or oil.” The United States policy of fracked gas as a bridge fuel, say Nightingale, “flies in the face of this science.”

Nightingale further maintains that “the US is not acting according to this science and is in violation of Article 3 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which states that “The Parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.” and that therefore all three branches of our government are delinquent in their fiduciary duty to safeguard the natural resources they hold in trust for present and future generations.

Also speaking at the press conference was Sherrie Andre, who noted that Spectra is trying to break its “massive pipeline project into smaller pieces,” so that it won’t seem to be much of an environmental concern. “But in reality this is a $5 billion project being built to export gas out of Canada and to hook New England on fossil fuels.” It has nothing to do with energy independence for Rhode Island.

Andre says that “environmental impacts must be considered cumulatively and federal law is clear on this.” She says that 27 groups have signed a letter exposing this “impermissible segmentation” and urging that the law be followed.

The last speaker at the press conference was Nick Katkevich of FANG, (Fighting Against Natural Gas). Katkevich announced that the groups are planning a 26 mile walk from Burrillville to Providence during the first week of March, regardless of the weather. He also noted that 350 Connecticut plans to protest outside Yale University on February 28 where Senator Whitehouse is scheduled to speak to the Environmental Law Conference.

Katkevich promised that even if the Spectra pipeline expansion is approved, that will not end FANG’s commitment to stopping it. “Federal approval of this project does not mean permission from the people. So we’re going to continue to use diverse, non-violent tactics to make sure that this project is not built.”

February 19, 2015February 20, 2015

Rhode Island is ALEC-free

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Rhode Island is now an ALEC-free zone.

When the year 2014 expired on December 31, so did Warwick Senator William Walaska’s membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a once-controversial right-wing bill mill that partnered corporate interests with state lawmakers to draft conservative model legislation to be shopped to Statehouses across the country.

Walaska, a Democrat, was the last local legislator who was an ALEC member – and the only one to renew membership since 2012. His lapsed membership means that the Rhode Island State House will not receive any copies of ALEC’s monthly magazine.

“We do not get their literature any more since we have no members any longer,” said House spokesman Larry Berman.

ALEC had existed in the background of state politics all over the country for decades. But the Koch-aligned group became a toxic in 2012 when its model Stand Your Ground Law exonerated George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin.

At the same time, ALEC was quietly enjoying significant influence in the Rhode Island General Assembly. Former Woonsocket Rep. Jon Brien, a Democrat and member of Speaker Gordon Fox’s leadership team, was named to ALEC’s national board of directors and more than 20 percent of the state legislature were members – at the taxpayers expense. Organized labor took issue as local legislators started quickly denouncing their affiliation. At the height of ALEC’s influence in Rhode Island, 24 local legislators, half of whom were Democrats, were members. By 2013, there were only six ALEC members in the General Assembly (though on p. 39 ALEC lists 12 members in 2013).

In June, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said Woonsocket suffered from an ALEC mindset and in July CVS, based in Woonsocket, dropped its membership in ALEC, which at the time was the last corporate ALEC member in Rhode Island. Brien was was defeated in his bid for reelection that fall.

Nationally ALEC membership dropped 5.6 percent from 2011 to 2013, according to internal ALEC information leaked by first released by The Guardian (p.37). Jay Riestenberg, a researcher for Common Cause, said ALEC has likely picked up some new legislators in 2014 because of a “historic number of Republican state legislators in office.”

Corporate sponsorship has dropped dramatically though, with more than 100 leaving since 2011 and financial support down 19 percent in 2013. But while the ALEC organism has been diminished, its DNA is still being effective, even here in Rhode Island.

Riestenberg said some of the corporate money that has been divested from ALEC has matriculated to the State Policy Network and cited Microsoft, Facebook and Kraft as examples. The State Policy Network, or SPN, is funded by corporations and Koch-aligned special interests to push conservative ideology at the state level. PR Watch has pushed a campaign linking SPN and ALEC saying it is a right wing think tank pushing the ALEC agenda in the states.

stenhouse — Mike Stenhouse, “CEO” SPN-aligned Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Riestenberg identified the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity as the SPN affiliate in Rhode Island, as has this blog. In an email to me, RICFP “CEO” Mike Stenhouse confirms a connection between SPN and ALEC.

