“I said in good consciousness I cannot support David Cicilline,” Gemma told me, recounting what he said Monday night at the endorsement meeting for the Rhode Island Association of Democratic City and Town Chairpersons.

After talking about it with me, Gemma softened his position, saying, “We’re in a political fight right now. On September 12, I will reassess my position.”

He added, My number one objective is to keep the seat Democratic. I will rally behind the Democratic party.”

But some at the Monday night meeting doubt that is really Gemma’s objective.

Question:

Answer:  They’re all located adjacent one another in Providence.

Projo reports that the DEM has ordered waterfront junkyards, Sims Metal Management and Rhode Island Recycled Metals, to cease operations for “[failing] to obtain the necessary approval for their scrap metal businesses” and for “violation of storm water regulations.” PBN has more details on the violations:

DEM accused Rhode Island Recycled Metals, which has been a repeated target of environmental group Save The Bay this year, of not receiving the proper permits to salvage automobiles or dismantle a variety of marine vessels at its waterfront site at 434 Allens Ave. [RC - see “Save the Bay: ‘Grave Concerns’ Over Polluting Waterfront Junkyard”]

The charges accuse Rhode Island Recycled Metals of failing to install required stormwater runoff controls and of having oil leaks staining the ground of their property.

The violation comes with a $46,250 fine and orders Rhode Island Recycled Metals to stop all car crushing, stop receiving new scrap metal, new derelict vessels or automobiles and to install pollution containment boom in the river around the property.

The company is ordered to remove all scrap metal from its property within 60 days.

Sims Metal Management, which purchased Promet Marine Services last October, is accused by DEM of failing to transfer the old business’ stormwater permit and apply for a new permit to expand operations into scrap metal recycling.

The facility at 242 Allens Ave. is now Sims principal New England scrap metal export terminal.

The DEM violation notice, which carries a $25,000 fine, orders Sims to stop receiving any new scrap metal at the site or accept new ship repair jobs, and to remove any scrap metal from the facility within 60 days.

This after news last month that Polluting Waterfront member, PSC Environmental Services, has been fined by the EPA for lax environmental controls at their facility along Allens Avenue.  The EPA press release reported:

Northland Environmental and PSC Environmental Services (operator and owner of the facility, respectively) violated state and federal hazardous waste laws, as well as their state issued permit to operate a commercial hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste treatment, storage and transfer facility located on Allens Avenue in Providence.

The facility is located in a densely populated Environmental Justice (EJ) area of Providence.  EPA considers it an EJ area due to the high proportion of minority and low-income population, which historically has had higher exposure to pollutants than other segments of the population.

The EPA found that “many incompatible hazardous wastes were stored next to one another without adequate means of separation or protection, potentially resulting in fires or explosions” [my emphasis]. Believe it or not, the Taveras administration actually ran on a promise to give these “existing industrial businesses the confidence needed to expand!” Lipstick on pig, indeed.

Yes, what shows our commitment to Environmental Justice more than locating hazardous waste processing firms and scrap heaps in the neighborhood? Can we honestly say this urban neighborhood doesn’t “bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations?” Can we say without a nod and a wink that “affected community residents have an appropriate opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed activity that will affect their environment and/or health?”

(via Wikipedia)

Rhode Island is hyperfocused on Curt Schilling. But unlike eight years ago when he heroically hurled us to a World Series victory, this time we have to rely on his business – not athletic – acumen. His video game company, 38 Studios, was given a taxpayer guaranteed $75 million loan to move from Massachusetts to the Ocean State. But already he’s missed a $1.125 payment to the state.

It seems as if both liberals and conservatives opposed the deal as it was being rushed through at the tail end of the Carcieri Administration. Colleen Conley, of local Tea Party fame, told me she opposed it and told the governor as much. And certainly Rhode Island progressives didn’t like the idea of providing such a giant corporate welfare check to just one company.

So who supported it, other than the former governor? It’s hard to tell.

