George Germon and Johanne Killeen, the famed duo behind local culinary landmark Al Forno, are working to create what may be the smallest restaurant in the smallest state.

Workers are toiling in the former New Yorker lunch counter, at 200 Washington Street in downtown Providence, to create a 20-seat Mediterranean-influenced restaurant in the diminutive 450-square-foot space. The name, appropriately, will be Tini. Germon tells me they hope for a June opening.

Everything about the place, he says, will be small, including bar seating and the plates created by chef David Reynoso. Price-wise, Germon says, the hope is that people will be able to have a meal "and not go into bankruptcy."

Germon (who is credited with the invention of grilled pizza) and Killeen rocketed to culinary fame through Al Forno, as I recounted in this 2000 story.

It began on a shoestring in 1980 when Germon and Killeen, battling back after a serious car accident, launched their dream by serving breakfast and lunch in a small 30-seat location on Steeple Street. The name Al Forno, Italian for "from the oven," referred not just to an inspirational mode but the fact that their sole cooking equipment consisted of two ovens. Ploughing one day's receipts into the next day's provisions, the couple eked out a living on the way to building a devoted following and winning plaudits from the International Herald Tribune as the best casual restaurant in the world.

As Germon and Killeen recount in their 1991 cookbook, Cucina Simpatica (HarperCollins), many of their friends couldn't believe it when they followed their early training in the arts -- he as a potter and sculptor, she as a photographer -- by pursuing something as fleeting as food. "I think people believed we were giving up art for some lesser, more trivial pursuit," the couple wrote. But noting that the sensual enjoyment offered by food and eating is one of life's greatest pleasures, Killeen and Germon perceived little difference between cooking and other arts. "Food is eaten the way art is perceived; it is digested and recorded," they noted. "Given the right circumstances, a connection is made and communication takes place, which is what art is all about."

Germon tells me the duo had long been interested in opening a small place, and that Buff Chace touted the appropriately pint-sized location when they encountered each other one day.

While the now-defunct Richard's, formerly next to Olga's Cup and Saucer, may have once been the smallest restaurant in Rhode Island, Germon thinks he is in the running to claim the title.

From Rhode Island College:

The survey was conducted between April 17-28, 2008 and sampled 400 randomly selected registered voters for a 4.5 percent margin of error. The sample was drawn reflecting voter contribution by geographic region in recent statewide elections.

 

Gov. Donald Carcieri submitted several cost cutting proposals, which the House of Representatives responded to last week. Designed to begin to address Rhode Island’s fiscal crisis, RIC’s latest survey tapped into public sentiment on proposals under consideration at the State House. In the face of the most serious fiscal predicament since the banking crisis of the early 1990s, Rhode Islanders favor welfare cuts and a merger of Rhode Island College and CCRI, but are lukewarm to other actions to close the budget gap.   

      

The survey showed Rhode Islanders support only three of the 10 budget cutting proposals tested in the survey. The study found:

 

• Overwhelming agreement to the governor’s proposal to reduce the maximum amount of time a family can remain on welfare.

• Major support for the elimination of the office of Lieutenant Governor, a proposal that has not been previously floated by government officials.

• Considerable agreement that Rhode Island College and CCRI should be merge to reduce expenses.

 

Respondents were divided nearly equally on two items:

 

• About one in two supported round-the-clock gambling in Newport and Lincoln, while an almost identical number opposed it.

• Nearly half opposed massive state employee layoffs, while a similar number favored them.

 

The sample was closely divided on three items:  

 

• Slightly more than half disagree with the proposal to release early well behaved, non sex-offender prisoners from the ACI, while four in 10 favor the proposal

• Just over half oppose privatization as a method for cutting the state workforce; about forty percent are in favor.

• About half are against RIte Care cuts, while one-third support them. 

 

Cuts in state aid to CCRI, RIC,and URI, or to cities and did not find favor with the electoral:

• More than eight out of 10 surveyed disagree with the proposal to cut $17.1 million from the budget of CCRI, RIC, and URI; only about one in 10 favored the idea

• Two in three opposed cuts in state aid to cities and towns for non education purposes 

 

“In this time of fiscal crisis for our state, it is critical that decision makers have information available from their bosses, the Rhode Island public,” said Victor Profughi, political scientist and director of the survey.

To the surprise of no one, the release this week of Grand Theft Auto IV has inspired much media hand-wringing.

Yesterday, AG Patrick Lynch put out the obligatory "consumer advisory" about the pending sale of GTA IV:

“As video games become more realistic and in many cases, more violent, parents must become more vigilant before buying them or letting their children use them,” said Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch. “Also, retailers and salespeople have a responsibility to better inform parents how violent these games actually are. Grand Theft Auto IV is obviously rated M for a reason, and parents need to keep a game like this away from their kids.”

Lynch is advising adults purchasing video games to check the rating symbols on the front of virtually every game package sold at retail. Each package bears one of the following age recommendations, which have been developed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB): EC (Early Childhood 3+), E (Everyone 6+), E10+ (Everyone 10 and up), T (Teen 13+), and M (Mature 17+). The rating also is printed on the back of each package, along with content descriptors providing information about content that may have triggered the rating or that may be of interest or concern to parents.