“The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity and ALEC, as part of their respective missions, each seek to advance market-based policy ideas that have a track-record of success in other states,” he said. “ALEC is also a close national partner of SPN, the national association of which our Center is a member. SPN has been very helpful over the years in helping our Center put together strategic operating plans, in getting us pointed in the right direction in our formative years, in making us aware of certain RFP grant opportunities, and by continuing to sponsor participation in highly valuable public policy and organizational development regional and national workshops.”

February 19, 2015February 19, 2015

2,200 RI Hospital employees authorize labor strike

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Rhode Island Hospital employees represented by the Teamsters Local 251 voted to authorize a strike Wednesday.

“Rhode Island Hospital employees have sent a clear message,” said Teamsters Local 251 President Paul Santos. “It’s time for Lifespan to listen to the employees and the community and agree to common-sense proposals for good jobs and quality care.”

An FAQ sheet sent to union members and the media says the vote doesn’t mean there will be a strike – but it does move the 2,200 hospital employees one step closer to that. “Voting to authorize a strike notice does not mean we will issue a 10-day notice right away,” it reads.

According to a press release from Jobs With Justice sent late last night, “Sticking points in negotiations include job security, fair wage increases and retirement benefits, and Lifespan’s rejection of proposals to address unsafe staffing and equipment and supply shortages that undermine patient care.”

According to an FAQ sent by Rhode Island Hospital, “the hospital wants to make it clear that neither a strike nor the threat of a strike will make bargaining more productive nor will it force the hospital to take any action that it does not believe is in the best interest of its patients, employees or the hospital.”

In a statement, hospital spokeswoman Beth Bailey said, “The vote process came despite recent movement by the hospital on key wage and benefit proposals. The initial union proposals called for more than $20 million in wage and benefit increases, an amount that is unsustainable in the current healthcare environment. The union proposals included: wage increases twice the hospital average, additional hospital contributions to health insurance, a second retirement plan, and additional vacation days, among other requests. The hospital responded with proposals that increase wages for all three years of the contract … the hospital is not asking the union for any give-backs for wages, retirement or benefits.”

According to a press release from the union, “Sticking points in negotiations include job security, fair wage increases and retirement benefits, and Lifespan’s rejection of proposals to address unsafe staffing and equipment and supply shortages that undermine patient care. Lifespan executives have angered employees and the community by rejecting common-sense proposals, including a proposal to require the Hospital to ‘maintain sufficient staff and adequate supplies.'”

Local 251 represents 2,200 employees at Rhode Island Hospital, including non-medical staff, such as secretaries, janitors and landscapers. “But they also represent the unit assistants, the folks who check on patients to make sure everything’s okay, and the CNAs,” said Jesse Strecker of Jobs With Justice.

“This campaign is about workers and the community working together for a better Lifespan,” Strecker said. “The overwhelming vote shows that workers are sticking together and the community will stick with them.”

February 18, 2015February 19, 2015

West Warwick Town Councilor made public anti-Muslim remarks in 2013

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West Warwick Town Councilor Angelo Padula made incendiary comments about Muslims at a public meeting in May of 2013.

The city emergency manager director was informing the Town Council about a seminar on how explosives work, said town councilors, to which Padula said, “We’re not going to invite any Muslims?”

Some in the crowd laughed and others applauded.

In an interview tonight with RI Future, Padula said he apologized later in the meeting. As the video indicates, he did not apologize when asked by Town Councilor David Kenahan.

“I said at the end of the meeting, ‘if anyone finds this offensive I apologize,” Padula told me, noting a fuller video of the meeting would show this. “It was nothing against the good Muslim people of this country. I meant the Muslims who bombed Boston. I meant this about the terrorists and nobody else. I in now way meant this to discriminate or against the whole Muslim faith.”

Padula represents the West Warwick district where the Islamic School of Rhode Island is located. The school was victimized by vandalism this week with anti-Islamic graffiti like “Fuck Muhammad” and “Now this is a hate crime.” The FBI is investigated the crime as a hate crime and a civil rights violation.

“That school is in my district,” Padula said. “We’ve never had any problems with them people.” He told a story about when the Islamic School let the community use its basketball court.

Padula posted this to his Facebook wall about the video.

Town Council David Kenahan is the voice in the video asking Pedula to apologize. A physics teacher at Cumberland High School, Kenahan said in an interview tonight, “I thought it was inappropriate and offensive. As a Council we speak as a group and I didn’t think it was fair that we would get lumped in with that.”

