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Monday, June 30, 2008
As the Sox prepare to resume fisticuffs this evening with the insurgent Rays, Sean McAdam broke the news of how Manny Ramirez harshed out on Boston's traveling secretary:
Ramirez had asked [Jack] McCormick for 16 tickets for Saturday night's Red Sox-Astros game, an unusually high number for day-of-game. In addition to handling all travel details for clubs, traveling secretaries also take player ticket requests for both home and away games.
When McCormick cautioned Ramirez that he might not be able to fulfill his request, Ramirez responded by shouting: "Just do your job!"
An argument insued and Ramirez pushed McCormick, sending him to the ground.
Manny, we love you, but WTF?? (Man-Ram has apologized, and McCormick says he bears no ill will.)
Meanwhile, the Boston Herald has a more concerning report, about a racist threat reportedly being leveled against some of the black and Latino Sox players:
According to sources, the Sox recently received a mailed threat, believed to be postmarked in Memphis, Tenn., which targeted black and Latin players, citing at least two by name. The named players have been informed about the threats and will likely have security accompaniment away from Tropicana Field, including at the team’s hotel in St. Petersburg.
Police are searching for a suspect believed to be from the Baltimore area but now living near Memphis.
Pretty funny, and a bit sad, via Belo's Sports Blog:
Michael David Smith of FanHouse reports: The Web site One News Now, which describes itself as providing "your latest news from a Christian perspective," has been running stories that refer to the Olympic springer Tyson Gay as "Tyson Homosexual."
This morning, the AP story by sports writer Howard Fendrich that was displayed on the One News Now site still replaced the proper name Gay with Homosexual on each reference, apparently via some sort of automatic filter. Around 10:30 this morning, the story was corrected to use the sprinter's true name.
Mike Tanaka is a familiar face in Rhode Island, thanks both to his musical efforts with Mark Cutler's Dino Club and for his work as a television producer. Now he's got a new post: director of public and community relations in the office of Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts.
"I'm very excited," says Tanaka, who came to the Ocean State to attend grad school at Brown in the '80s, and who started in the new role last week.
Tanaka say his focus will be on strengthening strategic communications in the LG's office. Like a good staffer, he deferred when asked whether this is a signal regarding a potential 2010 gubernatorial run by Roberts. Tanaka will help to fill the role played by departing press secrertary Larkin Barker, who is joining Obama's campaign in NH. He says it is not yet clear whether someone else may ultimately be hired as press secretary.
An experienced TV hand, Tanaka left his role as an executive producer with MSNBC, where he was involved in political coverage, a little more than a year ago. Since television work meant commuting to New York, he says, he is looking forward to working closer to home.
Stacey Veroni, who is familiar because of her efforts against domestic violence, is getting a significant promotion in the office of AG Patrick Lynch. She is the daughter of Tony Pires, a former House Finance Committee chairman who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2002.
Here's part of the release from the AG's office:
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch announced today that he has named Assistant Attorney General Stacey Pires Veroni as the new Chief of the office’s Criminal Division. Veroni, who began her service in the Attorney General’s Office on the same day as Lynch in September 1994, is the first woman in the office’s history to head the Criminal Division. In this post, she will succeed Assistant Attorney General Alan R. Goulart, who last week was approved by the RI Senate to become a Traffic Tribunal Magistrate.
A 1990 graduate of Boston College and 1993 graduate of Suffolk University Law School, Veroni began her legal career in 1993 in the RI Judiciary, where she and Lynch served together in the law clerk pool assisting both Supreme and Superior Court judges. After joining the office under Attorney General Jeffrey B. Pine in 1994, she established herself quickly, climbing the ranks through stints in the Criminal Division’s District Court, Grand Jury, and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault units, and later distinguishing herself as Chief of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit under then-Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse. In the Lynch administration, Veroni has prosecuted many cases on the trial calendar and continued her upward trajectory in management capacities, serving as Chief of the Washington County Office as well as the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit, and, since July of 2006, as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. Veroni has served as one of Lynch’s designees on the Attorney General’s Domestic Violence Task Force and is an adjunct faculty member at Salve Regina University. In 2006, Veroni received the RI Women’s Bar Association’s Ada Sawyer Annual Award of Excellence.