Not unreasonable, eh? Yet this became the basis for a prominent story on Channel 10's 11 pm newscast last night, faintly suggesting that this video game is a serious menace to all that is well and good, the denials of the one young person interviewed notwithstanding.

Such coverage hardly hurts Lynch's gubernatorial aspirations, since it caters to the fears of the state's suburban demographic. Yet Lynch, in his mild approach, compares favorably with the most zealous self-styled video watchdogs, as Mitch Krpata wrote in last week's Phoenix:

Florida attorney Jack Thompson, one of the most strident anti-games voices around, described the newest GTA installment as “a murder simulator for violence against women, cops, and innocent bystanders” and promised to bring legal action against the game’s publisher, Rockstar Games, and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, if any copies of the game were sold to minors.

Similarly, in a move reminsicent of how she tried to stoke fears about school violence here in RI, there's this:

In 2005, Democratic New York Senator Hillary Clinton, along with co-sponsors Independent Connecticut senator Joseph Lieberman, Democratic Indiana senator Evan Bayh, and Democratic South Dakota senator Tim Johnson, introduced a bill to the United States Senate that would have made the sale of M-rated (Mature) games to minors a federal offense. Although the proposed Family Entertainment Protection Act died in committee, it’s telling that the legislation contained no similar provision for R-rated movies. There seemed to be no doubt in the senators’ minds that games didn’t fall under the aegis of the First Amendment — that it wasn’t up to retailers to decide what they wanted to sell.

Krpata knows about what he speaks in his thoughtful essay on video games, which treats the subject with the complexity that it deserves, as with this:

The government shouldn’t impose limits on what software parents can buy for their kids. But just because they’re wrong doesn’t mean that anything we do in response is right.

Violence is overblown in some games. Non-whites are underrepresented among video-game heroes. Ironically, Grand Theft Auto is on surer footing than most games in both these regards. It’s true that GTA empowers players to commit violent crimes, but doing so attracts the attention of the police, which in turn makes the game world more perilous for the player. It’s an elegant risk-versus-reward mechanic that makes it much more than a brainless crime simulator. And GTA protagonists since the Vice City installment have been, serially, an Italian-American, an African-American, and now an immigrant from an unspecified Eastern European country. Far from trying to gloss over the diversity issue, Rockstar has embraced it. More developers should be taking this approach.

In hindsight, it would have been better to have done this some time ago (AP via Halperin)

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama told reporters at a news conference.

After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons, Wright made three public appearances in four days to defend himself. The former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has been combative, providing colorful commentary and feeding the story Obama had hoped was dying down.

"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," Wright told the Washington media Monday. "It has nothing to do with Senator Obama. It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition."

Obama told reporters Tuesday that Wright's comments do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church.

"The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," Obama said of the man who married him.

Wright criticized the U.S. government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that the United States invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against minorities. "Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything," he said.

Obama said he heard that Wright had given "a performance" and when he watched tapes, he realized that it more than just a case of the former pastor defending himself.

"What became clear to me was that he was presenting a world view that contradicts what I am and what I stand for," Obama said.

Labor activist Patrick Crowley, who's been on the warpath lately against Governor Carcieri (Pat, we suspect, would say it's the other way around), sends word of this rally:

Community Activists, Organized Labor and Religious Leaders Will Join In Calling On State Leaders To Promote Economic Justice For All Rhode Islanders

                       

What:Thousands of people – including community activists, organized labor, religious leaders and hard-working Rhode Islanders – will march through Providence to the State House to attend a rally promoting economic justice for all Rhode Islanders.

 

When:  Friday, May 2nd 4

4:00 pm: Photo Opportunity: Westin Ballroom, March to State House

5:00 pm Rally

 

Where: RI State House Lawn

 82 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02903

 

Who: Master of Ceremony:

George Nee

Secretary/Treasurer, Rhode Island AFL-CIO

           

Speaking Program:

Paul Booth

AFSCME National Organizing Director

           

Sarita Gupta

Executive Director, National Jobs with Justice

 

Bob Walsh

Executive Director, NEA RI

Secretary-Treasurer, Working RI

           

Roxana Rivera

SEIU Local 615 Commercial Division Director

           

Why: The country is on the brink of recession and Rhode Island is in the midst of an economic crisis. How we move forward together out of this crisis will impact every Rhode Islander and will impact how communities across the country move forward.

 

On May 2nd, we will unite around a vision of Rhode Island that will protect and promote the dignity of every Rhode Islander. We will unite around a vision of a state that honors and respects hard work. We will fight for economic justice for all Rhode Islanders.

