About 40 people showed up before sunrise at Juan Noboa’s 23 Julian St. residence in the Olneyville section of Providence this morning to demand the payment of over $17,000 in back wages to six employees.
According to organizers, Noboa and his partner, Jose Bren, employed around 15 workers to help open Café Atlantic, a restaurant located at 1366 Chalkstone Ave. between August and September, 2014. Some employees worked up to 70 hours a week, but, according to organizers, “by September 28th, Noboa and Bren closed the restaurant just months after opening and walked away without paying workers their full wages.”
The workers have organized through Fuerza Laboral (Power of Workers) “a community organization that builds worker leadership to fight workplace exploitation.” They have filed complaints with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and have attempted many times to contact the owners with their concerns, but have received no response.
Juan Noboa was a volunteer for Buddy Cianci during his unsuccessful run for mayor last election. During the election Noboa reported Representative Scott Slater to the state police for possible voter fraud after taking video showing Slater, “leaving Kilmartin Plaza, a Providence high-rise for the elderly, with what looked like a ballot.” The police investigated and cleared Slater of any wrongdoing. Slater issued a statement saying that he recognized the man filming him “as someone who had threatened him in the past.”
According to the Providence Journal, Noboa “is a convicted felon and has been arrested 10 times dating back to March 2000.”
This morning’s action follows last month’s protest outside Gourmet Heaven on Westminster St. downtown. “We see a pattern of Providence-based food establishments intentionally cheating workers of their wages,” said Phoebe Gardener, Community Organizer with Fuerza Laboral.
“It makes me so angry that I am doing everything I can to provide for my family and do my job the best I can and Noboa doesn’t care about anything but making money for himself,” said Flor Salazar, former employee of Café Atlantic in a written statement, “Some of us are single mothers and are barely getting by.”
After chanting in Noboa’s driveway and pounding on his door for about fifteen minutes, the Providence police arrived and moved the protesters onto the sidewalk and into the street. Protesters handed out fliers to neighbors accusing Noboa of theft.
Noboa never came to the door or showed his face in the window.
Jim Ryczek, executive director of the 
About 60 people gathered outside the Providence Journal offices in Providence Sunday to hold a vigil for those killed in last week’s Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in France in which fundamentalist Muslim gunmen indiscriminately murdered cartoonists and police officers. The vigil was organized by the 
The 
As they have for the past six years, about four dozen clergy representing a wide variety of faith traditions gathered at 
In 2014, there were at least 216 known deaths from accidental opiates overdose. Rhode Island is in the midst of an epidemic that has been somewhat mitigated by the availability of Narcan, an emergency medication that can keep someone overdosing on opiates alive long enough for them to get to a hospital. Those who have overdosed range in age from 15 to 65 and deaths have occurred in 30 different cities or towns in the state.
The coalition behind The People’s Agenda and the action at the inauguration includes the 
In Jorge Elorza’s inauguration speech, (video and full text below) which ran for the last half of an hour’s worth of prayers, singing, speeches 
My parents came to this country to work in our factories and to strive for a better life. They chose Providence because this city offered the promise of steady work and it was a tolerant community that would embrace and welcome them. They came to work hard, and they made sacrifice upon sacrifice to build a life of even greater opportunity for my sister and me.
Now, doing so will not be easy. Providence is still regaining its footing in the wake of some of the most challenging financial times we’ve seen. My predecessor, Mayor Angel Taveras, led our city with great distinction during these times. I thank you – and Providence thanks you – Mayor, for making the important decisions our city needed to move forward.
Just as with our State, I believe the City of Providence is on the cusp of a remarkable season; a spring of renewal and reinvention. It is said that the secret of change and progress is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new. We are going to “build the new” here in Providence. And we are going to do it so that every one of our residents benefits.
A friend of mine often says that “we can do anything, but we cannot do everything.” That means that we have to be strategic and intelligent and build on our strengths. Luckily for us, we have many assets and resources to build upon here in Providence. Everything we need to become a successful city is already here. We will build the New Providence from the raw material at hand.