Funding for the program that granted Schilling his loan was rushed through the State House in a supplemental budget proposal submitted by the governor in April of 2010. Legislators say they asked if the money was wired for a specific recipient and were told it wasn’t, though some doubt that now. In the House, all but six voted for the expenditure. They were Reps. Driver, Ehrhardt, Jacquard, Lima, Newberry and Watson.

One person who sure did is Chafee and Carcieri’s economic development director Keith Stokes. In a letter to the local business community dated August 2010, he wrote:

“Many community leaders, like you, have inquired about why the RIEDC would offer so much credit enhancement to one company. Simply put, our extensive due diligence revealed that while 38 Studios could raise venture equity and stay in their current location, its investors and management team are willing to relocate the company and the related opportunities for Rhode Island if we provide an alternative to their equity dilution.

The RIEDC board is comprised of Rhode Island’s top CEOs, university, hospital and industry executives, heads of small businesses and labor. Members used their considerable business expertise to thoroughly assess the opportunities and risks associated with this transaction. They asked all the hard questions the media and the public have asked, and more.”

Gov. Chafee has called an emergency meeting of the EDC this morning to discuss the matter. We’ll keep you posted.

“I think you know what my position is on this,” said Sen. Michael McCafffrey, a Warwick Democrat, when asked for his position on marriage equality. It is well-known that McCaffrey, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, doesn’t support the bill.

The next hurdle is that several other Democrats on the Judiciary Committee don’t love it either. Sen Harold Metts is on record as not supporting it, and Sen. Paul Jabour, a Democrat who represents Federal Hill and the West Side, told me he “still prefers civil unions.”

Jabour said he’s still weighing whether or not to support actual marriage equality.

Sen. William Walaska, a conservative Democrat from Warwick who is also on the Judiciary Committee, wasn’t tipping his hand, saying, “You’re asking me about a vote that isn’t on the floor yet. I’d have to look at the legislation.”

Even Sen. Erin Lynch, a Warwick Democrat who co-sponsored such a bill last year, wouldn’t fully commit this year, saying she supports marriage equality in theory but that “it depends on the language of the bill.”

Outside of the committee, there are a number of Democrats who don’t support marriage equality, including Sens. Dominick Ruggerio, the majority leader, from North Providence, Frank Ciccone, of Providence and Louis DiPalma, of Middletown.

Ciccone said he will submit a bill soon that would reverse Gov. Chafee’s executive order that recognizes same sex marriages performed in other states. “I think the governor exceeded his authority,” he said, noting a recent court case before the state Supreme Court. “I don’t think an executive order can supersede a Supreme Court decision.”

Of course, there’s also Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, who wouldn’t even answer my questions last night at the State House.

By the way, I think every Senator I just mentioned is Catholic (I’m not sure about Metts or Lynch). And, it’s worth noting, there is no shortage of GOP support for marriage equality in the chamber. Sens. Christopher Ottiano, a Portsmouth Republican, and Dawson Hodgson, a socially-liberal Republican who represents East Greenwich and North Kingstown, would support marriage equality if it came to a floor vote. Nick Kettle, of Coventry, said he likely would too, but only after taking the pulse of his constituents.

“Probably two handfuls,” is the way Sen. DiPalma described it to me when I asked him about the opposition to marriage equality in the Senate. Based on my very informal whip count, that sounds about right. The President, the entire congressional delegation, the governor and the House all would support marriage equality in Rhode Island. But “probably two handfuls” of Catholic state Senators still stand in the way.

Photo courtesy of The Phoenix and Richard McCaffrey

To date, my new business plan for RI Future has consisted mostly of me wearing sweaters on cold nights and eating a lot of peanut butter and bread for meals. But this state’s only source of progressive news and information now needs a new computer. Since our readership is growing just as rapidly as the number of in-person and online compliments we’re getting, I thought I’d reach out to you all, our loyal readers, for some help.

The long term plan for RI Future is to have the free market support us, and in the near future you will start seeing some paid advertising on the site. But just getting there will require a small investment, and I’d like to ask for your help.