Among the more than 70 felony cases that Veroni has tried in the past 14 years are the domestic violence-murder case against Edwin Edwards, who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole - the maximum penalty allowable in the Rhode Island criminal statutes; a case involving Joseph Fillion, a Cranston Police Officer who was convicted of multiple counts of domestic assault and whose conviction was featured on the CBS News program “48 Hours” in 2002; the so-called “severed hands” case against Frank Sanchez-Collins, who, along with his co-conspirator, Steven Quinlan, is now serving a life-without-parole sentence for having killed two young men; each of the four defendants implicated in the stomping murder that occurred outside the Keg Room nightclub in the Jewelry District of Providence in 2003; the cases against Alonzo Shelton and Barry Offley, who were convicted of killing Jessica Imran in Pawtucket in July 2006; and, most recently, the case against Katherine Bunnell, the Woonsocket woman convicted in May of beating her 3-year-old nephew, Thomas “TJ” Wright, to death in October of 2004. Bunnell will be sentenced in Providence Superior Court on Sept. 22.
“This is a proud day for our office, for Stacey Veroni, who has earned this position by never shrinking from a difficult case or neglecting to support her colleagues who were handling difficult cases or going through tough times in their lives, and for me personally,” Lynch said. “She is the rare person who is as good at managing others as she is at her primary calling, which, given her exemplary track record, is obviously prosecuting cases. Many exceptionally talented women work in this office. Many more have preceded them. None, however, has blazed the same trail as Stacey. I look forward to relying on her good counsel over the next two and a half years of my term.”
Got $162 billion more for war? No problem.
But what about that Osama guy?
From today's New York Times:
Intelligence reports for more than a year had been streaming in about Osama bin Laden’s terrorism network rebuilding in the Pakistani tribal areas, a problem that had been exacerbated by years of missteps in Washington and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, sharp policy disagreements, and turf battles between American counterterrorism agencies.
The new plan, outlined in a highly classified Pentagon order, was intended to eliminate some of those battles. And it was meant to pave a smoother path into the tribal areas for American commandos, who for years have bristled at what they see as Washington’s risk-averse attitude toward Special Operations missions inside Pakistan. They also argue that catching Mr. bin Laden will come only by capturing some of his senior lieutenants alive.
But more than six months later, the Special Operations forces are still waiting for the green light. The plan has been held up in Washington by the very disagreements it was meant to eliminate. A senior Defense Department official said there was “mounting frustration” in the Pentagon at the continued delay.
A report to be released tomorrow, to be joined by a call for action by advocates, calls Rhode Island the second most economically distressed state in the nation.
From the RI Coalition for the Homeless:
When: Tuesday, July 1, 2:00 pm
Where: In front of the VFW Post, 416 Hunt Street, Central Falls
Details:
(1) New report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ranks Rhode Island 2nd in the nation in economic distress. This news along with the fact that Rhode Island is 7th in the country for foreclosures and 9th in the county in unaffordability for renters, causes concern for the state’s economic future.
(2) Social service advocates, community groups, faith communities and others contend that the new budget, which goes into effect today, will only exasperate the problem. The group also asserts that despite the pledge by the legislature that the pain of this budget would be shared, it was not, with the majority of the cuts being passed on to the state’s most vulnerable residents.
(3) Hundreds attend rally to demand accountability to the citizens of our state, presenting alternatives to the current direction the Governor and Legislature has presented.
Netflix is one of those genius ideas made possible by the Internet. Now, Time Inc. is set to bring a similar approach to the magazine world with Maghound ((h/t Romo):
After almost four years of continuous development and testing, Maghound.com, Time Inc.’s Netflix-like service for magazines, is finally set to launch this September, Dave Ventresca, president of Maghound Enterprises, Inc., told attendees of the 2008 Circulation Management Conference in Chicago Tuesday.
Ventresca gave a detailed presentation called “A Look Inside the Maghound.com Model,” which included a step-by-step account of how the idea was born and developed as well as a demo of how the site will operate once launched. According to Ventresca, 280 titles are currently on board with the service. He hopes to have 300 titles participating by the launch and 400 by the end of the year.
Maghound.com allows consumers to choose titles from a variety of publishers for a mix-and-match “subscriptions” where they pay one monthly fee and have the ability to switch titles at any time. Unlike traditional subscriptions, members aren’t locked in their memberships and can cancel whenever they wish. Ventresca says that Maghound.com offers “flexibility, choice, control and personalization.”
“There has been this major paradigm shift in the way consumers shop, pay for and manage the services they choose,” Ventresca said. “And this shift has occurred everywhere except for magazines. We still sell on a fixed-term subscription or by single copy with no innovation. And [Maghound] is hoping to change that.”
Sunday, June 29, 2008
The AP's Andy Miga is the latest in a string of journos to get Jack Reed on the record in saying he doesn't want to be part of a new Democratic administration in 2010:
WASHINGTON - In a place brimming with pomposity and pretension, Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island bucks the mold.
