On Tuesday night the North Smithfield Town Council voted unanimously to oppose Invenergy‘s $700 million fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant, and on Wednesday evening a second unanimous vote opposing the power plant happened in Lincoln. When Middletown votes to oppose the plant next week, as is expected, that will bring the total number of municipalities passing resolutions in opposition to the power plant to four, since Glocester passed a resolution last week. Many other cities and towns are considering similar resolutions as per the Town of Burrillville‘s request, with Cranston‘s town council discussing it at their next meeting.

Denise Potvin and Suzanne Dumas of Burrillville, Rhoda-Ann Northrup of Cranston and Lorraine Savard of Central Falls all spoke out against the plant in Lincoln. Only Savard spoke out against the plant in North Smithfield.

Over 60 local environmental groups have come out against the power plant, the Burrillville Zoning and Planning Boards have expressed their opposition, and both Pascoag and Harrisville have chosen to not sell Invenergy the water they need to cool their turbines.

Below see video from the Town of Lincoln’s meeting last night and from North Smithfield’s meeting Tuesday night.

“Right now, I’m not planning on it coming to the House floor by week’s end,” he said. “I have substantial concerns. I’ve indicated that the House is not going to act upon this bill until the concerns of our local business community are adequately addressed.”

Speaker Mattiello also said that he believes the proposal requires more analysis, so he is not comfortable introducing it in the House quite yet.

“It’s a big proposal, a big project, and I think the calls for it to move forward thoughtfully are probably the right calls and the right way to approach this. There’s no reason to rush this, there are reasons to do it in a timely manner, but there’s absolutely no reason to rush it,” he said.

This announcement comes a day after the Park Avenue bridge in Cranston was closed by RIDOT due to safety concerns. The bridge was suffering from severe deterioration and was “in imminent danger of collapse,” RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said in a letter to the Governor.

Speaker Mattiello finds the closure curious considering the bridge was examined nine months ago, and was deemed structurally deficient, but safe for travel.

“Where I call for an investigation is, you have the DOT making an assessment that it requires a high degree of corrective action in order to stay open, and no action is taken for nine months,” he said. His main concern is that Cranstonians, and especially safety vehicles, are now incredibly inconvenienced, because no steps were taken to prevent the closure.

“If they knew nine months ago that it was going to require a high priority of corrective action, why wasn’t any corrective action taken? That is something an investigation by DOT, I’d like to know what they’re doing.” he said.

Speaker Mattiello added that DOT is at fault for the closure, as they did not do what they are called to do for the community.

“You can’t just let a bridge go to the point of failure and say ‘Sorry, we’re shutting it down because we failed.’ That’s what they’re doing. They didn’t ask for anything, they didn’t tell us they had any concern.”

However, the Speaker did note that he agrees with RIDOT’s decision, but wishes that they take corrective action to have the bridge open back up as soon as possible.

Currently, there are nine bridges throughout the state undergoing investigations, and 17 that have been completed through RIDOT’s accelerated inspection program, which Alviti ordered in early May.

The timing of the closure did not work in Rhode Works’ favor. Minutes after the bridge was closed, Senate Finance unanimously approved the bill, and later that night it was approved on the Senate floor in a 33-4 vote. If the closure was a stunt to get Mattiello’s attention, he was not impressed.

“I can tell you it’s not going to force my hand on Rhode Works,” he said. “That’s not the right way to get my attention.”

About eight years ago I saw Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) founder Peter Wagner give a presentation on “Prison Based Gerrymandering” in New York State.  He illustrated how taking thousands of men from, typically, New York City and sending them to live in cages Upstate shifted political power to those Upstate areas.  They did this by counting the prisoners as “residents” who are then represented by politicians at the same rate as the free residents.  Naturally, the politicians do not cater to the interests of the prison residents; in fact, the politicians interest is in getting more prisoners, to inflate their power.  A tiny little district with a big warehouse full of cages will get the same vote in Albany as a place with twice as many people living in it.