And please keep in mind:

• Without RI Future, you wouldn’t know about the legislature’s involvement with ALEC.
• Without RI Future, you wouldn’t know about Anthony Gemma’s suspicious Facebook following or that he fancies himself a progressive, though we have reservations.
• Without RI Future, you wouldn’t get to read Tom Sgouros’ insightful pieces on the state budget or Samuel G. Howard’s interesting reads on political theory.
• Without RI Future, you wouldn’t know just how truly conservative the General Assembly really is.
• And without RI Future, you certainly wouldn’t get half the news you have of tax equity, marriage equality, payday loan reform, who the progressives candidates are or the Buffett Rule.

That’s just a sample of the great news and information we’ve delivered to you, free of charge, over the past few months … if you like what we do here at RI Future, or even if you just want us to stick around so you can beat us up in the comments section, please do what you can and help support independent media.

Click on the link below to donate to RI Future:

“The Barrington School Department has no obligation to establish a special program to accept students from out-of-town, but once it does so, it cannot simply declare students with disabilities off-limits,” wrote Steven Brown, the executive director of the local affiliate of the ACLU. “While in some circumstances schools may have some leeway in dealing with special-needs students, such as when significant problems might arise in providing them necessary accommodations, we are not aware of any basis whatsoever for a school to have a policy of automatically and categorically excluding special education students from an enrollment policy. Such blatant discrimination flies in the face of the numerous laws designed to treat such students equally, not segregate or stigmatize them.”

Brown’s letter assumed Barrington would not accept students with special needs, which was the initial idea. But after School Committee President Patrick Guida had a conversation with RIDE officials, he said they would likely accommodate for a percentage of students with special needs so long as they could pay the cost of their education there.

Brown wrote, “I realize that this policy is still a work in progress, but I would appreciate learning the basis behind the decision, however tentative, to exclude special education students.”

The Barrington School Committee will discuss the matter at its meeting on Thursday night.

(via Wikipedia)

Word started buzzing around the State House just prior to Gov. Chafee making his historic executive order recognizing same sex marriages from other states – but the rumors weren’t about marriage equality, they were about 38 Studios.

By the end of the day, Bill Rappleye of Channel 10 broke what very well could become the biggest story to date of 2012: the state is working with 38 Studios to help keep it solvent.

38 Studios, former Red Sox Curt Schilling’s company, was given a $75 million guaranteed loan to move from Massachusetts to Rhode Island by former Gov. Don Carcieri. The former CEO governor, who always touted his business experience as reason to trust him as a public official, pushed through the highly controversial loan to his friend and political ally as a way to shore up his otherwise poor economic development record while in office.

It worked; whatever happens to 38 Studios, Carcieri owns it.

One needn’t to be a business expert to know that investing in 38 Studios was a risky proposition. In fact, our own Sam Howard detailed why it was in a post earlier this year. 38 Studios has made some money on its new single player game Kingdoms of Amular. But the project Rhode Island is vested in is a huge multiplayer game called Copernicus. Howard points out here why the former is a much safer investment than the latter:

“…one of the things that [Amular] had going for it was that it’s single-player. Single-player games are like novels, in a lot of ways. People are more willing to get into a new one. But [multiplayer games] are in a lot of ways like a bowling league. Once you’re part of one, why join another?”

Indeed, business experts knew this was a risky investment as well. Ted Nesi reports: “Last June, PricewaterhouseCoopers audited 38 Studios and issued a “going concern” opinion that expressed “substantial doubt” about whether the company would be able to stay solvent, the disclosure filing said.”

Why didn’t Carcieri, who was lauded for his business acumen, see this? Why didn’t Keith Stokes, Carcieri’s economic development chief who lauded the loan and was then kept on by Chafee, even though the current governor vociferously argued against granting 38 Studios the risky loan? Why didn’t taxpayers? Where was the Tea Party on this one?

Why might not matter now. What matters most is how to protect the state’s investment, and its economy.

In the meantime, as the local media has been looking for the “next Central Falls,” Rappleye might just have stumbled onto it … but this time there will be no way to argue that pensions or union contracts are the problem. This time the issue seems squarely to be that the public servants simply placed too much faith in private sector.