The soft-spoken son of a school janitor is not one of the Senate's show horses. And at 5 foot 7, Reed does not cut an imposing figure on Capitol Hill.
But his strong military credentials and straightforward style have helped vault Reed into contention as a potential running mate for Democrat Barack Obama - or more likely as a possible defense secretary should Obama capture the White House.
The two-term senator brushes aside any suggestion that he would consider leaving the Senate.
"It's very flattering, but I am not interested," Reed said in a telephone interview. "That's it."
He said he's focused on winning reelection to a third term this fall.
"At this juncture, I am trying to return as a United States senator because I think this is a fascinating job, a challenging job," said Reed, 58. "Over the last two terms I've discovered that if you work hard in the Senate and develop expertise, you can have some significant influence in a positive way on a lot of issues. . . . I hope I can serve the Obama presidency in that capacity."
Despite such disavowals, Reed's name has been floated in the media as a possible Obama running mate.
Ted Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library and a member in good standing of the Phoenix' friends and family program, is a polymath and one of the great Rhode Islanders. Who else could offer such superlative quote in discussing the cultural ethos of Narragansett Beer in the old days?
"It was really a whole way of life, and it involved loving the Red Sox . . . and loving a certain sense of Providence as the center of a little empire in southeastern New England," says Widmer, director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, whose former Phoenix column was illustrated by an image of Chief ’Gansett. "To drink Narragansett meant that you were somehow a citizen of that empire." (Quint, the rough-edged fisherman played by Robert Shaw in the movie Jaws, drank Narragansett.)
Anyway, the ProJo today offers a look at Widmer's new book, Ark of the Liberties: America and the World, and Doug Riggs does a good job of putting its author in context:
PROVIDENCE You wouldn’t expect someone who grew up in Providence, was a rhythm guitarist for The Upper Crust, a humor writer for the Harvard Lampoon, a columnist for the New Paper (now The Phoenix), who became a speechwriter in the Clinton White House and is now back in Providence as director of the John Carter Brown Library, to have written a simple, straightforward history of America.
And he hasn’t.
Ted Widmer’s latest book, which debuts on the Fourth of July, is Ark of the Liberties: America and the World. (See review on page I11.) It’s a bold, sweeping, critical, ultimately admiring and optimistic (but cautionary) birthday card to America. Like the library devoted to early Americana that he heads, it hews to a theme, but is so chock-full of fascinating asides, diversions and amusements that readers can lose themselves in its nooks and crannies long before reaching it.
Karen Lee Ziner has an excellent story in today's Sunday ProJo, revealing the role played in 2006 by the national Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in helping to launch Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement (RIILE).
FAIR credited Sandra Gunn, then the organization’s Eastern field representative, with helping launch a host of such groups in New England.
Gunn came to Pawtucket, one of at least four similar New England stops within a week, at the invitation of William “Terry” Gorman, a 68-year-old retired postal worker and member of FAIR since 1997. Gorman, increasingly frustrated, wanted to organize his own local campaign against illegal immigration.
Gorman and his wife were among the eight people at the organizational meeting on Feb. 28, 2006, of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement. Gunn provided start-up strategy, literature from FAIR and advice to the new members, Gorman said. She kept the press out.
In contrast to Dan Yorke and others who mistakenly describe Ziner as an advocate, her story presents a detailed and balanced look at FAIR and the relevant questions.
It also contains the interesting bit that Sanda Gunn "left FAIR and took a job in February 2007 as a spokeswoman for the US Department of Justice," a post she left seven months later.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
A number of writers have positioned the 2008 presidential election as a generational watershed, not least because of the dynamic personal quality that helped Obama to emerge at the top of the Democratic pack. (Of course, there's still plenty of politics as usual, on both sides).
George Packer recently wrote about this in the New Yorker, looking at why conservatives are worried.
A lot more can be said about all this possible tectonic shifting of electoral politics. But for now, it's worth noting two divergent trends:
1) We've heard a lot about how Obama's race will affect his chances, and how some white voters, even if they won't tell this to pollsters, don't plan on voting for him because he is black.
2) On the other hand, the rising generation of young Americans is said to be generally more tolerant, as with issues of sexual orientation. And a recent Pew survey found broad tolerance in the US regarding matters of religion.
So what happens when the rubber meets the road?
Does tolerance persist or fade as people age? Does the lesser degree of concern among young people over racial differences negate subtle and overt bigotry?
Or does the congenial atmosphere for Democrats in 2008 make all this moot?
Halperin's got them:
Quinnipiac University/washingtonpost.com/Wall Street Journal polls:
Colorado: Obama 49, McCain 44
Michigan: Obama 48, McCain 42
Minnesota: Obama 54, McCain 37
Wisconsin: Obama 52, McCain 39
Dates conducted: June 17-24. Error margin: 2.5 -2.7 points.