About five years ago I did an analysis of Rhode Island, posted it on RIFuture (archive unavailable), and Peter Wagner took note.  It turns out that Cranston, with its consolidated Adult Correctional Institutions, is one of the most impacted areas of the country.  A small coalition formed on this esoteric elections issue, including Direct Action for Rights & Equality, PPI, ACLU, and Common Cause.  Senator Harold Metts sponsored a bill to make this change, targeting the 2010 Census, but the bill was not passed before redistricting time.

“The Residence of Those in Government Custody Act,” introduced as S 2286 by Senators Metts, Crowley, Pichardo, and Jabour on February 4, 2014, and as H 7263 by Representatives Williams, Tanzi, Slater, Diaz, and Palangio, on January 30, 2014.

Now the issue has gotten down to the personal level, as residents of Cranston who don’t have the blessing of living next to the prison are challenging why they have less political power.  For example, six people who live near the prison will fight for their politician’s ear for every 10 people who live on the other side of town.  Multiply that out.  There is a reason that districts should be of similar population size, and its about ten people’s voices being the equivalent of ten people’s voices when making large decisions.  Unless those people locked up in the ACI start getting their voice in the discussion, they are being used to puff up the district.

Some states have already passed laws that eliminate this problem.  Of course, if Rhode Island did so, the lawsuit would be moot.

Listen here until embed player refreshes.

Tuesday Dec 17, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

It’s Tuesday, December 17 … the day after a federal judge ruled against the NSA’s mass spying program calling it “almost Orwellian.” C’mon your honor, if the NSA isn’t full-blown Orwellian, I don’t know what is…

In a total twist of irony though, Judge Richard Leon, also put a stay on his own ruling to give the government time to appeal because of the national security implications. The gears of Democracy turn much slower than in the espionage industry…

Judge Leon wrote on the NSA randomly spying on as many Americans as it can: “I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’ invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval.”

There’s a super interesting article in New York Times today that could have local implications. Here’s the lede: “The billions of dollars in tax breaks granted to the nation’s nonprofit hospitals are being challenged by regulators and politicians as cities still reeling from the recession watch cash-rich medical centers expand.”

Cities all over the country are challenging the non-profit status of non-profit hospitals, with some saying they don’t do enough charity to warrant being considered a charity. A lawyer representing the city of Pittsburgh which is suing its local hospital for some property and payroll taxes, said, “Its commitment to charity is dwarfed by its preoccupation with profits.” The Times reports that the average non-profit hospital spends about 7.5 percent of its earnings on charity care and community benefit. Do we know yet what Lifespan spends on these line items?

In any case, the Ocean State does get a shout out – of sorts – in Times’ coverage:

Some patients who are hard pressed to pay today’s high charges found that hospitals can be aggressive in bill collection. When David DiCola, 61, went to Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, R.I., for treatment of a finger infection, the bill was about $1,500. Uninsured, he offered the hospital $500; it refused his offer and sent it to a collection agency, he said.

The political soothsayers have spoken, specifically on a “A Lively Experiment” this weekend, and they don’t seem so jazzed on the legislation progressives will be pushing at the State House during the upcoming session. Ed Fitzpatrick, Ian Donnis, Ted Nesi and Jim Baron joined Diana Koelsch to talk about Voter ID, payday loans and ending pot prohibition in 2014. Fitz thought legalizing pot has a chance of passing and Voter ID could be repealed. But Donnis had a good point about pot, saying it’s unlikely to happen during an election year.

Because of faulty equipment the Johnston landfill is pumping harmful pollutants in the air, according to a lawsuit filed by the Conservation Law Foundation. The quasi-governmental agency that operates the landfill is ‘failing to adequately capture the gas,’’ Tricia Jedele, of the CFL told the Associated Press. ‘‘We need to be treating this more comprehensively and be managing this as a major source of air pollution, not just as a source of odors that sometimes bother the neighborhoods.’’

Did Cranston police officers write tickets to residents as a way to punish the politicians who represent them? That’s what two Cranston City Councilors said at a meeting last night, according to Greg Smith of the Providence Journal. This is a serious allegation, as such action would be a monumental abuse of power.

Joe Caramadre gets the New York Times treatment today. Caramadre either bilked insurance companies or the terminally ill, depending on whether you believe the prosecution or friends of the defense. A judge sided with the prosecution and Caramadre will be doing six years behind bars.