February 18, 2015August 9, 2016

‘Wage Theft Street Theater’ outside Gourmet Heaven

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A protest outside the upscale downtown Providence deli Gourmet Heaven was scheduled for the same day that three workers filed a case in district court for non-payment of wages. Six more workers are expected to join the case later this week, alleging a total of $140,000 in unpaid wages over two years. The workers have organized through Fuerza Laboral and Rhode Island Jobs with Justice.

As they did during their last protest back in December, workers and protesters entered the restaurant to confront management about the unpaid wages. This time store manager Mohamed Masoud was in the store, but he declined to comment to the press. The police arrived quickly and moved the 30-40 protesters outside and onto the sidewalk without incident.

Outside the protesters picketed and chanted for about 30 minutes. Passersby were handed flyers informing them of the working conditions at the restaurant. The police were vigilant in making sure there was ample room for pedestrians to get through the picket line, at one point picking up my video camera and moving it, even though there was a four foot wide path available.

The highlight of the protest was some “street theater” in which former employees acted out the experience of being hired by Chung Cho, the owner of Gourmet Heaven, which started off with promises and handshakes, but soon devolved into physical abuse, unsafe working conniptions and stolen wages. The scene ended with Cho and his manager, Masoud, being hounded down the street by an angry mob of workers.

In Connecticut, Cho reached an agreement with the [Connecticut] Department of Labor to pay $140,000 in back wages to 25 workers, but has so far not made his payments in a timely manner. Former employees of the two Gourmet Heaven stores in New Haven, CT have already filed suit against Cho in federal court in Connecticut for wage theft at the New Haven locations.

“The only way for Cho to pay workers what he stole from them is for us to bring this to the public and let his clients know what labor rights abuses were going on at this store,” said Jesse Strecker, Executive Director of RI Jobs with Justice in a statement. “Since Cho has not given any response to the [RI] Department of Labor and Training or to us, we are filing in the courts and continuing our public protest.”

A December 2014 report by the US Department of Labor determined that wage theft in New York and California amounted to between $1.6 and $2.5 billion dollar a year and that “…affected employees’ lost weekly wages averaged 37–49 percent of their income.”

Donna Nesselbush has introduced legislation in the Rhode Island State Senate that would increase the penalties for wage theft, and give more options to workers seeking lost wages. In the press release for today’s action Nesselbush says, “Theft of any kind is wrong, but wage theft is particularly disturbing because it is often perpetrated against the most vulnerable in our society, those who need their wages the most, even to survive.”

February 18, 2015February 19, 2015

Hard times at the DMV getting a non-driving state ID

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I live-tweeted the experience of getting a state ID sometimes under the hashtag #Paisleygate, a joke on the fact that I wore the same weird paisley shirt to get my last ID in Pennsylvania as I did when I went to get my Rhode Island ID earlier this week. But the broken process of getting a state ID card if you aren’t a driver or already a Rhode Islander is no joke.

https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567699862305533952

It took me two separate bus trips to-and-from the Pastore Center in Cranston from where I live in Providence. This was after a year of wrangling to get other pieces of paperwork like an original of my birth certificate – I only had copies – which are difficult to obtain without a valid ID.

https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567734538894589952

A couple things I’ve learned:

1. You cannot get a non-drivers’ state ID from any of the in-city locations. You have to go to the John Pastore Center on the Cranston/Warwick line, which for non-drivers is quite a hike on an infrequent bus. The clerk at the DMV made it clear to me that if I had been a driver and had a drivers license that was expired, it would have been no problem for me to use it as a supporting document, but that because I only had a non-drivers’ ID, I couldn’t. Location and process are really tilted against non-drivers.

https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567736001498726401

2. The cost of the ID itself is pretty significant: $26.50, with a $1.50 charge if you use a debit card. The cost of a drivers’ license is somewhat higher, but the gap is pretty small. There was a great analysis of how many states have an apparent gas tax, which is then exempt from sales tax, and how this exemption inflates the value of the gas tax. The cost to get a drivers license should be looked at in the same way, since the base cost for an ID is so high. An ID fee is like a sales tax–maybe worse, really–because it charges people for the basic cost of being part of the workforce or voting, whereas a license fee presumably covers the cost of testing and administering road safety.

https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567747700742172672

3. You must have originals! Don’t even bother trying to talk your way into a voter ID with photocopies, even if they’re accompanied by other documents, like college IDs, FBI background checks, BCIs, Medicaid cards, library cards, etc.