Read more here.
In time for the Fourth of July, the Phoenix this week offers the 11th annual Muzzle Awards, which recognize efforts to squelch free speech and step on the first Amendment. The excellent Dan Kennedy, as usual, helms Muzzle Central, and he has two winners in Rhode Island.
ROBERT WATSON
He led the fight to make anonymous political speech illegal in Rhode Island
The First Amendment not only protects the right to express oneself freely; it protects the right to do so anonymously, as well.
“Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse,” the US Supreme Court ruled in 1995. “Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views,” and “protect[s] individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society.
Sadly, the trend in recent years has been to regulate political speech. One such measure is a Rhode Island law requiring that political pamphlets and negative newspaper ads identify the person or persons responsible for producing them. The law is an outrage.
But not to Robert Watson, an East Greenwich Republican who is minority leader of the Rhode Island House. When a proposal was filed to scrap the mandatory-disclosure law, Watson flipped out, going so far as to smear anonymous critics as “terrorists.”
Referring to a difficult re-election battle he had won several years earlier, Watson said on the floor of the House, “At least you knew who was firing those missiles. At least you knew who was building those bombs and lobbing them into your lap. Mr. Speaker, we’re going to have a bunch of anonymous terrorists playing in our political sandbox, and I’m not sure I agree with that.”
Watson got his way, as the measure was sent to the graveyard of a legislative committee, with politicians saying the 1995 Supreme Court ruling somehow didn’t pertain to Rhode Island.
Watson, by the way, is the state chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign. McCain is the godfather of a campaign-finance-reform law, much praised by liberals and reformers, that, among other things, bans explicitly political ads by independent groups in the final weeks before an election.
Despite being largely upheld by the Supreme Court (in 2007 the court loosened but did not overturn the ban on independent ads), the McCain-Feingold law, as it is known, is anti-speech to its core, and it’s a shame that so many progressives support it. Political speech in all forms should be given the maximum degree of protection — not regulated to the point of toothlessness.
Watson and McCain deserve each other. And Rhode Island’s disgraceful law is a warning sign of what can happen when politicians decide there’s such a thing as too much freedom of speech.
And . . .
A.T. WALL
He proposed making it harder to cover RI prisons
The ACLU of Rhode Island and the Providence Journal were full of praise this past January, when the Rhode Island Department of Corrections backed off from a proposal that would have made it far more difficult for journalists to cover what goes on in the state’s prison system.
And, yes, the department’s director, A.T. Wall, does deserve credit for not following through on the worst of his ideas (detailed below), unveiled the previous September. But he gets a Muzzle anyway — a warning Muzzle, if you will — for failing to understand right from the start the importance of journalistic access to the men and women behind bars.
Among other things, the original proposal would have:
• Banned interviews with out-of-state inmates (primarily prisoners deemed to be troublemakers in their home states who are sent to Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institutions, in Cranston).
• Allowed corrections officials to review reporters’ notes and recordings.
• Required a corrections official to be present at all interviews.
• Given corrections officials the power to refuse an interview with an inmate if it were determined that it would not be “sensitive to the feelings and needs of crime victims.”
Significantly, Wall decided to keep the out-of-state ban. And yet Wall is getting credit for showing sensitivity to the needs of the press while still making it harder for reporters to inform us about what goes on — well, behind the wall.
“The public-hearing process works,” Wall said, referring to a session at which members of the media voiced their objections and concerns. “We try hard to balance our need for proper security and the availability [of inmates] for the media.”
That’s fine. It could have been worse. But the media and the ACLU shouldn’t have had to mobilize in the first place. There are few governmental powers more awesome than the power to deny people their freedom. Prisons are already notoriously difficult for journalists to cover. Wall was wrong in his attempt to make it even more difficult.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
From Smith Hill:
STATE HOUSE – People serving probation or suspended sentences will no longer be sent to prison for violations for which they are not convicted under legislation passed by the General Assembly on its final regular day of session Saturday.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. David A. Segal and Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, reforms an arcane section of Rhode Island’s probation-violation laws to ensure that people serving probation will no longer be returned to prison without cause.
Currently, a person serving probation who is charged with another crime is considered guilty of violating the terms of his or her probation, regardless of whether he or she is convicted of that crime. As a result, a person on probation can be sent back to prison for the full length of his or her suspended sentence (or might plead to a lesser sentence, even if innocent) even if no conviction ever results from the second charge.