Speaking of Local 121, the Providence restaurant continues to offer some informative events, such as this one on Thursday:

On Thursday, May 1st from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., Local 121 presents Real Meals from Local Fields. Local 121 brings you into the food security movement, a movement that shows how our food system is connected, how our food grows, how it’s processed, who grows it, what we eat, where it comes from, who goes hungry and why. Participants include Carpenter’s Grist Mill, Farm Fresh Rhode Island, Narragansett Creamery, Olga’s Cup and Saucer, Matonuck Oyster Farm, Red Planet Vegetables, Sosnowski Farms, Southside Community Land Trust, Urban Greens Food Coop, and Whole Foods Market. 

 

The event is free and open to the public. Guests will have the opportunity to sample locally raised food, sign up for a CSA and learn more about the food security. Whole Foods has donated a basket of local products that will be raffled off that evening. Local 121 is providing free appetizers as well as cash bar.

It's the last day on the job at the ProJo for executive editor Joel Rawson, who has cast a big shadow there for most of the years going back to the early '70s.

G. Wayne Miller's previous report is here, and mine here.

Rawson was feted with a farewell/final teaching moment last week at Local 121.

Good night and good luck, Joel.

Back in the spring of 2001, I looked at why more people don't use bikes to get around Providence.

WEATHER PERMITTING, [Ray] Alexander pedals the seven miles each weekday from his home in Cranston's Edgewood section to his teaching job at Goodwill Industries of Rhode Island in Wanskuck. With hazards ranging from hostile motorists to piles of accumulated sand and trash in the road, he says, "It's a short commute, but it's not a pleasant one. I've had motorists come up right behind me when I'm on Allens Avenue. They don't seem to believe that we have a right to the road."

Such is the plight of the humble bicyclist. Non-polluting. Human-powered. And an easy target for the hurried, narcissistic psyche that tends to envelop us when we step behind the wheel of an automobile. Although bicycling exploded in popularity with the introduction of mountain bikes in the '80s -- enough to since become the fifth most popular participatory sport, with some 42.5 million cycling enthusiasts, as measured by the National Sporting Goods Association -- bicyclists remain marginalized in our car-dependent culture.

Now, an officially sanctioned, advertiser-supported bike-sharing program, said to be the first of its kind in the US, is coming to Washington, DC.

A new public-private venture called SmartBike DC will make 120 bicycles available at 10 spots in central locations in the city. The automated program, which district officials say is the first of its kind in the nation, will operate in a similar fashion to car-sharing programs like Zipcar.

In the deal, Clear Channel will have exclusive advertising rights in the city’s bus shelters. The company has reached a similar deal with San Francisco. Chicago and Portland, Ore., are also considering proposals from advertisers. ....

For a $40 annual membership fee, SmartBike users can check out three-speed bicycles for three hours at a time. The program will not provide helmets but does encourage their use.

Similar programs have proved successful in Europe. The Vélib program in Paris and Bicing in Barcelona, Spain, both started around a year ago and already offer thousands of bicycles.

While US Senator Jack Reed's disavowals of interest in a Cabinet job may be familiar to readers of this blog, G. Wayne Miller's charasterically lengthy portrait of the senator in the Sunday ProJo made for an excellent read, speaking to his stature and his diligence. It's no wonder that he routinely rates as Rhode Island's most popular elected official.

In his 12th year in the U.S. Senate and 16th year in Congress, Rhode Island's senior senator has established himself as a leading voice on military and national-defense issues. With seats on the Appropriations Committee, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and Kennedy's health committee, Reed has also emerged as an authority on economic and working-class issues. Reed is 50th in Senate seniority, but Knowlegis, a nonpartisan Congressional analysis group, ranks him the 17th most powerful senator overall –– ahead of Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd, former presidential candidates. ....

 

ALTHOUGH A search would surely find detractors in Washington, none surface during several days spent with Reed in the capital. Even senators who disagree politically with his liberal social politics and his stand on Iraq acknowledge respect for him. That stand is incorporated in legislation, the June 2006 Levin-Reed amendment. The amendment would require the Secretary of Defense to begin reducing the number of American forces in Iraq within 90 days of adoption. The amendment does not yet have the support needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

 

"I've served in the Senate with great Rhode Island senators," Majority Leader Harry Reid says. "John Chafee was my pal, my friend. I liked him so very much. And then, of course, Senator Pell was a wonderful man –– totally different than Chafee but somebody I got along with. Jack fits the mold of how I see senators from Rhode Island, even though those two were much more patrician and came from families with lots of money. Jack didn't but he's still as good as those two great senators. If you asked me to say something bad about Jack, I'd have trouble finding it."

Someone I know once wrote to Reed's office with a constituent issue. If memory serves, the constituent received a return letter the next day.

Robert Manning, RI's GOP National Committeeman, says the varying alliances of himself (with Steve Laffey) and Scott Avedisian (with Linc Chafee) are unrelated to Avedisian's challenge to his position.

Last week, N4N reported that Avedisian and Joe Trillo are challenging Manning for the National Committeman post. The election for the position will be held in June.

Asked what this about, Manning told me a short time ago, "They're interested in extending their service to the party." Asked if it has any relation to maneuvering for the 2010 gubernatorial race, he said, "No."