Curt Schilling was supposed to be the state’s ultimate job creator. It’s high time Rhode Island realizes that, whether it’s tax cuts or tax giveaways, such an economic strategy is far too risky keep placing so much blind faith in.

Baker lost her battle with cancer in August.

Instead, Tevyaw took in the governor’s historic executive order without her longtime spouse, and spoke of how the lack of such legal protections added undo consternation to last days of her lover’s life.

“I can’t begin to really tell you what this was like,” she said, holding back tears, as she spoke at the event to mark Chafee’s executive order. “All the late nights Pat spent on the phone and on the computer trying to get answers about pensions, survival benefits and social security. All things that most people in their last month of their life wouldn’t be forced to worry about.”

In what was otherwise a joyous occasion, Tevyaw’s remarks were a stark reminder that marriage equality is more than a mere matter of politics. To some, it is literally about life and death. And for Tevyaw and Baker, marriage equality did not come soon enough.

With Jack Reed now supporting same sex marriage, Teresa Paiva Weed is the last of Rhode Island’s premier politicians to stand in the way of marriage equality. Thus the only thing stopping Rhode Island from approving the legislation is the state Senate. Here’s hoping she sees what a smart politician her fellow Catholic Jack Reed was being and allows the measure to proceed before any more couples miss out on their chance.

Here’s a video on Deb and Pat’s struggle to attain equal rights made by Marriage Equality Rhode Island several months ago:

Gov Chafee and Ray Sullivan of Marriage Equality Rhode Island celebrate the RI recognizing out-of-state same sex marriages.

Saying Rhode Island should pass its own marriage equality law, Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed an executive order today that asserts this state recognizes same sex marriages performed in other states.

“Let’s get there ourselves,” he said to an enthusiastic crowd packed into the State Room of the State House. “This is the home of Roger Williams. Come on, let’s go.”

The governor’s executive order reaffirms a 2007 memo from the attorney general that said Rhode Island recognizes all marriages performed in other states per a 1904 law. But Chafee said there has been some confusion in state government as to whether or not same sex marriages performed in other states are valid in Rhode Island.

“This executive order,” he said, “sends a clear message to married Rhode Islanders, regardless of their sexual orientation, that they can and should rely on their marriage to protect them and their families in important ways.”

Ray Sullivan, of Marriage Equality Rhode Island, said Rhode Island is the first state in the country “to sign an executive order providing critical clarity and direction to government agencies regarding the recognition of same-sex, out-of-state marriages.”

Sullivan said, in a press release, “While this moves us closer to full marriage equality, nothing less is sufficient, and we will keep fighting.”

Chafee said talks are ongoing between him and legislative leaders about passing a marriage equality law this session. Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed is still standing in the way of the bill’s passage. Chafee said she is not amenable to passing the bill this session. When asked if she seemed willing to support the bill this year, Chafee said, “To be perfectly honest with you, not in this session.”

He indicated that House Speaker Gordon Fox is ready to pass the bill. When asked who supports passing marriage equality this session, he said, “You can probably guess who is supportive and who isn’t.”

Fox, who is openly gay, fought behind the scenes to get Paiva Weed to support same sex marriage last session, but never called for a full vote in his chamber because some members did not want to have to go on record if they knew it wouldn’t pass in the Senate.

Tonight (Monday, May 14) at 5:30 pm in Cercle Laurier, 165 E. School St., residents can come learn how the tax equity bills, making their way through the House an Senate in the form of  H-7729 and S-2622, can raise $131 milllion in revenue; and how that revenue should be targeted to providing relief to distressed cities and towns, like Woonsocket.

While our elected officials continue to give massive tax breaks to Rhode Island’s wealthiest citizens and corporations, and Woonsocket Rep. Jon Brien and Sen. Marc Cote defend these breaks,  lower and middle income Rhode Islanders are struggling to feed their families.

It’s time for people making over $250K/year to pay their fair share and help the middle class–because a strong middle class means more spending and more jobs in local communities. Come to the meeting and help convince Rep. Brien and Sen. Cote top sign onto the tax equity bills, Woonsocket would greatly benefit by your actions.