News

Local news blues

With layoffs, plummeting revenue, and dwindling viewership, TV news departments are getting desperate.
There has been plenty of hand-wringing, in these parts, over the decline of the local broadsheet. The Providence Journal is the paper of record, after all, the agenda setter. And the agenda is decidedly thinner these days.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 24, 2009

After a half-century, a theatre crumbles

Looking Glass Theatre closes
The spotlight has dimmed, sadly, on Providence's Looking Glass Theatre. The company, a small crew of three to four actors and a musician, entertained elementary school students across the state for nearly 50 years, at one time performing hundreds of in-school shows per year.

By CHRISTOPHER COLLINS | June 24, 2009

Living Colour, Michael Madsen, and Rhody's new media

Rhode Island has seen its share of media strife in recent years.
The travails of the Providence Journal are the stuff of coffee house and talk radio chatter. And the troubles afflicting the local newscast fill the pages of this week's Phoenix .

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 24, 2009

Our Pazmanian Devil

Vinny's early days. Plus, a lame land grab, and more budget madness.
Phillipe and Jorge often think of how nice it would have been if Warren Zevon's "Boom Boom Mancini" ("Hurry home early, hurry on home/Boom-Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon") had been about local boxer Vinny Paz, nee Pazienza.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | June 24, 2009

Of Twitter and Cassettes

Global Watch
There has been plenty of breathless reporting on the goings-on in Iran. And rightly so. The protests surrounding the recent presidential election are historic — the heavy use of Twitter and social networking technology a breakthrough.

By CHRISTOPHER COLLINS | June 24, 2009

Benign neglect?

It's time Obama moved vigorously to advance gay and lesbian rights
If you are gay or lesbian, or if you care about realizing social justice, you must be wondering when Obama is going to turn his attention to the fact that one in 10 of the nation's more than 230 million adults are second-class citizens.

By EDITORIAL | June 24, 2009

Cicilline, the firefighters, and the politics of protest

Citywatch
It is, on some level, hard to pick any winners in the li'l Rhody's latest battle royale.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 17, 2009

Debating the Middle East muddle

Global Politics
US military aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan is being wasted and should be redirected to the police and moderate non-violent groups working for education and the rule of law, according to two Middle East experts who spoke Sunday at the Community Church of Providence.

By STEVEN STYCOS | June 17, 2009

Bad blood at 'PRO

Trouble at Salty's Shack. Plus, firefighters burn their bridges and Esserman's bad attitude.
The ongoing Hatefest at Salty's Joint has hit the Urinal, with an absolutely ridiculous story alleging that veteran Rhode Island radio hand, Ron St. Pierre, inadvertently "assaulted" John "The Journalist" DePetro with an 8x11" sheet of paper loaded with a dangerous metal staple.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | June 17, 2009

White-supremacist code printed nationwide

One man's death spread the numeric code for "Heil Hitler" across the world.
While von Brunn survived to face federal criminal charges and may yet die slowly in federal prison, he did manage to get newspapers around the globe to print a white-supremacist code praising Adolf Hitler right next to his name.

By JEFF INGLIS | June 17, 2009

Federal judge: more rights for the unborn

Fetal Obligations
A federal judge in Bangor, Maine, has recognized a new right of fetuses that could become a key element in the nation's ongoing abortion debate.

By JEFF INGLIS | June 11, 2009

A natural trio at Newport

In the Spotlight
There was a time when being a moviemaker meant first having to be a hotshot Hollywood player.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 10, 2009

Grappling with Going Green

The waste-to-energy incinerator debate
Green energy," for most, is solar panels and wind turbines.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 10, 2009

Bridge to nowhere

What's in a name? Plus, a curious consultant, and bashing Obama.
The Department of Transportation has taken quite a few knocks in this space over the years. So to try to offset that, spurred by the story in the June 8 Urinal about the Pawtucket River Bridge, let us throw them a compliment: they do a hell of an artist's rendering.

By PHILLIPE and JORGE | June 10, 2009

Getting green

Small state, big push for sustainability
With Rhode Island's industrial sector in its death throes and the state in desperate need of a new economic engine, political leaders are talking with new urgency about wind and solar and all things green.

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 03, 2009

Sotomayor's mixed message on free speech

Freedom Watch
Minutes after President Barack Obama announced that he was nominating appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, battle lines were drawn on the pre-scripted questions of "post-racial" America.

By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 03, 2009

Right-wing terror

The murder of Dr. George Tiller
Conservatives scoffed in April when the Department of Homeland Security warned that the United States could face another wave of homegrown attacks.

By EDITORIAL | June 03, 2009

Justice prevails

Suttell's supreme nomination. Plus, no E-Z Pass, and a few big nights out.
Well, it's about time people in power began taking note of who Phillipe and Jorge support, just as we jettisoned Barack Obama into the presidency after endorsing him prior to the Iowa caucus.

By PHILLIPE and JORGE | June 03, 2009

Judging the judge

Facing the facts of the Sotomayor nomination
Women may not yet have full equality, but Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the US Supreme Court proves we can compete with the big guys now. It also means that women accepting patronage (and every political appointment is patronage) have an equal shot at getting pounded in the process.

By Mary Ann Sorrentino | June 03, 2009

Monkeying around

Going ape at the urinal + WJAR. Plus, a compelling reason to stay healthy
Dire fiscal conditions at most media outlets have led major local players like the Providence Journal and WJAR/Channel 10 to pursue a unique employment strategy. Both organizations are apparently looking into securing the services of trained gibbons to provide much of the support work and eventually the writing and reporting of the news.

By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | May 27, 2009