Manning defeated former LG Bernie Jackvony for the Committeeman slot four years ago, after it was discovered by Laffey allies that the previous holder of the post, Mike Traficante, had disaffiliated in Cranston and was therefore ineligible.

Manning confirmed that he intends to fight for the National Committeeman post. He claims credit for helping to put Rhode Island on the path to be included in Super Tuesday voting in the next presidential election cycle -- a move that would have to be approved at the Republican National Convention. Manning says he has also worked to get funding from the Republican National Committee for the state party, in part through a coalition of smaller states.

Calling the RNC "basically a seniority-based organization," Manning says that if someone were to replace him, "we're going to [have to] start all over again."

Dan Barry, former ProJo scribe-turned-NY Times reporter-and-acclaimed author, makes another one of his occasional forays back to Rhode Island, offering a sharp column today on Buddy Cianci and his perch at WPRO:

At first, Mr. Cianci says, “I was rather docile on the air,” calling a couple of new buildings ugly, criticizing a tax break. But when a city official took the Cianci name in vain again before the City Council, the former mayor chose a road — it wasn’t the high one — and he zeroed in on his successor’s administration.

“When I was locked up, I don’t recall those guys having any qualms saying things about me,” he says. Of course, “those guys” were cleaning up the mess created in part by his betrayal of the public trust.

On the air, Mr. Cianci, 66, tends to tiptoe past the circumstances behind his racketeering conviction (other than to joke that he has a pet dog named Rico); past the corruption that infected his administration, reflected in the F.B.I. videotape of his top aide taking bribes; past the police scandal in which favored officers received advance information about tests for promotions.

Instead, he gleefully attacks Mayor Cicilline and his police commander, Dean M. Esserman. Intermixed with sharp analysis and legitimate criticism — of the city’s poor response to a snowstorm, for example — are taunts and half-truths, released into the radio air like toxic puffs. ....

When asked about this, Mr. Cianci says his job is to be an entertainer, and his on-air persona should not be confused with the real — and changed — Buddy Cianci. Besides, he adds, because he cannot help himself: “I do think they like each other.”

That's the formulation of Newsweek's cover. It relates to the magazine's piece on the Democrat's "bubba gap."

It is true that the McCain team still expects Obama to be their opponent in November. It is also true that on the electoral maps of many prognosticators, Obama lines up better against McCain than does Clinton. Still, there can be no doubt after last Tuesday's 9-point loss in Pennsylvania that Obama is having trouble "closing the deal," as Hillary tauntingly put it, with the Democrats. Pennsylvania voters may just admire Hillary's grittiness and prefer her relentless focus on the needs of ordinary voters who clamor for health care and better schools and worry about losing their jobs to overseas competitors. She may seem more down to earth than her competitor, who is better known for his generalities, however uplifting. But in Obama's failure to lock up the nomination, there may be something more disturbing going on as well.

Americans do not like to talk about class, and they want to believe racism is a thing of the past. Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, paragons of the people, were decidedly upper class in background, style and habit, and no one seemed to mind (except some other members of the upper class, who regarded the Roosevelts as "traitors" for wanting to tax and regulate the rich). JFK and Ronald Reagan were princely in their own ways (of Camelot and Hollywood) and yet could touch the hearts of common men and women. We want our presidents to be everyman (or every woman), of the people for all the people. When Richard Nixon dressed the White House guards in uniforms more appropriate to the late Austro-Hungarian Empire, everyone hooted.

The most successful presidents have always been open and hopeful, sunny and optimistic about the promise of American equality and opportunity. But there has long been a dark side to democratic politics, a willingness to play on prejudice, to get men and women to vote their fears and not their hopes. Those prejudices fade and seem to die down, but they never quite go away. They remain embers for cunning political operatives to fan into flames.

An exit poll of Pennsylvania voters included a chilling number that makes one wonder if Americans, or at least some groups in some parts of America, are ready to elect a black president. In the poll, 12 percent of whites said that race was a factor in deciding their votes. To be sure, a quarter of those voted for Obama, and gender was also a factor (for 14 percent of women and 6 percent of men). Polling on race is tricky. In the new NEWSWEEK Poll, 19 percent of American voters say that the country is not ready to elect an African-American president. Yet when asked if Obama's race makes a difference, only 3 percent of whites say Obama's race makes it less likely they would support him, while 5 percent of whites (and 16 percent of non-whites) say his race would make it more likely they would support him. What people will do in the privacy of the polling booth remains mysterious. In the NEWSWEEK Poll, more than half the voters said they think "most" (12 percent) or "some" (41 percent) of the voters will "have reservations about voting for a black candidate that they are not willing to express." In close elections, decided on the margins, it is discouraging to think that a small minority of racists could make the difference.

Talking Friday on NPR, Gloria Borger used a different metaphor to describe Obama's difficulties in securing the nomination.

Hillary is like talk radio in her campaign tactics, and Obama -- who needs to more invoke talk radio -- Borger says, resembles cool jazz.

