By Will Weatherly on August 7, 2018
Dr. James Cowan has seen how health insurance works from multiple angles and both sides of the pond, consulting for the National Health Service, the United Kingdom’s public health-care system, to serving as an expert for the health-care insurer Aetna here in the United States. Now acting as an advisor for the Rhode Island Health […]
Posted in Economics, Featured, Health Care, National News, News, Social Services | Tagged American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, health care, James Cowan, Labor, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare for All, National Health Service, Rhode Island Health Care Access and Affordability Partnership, single payer |
By Will Weatherly on August 7, 2018
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Brown attacked pension cuts for state employees dating back to Governor Raimondo’s previous role as state treasurer at a town-hall style “Restore Our Pensions” event at the WaterFire Arts Center in Providence on Monday evening. The event came mere hours after WPRI published polling results showing Brown lagging behind in name […]
Posted in Economics, Education, Elections, Featured, Labor, News, Pensions | Tagged Adam Lupino, Allan Fung, Education, Elections, Gina Raimondo, Labor, Mari Beth Calabro, Matt Brown, pensions, Providence Teacher's Union, seth magaziner |
By Will Weatherly on July 25, 2018
Governor Raimondo’s support for corporate incentives have become a contentious frontline in the race for governor. Both Democratic candidate Matt Brown and Republican candidate Allan Fung have attacked her commerce incentive programs (such as the Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credit) according to a report in the Providence Journal on Tuesday. The article shows Gov. Raimondo […]
Posted in Business, Corporate Greed, Economics, Elections, Featured, Inequality, News | Tagged Alex Nunes, Allan Fung, cvs, Doug Hall, Economic Progress Institute, Electric Boat, Gina Raimondo, Linda Katz, Matt Brown, tax credits, tax incentives |
By Will Weatherly on July 19, 2018
A report released by the Economic Progress Institute (EPI) on Thursday put a spotlight on income inequality in Rhode Island, declaring that the country has entered a “new Gilded Age.” According to the study’s findings, the top 1 percent of Rhode Island residents earned 18.2 times more than the rest of the state, according to […]
Posted in Class Warfare, Economics, Featured, Inequality, News | Tagged Bristol County, Economic Progress Institute, Income Inequality |
By Will Weatherly on June 15, 2018
Buried under mounds of drama surrounding the House budget proposal, up for a vote on the floor Friday afternoon, those considering opening a medical marijuana dispensary in the state can find bad news and a rate hike to make your head spin. The House has stubbornly rebuked Gov. Raimondo’s previous proposal to increase the number […]
Posted in Criminal Justice, Economics, Featured, Inequality, Marijuana, News, Politics | Tagged criminal justice, Greenleaf Compassion Center, jared moffat, Maggie Kinsella, marijuana legalization, Medical Marijuana, Moira Walsh, Norman Birenbaum, regulate ri, Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center |
By Steve Ahlquist on October 12, 2017
The wealthiest Rhode Islanders would receive the greatest benefit from President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cut plan, while nearly 1 in 5 Rhode Islanders would see their taxes increase by over $1,800.
Posted in Economics, Featured, National News, Rhode Island, Social Services, Taxes | Tagged donald trump, Economic Progress Institute, gop, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, itep, Rachel Flum, Republicans |
By Steve Ahlquist on September 26, 2017
Rhode Island Speaker Nicholas Mattiello supports DACA.
Here he is on Roe v Wade, guns, PawSox, taxes, minimum wage, climate change and more.
Posted in Civil Rights, Climate, Cranston, Economics, Energy, Featured, Gun Control, Immigration, Inequality, Minimum Wage, Politics, Reproductive Rights, Rhode Island, State House, Taxes | Tagged climate change, DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Kristin Dart, Nicholas Mattiello, PawSox, Roe. v. Wade, United States Supreme Court |
By Steve Ahlquist on September 25, 2017
Groundbreaking ceremonies are little rituals. Politicians and business people come together, don hard hats and grab shovels in pantomime of laborers, and toss dirt in the air.