The bill (2008-H 7495A, 2008-S 3014aa), which will now be forwarded to the governor, will require the dismissal of any probation violation that is based on a new criminal charge for which the defendant is not convicted within a reasonable period of time.
“It’s totally unjust to slap someone with a violation if he or she is never convicted of any new crime. This legislation straightens out a problem in the current law that unfairly penalizes people and costs taxpayers money by unnecessarily adding to the prison population,” said Representative Segal, a Democrat who represents District 2 in Providence.
Tom Brokaw will be the temporary successor to the late Tim Russert, as we now know. Meanwhile, the Boston Phoenix had a superb editorial last week on Russert and his passing.
The average American family makes about $31,333 a year. And while the average working-stiff reporter makes between $20,000 and $50,000 a year (a precise figure is hard to come by), top talents at the nation’s largest papers regularly make $100,000 a year or more. At big national magazines, the salaries of editors in chief often break $1 million. Surprisingly, TV salaries are not as high as some might think. Anchors in the 25 largest markets make an average of $130,000. These figures may not be the stuff of daily Champagne and caviar, but neither are they the stuff of abject want and longing. It is not a stretch to suggest that the press may not be sufficiently afflicting the comfortable because, as a group, it has gotten rather comfortable itself, too sure of its own assumptions.
These, of course, are sweeping generalizations. They should not be taken as a one-size-fits-all diagnosis. All institutions are less than perfect. That’s a sentiment, a bit of understatement, that Russert himself would endorse. If the observations above were made on Meet the Press, Russert might counter by asking about groundbreaking stories in the New York Times that exposed the extent to which the government ignores the Constitution by tapping phone and computer lines, or citing the Washington Post’s reporting on the deplorable conditions that wounded soldiers endured at military hospitals. It would be in keeping with Russert’s generous character to cite other fine broadcast competitors or colleagues in an effort to deflate too vigorous a critique of a profession he clearly loved.
That was the Russert technique: he sought not so much to deflate as to correct. His job was more difficult than it looked, and he did it well. Russert held guests who came on Meet the Press to the same high standards to which he held himself. He was legendary for asking any and all tough questions. If he appeared at times to be more exacting with progressives, it was probably to compensate for his own sympathies, which, while centrist, tended to be liberal. He made newsmakers squirm because he believed the public had a right to know what politicians were up to. Russert held official Washington accountable. If others in the media did as good a job as he did, maybe the nation would not be in the mess it is in today — or, to qualify that statement in a way that might meet with Russert’s realistic approval, the mess might not be as bad.
From Obama:
Michelle Obama and Governor Jeanne Shaheen to Campaign in New Hampshire Thursday
Obama and Shaheen to hold roundtable discussion with working women in Manchester
CHICAGO – The Obama Campaign today announced Michelle Obama will return to New Hampshire for a campaign stop TOMORROW, June 26. Continuing the series of roundtable discussions Michelle kicked off in New Hampshire and hosted around the country throughout the primary season, Obama and Shaheen will speak with working women about the challenges they face at a roundtable discussion in Manchester.
Speaking of East Providence, Will Ricci sends word about a fundraiser being staged tomorrow by the East Providence Republican City Committee:
He writes:
We are going to have a very active election season in EP, as for the first time in anyone's memory, we have GOP candidates for three OPEN General Assembly seats (2 in the House and 1 in the Senate). Of course, we're also defending an incumbent GOP state representative's seat. In addition, we have many school committee and city council candidates to support. Because we have so many candidates, we're really putting a big focus on raising a lot of money. For whatever reason, what happens in East Providence can and often does affect everyone else in Rhode Island! For a change, we'd actually like it to be for the better!
Now the details:
On Thursday, June 26th, the East Providence Republican City Committee will be holding its Annual Fundraiser and Candidates Reception from 6:30 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 50 Crescent View Ave., in Riverside. We have a lot of candidates, so we need to raise a lot of money!
Since the EPGOP’s Presidential Straw Poll went so well at last year’s event (Mitt Romney won it), they naturally wanted to repeat it this year. However, since the GOP has long since settled on its presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, they had to make a slight change for 2008. As a result, this year’s EPGOP event will feature the “First Ever” GOP VICE-PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL (that we know of)!
Help Sen. John McCain find his VP by “voting” for: Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Charlie Crist, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Condi Rice, Tom Coburn, and of course, our own Don Carcieri. You can also “write in” your own VP candidate (disgruntled Hillary supporters can “vote,” too)! Straw Poll Votes are only $1 each and ballot stuffing is highly encouraged. Speakers to include Gov. DON CARCIERI, RIGOP Chair GIO CICONE, Warwick Mayor SCOTT AVEDESIAN, Hon. STEVE LAFFEY, State Representatives JACK SAVAGE and SUE STORY, E.P. City Councilman ROBERT CUSACK, and E.P. School Committeeman STEVE SANTOS, plus many state and local GOP candidates! There will also be a great Silent Auction, Catered Hors d’oeuvres and a Cash Bar. Tickets are only $20.00 per person or $35.00 per couple. As always, College Republicans get in FREE!