We've clearly got a long way to go until November, but my recent comparison of the Democrats to the Red Sox of yesteryear, at least for now, remains apt. And I agree with this assessment from Bob Herbert:

Senator Obama has been thrown completely off his game by a combination of political attacks (some fair, some foul), a toxic eruption (the volcanic Jeremiah Wright was a gift from the gods to the Clintons and the G.O.P.), and some pretty serious self-inflicted wounds.

You can almost feel the air seeping out of the Obama phenomenon. The candidate and his aides are brainstorming ways to counter the Clinton death-ray machine and regain the momentum. They need to generate some new excitement and enthusiasm, and they need to do it soon. ....

The big issue in this campaign is the economy and jobs. But if you were to ask most voters how Senator Obama plans to fight for them on this crucial matter, you’re likely to get a blank stare.

He should be pounding that message home with a jackhammer. Give the voters an economic program to wrap their arms around. Let them know: “I’m for you! And this is what we’re going to do!”

Yes, the budget stuff is a lot more important, but Trader Joe's will be in the house (this fall), and I'd been meaning to do a related post for some time.

It's been something of a parlor game in Providence to ponder the question of when Trader Joe's might come to the area. Some perceived such a development as an ultimate sign of end-game gentrification, while others who've shopped at the distinctive, reasonably priced grocery store, N4N included, felt like it couldn't arrive soon enough.

There are anecdotal accounts, perhaps apocryphal, that Whole Foods has maintained its Wayland Square location to keep Trader Joe's from coming into the space. And while some might have hoped for TJ to occupy the former Shaw's in Eagle Square, the chain is said to be very, very precise in where and how it sets up. That explains why it's going for as traffic-intense an area as Bald Hill Road in Warwick.

Jen comments:

This has got to be the worst location in RI. Anyone who has half a brain stays away from Bald Hill Road. The demographics HAVE to be better in Seekonk where they can draw from RI, East Bay and SE Mass. Are folks from Barrington and Bristol and Aquidneck Island going to go to Bald Hill Road? Doubtful. But folks from Warwick and East G might go to Seekonk. The whole thing is very strange! And I think TJs will rue the day they opened in RI when they try to conduct business in the state--my friend who manages REI says that it was a nightmare because of the laws around retail (ie., employees have to be paid weekly, which screwed up the company's payroll which is biweekly everywhere else in the country).

And who knew they were owned by the ALDI people? I didn't. And Scott Avedesian can totally be governor now if he wants. He can just glide into the statehouse on the "i brought Trader Joe's to town" ticket.

Anyway, the food fanatics among us will welcome TJ, but Route 2 is unlikely to generate the sexual frisson of a certain Trader Joe's in lower Manhattan. I can't find the link, but New York Magazine has a piece last year on how it's the hip place to work for a lot of young artist types.

The New Republic is griping about a similar Obama-Clinton cover image over at Time:

     

We don't want to say that this week's cover of Time is a rip-off of our HillarAck cover that came out last month, but--oh, whatever--they totally ripped us off! All the way on down to the cover line, too: "There Can Only Be One" vs. "We Have To Choose One." Perhaps we should retaliate by putting a mirror on one of our future covers? On second thought ... no, that's a terrible idea.

UPDATE: Time's cover is derivative (not just of us).

In fact, this kind of thing has been going on for a long time. Face it, guys, we're just not that original. Here's another example, and this kind of thing probably goes back at least to the heyday of new journalism in the '60s.

WLNE's Jim Hummel had the story last night of an officer reassigned to monitoring the metal detector at Providence Police headquarters, reportedly because he was hitting on attractive women during traffic stops. BeloBlog says an internal investigation is under way for an officer accused of improper conduct during MV stops.

Meanwhile, WPRI-WNAC's Tim White had a piece last night on how taxpayers are paying the gas costs for a Providence police lieutenant whose daily commute takes him from the other side of Hartford, Connecticut, to Providence and back.

Speaking of public radio, NPR has an interesting breakdown of how we in Rhode Island compare with the 49 other states -- in areas from number of troops killed in Iraq, uninsured population, price of gas, and many other categories.

It's good to see how WRNI (1290 AM), with the benefit of increased staffing, is offering a stronger local news report. GM Joe O'Connor recently sent out an e-mail, touting the public radio station's efforts:

The role of immigrants in Rhode Island history is well established.  All this week, WRNI has been exploring the challenges faced by current immigrants, state agencies and

lawmakers.                                                        

 

Our five-part series explores a variety of topics which shed light on the complexities of the immigration issue.  In our final segment, airing tomorrow during Morning Edition at 6:40am and 8:40am, WRNI's Elizabeth Smick goes in-depth into the economic impact of illegal immigration in the state of Rhode Island.  Specifically, her story will examine the economic impact of immigration on the season summer workforce in Newport. 

 

The rest of the stories from our immigration series are available online at wrni.org.  You can also click on the following story titles to access the audio content on our website.

 

Illegal Immigration

by: Flo Jonic

The issue of illegal immigration has recently moved into the forefront. But, even before governor Carcieri issued his executive order designed to crack down on illegal residents, a flood of bills with the same intent had been filed on smith hill. After years of passive acceptance of a broken federal immigration system, some Rhode Islanders are saying 'enough is enough'. Advocates, however, say they're being made scapegoats for years of overspending and corruption. WRNI's Flo Jonic begins our series with an overview.