Posted in Business, Class Warfare, Corporate Greed, Economics, Featured, Inequality, Infrastructure, Labor, Photos, Providence, Rhode Island, State House, Video | Tagged ambridge Innovation Center, Bonnie Nickerson, Brown University's School of Professional Studies, christina paxson, CIC, David Cicilline, Dominick Ruggerio, Gina Raimondo, I-195 land, Innovation and Design District, Innovation Building, jack reed, James Berens, James Langevin, Johnson & Johnson, Nicholas Mattiello, PPPs, public-private partnerships, Rabbi Yehuda, Sheldon Whitehouse, Stefan Pryor, Temple Beth-El, Tim Rowe, Wexford Innovation Complex |
By Peter Nightingale on September 18, 2017
The Rhode Island Senate calendar for Tuesday features legislation that makes it easier to create and run worker-owned cooperatives. The bill is “a statutory vehicle for the creation and functioning of workers’ cooperatives which are corporations that are owned and democratically governed by their members.” In June, the House passed an amended version of the […]
Posted in Economics, Energy, Featured, Politics, State House | Tagged Amazon, Bennys, coops, Karina Lutz, worker cooperatives |
By Douglas Hall PhD on August 24, 2017
Like most states, Rhode Island’s state funding for higher education remains well below pre-recession levels (though Rhode Island’s disinvestment in higher education preceded the onset of the Great Recession by several years, as seen in Figure 1). Economic opportunity and a thriving state economy depend on a high-quality, affordable system of public higher education. At […]
Posted in Economics, Education, Featured | Tagged budget, CBPP, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Economic Progress Institute, Economy, Education, EPI |
By Steve Ahlquist on July 26, 2017
If built, Hope Point Tower would be the tallest building in the state and it would be 1/3rd of a mile away from the next tallest building, leaving a wide gap in the Providence skyline.
Posted in Business, Corporate Greed, Economics, Featured, Housing, Infrastructure, Ithica NY, Labor, New York, News, Photos, Politics, Providence, Rhode Island, State House, Video | Tagged Barrett Bready, Bonnie Nickerson, Daria Fane, Elizabeth Huidekoper, Hope Point Tower, I-195 Commission, Ithaca NY, Jason Fane, Joseph Azrack, Melissa Husband, Providence City Council, Real Estate Solutions, RES, Rhode Island General Assembly, Robert Davis, Sandra Smith, Stefan Pryor |
By Steve Ahlquist on July 21, 2017
The delay in passing a budget has “real and mounting human costs”…
Posted in Activism, Civil Rights, Economics, Featured, Justice, Minimum Wage, National News, Religion, Rhode Island, State House | Tagged American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island, Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, DARE, direct action for rights and equality, Dominick Ruggerio, Economic Progress Institute, fuerza laboral, Georgia Hollister-Isman, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Mental Health Association of RI, Ministers Alliance of Rhode Island, Nicholas Mattiello, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Progreso Latino, Rachel Flum, Religious Coalition for a Violence-Free Rhode Island, Rhode Island Chapter, Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Rhode Island General Assembly, Rhode Island Public Radio, Rhode Island State House, RI Community Action Association, RI Council of Churches, RI Jobs with Justice, RI NOW, RI Racial Justice Coalition, RI Regional Adult Learning, RI Working Families, RIRAL, sierra club, Step Up Center International, UNAP, United Nurses and Allied Professionals |
By Steve Ahlquist on July 20, 2017
In Rhode Island, the top 1 percent of the state’s residents would receive an average tax cut of $86,610 compared with an average tax cut of just $430 for the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers in the state.
Posted in Class Warfare, Congress, Economics, Featured, National News, News, Poverty, Race & Racism, Rhode Island, Social Services, Taxes | Tagged donald trump, Economic Progress Institute, EPI, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, itep, Medicaid, Medicare, Rachel Flum |
By Steve Ahlquist on June 28, 2017
Why is the General Assembly seemingly so intent on destroying a program that works so well at reducing energy costs and greenhouse gasses?
