Providence Schools Superintendent Donnie W. Evans, fresh from his first State of the Schools Address, appears on Newsmakers this Sunday. The show is broadcast at 5:30 am on Channel 12 (CBS) and at 10 am on Fox 64. Also appearing this week is UMass/Dartmouth professor Clyde Barrow, a close observer of the changing casino landscape in RI and Massachusetts.
Evans defended plans for Providence to pursue a $792 million school-building program at a time when the state is financially in dire straits.
Asked whether the moving forward of a casino proposal in Mass. makes it inevitable that Twin River and Lincoln Grand will become full-fledged casinos, Barrow wouldn't go that far, although he acknowledged that it's much more likely. He also notes how Sol Kerzner has covered his bets across three states, a development much to the chagrin of Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas.
Thomas this week released a statement saying that Rhode Islanders have been stabbed in the back by the casino partnership between the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the owners of Twin River.