 

RIte Care Cuts

By: Megan Hall
Two years before the Governor's executive order to crack down on illegal immigration, Rhode Island's general assembly voted to stop giving health care to undocumented and even some legal immigrants. That was through changes to RIte care - the state sponsored program that provides health coverage to low income children and families. Now the state is considering cutting over two thousand immigrant children who were spared from those cuts.

 

Immigrants and Schools

By: Flo Jonic

Education week magazine recently ranked the state's schools among the most expensive and lowest performing in the country. Educators say the disconnect is due in part to the large number of non-English speaking students. There's no question that many English language learners are performing below grade level and dropping out of high school. But, WRNI's Flo Jonic reports that improving academic achievement is complex and costly.

 

Caring for Refugees

By: Megan Hall

As Rhode Island engages in a debate about how to care for immigrants who came here illegally, there's little talk about those newcomers who came here legally, but would go back home if they could. Over the past five years, Rhode Island has welcomed more than a thousand refugees from war torn countries around the world. Many come from parts of Africa like Liberia and Burundi where medical care is nothing like the American health system. A new program through the international institute and the department of health aims to make that transition a little easier.

Providence Schools: In the Shadow of Renaissance    WRNI takes an in-depth look at education issues by talking with parents, students, teachers and civic leaders about the state of our schools.    This five-part series, by WRNI's Education Reporter Rhonda Miller, will air Monday, May 5th during Morning Edition.

Speaking of economic development, and I'm bit late in getting to this, but Jack Templin of the Providence Geeks sees a lot of promise in the ongoing I-195 relocation project:

For those interested in urban and economic development though, the much more exciting aspect of the I-195 relocation project is not what's going up, but rather what will be coming down - the old stretch of I-195. Once the new I-195 is complete (scheduled for 2012), the old elevated portion of I-195, that cracking, concrete, rusting, metal mess that obtrusively snakes through the middle of Providence, will be razed. With its demise, 19.2 acres of prime center city real estate will be freed for development. Let me write that again - 19.2 acres! ....

 

It is awesome to see our sector so prominent in the context of this historic undertaking. Many of us would love to see RI's info-tech and digital media have a geographic center, a physical hub. And the soon to be uncovered land seems like the perfect spot. Its strengths include:

 

• Easy access to both I-95 and the new I-195; within walking distance of the train station's Amtrak and MBTA lines

• Proximity to many of our institutions of higher learning including Brown, RISD, and Johnson & Wales

• A funky, walkable mixed-use neighborhood with plenty of amenities, and with plenty more to come, including a big new riverfront park

• Adjacency to the state's large and growing bio-tech and medical sectors. From computational biology to medical devices to bioinformatics, there are all sorts of opportunities for our sector and the bio-tech/medical/life science industries to collaborate and innovate

 

Already, there are a myriad of ITDM companies in the vicinity of the old I-195 including Dynamic Diagrams, Creative Circle, SprintOut, Andera, Providence Health Solutions, Diamond Star Media, Machine Hero and Public Display, just to name a few. (See the RI Nexus Map for more.) With the relocation project, and a strategy that has the our sector prominent in the mix, I have little doubt that we can reach the critical mass of people, companies, and activity needed to make the neighborhood the true center of our community.

 

Stay tuned - this could be great.

Grow Smart RI does a lot of good work in helping to preserve the best of the state's distinctive character, so Scott Wolf and his crew want you to know about the group's May 2 Power of Place Summit, for which registration closes next Tuesday, April 29, at noon.

Our inaugural Power of Place Summit in 2006 drew nearly 500 opinion leaders, state and local officials, academics, development professionals, investors, journalists and citizen activists for the launch of Rhode Island’s new smart growth oriented state land-use plan. There are now encouraging examples all across our state of how some of the plan’s long-term strategies and recommendations are being embraced and implemented to the benefit of our communities and future generations. Yet other key objectives - such as reducing our state’s over-reliance on the local property tax, better integrating our transportation system with desired development goals and targeting more of our state investment dollars to energy efficient urban, town and village centers - remain daunting challenges that keep us from reaching our potential.

This upcoming Summit will take a closer look at how the growth and development choices we make today will impact our economy, quality places, public health, environment, the efficiency of state and local government and the taxes we pay. We’ll look at what’s working and what needs to be improved to grow our innovation economy, revitalize our walkable centers, ensure agricultural viability, promote healthy community design and reduce global warming pollution, among other key goals for a prosperous and sustainable future.

Click HERE for the Detailed Program

Highlights:

• Morning Keynote Speaker: Bruce Katz, Founder and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution "The Blueprint for American Prosperity" 
  
  
• Panel Response from Governor Carcieri (invited), Mayor Cicilline, Economist Richard Seline and Grow Smart Executive Director Scott Wolf
  
  
• Lunchtime Keynote Address: Patrick MacRoy, Executive Director, Alliance for Healthy Homes, Washington, DC - "The Connection between Public Health & the Built Environment"
  
  
• A total of 24 workshop on everything from Smart Economic Development, Place-Making and Renewable Energy to Low Impact Development, Tax Increment Financing and LEED-ND

From the BDH:

Brown Student and Community Radio has lost, for now, in its long bid to find a new home on the airwaves.