Conveniently RSVP ONLINE using your major credit card or electronic check securely through the EPGOP web site at http://www.epgop.org. To RSVP by mail, please send your ticket request along with a personal check or money order (payable to "East Providence Republican City Committee") to: EPGOP, c/o 66 Merritt Road, Riverside, RI 02915. You can print out an invitation at: http://epgop.org/rsvp.pdf. State election law requires us to record the name, address, employer and occupation of contributors; corporate and business checks cannot be accepted. Maximum donation of $1000 per calendar year. We hope you can attend. Your RSVP would be greatly appreciated. A limited number of tickets will also be available at the door.
For any inquiries, please contact EPGOP Chair Robert Carlin at 401-345-6608 or chair@epgop.org or EPGOP Treasurer Will Ricci at treasurer@epgop.org. Again, your timely RSVP is appreciated.
State Senator Paul Moura of East Providence, a longtime presence on Smith Hill, announced on The Buddy Cianci Show today that he will not be seeking reelection.
Matt had the scoop yesterday.
It may come as a surprise to some, but Sen. Paul Moura will not be seeking re-election in East Providence's 18th District. Current EP Mayor Izzy Ramos has filed papers to succeed the powerful Moura.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Ms. N4N and I were traveling out-of-town late last week when I flipped on the hotel TV and caught some kind of retrospective chatter on ESPN about Curt Schilling. I immediately suspected he had announced his retirement -- and that might more or less be the case, although not necessarily.
I wish Curt well. Say what you will about the guy, and he's got a lot of haters, both inside and outside the game, but the man is clutch. We couldn't have done it in 2004 without him.
On a happier note, Jerry Remy is due to be celebrated at Fenway tonight for his 20 years with NESN. Although Remy is a bit heavy-handed at times with his Depression-era commercializing, Don Orsillo and he make for a superb broadcast crew. They are on-point, entertaining, informed, and possesed of a fine comedic touch. Long may they reign.
Congrats, Rem Dawg!
Kudos and congrats to former ProJo scribe Ged Carbone, whose new book will be feted with a publication party [tonight] Tuesday, June 24, at tazza in downtown Providence.
A critically-acclaimed book about Rhode Island’s Revolutionary War hero, Nathanael Greene, will be released just in time for the Independence Day weekend, appropriate timing given that Greene was the first to write the phrase “a declaration of independence.”
To celebrate the publication of Nathanael Greene: A Biography of the American Revolution, author and Warwick resident Gerald M. Carbone will host a book release party on the day it hits the shelves – Tuesday, June 24, at a club called Tazza, 250 Westminster St., Providence, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event is free for all.
Members of the Kentish Guards, Greene’s original militia group, will be in attendance, and one of them will play some 18th Century tunes on the fife. Keyboardist/vocalist Louis J. Carbone will play and sing as well, and at 7 p.m. author Gerald M. Carbone will speak about Greene and the making of the book, followed by a question and answer session, followed by more music.
Publisher’s Weekly has called the book a “lively chronicle” and a “well-researched history aimed at a popular audience.” Kirkus Review tabbed it “a lucid account of the American Revolution from the point of view of its most successful general,” and Greene was the Revolution’s most successful general, even more so than George Washington. He fought in a dozen battles including most of the big ones – Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown. But it was in the South that he made his reputation as a general of genius compared to Napoleon, Scipio, and Caesar, good company for a gimp-kneed, asthmatic son of a Quaker preacher from Potowmut, Rhode Island.
Ari Savitzky, major domo of Fair Vote RI, will be offering a talk tomorrow, entitled "Electoral College Dropout."
Wednesday, June 25th
7pm
@Blue State Coffee
A growing movement is calling for the National Popular Vote compact, a plan to directly elect presidents by popular vote. Every state entering into the NPV compact agrees to give electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, and the compact goes into effect once states making up a majority of the Electoral College have entered into the agreement. Because Rhode Island isn't a swing state, our concerns - and our votes - are routinely ignored by the presidential candidates. Find out how we can change that.
In related news, the General Assembly has approved legislation to sign RI "to a pact meant to ensure that the candidates who win the most votes nationwide in presidential elections are the ones who win the White House."
