Gist On Public Education Disparity In Rhode Island
I went to an East Greenwich school this morning to interview state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist about the education disparity between the affluent suburbs in Rhode Island and the poorer inner cities. While I was waiting for her a 7th grade student came into the office to report finding a diamond. This pretty much sums [...]
NLC’s 40 Under 40: Central Falls Mayor James Diossa
James Diossa was elected Mayor of Central Falls on December 11, 2012, and has accepted responsibility for navigating his city out of bankruptcy and restoring his community’s belief in political leadership. He was elected councilman of Ward 4 in November 2009 at the age of 24, defeating a longtime incumbent. He was also an New [...]
10 Reasons to Support James Diossa for CF Mayor
I am a big fan of City Councilman James Diossa – 1 of 5 candidates running in the November6th non-partisan primary for Mayor of Central Falls. Here are 10 reasons that you should vote for him, volunteer for him and donate to him between now and Tuesday. 1. Honesty matters. As we have seen with [...]
Progress Report: Economic Development Void in RI; GOP Fans Father-Daughter Dance Flames; James Diossa
It seems RI Future and RIPEC agree on at least one thing. “Rhode Island does not have a clear vision of how to expand its economy or a governmental structure that helps create jobs, encourage companies to expand, attract businesses and develop workers’ skills,” reports the Providence Journal about RIPEC’s report on the EDC this [...]
Progress Report: Central Falls Plan Protects Investors Over Locals; Poverty Plagues Public Education; Obama’s Speech
Central Falls is again making national news. And unlike last year, both the city and the state are winning praise from the press for their ability to quickly bandage the struggling city’s fiscal woes in bankruptcy court. But the national media is focusing on an aspect of Central Falls’ restructuring that local reporters here in [...]
Progress Report: Chafee Not a Democrat, Nor Should He Be; WSJ Loves Raimondo, Bond Markets: 1, Central Falls: 0
The Democratic National Convention kicks off tonight and the question Rhode Island should be asking when will Gov. Chafee addresses the convention is not when will our independent governor become a Democrat; the question is why would he. Two reasons he won’t: Angel Taveras and Gina Raimondo. Great piece by Dan McGowan. Speaking of the [...]
Viola Davis Shills for Charter Management Model
Education expert Diane Ravitch is right to be disappointed in Rhode Island’s best known former public school student Viola Davis. Both RI Future and Ravitch both wrote about parent trigger laws this morning, ALEC model legislation that allows parents to privatize public schools – here’s Ravitch’s piece and here’s Russ Conway’s. Ravitch notes that RI’s [...]
Progress Report: Labor vs. Legislature, So Long John Tassoni, Central Falls Leans Toward a Mayor
Organized labor claims they are big winners in this year’s legislative session because they beat back Gov. Chafee’s municipal aid bill that earlier in the year they said would have destroyed collective bargaining rights in Rhode Island. So this is how we measure success for unions in 2012, victory means mere survival. By such logic, [...]
RI Progress Report: Carcieri, Fox Should Face Public, Anti-Union Manipulation, How Central Falls Made Budget
With regards to the 38 Studios debacle, Gov. Chafee is just about the only Rhode Island politician who has respected the public’s right to know what happened. Former Gov. Don Carcieri and House Speaker Gordon Fox – who shepherded the failed deal – ought to follow his lead. It may not be in either of [...]
EG Wants iPads, CF Wants Enough Textbooks
It’s another sign of the increasing education disparity between Rhode Island’s affluent suburban towns and its economically challenged inner cities: the East Greenwich School Committee is considering getting every student at the high school an iPad, while in Central Falls, Pawtucket and Woonsocket students sometimes share textbooks, taking turns getting to take them home for [...]
RI Progress Report: Who Still Supports Carcieri?
Former Gov. Don Carcieri seems to have lost all his political allies because of his historic blunder in giving his friend and political ally curt Schilling $75 million to make a video game in Rhode Island. It will be interesting to see if Brendan Doherty and Mitt Romney – the two candidates Carcieri is really [...]
RI Progress Report: Tax Day, Central Falls, Callista Gingrich
Happy Tax Day, says Ted Nesi. Meanwhile, our own Tom Sgouros uses the occasion to report that the Tax Foundation says Rhode Islanders have the second lowest tax burden in the region. Speaking of Tax Day, this from Ocean State Action: “Years of misguided tax policy that benefit Rhode Island’s highest income earners have starved [...]
Struggling Cities Also Have Highest Foreclosure Rate
Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket are not only four of the most “highly distressed” cities in the state in terms of municipal budgets, they also have the highest percentage of foreclosures, according to a new report from HousingWorks RI. Central Falls has the highest percentage of its housing stock lost to foreclosure since 2009 [...]
Sen. Crowley vs. Bob Flanders on Bankruptcy’s Benefits
Bob Flanders, the receiver for Central Falls, and Elizabeth Crowley, a state senator from Central Falls, are both offering Woonsocket advice on whether or not to pursue bankruptcy. Whose advice should Woonsocket put more stock in? Let’s compare… Crowley has to live with the effects of bankruptcy. Flanders doesn’t even show up for public meetings [...]
ACLU: Flanders Flouts Law By Delegating His Duties
The Rhode Island ACLU filed a lawsuit today against Central Falls receiver Bob Flanders saying he is improperly delegating authority to his chief of staff Gayle Corrigan. Flanders, ACLU attorney Jennifer Azevedo said, “is stepping in for the mayor and city council. If he is going to do that he should have to do what [...]
RI Progress Report: Central Falls disagrees, lottery logic, Chamber of Charity in SK, Mitt Romney and Goldman Sachs
Seems the state and Central Falls are in disagreement once again. While Rosemary Booth Gallogly issued a three-pager exonerating CF receiver chief of staff Gail Corrigan of any wrongdoing when she let her mom volunteer in the city’s finance department and hired her lawyer’s daughter, the Central Falls City Council plans on doing its own [...]
Oppose Top-Down City ‘Reforms’
The Providence Journal ran a piece by John Hill on Sunday about Chelsea, Mass., where a post-receivership shift to a city manager system appears to have invigorated democracy in the city. But I believe that Chelsea is an exception rather than the rule; and as the Journal points out, that shift to the city manager model was [...]
Darth Flanders Sets Sights on CF Mayoral Office
It turns out there’s at least one more job Central Falls receiver Bob “Lord of the Pink Slip” Flanders would like to eliminate from the financially struggling city: mayor. As if temporarily eliminating democracy from Central Falls wasn’t enough, now he wants to permanently eliminate democratically elected mayors and replace the position with an appointed [...]
Senator: ‘Darth Flanders bit’ insults Central Falls
In a post yesterday about Bob Flanders poking fun of his role as the “lord of the pink slip” in Central Falls (check out the video of Flanders singing if you haven’t yet), I mentioned that it wasn’t in good taste for Flanders to make jokes about a situation that has dire consequences to already-struggling [...]
Darth Flanders at Follies: ‘Lord of the Pink Slip’
The Follies are designed to be funny and irreverent, and this year’s mystery guest was both. Bob Flanders, dressed as an executioner, poked fun at his role as receiver for Central Falls by comparing himself to Darth Vader and calling himself the “lord of the pink slip.” He sang a parody of “Imagine” (as John [...]
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