In one of the longest cases in the history of the Federal Communications Commission, the agency has awarded the low-power FM frequency 96.5 to a coalition of two churches and a Bible college.

Since its 1997 creation, BSR has been broadcasting on 88.1 FM, renting time from a frequency owned by the Wheeler School, the nursery-to-12th-grade school on Hope Street. But the station has been seeking a different broadcast outlet "almost since it began broadcasting," according to its Web site.

In 2000, BSR applied for 96.5 FM, Providence's only low-power FM frequency, in hopes of having its own home. Twelve other groups vied for the spot. The station's hope was that broadcasting from Providence - as opposed to Seekonk, Mass., where the antenna is currently located - would strengthen BSR's ties to the city.

BSR's community relationship has been very important to the organization, General Manager Jenny Weissbourd '08 said.

"Remaining local to Providence is really important to us," said Station Manager Mike Dupuis '08.

Speaking of green stuff and Brown . . .

Students at Brown University have organized a two-day conference to promote environmental sustainability. The conference brings together a wide range of environmental leaders, including Ira Magaziner, chairman of the Clinton Global Initiative; U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse; Gov. Donald Carcieri; and Adam Werbach, global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The Brown is Green Initiative (B.I.G.), a student-led coalition of campus-based environmental organizations, will host a two-day colloquium around the theme of environmental sustainability on April 25-26, 2008. “Brown is Green: Strategies for a Sustainable Future” will bring together a wide range of leaders in the environmental field, including academics, activists, politicians and business leaders. This event is free and open to the public; advance registration will be available online and is encouraged.

 

Topics include climate change, sustainable building, alternative and renewable energy, policy solutions, environmental justice, and employment opportunities in the environmental field. The conference kicks off with a donation of plastic water bottles for recycling in exchange for receiving an environment-friendly reusable water bottle. It includes a screening of the feature film, Into the Wild. Both events will take place on the College Green. The conference concludes with a dinner prepared with ingredients grown on local farms.

 

“Right now there is a remarkable sense of energy at Brown around the issue of a creating a sustainable environment,” said Lauren Kolodny, a Brown senior and one of the conference organizers. “We wanted to capture that enthusiasm and build on it by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas on a topic that is of such universal concern.”

 

The goal of this event is to foster dialogue and connections between students, staff and faculty as well as community members and government and business leaders who are trying to understand environmental problems and craft solutions to those problems. The roster of conference speakers includes:

• Ira Magaziner, chairman, Clinton Climate Initiative;

• Sheldon Whitehouse. U.S. senator from Rhode Island;

• Adam Werbach, global CEO, Saatchi and Saatchi, and former president of the Sierra Club;

• Donald Carcieri, governor of Rhode Island;

• David Cicilline, mayor of Providence;

• Frank Caprio, state treasurer Rhode Island;

• Stephen Schneider, professor of biological sciences, Stanford University.

 

A full schedule of events is available online at www.brown.edu/big.

 

Brown University has demonstrated a commitment to environmental sustainability in all facets of University life. Students pursue coursework in the field and faculty members are engaged in environmental research and innovation in alternative energies and global climate change. In January, the University announced an aggressive and comprehensive plan that will reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions from existing facilities to 42 percent below 2007 levels by 2020. Brown also implemented a requirement that emissions will be reduced by up to 50 percent for all newly constructed and acquired facilities.

Perhaps she should be sentenced to a solitary section of a vegan collaborative household.

BeloBlog reports:

PROVIDENCE -- New York Times columnist and author Thomas L. Friedman says he'll leave it for Brown to decide what to do with a student who threw a green whipped cream pie at him during a speech earlier this week.

Friedman says he isn't pressing charges against Margaree Little, a 22-year-old English literature major.

Little says she's undergoing disciplinary action by the dean's office and expulsion is ``not off the table.''

Little and an unidentified man threw pies at Friedman as he opened an Earth Day speech Tuesday at Brown.

She says they were protesting Friedman's support of biofuels, although Friedman has written about taking a careful approach to biofuels to ensure biodiversity. She also says they were hoping to open up a dialogue about what it really means to have free speech on an elite college campus.

Darrell West, who came to Rhode Island in 1982 and is departing in June for a job at the Brookings Institution, also stopped by the Newsmakers' set today. Like journalists, West has had a rich vein of fodder here, and he says the Ocean State will stay with him after he moves to DC.

Among the highlights of his exit interview:

-- Rhode Island remains handicapped by a lack of long-term economic planning. The General Assembly habitually responds to the governor's budget at the last-minute and in a frenzied fashion. It will not be surprising if the state experiences another fiscal crisis another 10 or so years down the road.