And NPR reports that environmentalists are split over the need for nuclear power … no we aren’t. But in other news, Kos reports that a former coal company CEO thinks we should better utilize renewables … so I suppose the 1% is split on fossil fuel extraction too…

Marion Simon, one of the early pioneers at Trinity Rep. in Providence, died in New York City yesterday. she was 90 years old. According to obituary in today’s Providence Journal, ”

Great moments in literature … today in 1843, Charles Dickens publishes “A Christmas Carol.” In case you have gone all Scrooge and forgotten the theme of this holiday classic it’s that being a good person is more important than being a good businessperson.

And today in 1944, the American military announced it will no longer be randomly imprisoning Japanese Americans.

And on this day in 1977, Elvis Costello infuriates Lorne Michaels and his record company when, while appearing on Saturday Night Live, he enthusiastically stops his band from playing “Less Than Zero” and instead rips into a now-famous rendition of his anti-mainstream media classic “Radio, Radio. Our song for the day is a terrible recording on the classic moment of corporate defiance on live TV.

Today’s ProJo ran a piece on the expected passage, later today, of H5015, the Marriage Equality bill. The piece ran some quotes from Representative Charlene Lima that surprised me.

“We were sensitive to an atheist in Cranston to take down a prayer banner” she said, referring to a legal challenge that led to the removal of a prayer banner at Cranston High School West. “I don’t see why we can’t be sensitive to the Catholic Church.”

Lima’s public statements on the prayer banner, made at a school committee meeting, demonstrate anything but sensitivity.

She implored the school committee to appeal the ruling, a move that would have put the city and its struggling schools on the hook for anywhere between $250,000 and $1 million. She felt that the judge’s ruling was not justified given the facts of the case. There is no reason to believe that she has changed her opinion.

Her quote in the ProJo shows that her priorities, then, during the prayer banner kerfuffle, and now, during the debate on marriage equality, are squarely in line not with the citizens of the state of Rhode Island, but with the narrow agenda of the Roman Catholic Church.

During the hearings conducted at the house last Tuesday evening, Lima asked Father Bernard Healey about the living arrangements of married couples at Providence College. She was worried that PC would be forced, under the law, to house married gay couples, against the conscience of practicing Catholics. Father Healey had no answer for her regarding this issue. In fact, that evening, Rep. Lima was the only person to bring the issue up. Three philosophy professors from PC testified against the bill, but never brought up that particular issue.

Sleeping at Harrington Hall, the overnight shelter in Cranston, is something of a mix between being in prison and being at a frat house for old men.

The very spacious, former gymnasium/auditorium at the Pastore Center state services campus, was even once a part of the prison system. The building somehow related to the psych ward, I was told, or the “old insane asylum,” as one homeless man called it. He was happy to talk history, but not to give his name.

(I live-tweeted 48 hours of living on the streets of Providence. Click here to see them. Or here for #HomelessLikeMe project.)

It has super high ceilings and giant windows on two sides; the front door is on a third side and a stage on the other. There’s a bathroom in front and a shower room off of the stage. The showers are a source of much  consternation among the residents. They are filthy, and not handicap accessible, and two Harrington Hall regulars are confined to wheelchairs and unable to bath there as a result.

An old wooden floor takes up the rest of the real estate and is literally lined with beds. Very uncomfortable-looking beds; like something out of WWII-era hospital. 88 of them in all, each a few feet apart from one another.

Last night, Harrington Hall had fewer guests than that, meaning I got to sleep in one of them. Most nights there are about 10 people who aren’t so lucky; they’ve been averaging 97 per evening. Late comers sleep on the stage, where the light stays on all night.

The beds are somewhat first-come-first serve, though many of the long-timers have staked claims. One man who has been here more than 5 years said he takes the bed closest to the bathroom even though it’s a high traffic area at night for its proximity to the facilities. He’s in his 70’s, in a wheelchair and – like many people who take advantage of Harrington Hall, though by no means all of them – he’s a heavy drinker.