Posted in Business, Climate, Corporate Greed, Economics, Energy, Featured, Infrastructure, National News, News, Rhode Island, State House, Video | Tagged 2006 Comprehensive Energy Conservation Efficiency and Reliability Act, Abigail Anthony, Acadia Center, Arthur Corvese, CLF, Conservation Law Foundation, Douglas Gablinske, energy efficiency, General Assembly, Jerry Elmer, Kat Burnham, Michael Ryan, national grid, Nicholas Mattiello, OER, Office of Energy Resources, People’s Power & Light, People’s Power and Light, Public Utilities Commission, puc, Rhode Island House of Representatives, Robert Jacquard, Senate Commerce, TEC-RI |
By Douglas Hall PhD on June 24, 2017
Rhode Island’s business lobbyists have been pulling out all the stops in opposition to the overwhelmingly popular earned paid sick days bills in the House (H5413) and Senate (S290). In the version passed out of the Senate Labor Committee this week, the Healthy and Safe Families and Workplaces Act allows Rhode Island employees to accumulate earned […]
Posted in Economics, Featured, State House | Tagged cerp, earned sick time, providence journal op/ed |
By Steve Ahlquist on June 24, 2017
Standing with fellow Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Jack Reed said that passing TrumpCare would be “a disaster for Rhode Island and the United States.”
Posted in Class Warfare, Economics, Featured, Health Care, Inequality, National News, News, Rhode Island, Video | Tagged jack reed, Medicaid, Medicare, obamacare, Sheldon Whitehouse, TrumpCare |
By Steve Ahlquist on June 16, 2017
Deep divisions of race and class among the Ward 3 neighborhoods were noted. It was obvious that Ward 3 is more a collection of neighborhoods than a unified Ward.
Posted in Class Warfare, Criminal Justice, Economics, Elections, Featured, Inequality, Photos, Politics, Providence, Video | Tagged aaron regunberg, Angie Ankoma, Christopher Reynolds, Daniel Chaika, David Lallier, John Lombardi, Kevin Jackson, Mark Santow, Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School, Mike Ritz, Mt Hope Neighborhood Association, Nirva LaFortune, Observatory Neighborhood Association, Providence Ward 3, seth magaziner, the Summit Neighborhood Association, un-debate |
By Bob Plain on June 12, 2017
Goldman Sachs helped cripple the American economy in 2011, when the housing and financial markets crashed, and then the Wall Street bank helped cripple Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president in 2016, when news leaked of a high-paid speech she gave company executives. Never mind that no fewer than three former Goldman execs currently have high […]
Posted in Business, Economics, Featured, News, Rhode Island | Tagged 000 Small Businesses, 10, Gina Raimondo, goldman sachs, reed |
By Steve Ahlquist on May 20, 2017
“This report pulls together data that have been highlighted by different sources and community members over the years to provide a full picture of how Black Rhode Islanders are faring in the Ocean State,” said Rachel Flum, Executive Director of the Economic Progress Institute (EPI).
Posted in Civil Rights, Class Warfare, Economics, Featured, Inequality, Justice, Poverty, Race & Racism, Rhode Island | Tagged DARE, direct action for rights and equality, DOC, Economic Progress Institute, EPI, Great Recession, jobs with justice, Justice Gaines, NAACP Providence, NAEP, National Assessment of Educational Progress, Opportunities Industrialization Center, Progreso Latino, Providence Youth Student Movement, PrYSM, Rachel Flum, Racial Justice Coalition of Rhode Island, Refugee Dream Center, Rhode Island Department of Corrections, The State of Black Families in Rhode Island 2015, The State of Working Rhode Island Workers of Color |
By Steve Ahlquist on May 17, 2017
“When working people or their family members get sick, they are forced to decide whether they can afford to lose a day’s pay to get the care they need. As the owner of a business where food is served, I don’t want my employees to have to be in that position. I also don’t want them to come in sick when they are handling food, and I know my customers don’t want that, either.”
Posted in Business, Connecticut, Domestic Violence, Economics, Featured, Health Care, Inequality, Labor, Massachusetts, Photos, Rhode Island, State House, Vermont, Women | Tagged AARP, Bryan Rinebolt, Chrissy Tek, District 1199 SEIU New England, Doug Hall, Economic Progress Institute, EPI, fuerza laboral, Healthy and Safe Families and Workplaces Act, Hudson Street Deli, Institute for Women’s Policy and Research, Interview Connections, Jason Chooporian, Jessica Rhodes, jobs with justice, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Rhode Island Center for Justice, Rhode Island Chapter of the National Organization for Women, Rhode Island Earned Sick Days Campaign, Rhode Island Working Families, RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence, RI SEIU State Council, SEIU 32BJ-District 615, Susan Council, Teamsters Local 251, Unite Here Local 26, United Nurses and Allied Professionals, Women's Fund of RI. |
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