In order to build the New Providence, we must recognize what a charming and fantastic city this is. We must have concrete plans but that alone will not make us great; I firmly believe the future of our city depends, not just on bricks and mortar, but on the intangible element of building pride in Providence. We all want to belong to something bigger than ourselves – a city, a team, a tribe – something that inspires us to be greater than what we thought we were capable of. I believe the New Providence depends on a shared sense of community, responsibility and potential. And, here is how we achieve it.
Supporters, activists and former employees stormed Gourmet Heaven, an upscale deli on Weybosset Street in downtown Providence Friday. They say employees are owed more than $100,000 in back wages, as is the case at Connecticut delis under the same ownership.
In November, Mohamed Masaud, manager of Weybosset Street Gourmet Heaven, claimed that there were no such violations going on in Providence.
Pedro Guarcas worked, at both the downtown and Meeting St locations of Gourmet Heaven. Guarcas claims that while on the job, he suffered workplace injuries and physical abuse.
As economic inequality grows in Rhode Island, the messages being conveyed to our leadership in government is becoming simultaneously more radical and more pragmatic. People are beginning to make the connection between economic, social and climate justice, and the changes they are calling for are nothing short of revolutionary.
Last night’s “
Friday night’s 
Civil rights activists spoke yesterday in South Providence as part of the seventh annual 
About ten people turned out in the freezing cold in Providence Friday morning to protest the low wages and immoral business practices of Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer. Organized locally by members of Occupy Providence and attended by group members and allies, the small protest made an oversized impression with the public, if the honking of horns and positive response of the passing motorists was any indication.
Providence Mayor-elect Jorge Elorza walked back his promise to join with advocates and demand that the General Assembly repeal the state ban on municipal minimum wage rates.
At yesterday’s bi-partisan Preparatory Commission ahead of a report on “possible issues for consideration at a Constitutional Convention,” lawyer and Republican national committeeman 
Today is a state holiday in Rhode Island. It’s a day some of us have off and some of us don’t, depending on whether or not we work in Boston, or at some retail job, or for an instate union or government employer. We used to call it VJ Day, for Victory over Japan, but now we call it Victory Day, if we call it anything at all. Many of us are sheepish when it comes to talking about this holiday, embarrassed that we have a holiday to celebrate the apocalyptic conclusion to a terrible world war.
Our Victory over Japan was accomplished via the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, making the United States the only country to ever use the most horrific and destructive weapon of war ever developed. One bomb killed half the population of Hiroshima. Another killed half the population of Nagasaki.
At the Rhode Island State House yesterday just under 200 people representing 15,000 Liberian-Americans living here in Rhode Island rallied to call attention to the terrible Ebola crisis now ravaging four countries in Africa. The rally succeeded in its goal of gaining the attention of political leaders as Mayor Angel Taveras addressed the crowd and rally organizers announced a meeting with Representative David Cicilline to take place at his Pawtucket office following the rally.
In the minds of some Rhode Island politicians and business leaders, the empty and unsellable “Superman” building hangs like a millstone around the neck of the City of Providence. Rather than come to grips with the fact that the building is rundown and overpriced and that new economic thinking is needed to reinvigorate the Capital City, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Warwick Mayor Scott Avidesian (who currently heads RIPTA, the Rhode Island Public Transportation Administration), have pushed through a plan that scapegoats the poor, disabled, elderly, homeless and people of color.
The new vision for a modern and vibrant downtown does not include a busing hub. So Kennedy Plaza has been fenced off and is being destroyed as quickly as possible, before an outraged public can mount any kind of coordinated defense. Already the shelters have been taken down and trucked away, and the expensive heating system that automatically melts the snow is being dug up and scrapped. This work is leaving a giant pit in the center of downtown, even though there is no money allocated to completing the project. The plan seems akin to digging a hole in the hopes that someone will come along and build a house there.
Simply stated, this is class warfare being waged against the most vulnerable populations in our state, and it is being done with taxpayer money. Instead of walking across a plaza replete with convenient shelters to transfer from one bus to another, bus riders are now required to walk several blocks from one bus to another. In the winter, when Burnside Park is effectively one giant sheet of ice, the walk will become more treacherous or even impossible, especially for the handicapped and the elderly.