I slept in bed C3. I waited until about 10:30 to take the spot, just in case the shelter was full that evening. Which it often isn’t around holidays. The homeless, much like the rest of us, reconvene with family over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was told by some of those who weren’t so lucky.

A staffer gave me a clean sheet, there was a cover-less pillow and scratchy wool blanket waiting for me on a bumpy old mattress than had long ago lost all of its firmness. A heavy-set, shirtless guy in his fifities sleeping over in C2 snored as loud as anyone I have ever heard. The chorus of snoring throughout Harrington Hall was cartoonishly loud and melodic.

After check in opens at 4pm, a process that asks for a social security number, as well as criminal, marital, mental and employment information, we were only allowed back outside for designated smoke breaks. The staff, situated behind a table on the stage, would often bark out directives, such as “Lights out!” and “30 seconds left in the smoke break.”

Tensions sometimes ran high among the residents. There was a discrepancy about who lay proper claim to a bed, I saw a guy take considerable umbrage when another guy allegedly got too close to his belongings. Oftentimes, people would cause a commotion be simply arriving intoxicated.

For me, a first-timer, I felt like I best keep my wits about me for the duration of my stay. Staff concurred, in fact cautioned me to do so. Theft is common, they said. Only once did I let my 30-pound pack – stuffed with some emergency layers of clothes, a computer and my sleeping bag – escape my sight. I rudely jumped out of a conversation and rushed around a corner to retrieve it when I realized what I had done.

The tensest situation occurred when I approached one guy about an interview. He was in his mid-forties, and had a prosthetic leg. He stormed off – on his prosthetic leg, mind you – and offered what sounded like very unfriendly advice in Spanish as he walked away. For a good while afterwards, I could feel him staring at me from across the room. He didn’t blink when I caught him doing so. I made a very conscious decision to not meet his glare again. I made sure to talk to someone else, to send the message that I had friends.

I often overreacted after that. When I reached for my shoes at the side of the bed in the morning, I spent a good three seconds thinking that I was going to have to walk outside and get on a bus to Providence in my stocking feet because I didn’t instantly put my hand on them. It was telling how quickly I assumed the worst.

Maybe I overreacted about the guy with the prosthetic leg, too, I wondered?

The community at Harrington Hall

For all its institutional problems and shortcomings, the sense of camaraderie and community at Harrington Hall is, in a way, even more noteworthy.

Much more than they disagreed, the guys got along with one another. Some joked around, others played cards. There were dozens of micro-conversations occurring at any given minute all across Harrington Hall. Homeless people pretty much talk about the same stuff those of us with homes do when we get together: the good old days, current events, plans for the future, the weather. A group watched “Fantastic Four” on the TV beside the stage. A lot of people read books.

Word got out that I was a reporter – maybe it was the live-tweeting, or maybe it was the video interviews? – and I quickly became a curiosity. Many were eager to tell their stories, even more just wanted to talk. I represented a sort of liaison to the more-established sector of society that they are pretty much otherwise alienated from in so many tangible and intangible ways.

I’d say most people I spoke with were either clean and sober or on the road to becoming so. Some, though, were flagrantly not on that road. Many were employed, to some degree or another, some full time. A bunch of people wanted to ask about the internet, Facebook or their smart phones.

I reunited with the first friend I made in my 48 hours on the streets, Billy Cormier. It was like seeing an old friend as I felt like I had lived a lifetime since we went to Thanksgiving dinner together at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He asked how my project was going and I tried to show him the video I put together with him. A bunch of guys huddled around my computer but my internet connection wasn’t working.

We all ate together, very informally, at several long tables just below the stage. Pasta with red sauce and dinner rolls; there was a second course of ham and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. To the best of my knowledge, there was no dessert.

I sat with Paul Pisano and John Renauld. They both drink, but John much harder. As evidenced by the bandage on across his face. He struggles with booze, prescription painkillers and crack. He said he stays at the shelter, instead of outside, because it costs too much to get sufficiently high enough to be able to brave the cold winter nights. He told me he’d have the shakes in the morning, an true to his word he was in rough shape when I said good morning to him the next day.