The legislation (2008-H 7707, 2008-S 2112), sponsored by Rep. Donald J. Lally Jr. and Sen. Daniel P. Connors, has been introduced in state legislatures across the country in an effort to prevent the Electoral College from choosing a president and vice president who did not win the popular vote.
“Four times in our country’s history we have been led by presidents who did not win the support of the majority of Americans. That is not how democracy should work. Each person’s vote should be counted equally. We have the technology to determine exactly how many votes are cast for each candidate across the country, and it’s time we started directly electing our president and vice president that way,” said Senator Connors (D-Dist. 19, Cumberland, Lincoln.)
In yet more related news, Governor Carcieri has vetoed legislation, sponsored by Ed Pacheco and Rhoda Perry, that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote.
In his veto message, the gov said existing law allows those under 18 to pre-register, provded they will be of voting age by the time of an election. Carcieri calls it "both counter-intuitive and counter-productive" to add the names of thousands of ineligible voters to voting lists.
Some interesting news from the state GOP: Donna Perry of Jamestown, executive director of the Rhode Island Republican Party (she also happens to be the sister of John DePetro) is launching a challenge to Senator Teresa Pavia Weed, the majority leader of that chamber.
Perry, a resident of Jamestown, says she decided the time is right to challenge Paiva-Weed who Perry says does not represent the interests of her constituents and whose leadership decisions are wrong for the interests of all Rhode Islanders.
“Teresa Paiva-Weed’s actions and statements during this past session have been a shameful display of incredibly poor leadership,” Perry says. “It seems she would rather defend her corporate casino client on expanded gambling even though Newporters didn’t want it; she doesn’t think legislators need to contribute to their health plan while average Rhode Islanders can barely afford their own family’s health costs; and she thinks no one has a right to find out if a worker is here illegally and she blocked a sensible bill to do that. Who exactly, does she represent? She has a lot to answer for and I look forward to hearing her explain these decisions.”
RIGOP Chairman Giovanni Cicione says the party is fully behind Donnas’ run. “We are very excited to see Donna enter this race,” says Cicione. “Donna will be a terrific candidate who can make a very persuasive strong case against Teresa Paiva -Weed. She has great people skills, she’s a mother, very active in her community and I know she will run strong.”
If she hasn't always appreciated my writings about the struggles of the RI GOP, Perry remains a genial and articulate individual, and she represents some fresh blood as Republicans try to pick up legislative seats this year. Here's a bit more on her background:
Perry has worked in government, politics and media on and off over the past two decades. She covered local news as a radio reporter in the 1980’s, then worked on Capitol Hill and at the Republican National Committee in Washington DC. She was affiliated with the Women’s National Republican Club in New York while living in NY City in the late nineties. In recent years, she worked part time in the Governor’s media’s office before becoming Executive Director at the State Party. She is presently chairwoman of the Jamestown Republican Town Committee and is a past co-chair of her community’s Special Education Local Advisory Committee. (Jamestown SELAC) She is the mother of two elementary aged children and has had a home in Jamestown for ten years.
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline says Governor Carcieri has his facts wrong on the assault and rape case in which Marco Riz was arrested and charged.
According to a statement from City Hall:
“It is disgraceful that the Governor of the State would willfully distort the position of the Providence Police Department, undermining the work of these brave men and women and effectively accusing them of being accomplices to the actions of a criminal. ICE was notified of the arrest of this individual as has been the longstanding policy of the Providence Police Department. It is outrageous to blame police officers for the failures of our federal immigration agencies in a desperate attempt to defend the Bush Administration.” – David N. Cicilline
Below are some key facts regarding Marco Riz and Governor Carcieri’s accusation:
2003 – Riz arrested in East Providence
2004 – ICE deportation order for Riz issued and later released
2/2007 – Providence Police (PPD) arrested, charged & booked Riz on domestic assault charges, PPD sent information of Ruiz and case to ICE as per 20+ year protocol
9/2007 – PPD arrested, charged & booked Riz on DUI charges, PPD sent information of Ruiz and case to ICE as per 20+ year protocol
3/2008 – Gov. Carcieri issues executive order on immigration
4/2008 – Request by ICE (Riccio) for PPD to end 20+ year protocol and begin using ICE computer system (took place in informal discussion)
Key fact: PPD followed protocol after both Riz arrests and informed ICE, contrary to the Governor’s assertion that, “Had [the Providence Police] checked with ICE after either of this individual’s two previous arrests, he certainly would not have had the opportunity to car-jack and rape a young woman in Roger Williams Park.”
Meanwhile, the ProJo's Cynthia Needham looks at the demise of immigration-related immigration in the General Assembly.
