August 13, 2015

POTUS candidate Jill Stein to visit RI in August

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For those who want a female president, the easiest vote is for Hillary Clinton. For those who someone to the left of Hillary Clinton, there’s Bernie Sanders. And for those who want a female president and someone to the left of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, there’s Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for president.

Stein, a doctor from Massachusetts and the Green Party’s standard bearer for the second election in a row, will visit the CCRI campus in Warwick on Saturday, August 22. She’s the keynote speaker at the Green Gathering, an annual meeting of local Green Party members and supporters.

Unlike even Sanders, Stein offers a real alternative to mainstream political candidates. She endorses a $15 federal minimum wage, ending poverty by creating a job for everyone through a “Green New Deal.” And she’s been critical of campaigns like Sanders’ which seeks to change the party from within.

“What Bernie is doing, speaking truth to power, is a wonderful thing,” Stein said, according to ThinkProgress in June. “It’s been done many times before within the Democratic Party. But one only has to look at the inspired campaign of Jesse Jackson to see where that goes. It’s a wonderful flourish, but when it’s over, it’s over. And the party continues to march to the right. These reform efforts within the Democratic Party feel good for those who participate, but at the end of the day, they have not built a foundation for the future.”

Stein will be joined by Sherrie Anne Andre, one of the FANG activists who have been fighting the expansion of methane gas in Rhode Island and David Fisher, a former Green Party candidate for mayor of Woonsocket, who will speak about local elections.

Here are the details of the Green Gathering, from Greg Gerritt:

2015 GREEN GATHERING, RHODE ISLAND

Saturday, August 22, 2015
11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
at the Community College of Rhode Island (Warwick) – Alumni Room

• Green Presidential Candidate Dr. Jill Stein will be Keynote Speaker
• Preview of Presidential, Legislative, Congressional Campaigns
• Guest speakers from the U.S., Canada, and Northern Ireland
• Workshops on Direct Action, LNG Resistance, and PawSox Stadium

WARWICK, RI – On Saturday, August 22, Rhode Island’s Green Party will host “Green Gathering 2015,” featuring guest speakers from the U.S., Canada, and Northern Ireland. Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for U.S. president, will be keynote speaker. Sherrie Anne Andre, the environmental activist who protested the Burrillville compressor station with a tree-sit—and was promptly arrested—will address the Gathering, as will 2013 Woonsocket mayoral candidate Dave Fisher. The complete roster of speakers includes:

JILL STEIN, Presidential Candidate, Green Party of the United States

SHERRIE ANNE ANDRE, FANG-Fighting Against Natural Gas
“Climate Crisis, Direct Action, and the Greens”

DAVE FISHER, WPRO Radio Host, 2013 Green Candidate for Woonsocket Mayor
“The Power of Local Elections”

JOHN BARRY, Green Party of Northern Ireland (via Skype from Belfast)
“Greens Against Fracking in the UK and Ireland”

JEAN CLOUTIER, Green Party of Quebec (via Skype from Québec City)
“Green Energy in Canadian Politics”

International Speakers. Joining the Gathering via Skype, European Green Party leader John Barry of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Canadian Green Party leader Jean Cloutier of Quebec City will report on latest developments in the struggle to end fracking and fossil fuel drilling in Canada and Europe.

Green Party policy and strategy will be the subject of two workshops, on “Global Warming & Nonviolent Direct Action in Rhode Island,” and “LNG Resistance, the PawSox Stadium, and Green Campaigns in 2016.”
Free on-site child care will be available for children under 10, provided by Imagine Preschool (CCRI’s day care center). This is a brown-bag friendly event; bring your own lunch! The Green Gathering is free and open to the public.

August 13, 2015May 3, 2016

Activists arrested in Burrillville for protesting gas expansion project

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Police arrested two environmental activists arrested this morning who were protesting a methane gas pipeline project in Burrillville, Rhode Island, by chaining themselves to a gate at the project site.

Peter Nightingale, a University of Rhode Island physics professor and occasional RI Future contributor, and Curt Nordgaard, a pediatrician from Massachusetts, were both arrested according to Fighting Against Natural Gas, of FANG, the grassroots group of activists who have been calling attention to the Algonquin pipeline project that would cut through northern Rhode Island.

“I’m taking action today because as a parent and a being pediatrician compels me to use any and all nonviolent means to stop this project,” said Nordgaard in a prepared statement.

Journalist Steve Ahlquist was on the scene and recorded the direct action and subsequent arrests:

This is the latest in increasingly disruptive tactics by FANG to raise awareness of the negative environmental impacts associated with continued investments in fossil fuels like methane gas, which is often captured through fracking. A tree sitter was removed from a stand by police in July and Nightingale was arrested in December for refusing to leave Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s office because the climate change champion would not speak against the pipeline project. FANG has also held more traditional protest events.

“We will keep taking action until these projects are stopped” Nightingale said in a statement.

August 13, 2015February 15, 2016

Larry Lucchino’s losing record in San Diego

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Last week when I sat down to talk with Dan Yorke, one point he brought up was that stadium opponents have their hands tied until Speaker Mattiello releases the terms of the new deal he is working with the PawSox ownership. I agree with that, but with one caveat: there is always the paper trail to indicate what direction things are going in. Larry Lucchino is a veteran player in the baseball stadium construction game, so the idea he might deviate from a long line of tricks and tropes is highly dubious.