Paul said he only drinks a little Sambuca with his morning coffee. He’s been living at Harrington for three weeks and four days, he told me, since being evicted from his apartment. He said he has pretty good luck turning odd jobs like yard work into more long-range employment. He seemed like the kind of guy you’d want to give some work to; earnest, honest and caring. He was fun to talk with and instantly struck me as a fellow seeker. He spoke of Florida like Dustin Hoffman did in Midnight Cowboy.

He talked about the community he has at Harrington Hall, and how the people and the place are helping him get through a hard patch. He doesn’t want to live there forever – no one does, I don’t think- but he recently lost both his girlfriend and his apartment and admits to being a little lost in life right now.

“Everybody calls it being homeless but I call it the lost star state,” he said to me. “Everybody has a calling, and for some people this is it.”

Other posts in #HomelessLikeMe project:

• Drugs on the Streets of Providence
• Sleeping on the State House Lawn
• Thanksgiving, Billy Cormier and the Ebenezer Baptist Church
• 48 Hours on the Streets of Providence

The Atlantic may think Gina Raimondo is a brave thinker for slashing the retirement security of state workers, but it seems to me the political popularity of pension reform is waning  … consider this page A1 quote  in today’s Projo on Cranston Mayor Allan Fung’s attempts to cut local pension benefits: “This problem was created by the city, not by the retirees.”

And consider also that both David Cicilline AND Brendan Doherty both said the state would have done well to negotiate pension reform rather than act unilaterally … but then again Doherty is a pension recipient, reports RIPR. The state pays him $97,859.44 annually to be a retired cop.

On Smith Hill, it turns out, transparency and open government tend to have a liberal bias. I’m not surprised.

Speaking of government secrecy, Bob Kerr offers some sage words for any public official who wants to keep something on the quiet: “…as long as the details are kept under wraps, questions will remain. And those questions will be answered at the bar and on the radio and in all kinds of places where people have nothing to go on but their belief of how things work in Rhode Island.”

Again, the typically conservative ProJo editorial board endorses a progressive for U.S. Senate; today it’s Rhode Island’s own Sheldon Whitehouse.

FYI: the bear seen in Cranston probably wasn’t the same one that was seen in the EG/NK area. For one thing, there is virtually no way for wildlife to commute between the two areas in question. For another, it’s not like we are talking about a singular Sasquatch here folks. It’s a bear, they live here and look for food this time of year. Secure your garbage cans, be prepared to take their picture from a safe distance and get on with life…

Things are looking pretty good for Democrats’ chances of taking control of the Senate, says the NYTimes … but native Rhode Islander Jennifer Duffy is quoted as saying not to count out the GOP yet…

I have to disagree with the Romney logic that microwave ownership is a sign of wealth … to the contrary, I’d argue that microwave ownership is a sign of poverty.

And here’s an indicator in the presidential campaign: Bruce Springsteen endorsed Obama in Ohio this week while Mitt Romney won the coveted endorsement of Meatloaf. In case you’re keeping score at home, Springsteen is famous for singing about the plight of the working class … Meatloaf, on the other hand, is best remembered for signing about indiscretion and regret.

Today in 2001, George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act into law.

The ProJo’s Randal Edgar summed up the contest between the two nicely by comparing it to the Cicilline/Doherty campaign. “The 2nd Congressional District candidates weren’t as combative or argumentative as their 1st District counterparts, but their responses during the WPRI-TV encounter showed that the political divide between them is just as wide.”

You can watch the full 60-minute debate here.

The news magnet that is the Cranston School Committee will consider at a meeting tonight outsourcing bus driver jobs in order to save money on buses, says Cranston Patch.

Speaking of downward spirals … the worse the economy gets, the more the state makes in gambling revenue.

David Cicilline is not only a GoLocal “mindsetter,” he’s also a US congressman … this morning he writes about how to bring manufacturing back to Rhode Island.

The Journal should be commended for its Publick Occurrences forum, the second in the series on the local economy is tonight. In fact, there’s been lots of good brainstorming about RI’s economic woes – which is great. While actions always speak louder than words, words can often incite actions … let’s hope that’s the case here in Rhode Island.

And here’s an economic development idea from a Wickford art gallery owner that would foster the kind of growth everyone in Rhode Island wants.