4. As a Warden of Elections, I’ve been instructed many times at trainings to turn away people with IDs that are unexpired and valid but not from Rhode Island, even if those people have corresponding documents to prove their Rhode Island addresses.

https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567735350651781120

5. Unless you have everything together perfectly, this whole process is going to cost you a lot of time. I’ve had copies of things like my birth certificate lying around the house for years for whenever I’ve had to start a job, but since I had to get an original, and didn’t have a non-expired ID, it took me about a year and a lot of interventions from family to get the new stuff in order. And because of the remote location of the Pastore Center, getting an ID as a non-driver means essentially taking a day off. The Center also closes at 3:15 PM, which is kind of ridiculous too. I brought the wrong paperwork the first time, so I actually made two trips back-and-forth by bus, racing against time with the ridiculous closing time and infrequent bus schedule.

https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567746753483776002

How can we reform this? My thoughts:

1. A state ID should be available in urban locations. There are centers where one can go to renew existing IDs, but not to get new ones.

2. A state ID from someplace else should be as useful to getting a new ID as a drivers’ license from somewhere else is. This distinction is inequitable, and silly.

3. State IDs should be free.

4. Duplicates should be allowed, or at least a broader array of paperwork types.

5. One should be able to get an ID at night or on weekends. The Pastore Center closes at 3:15 PM! Possibly changing the ID process so that it isn’t taken on by the DMV would make sense, since identification for voting and working purposes is an entirely separate thing than driving.

The voter ID process and documentation needed for working has been something I’ve been aware of intellectually for some time, but going through the process really changed my perspective on it in ways that I didn’t expect. We have to change this if we’re going to stop disenfranchising people year after year.

~~~~

February 17, 2015February 19, 2015

RI Hospital employees will vote on labor strike

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Following stalled contract negotiations between Lifespan and Rhode Island Hospital employees, members of Teamsters Local 251 can vote tomorrow on whether a work stoppage is warranted. There will be three ballot votes at the Local 251 Union Hall in East Providence at 8am, noon and 4pm, according to a Jobs With Justice press release.

“Lifespan executives have angered employees and the community by rejecting common-sense proposals, including a proposal to require the Hospital to “maintain sufficient staff and adequate supplies,” said the press release. “Lifespan even rejected a proposal that, “providing quality care to patients and their families is the top objective of the Hospital and that poor working conditions, inadequate staffing levels, inadequate supplies, and improper equipment undermine quality care.”

Rhode Island Hospital Senior Media Relations Officer Beth Bailey said, “We are committed to bargaining in good faith toward a fair labor agreement that reflects the positive contributions of our employees. Our proposals to date have included increases to wages for all three years of the contract and shift differentials, and a comprehensive plan to help union employees impacted by technology changes. We are confident in the quality of the care we provide and the investments we have made in technology, equipment and staff to support the delivery of quality care.”

Tomorrow’s vote is one step in the process of calling for a labor strike, said Jess Strecker of Jobs With Justice.

“It’s an authorization vote,” he said in an email subsequent to sending the press release. “The contract negotiating committee will then make the final call about when or whether to strike. Then they would actually give a 10 day notice to Lifespan before going out on strike. The strike could last as long or as shortly as it has to.”

A FAQ sheet sent from Local 251 to the 2,200 members said, “Voting to authorize a strike notice does not mean we will issue a 10-day notice right away. We will continue to negotiate and try to reach a fair agreement. A strong Yes Vote will send a message of unity to the Hospital and give the Negotiating Committee more leverage to win a fair contract. A No Vote would send management the message that we are not united. Management would have very little reason to make a fair contract offer.”

The FAQ says, “The bottom line is there can be no strike without a second vote by members to go on strike.”

Kathy Ahlquist, says the press release, “blames understaffing for her father’s medical tragedy.” Kathy is the wife of RI Future contributor Steve Ahlquist, who has reported on some of the previous employee actions as a new contract was in negotiation.

lifespan-says-no-final-feb-10.qxd — Material provided by union to members.

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