RI Not As ‘Generous’ As GoLocal Report Indicates
GoLocalProv reported on Monday that Rhode Island owes the federal government $200 million for unemployment benefits. When the Great Recession hit, there wasn’t enough money in the state’s unemployment trust fund and we had to borrow to make up the difference. But about a third of the way through the article a subhead asks, “Is [...]
GoLocal Hires Paul J. Spetrini from Standard Times
RI Future would like to extend a big giant progressive welcome to Paul J. Spetrini, the new news editor at GoLocalProv. The Providence native who grew up on Atwells Avenue, comes to the Capital City journalism scene after serving as the editor of the Standard Times, the North Kingstown weekly paper owned by Southern Rhode [...]
Progress Report: RI Tops Region in Food Insecurity; Pension Compromise Talk; Roger Williams and Thanksgiving
We’re now the number one state in New England for food insecurity, reports the ProJo this morning. 15 percent of households in the state can’t afford the food it needs. This is a crisis of epic proportions that goes largely unaddressed because the influential class doesn’t tend to know many people that are affected by [...]
Progress Report: Tax Capacity and Our Failing Cities; Chafee Speculation; Ucci and Blazejewski; Stripped Bass; Burnside
Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, most agree that Rhode Island’s biggest concern should be the failing finances of our urban communities. GoLocal reports this morning in a piece on which local communities have the highest tax rates: “Some of the most dramatic increases are in urban communities facing financial distress. They [...]
Progress Report: Defining Moment in Cicilline, Doherty; Ugliest Campaigns; What EG Is Debating; Guy Fawkes Day
A defining moment of the David Cicilline v. Brendan Doherty campaign was captured by Phil Marcelo of the Providence Journal this weekend … both candidates were in a South Providence fruit store when a Cicilline “Spanish-speaking emissary,” according to Marcelo, said of Doherty, “He shouldn’t be in this neighborhood. He talks about undocumented immigrants posing [...]
Progress Report: State of Local Media; At Last, Three-Way Debate; Energy Politics; Dems on Doherty Gets Little Press
Every progressive – indeed every Rhode Islander, if not all Americans! – owe it to themselves to spend some time reading Providence Monthly’s awesome feature on the state of journalism in Rhode Island. The magazine put together a group of the best and brightest reporters we’ve got here in the Ocean State who kicked around [...]
Progress Report: Rent, Wages and Econ 101; Community Foreclosure Study, EG Ordinance Violates 1st Amendment
You don’t need to a degree in economics to understand why rent is skyrocketing while wages are stagnant. As the middle class is squeezed, fewer can afford the American dream of home ownership. So they rent instead. Demand then has its way with supply and the landlords win while the working class loses. Yet another [...]
Politifact Reverses Ruling, But Doherty Still Deceived
Earlier this week I posted about Brendan Doherty playing fast and loose with facts and pegged it to two Politifact pieces that gave him “mostly false” grades. Then Politifact did a little additional research and reversed its ruling. We’re not reversing our assertion though. While we agree that Dan McGowan did a better job of [...]
Progress Report: GoLocal Goes Loco; DePetrogate; KKK History in Smithfield; Go Shaw’s; Bad News for Middle Class
GoLocal goes loco in its ‘Who’s Hot and Who’s Not’ feature this week. Who do they think is hot? Anthony Gemma. What? I have to believe someone hacked into their story and is playing a prank on them, and us. I think I’ll stick with the more credible evaluation of Gemmapalooza done by the Providence [...]
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