We’re the seventh most energy-efficient state! Last year we were fifth…

The state is trying to make it harder for patients to get access to medical marijuana, but the ACLU is trying to stop it from doing so.

Great headline, terrible story: Billionaire CEO Threatens To Fire Employees If Obama Wins.

Great editorial on the right wing conspiracy culture. By the way, the left isn’t immune from this either.

Today in 1917, improv jazz legend Thelonious Monk is born.

And in 1957, President Eisenhower apologizes to an African diplomat who was denied a meal based on his race at a Delaware restaurant … the rest of the black community is still waiting for its apology…

Speaking of firsts, the first offshore wind farm in the United States, which should generate enough electricity to power almost 20,000 homes, could be built off Block Island by 2014, says the Providence Journal. If you’re worried about the five, 600-foot-tall turbines effect on the environment, this is what the ProJo says the project will do to keep things cozy for wildlife:

“During construction, Deepwater would use a spotter boat and would suspend work if [endangered North American right] whales get too close. The company would do above-water pile driving to reduce underwater noise when the turbines’ foundations are being anchored to the ocean bottom.”

There could be another civil liberties controversy brewing in Cranston, as Senate candidate Sean Gately is now making an issue out of the school department’s decision not to let the Cub Scouts recruit new members on school property.

Better late than never, the ProJo editorial team runs a post mortem on the 38 Studios debacle, laying the most blame on Don Carcieri and the least on Linc Chafee … meanwhile Curt Schilling will get the worst of it tonight on ESPN as he’ll be featured in a documentary about athlete’s who go broke.

The biggest chain of weekly newspapers in Rhode Island has a new publisher and she is doing something a journalist should never do, namely saying things that are patently untrue: “Our position in our markets is definitely positive as we continue to be the dominant news source for our communities,” Jody Boucher told Ted Nesi in an email. No they aren’t. In fact in almost every community Southern Rhode Island Newspapers has weekly papers in, their properties are a distant second to Patch sites.

Speaking of which, Patch is taking on the Valley Breeze now, too.

Today in 1800, Nat Turner, one of America’s greatest revolutionaries, is born.

Rep. Jon Brien thinks he can retain his House seat without winning the election. His path to victory: eliminating the man who beat him in a primary. Brien thinks the federal Hatch Act might prohibit fire fighter Stephen Casey from serving in the state legislature because the Woonsocket Fire Department got a $300,000 grant from the U.S. government.

Like RIPEC’s report itself, the Providence Journal’s editorial on it is light on specifics and heavy on platitudes. It strikes me as patently false when politicians, activists or the news media assert that Rhode Island doesn’t have a governmental position to serve the business sector of the state’s economy. You don’t have to like the EDC, but intellectual honesty requires its existence at least be acknowledged!

The New Leaders Project, a local political action committee that endorses State House candidates, is confounding some for its unconventional endorsements. The PAC says it advocates a “pro-jobs” agenda but what does that really mean? Well, its president, East Greenwich School Committee member Jack Sommers, was fined by the Department of Labor Training in 2010 for not paying an employee nearly $2,000 in wages. Pro jobs but anti pay check, I guess…

One year after closing five schools, Providence education officials are anticipating student enrollment to “surge” by some 2,000 students, says the ProJo. The so-called ed reform movement seems to work far better at shrinking public education than it does at serving it.

So here’s pretty much all you need to know about what America values in its workforce: NFL refs should get pensions, but public school teachers on the other hand, not so much…

You know things are getting bad in Rhode Island when the state is suing its orphans. Miss Hannigan would be proud.

Seems like the debate over a mega-port at Quonset is heating up again. For those who don’t remember, the idea for a deep water port at Quonset pitted quality of life in North Kingstown against economic development for Rhode Island.

No one wants the Cranston father-daughter dance controversy to continue … except of course local Republicans and national conservative groups who are using the situation as an opportunity to beat up on the ACLU.

Here’s what the mayor of Phoenix said after trying to live on food stamps for one week: “I’m tired and it’s hard to focus.”

Back in 1967, it was Republicans accusing Democrats of being “brainwashed” by the “military industrial complex.”