Bob Plain
Cicilline describes life inside, and politics behind, tender age detention centers
“It’s horrific,” said Congressman David Cicilline. “It’s barbaric.” The Rhode Island Democrat was describing what he saw after visiting immigration detention centers on the Texas/Mexico border this weekend where President Donald Trump’s family separation policy is playing out as a moral and political crisis before America’s and the world’s eyes. “It is horrifying to see […]
Paul Roselli drops out to run for state Senate, help Matt Brown
Saying Gina Raimondo won’t win in the general election even if she prevails in the Democratic primary, her underdog rival Paul Roselli ended his outsider campaign for governor to support fellow progressive outsider Matt Brown instead. “If Gina Raimondo wins the primary, Raimondo will lose the general election,” he said in a prepared statement released […]
AG to NK: you must go to court before selling former Wickford library
Though North Kingstown voters overwhelmingly approved at an April special election selling the Old Library/Town Hall Annex building on Brown Street in Wickford, and the Town Council has signed off on the sale, for $100,000, to be developed into a restaurant/event center, residents still might be stuck with the property Caleb Chadsey donated to the […]
John Lewis’ blunder shows off Brown’s naivete
Matt Brown, the upstart progressive challenging Governor Gina Raimondo in the Democratic primary this year, was quick to namedrop U.S. Rep. John Lewis when I interviewed him last month. Early on, we had digressed into discussing how Nelson Mandela and African National Congress managed to defeat apartheid in South Africa and by way of redirecting […]
Foreclosure protection law set to expire July 1, a bill would keep it in place
Nearly 10,000 homes went into foreclosure during the mortgage crisis in Rhode Island. Then, in 2013, the General Assembly passed the Foreclosure Reduction Act, which mandated banks to work with homeowners before repossessing property. Since then, the law helped some 600 Rhode Islanders avoid losing their homes. But the Foreclosure Reduction Act is set to […]
Lifelong activist Matt Brown challenges Raimondo on progressive issues
Matt Brown, the former secretary of state who is running for governor, doesn’t describe himself an ex-politician. Instead, he describes a lifelong activist who did a stint as an elected official. “I’ve spent most of my life starting and running non-profit organizations,” he said. “I was literally born into activism.” His mom went into labor […]
Linc Chafee might primary Sheldon Whitehouse
Lincoln Chafee doesn’t want to be governor again after all. Instead, he wants his old Senate seat back. To get it, the Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat will have to best in a primary Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the incumbent Democrat who knocked him out of the Senate seat back in 2006 when Chafee was still a Republican. “I […]
Bipartisan rebuke of Chippendale’s ‘dummy’ tweet to Emma Gonzalez
Mike Chippendale, a Foster legislator, has managed to raise an issue that Governor Gina Raimondo and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, the two leading candidates for governor, can agree on. The issue being that he was wrong to call gun safety activist and Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez a “dummy” in a tweet yesterday that he eventually […]
Joe Trillo’s racist response to Starbucks incident
Never let it be said that Joe Trillo can’t mobilize people into political action. The former Republican state legislator who is waging a quixotic independent bid for governor by following Donald Trump’s campaign strategy of hate and division clearly energized Democrats when he weighed in on racism late last week. “I am so sick of […]
Trump makes America Koch again
President Donald Trump claimed to be an ally to the working class, deriding the so-called swamp and corporate control of politicians during the campaign. But the billionaire real estate developer has governed as an ally to his fellow well-connected business tycoons – cutting corporate taxes, gutting Obamacare, and abandoning the Paris Accord. To this end, […]
Giarrusso missed vote on bump stock bill
When East Greenwich legislator Anthony Giarrusso was asked about a ban on assault weapons, he talked about a bill banning bump stocks. But when it came time to vote for the bill that bans bump stocks, Giarrusso wasn’t there. “This is my sixth session and the first time any major bill was considered on the […]
Caleb Chadsey bequeathed a library, NK Town Council wants a restaurant
When Caleb Chadsey died, in 1894, he left $10,000 and a parcel of property in the heart of Wickford to the town of North Kingstown for the purposes of creating a community library. And there, at 55 Brown St., is where the local library stood until 1975, when a bigger one was built a few […]
Giarrusso, Caldwell hold impromptu debate over gun legislation via email
The first debate of the campaign to represent East Greenwich in the state House of Representatives happened via email. It was between Republican Anthony Giarrusso, the current occupant of the District 30 seat, and Democratic challenger Justine Caldwell. It largely concerned gun legislation at the State House, but also touched on the so-called War on […]
Rhode Island public schools are pretty segregated
There’s at least one metric by which urban schools in Rhode Island equal their suburban and rural counterparts – racial segregation. People of color comprise 80 percent of the combined student bodies at public schools in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket while the rest of the state’s public schools are 78 percent white, according […]
Cardi’s considered pulling ads from Sinclair-owned NBC10
Nick, Ron, and Pete Cardi turned their family furniture store into a Rhode Island institution by featuring the trio of brothers in a seemingly never-ending stream of local advertisements. They considered pulling those ads off of NBC10 this week after learning that Sinclair, the station’s parent company, forced anchors all over the country to read […]
NBC10 has no comment on Sinclair-mandated segment
SBG Responds to Media Comments NBC10 isn’t commenting on the national uproar over its parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting, forcing local anchors – including their own Frank Coletta and Allison Bologna – to read statements denouncing “false news” and “fake stories.” Instead, the Rhode Island television station forwarded a statement from corporate communications. “We aren’t sure […]
The URI Rams are Rhode Island’s winter pastime
I don’t put much faith in Punxsutawney Phil and I don’t live so close to the land that the actual weather makes much practical difference to my life. For me, winter officially ends in the Ocean State when URI plays their last basketball game of the season. There’s still snow on the ground but, as […]
Matt Brown is running for governor on publicly-owned wind farms and a state bank
Former Secretary of State Matt Brown is running for governor as an independent. And he’s campaigning on a bold plan that would necessarily mean a new era for Rhode Island – expanding the public sector. “The Ocean State could be the Saudi Arabia of wind power,” Brown wrote in an open letter announcing his campaign, […]
Can Cool Moose’s ghost posthumously swing RI governor’s election?
It’s deja vu all over again in the race to be the next governor of Rhode Island. Governor Gina Raimondo, the incumbent Democrat, leads her Republican rival, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, by just two points, 38 percent to 36 percent, according to a new WPRI/Roger Williams University poll that revealed eerily similar results as last […]
19 legislative Democrats represent districts Trump won
Of the 114 legislative districts in Rhode Island, President Donald Trump carried 28 of them. But only nine of those districts sent Republicans to the General Assembly. That means there are 19 Democratic legislators who represent districts that voted for Trump in 2016. The most famous example is House Speaker Nick Mattiello, whose Cranston district […]
New Comments