Steven Stark ponders the question.
Inundated with stories in the past few weeks about the end of the Clinton campaign and the rise of Obama-mania, the press missed the development that is likely to have the strongest impact on the election: Barack Obama lost his best vice-president option when Ohio governor TED STRICKLAND removed himself from consideration for the number-two spot.
The importance of vice-president selections is always overrated. But in Obama’s case, it will have more importance than usual, since voters will use this first “presidential” decision to size up his approach to governing. And in a close election, the selection could prove critical. ...
With Strickland gone, Obama’s best choice is probably Pennsylvania governor ED RENDELL, 64, another Clinton supporter, as well as a former Philadelphia mayor and general chairman of the DNC. Pennsylvania doesn’t have quite the swing-state importance of Ohio, but Obama can’t afford to lose it, and Rendell might help in neighboring New Jersey, too, as well as among his fellow Jews. (Would some voters balk at a ticket of an African-American and a Jew? Maybe a few, but they wouldn’t be voting Democratic anyway.)
Well, Massachusetts, technically, since that's where the broadcasts of the New England Sports Network originate. Still, I was surprised, considering the media hype about how much better funded Obama is than McCain, to see at least two of the same commercials from the Arizona commercial during last night's Sox game.
Naturally, the commercial touts McCain's maverick credentials, calling him an early adapter when it came to being concerned about global warming, and basically describes him as a likeable moderate and stalwart leader.
The allocation of resources seems a bit unusual, considering how Obama can be expected to take Massachusetts and Rhode Island with relative ease in November. Then again, NESN reaches into New Hampshire, and the Granite State is shaping up as a battleground.
Meanwhile, as part of his effort to appeal to the center, McCain's Web site (click on his name in the first paragraph of this post) offers a big emphasis on energy independence.
Monday, June 23, 2008
From the gov's office:
Governor Donald L. Carcieri today decried the City of Providence's continued refusal to work with Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to prevent illegal immigrants from committing reprehensible crimes against Rhode Island citizens. The Governor said that the recent arrest of Marco Riz, an illegal immigrant who had been ordered deported, is a sad but vivid example of why he issued his Executive Order on illegal immigration.
“It is obvious that Mayor Cicilline and the Chief of Police Dean Esserman are following through with their decision not to support my Executive Order on illegal immigration.” Governor Carcieri said. “Had they checked with ICE after either of this individual's two previous arrests, he certainly would not have had the opportunity to car-jack and rape a young woman in Roger Williams Park. Unfortunately, inaction by Providence has public safety ramifications for individuals and families across Rhode Island.”
According to reports from ICE, Marco Riz was arrested twice last year and the Providence Police Department failed to use the ICE NLTS system to verify his immigration status. In fact, it has been reported that ICE has even offered assistance to help with illegal immigration issues, but that offer has been declined.
Some people, especially Dan Baudouin of the Providence Foundation, really, really like the idea of putting a garage on the state DOA-owned site behind the Garrahy Judicial Complex. The idea may be good, but it seems to be going nowhere fast. I wrote about this topic in last week's Phoenix.
To new urbanists, the reliance on surface lots is an inefficient use of space and it represents a certain kind of blight.
Yet efforts to move forward similar concepts in recent years, including a parking garage-retail-residential project planned by Arnold “Buff” Chace’s Cornish Associates off of Weybosset Street, have come up empty.
While some suspect that opposition from the owners of downtown surface parking lots is a factor in the lack of forward motion on the Garrahy concept, Baudouin rejects that premise. “I suspect if it ever gets to an RFP [request for proposals] again, they will look at it and be interested,” he says.
Frequent GOP e-mailer Scott Bill Hirst says his buddy Bob Tingle, who has "a young Boston terrier called Agnes" (?), plans to file Wednesday for a Republican run against Jack Reed, usually the most popular elected official in Rhode Island. Brimming with optimism, Hirst, a history buff, notes,
If elected Tingle would be the first United States Senator from Westerly since Nathan F.Dixon III; in the late 1800's. Dixon was a Republican and attorney and was engaged in banking. However no person from Westerly has been a popularly elected United States Senator.Dixon served when United States Senators were elected by state legislatures. The last Member of Congress from Westerly was Dr. John M. O'Connell, a dentist and a Democrat who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1933 to 1939.
In other GOP news, David Talan, via e-mai, is begging for someone, anyone, to run against Edith Ajello.
And In case you hadn't heard, the filing deadline is fast approaching for the November election in Rhode Island.
As Chris Barnett, able spokesman for SOS Ralph Mollis, writes over at RI's Future:
Later this week, we will know w | |