-- Rhode Island remains a place with a high quality of life and where the economic base has grown more multi-faceted since the sharp decline of the old industrial base in the '80s.

-- Bruce Sundlin's airport expansion was controversial in the early '90s, but now looks like a genius idea.

-- The jury is out on Buddy Cianci's impact as a radio talk-show host. West says that although Cianci has a platform with which to criticize David Cicilline, the mayor's office is generally a stronger position from which to operate.

-- The jury is out on Governor Carcieri's record. While Carcieri exhibited an early strong suit in communication skills, he has gotten bogged down by taking on too many different fights and by not having more of a single-minded focus on budget issues, West says. The governor has had some success, the professor adds, in changing the discussion on budget-related topics.

-- It remains a challenge for some Rhode Islanders, including those elected as reformers, to overcome the "insider" mentality once in office, but the state has strong ethics laws for use in responding to the situation. "You can not reform human nature," West says, who also referred to Elmer Cornwell's observation that the Ocean State is marked by "the politics of intimacy."

-- Asked what he would leave as a gift to Rhode Island, West says it would be a greater emphasis on regionalization.

The show will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12, and at 10 am on Fox 64. 

Patrick T. Conley, the colorful and sometimes controversial historian-developer, stopped by the set of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers this morning to talk up the latest class of inductees to the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. A banquet to celebrate the occasion will be held Saturday, May 3, at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet.

I remain a big fan of one of the inductees, the late, great Jack White, the Pulitzer-winning reporter and longtime investigator at Channel 12, who died in 2005. Another inductee who has left us is John Partington, the former Cumberland police chief, US marshal, and Providence public safety commissioner.

Joining the 601 other individuals in the Heritage Hall of Fame, which was established in 1964, are also:

Joseph R. DiStefano

Ernest S. Frerichs

Ira C. Magaziner

James Procaccianti

US Senator Jack Reed

David R. Stenhouse

Marjorie Joy Vogel

Conley said the Heritage Hall of Fame will be based in 55,000 square-feet of space at the long-delayed Heritage Harbor Museum, which is under development by Struever Brothers Eccles & Rouse, and, he says, due to open in 2010. As it stands, says Conley, Rhode Island is only one of three states without such a museum.

UPDATE II: AVEDISIAN, TRILLO COMMENT (I've left a message for Manning).

Avedisian, Trillo, and the RI GOP's Donna Perry all downplay the significance of the three-way Republican National Committeeman race in relation to particular candidates and the 2010 gubernatorial race. They might be playing it straight. "Basically, it's a figurehead position," says one Smith Hill Democrat. If someone's running for governor, says the source, it could be a waste of their time and effort.

As Perry explains it, the National Committeeman post carries with it membership in the Republican National Committee and the role as chief liaison to the RNC. "It's an important post," she says. "[The Committeeman is] our person to attend informational meetings with the [national] party. We rely on the national party for institutional support." In terms of 2010, and a possible Chafee-Laffey matchup, Perry says, "I don't think it's relevant to focus on who's been aligned with who." It's more about who's going to work hard for the party, she says.

The matter is slated to be decided June 12 by the RI GOP's state Central Committee. Perry says that party chairman Gio Cicione will remain publicly neutral, but that the RI Republicans' nominating committee, chaired by Mia Caetano Johnson, will make a recommendation.

Avedisian tells me that his Committeeman run "does not change anything" in terms of making a 2010 gubernatorial campaign any more or less likely. "It has no bearing on [2010] whatsoever."

After 28 years of involvement in the RI GOP, 25 of them on the state Central Committee, "I decided this was the next thing that I wanted to do," says Avedisian.

Trillo says the party needs fresh blood in the Committeeman post. "I think I have done a lot to help this party, and I would like to do more," he says. "In the past, I just haven't seen the job done at the level that I think it could be done. The place we have continually run short is in raising money. I think the National Committeeman is in a better position to get money out of the RNC. Our current people haven't been able to get any money of any significance. I don't know what they're doing."

Trillo says a small state such as Rhode Island could be "a prime experiment" of whether the national GOP can takeover a blue state.

Asked about implications for 2010, the Rep. says, "[For] either one of them" -- Avedisian or Manning -- "it could be, but I don't see it necessarily for the upcoming gubernatorial race. I'm more concerned with working on the party on legislative races."

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UPDATE: State Representative Joseph A. Trillo of Warwick will also be competing for the RI GOP National Committeeman post. "He's definitely in," says Donna Perry, executive director of the Rhode Island Republican Party . . . More to follow.

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Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian is challenging Robert Manning of Charlestown for the RI GOP National Committeeman post, N4N has learned.

This is an interesting development, considering how Avedisian is pals with Linc Chafee, and Manning is a Steve Laffey guy. The vote for the position is in June. As we know, Chafee is a possible gubernatorial rival for Laffey in 2010.

On the female side of the equation, longtime GOP National Committeewoman Eileen Slocum is not seeking reelection, and a number of contenders, including former RI GOP chair Patricia Morgan, are in the hunt.

I have a call in to Avedisian, and will report back if I get more on this today.