The current word from Speaker Mattiello’s office is that this will be a ‘revenue-neutral’ or ‘revenue-positive’ deal, a very slippery set of words. But Arlene Violet hammers it home in a piece for The Valley Breeze:

[T]he taxpayer is now being serenaded by the House Speaker with a sweet tune that any proposal would have to be “revenue neutral.” It’s a great soundbite but devoid of reality. In their book “The Field of Schemes,” authors Neil de Mause and Joanna Cagan expose this ploy and the steps taken as the project unfolds to shift costs and risks to the public while the rich welfare recipients turn the public money into private profit.

That does not bode well for Messrs Lucchino and Mattiello. But if one looks into Petco Park, one of the highly-touted ‘success’ stories on Lucchino’s resume, a site that Dr. Steinberg consistently cited in his Listening Tour presentations, the prognosis is dire. While affiliated with the San Diego Padres in the late 1990’s, Lucchino was able to push through a deal that was funded by publicly-approved bonds, Proposition C, called a ‘public-private partnership’ back then also. However, due to both a budget crunch and fiscal restructuring under California state law, the taxpayers were left on the hook facing a debt of up to $271 million. And it appears that Lucchino has not changed his tune over the past two decades. If one visits another story from the San Diego Reader titled CHARGERS: LOOK AT PETCO PARK FAILURE (how encouraging!), the comments section is illuminating.

Oh, the lies that were told in that 1998 election! The ballpark was to be revenue neutral; hotel tax receipts would service the bonds. Bureaucrats later admitted to a grand jury that they had been pressured to jiggle those numbers to make it look like TOT revenues would service the bonds. [Emphasis added]

In fact, as this slideshow presentation for the book PARADISE PLUNDERED: FISCAL CRISIS AND GOVERNANCE FAILURES IN SAN DIEGO (sounds cheery!), Petco Park not only failed to be ‘revenue-neutral’, it contributed in no small fashion to a major fiscal emergency for the city, resulting in austerity measures and cuts to pensions and public services. And considering Rhode Island has already done those things, one is left with only morbid fantasies to explain what might be offered up next. Will we put state heirlooms on the auction block or perhaps cut to the chase and sell the children into debt bondage?

August 13, 2015

Raimondo tours East Providence screen-printing shop, talks jobs plan

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Nelson Silva, the owner of Graphic Ink, a screen-printing and embroidery shop in East Providence, likes to joke that he normally works half days- 6 am to 6 pm. That’s what he told Governor Gina Raimondo Wednesday afternoon when she toured Graphic Ink in an effort to spread information about her different economic initiatives, and how they would help small businesses like Silva’s.

“This business, [with] 17, 18 employees, this is the lifeblood of Rhode Island’s economy. Most Rhode Islanders work for companies just like this, [with] 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 employees,” Raimondo said. “So, as governor, I am very focused on making it easier to do business, less expensive to do business.”

Some of the initiatives that Raimondo spoke about were big parts of the state budget, like the elimination of the sales tax on energy for businesses, as well as decreasing the corporate minimum tax from $500 to $450. Raimondo also took the time to highlight other parts of her jobs plan, such as the streetscape improvement fund, a small business assistance program run by the Commerce Corporation, and a program for “innovation vouchers.”

“Think of it as a coupon,” Raimondo said. “You can come to the Commerce Corporation, get a coupon, and then redeem your coupon at one of our local universities to get access to R&D. If you have a new technology you want to investigate, if you’re a healthcare company, if one of your clients is a healthcare company, a lot of the times they want access to a research team at URI or Brown or RISD or Johnson & Wales. Get the coupon from the Commerce Corporation, check it in with the university, and have special access. We’re trying to promote more innovation.”

Silva, who has owned and operated Graphic Ink since 1997, said that he was very excited for the governor to come visit his shop, and expressed support for her jobs plan.

“I think her plan that she’s launching is right on point with where small businesses need to be, and small businesses are the backbone of the state in my opinion,” Silva said. “It’s very exciting to hear that she is really encouraging to support small businesses.”

Silva said initiatives like the energy sales tax elimination and the roadside improvements continue to make it easier for his business, and businesses like his, to keep employing people, and therefore invest in the local community. He even said that he believes that, because the state is on an economic upturn, that Rhode Islanders are more likely to invest in small businesses.

“I believe she has recharged the state in a way that, there are many people, companies, organizations, colleges, that have a lot of activity going on. We are an event-based business. We produce things for events. There are lots of things going on, which in turn makes us a busy shop,” he said.

According to Silva, this increase in activity, and reinvestment in small businesses, has opened up a lot of jobs in the community, which is looking for skilled workers. In his opinion, now that the economy is beginning to heal, the next logical step is to work on getting vocational education programs out there for students to become trained laborers right out of high school, or in college. Silva said that he is always willing to train an employee on site, but some positions do require skilled labor, such as graphics or design.

With all of these changes, Silva envisions a bright future for small businesses in Rhode Island.

“I see small business, in my case, [becoming] stronger and stronger, as the owners and employees are willing to put some effort into it. As long as we put some effort into it and work hard, hard work pays off.”