Bob Plain
Taveras bikes to work
Thanks Mayor Taveras for celebrating Bike to Work Day showing us how easy it is to bike to work! Did you bike to work today? If so, tweet us your pictures to @RIFuture or share them with us on Facebook.
Report shows education reform isn’t working
A new Economic Policy Institute report that is highly critical of the so-called “education reform” movement reads like an indictment of Deborah Gist’s tenure as commissioner of public schools in Rhode Island. The report compares large urban school districts with New York, Chicago and Washington DC – three cities that have implemented strategies almost identical [...]
What is a 501c(4), how do they affect local politics?
Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is helping to raise a long overdue conversation in American politics, and it’s closely related to the IRS scandal. The role 501c(4) groups play in politics. Read his speech here, or watch it below (John McDaid of Hard Deadlines has a great piece on it here): [...]
Dump Deborah Gist
Deborah Gist is nothing if not polarizing. Nearly 90 percent of local teachers want a new leader. But the Chamber of Commerce supports her. She backed the firing of Central Falls teachers, but she has the backing of the East Greenwich School Committee. Tom Sgouros and the Providence Student Union have twisted her in knots [...]
Bill sponsor Malik more unbiased than WPRO news
Here’s an interesting instance of media bias: a WPRO preview story on a proposal to eliminate the state sales tax was less balanced than an op/ed in the Fall River Herald News written by the bill’s sponsor, Jan Malik. The WPRO report uses an interview between conservative talk show host Matt Allen, a supporter of [...]
Ban the Box activists march to State House today
Surely there are some convicted criminals who may not be ready to rejoin the work-a-day world. But just as surely there are many who are. The Ban the Box bill would make it harder for potential employers to confuse the two by doing away with generic questions about criminal records on job applications. Watch this [...]
More fake reasons for fighting affordable housing
Jim Hummel, an independent journalist who lives in Barrington, took a very different tack than me on the issue of affordable housing in Rhode Island’s favorite suburban utopia. Last fall, he reported Barrington actually has a lot of housing that meets the state’s definition of affordable housing, but that not much of it fits what [...]
‘God won’t save us from climate catastrophe’
Best progressive Rhode Island headline of the day comes courtesy of the Huffington Post: “Sheldon Whitehouse: God Won’t Save Us From Climate Catastrophe” Michael McCauliff’s lede was pretty great too. WASHINGTON — God will not save us, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) declared in a Senate floor speech on climate change Wednesday that sounded more like [...]
Why Barrington doesn’t want affordable housing
When it comes to community, Barrington is by many measures Rhode Island’s standard for success. It boasts the best schools and the highest household median income. Crime is low, taxes are reasonable, real estate is valuable and amenities abound. Then how is it that this upper middle class suburban utopia epitomizes the state’s biggest economic [...]
Raimondo pushes pension cuts to Bay Area CEO’s
The Providence Journal reports that Gina Raimondo was in San Francisco recently selling her pension cutting playbook to a group of San Francisco business leaders. The Bay Area Council, which bills itself on its website as a “a business-sponsored, public policy advocacy organization for the nine-county Bay Area. The Council proactively advocates for a strong [...]
PVD Councilwoman Carmen Castillo: the movie
“In a day and age when most politicians are lawyers or businessmen, Councilwoman Carmen Castillo made history when she became the first hotel housekeeper to hold public office,” writes independent filmmaker Margo Guerney, who is making a documentary about the groundbreaking Providence city councilor. Castillo, who was elected in 2012, has worked as a room [...]
DePetro, Carcieri, Healey at Odeum: Two thumbs down
Yesterday I thought it would be hard to put together a group of people who have been worse for Rhode Island than John DePetro, Don Carcieri and Bernie Healey. But Anthony Gemma proved me wildly off base by showing up as well. If you missed my live-tweeting of conservative Catholic night at the Odeum Theater [...]
DePetro, Carcieri, Healey in East Greenwich tonight
I saw my ideological nemesis and neighbor John DePetro on Main Street here in East Greenwich the other day. “What’s going on, John?” I said to him. To which he replied, “I have nothing to say to you.” Then he added as he walked away, “I’ll see you in court.” I’m assuming he means for [...]
Patch abandons community journalism business model
There’s been a lot of changes at Patch, the network of local news websites, since I left the company two years ago. Back then, the AOL-owned company was launching new sites nationwide with reckless abandon. It preached the gospel of community journalism and prided itself on outfitting its editors with tools and resources to cover [...]
Help NLC revitalize Rhode Island this Thursday
Help revitalize Rhode Island by going to the New Leaders Council New Leaders Night: Revitalizing Rhode Island. It’s this Thursday at the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council headquarters, 175 Main St., Pawtucket, from 6 to 9 p.m. This year’s event – billed as “an award ceremony and performance showcase, highlighting the cultural diversity and progressive leadership [...]
Downcity gentrification vs. big picture masterplan
The Superman building is certainly one of – if not the – most iconic architectural structures in the Ocean State. We don’t want to lose that. But what’s happening with the inside the building is a pretty iconic example of the current economy. We do want to lose that. 111 Westminster began its existence as [...]
Department of Education responds to Sgouros post
Tom Sgouros’ post showing that Deborah Gist and the Department of Education of covered up and altering published descriptions of the NECAP test’s veracity as a graduation requirement caused quite a stir yesterday. As such, RIDE spokesman Elliot Krieger sent me this email yesterday afternoon: Commissioner Gist has been forthright about the changes in our [...]
Students missing math classes needed for NECAP
More than a third of Providence high school students who took the NECAP test in October may not have taken either the necessary algebra or geometry classes to fare well on the test, according to the Providence Student Union. A full13 percent of NECAP test takers haven’t taken either algebra and geometry in school, the [...]
What do Seattle, RI pension plans have in common?
Seattle, like Rhode Island, sunk a healthy chunk of its pension investment into hedge funds. And here’s hoping the Ocean State’s 14 percent foray into these riskier alternative investments works out better than the 8 percent gamble did for the Emerald City. From Sunday’s Seattle Times: Shorn of its complexity, the story reads like a [...]
Senator Reed supports Rhody Fresh, local farmers
Perhaps the shrewdest business decision made in 21st Century Rhode Island didn’t occur in a board room, but rather a dairy barn. In 2004, five local dairy farmers – led by Portsmouth icon Louie Escobar, who runs Highland Dairy Farm not far from East Main Road – decided to cut out the corporate middle man [...]
New Comments