News

Scooting the city

Cruisin'
Move aside four-wheelers. On Wednesday nights, it's scooter time.

By ABIGAIL CROCKER | October 14, 2009

A veteran TV reporter tries something new

On the Air
Months after leaving ABC6, investigative reporter Jim Hummel was chatting about his future over lunch with public relations guru Dante Bellini. Plans to take up with WJAR's news team, long the ratings leader in the Providence market, had evaporated with the downturn in the economy.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 14, 2009

Latter day taint

How Glenn Beck is driven by Mormonism — and why his fellow faithful (including Mitt Romney) should be worried
Fifteen years ago, Glenn Beck was a small-market DJ with a drinking problem, no friends, and bleak professional prospects. Today, he’s a Fox News superstar averaging 2.4 million viewers, an inexorably successful author, and the leader of a popular movement that condemns government in general and President Barack Obama in particular.

By ADAM REILLY | October 10, 2009

Are progressives winning on the Web?

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, the panel discussion series at Providence art space AS220, continues its fall run with a chat about the state of community organizing.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 07, 2009

Vo Dilun’s ultimate reality show

What’s up with Williams? Plus, The Gov and Glenn, and a time for Jen
Attention all real housewives of New Jersey, Atlanta, and Orange County, Jon, Kate and all Kardashians and Biggest Losers: your lunch has just been taken. That’s right, when it comes to bizarro reality world excitement, you just can’t touch the Biggest Little.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | October 07, 2009

Glasses, bikes, and a better world

Design Dept.
If you thought you saw more black-rimmed glasses and aluminum bikes around town this weekend, you weren't imagining it.

By ELLEN CUSHING | October 07, 2009

Ready, set, howl!

Lunar Laps
From the people who brought you the Woolly Fair, the city's furriest art festival, a bit of hairy exercise this past weekend.

By ABIGAIL CROCKER | October 07, 2009

Hot controversy over sexuality center in Pawtucket

Pleasure Dept.
Too hot for Pawtucket?

By ALEXIS HAUK | September 30, 2009

Has Obama learned from Clinton’s mistakes on health-care?

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, the always-enlightening panel discussion series at the Providence art space AS220, is back at it with weekly chats through the end of October.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | September 30, 2009

Camelot: The Next Generation

Patrick Kennedy is a square peg in his family's historic round table
Senator Ted Kennedy's months-long battle with brain cancer inspired endless commentary about the demise of Camelot.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 01, 2009

Rocket Redux

Recalling Charlie’s F-bomb. Plus, ACORN-bashing, and BIG LOST
In case you missed it, comedian Jenny Slate, a new cast member of the still-atrophying Saturday Night Live, caused a stir by saying “fuck” on the September 26 show in a biker chicks sketch with Kristen Wiig.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | September 30, 2009

Killer plants, ‘without remorse’

Beautiful but Deadly
On display behind a glass enclosure at the New England Carnivorous Plant Society's seventh annual show was a rare book, not a plant.

By RICHARD ASINOF | September 30, 2009

Steel, blowtorches, and a little trash talk

Metal Works
At the Steel Yard, arts center and business incubator for the metal-minded, a molten hot contest this past weekend. It was the second annual Iron Chef Competition -- a game pitting artist against artist, blowtorches in hand, in a breakneck race to produce the snazziest sculpture.

By ABIGAIL CROCKER | September 23, 2009

A look at a ‘very different senator’

Biography
Six-term Senator Claiborne Pell died at 90 early this year.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 23, 2009

Down in the dumps

Business as usual at the Landfill. Plus, fun with Keven and a special menu
Your superior correspondents are shocked -- shocked! we tell you -- to see a front page story in the Other Paper indicating that there has been some sort of monkey business going on at the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, aka, the Central Landfill, aka "the Dump."

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | September 23, 2009

Trouble at the Newport Film Festival

High Drama
For more than a decade, the Newport International Film Festival has been a highlight on the state's cultural calendar.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | September 23, 2009

You're all guilty!

In his new book, Three Felonies A Day , Harvey Silverglate dissects the corrupt justice practiced by federal prosecutors
Silverglate's thesis is as provocative as it is simple: justice has become sufficiently perverted in this nation that federal prosecutors, if they put their minds to it, could find a way to indict almost any one of us for almost anything. It is a truly radical notion.

By PETER KADZIS | September 28, 2009

ACLU, fighting the good fight

Honoring the past
If the Rhode Island ACLU could tap any two figures to headline its 50th anniversary event, it might choose Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. And so it has.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 17, 2009

Compassionate or coercive?

Pro-life pregnancy counselors say they are offering women hope, but critics see manipulation
The election of Barack Obama has inspired dread among pro-lifers nationwide. But for the Rhode Island wing of the movement, the anxiety goes back quite a bit farther.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | September 17, 2009

Cheesy and crackers

Too much southern exposure. Plus, a rant — unpamper those kids!
There is no place hotter in the media lately than South Carolina, "The Cracker State," whose logo is still essentially the Confederate flag.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | September 16, 2009