Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not - May 13, 2016
Friday, May 13, 2016
Russ Moore, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™
Every Friday, GoLocalProv's Russ Moore breaks down who is rising and who is falling in RI politics, business, and sports. Moore has worked on both sides of the desk in Rhode Island media, both for newspapers and on political campaigns. Send him email at
[email protected] and follow him on Twitter @russmoore713.
Related Slideshow: Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not - May 13, 2016
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HOT
Nicholas Mattiello: The House Speaker deserves credit for putting forward a bill that will ask voters to amend the state constitution in a way that makes legislators subject to the Rhode Island Ethics Code once again. The bill also has the support of the Senate leadership as well as Common Cause, a good government group that's been fighting for this issue since 2009 when the Ethics Commission was stripped of its power to police the state legislature. I've been more critical of Speaker Mattiello than anybody, but give him his due, the master level was eliminated under his leadership and now the RI Ethics Commission will be re-empowered under his tenure.
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HOT
Nicole Alexander-Scott: The Director of the Rhode Island Health Department and co-chair of the Governor's Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force deserves credit for the plan, released this week, that would spend $4 million in next year's budget to expands access to peer recovery and supports medication assisted treatment at the Department of Corrections in order to prevent overdoses. It's a detailed, thoughtful plan, which should be implemented immediately to address this overdose crisis. There were 250 people who died from overdose last year, an increase of 250 percent since 2011.
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HOT
Peter Kilmartin: The Rhode Island Attorney General doesn't go out of his way to attract attention and that may hurt his image. But he deserves credit for enforcing the law fairly in Rhode Island, regardless of how politically powerful a person might be. The most recent example of that being the arrest of Providence City Council Majority Leader Kevin Jackson, who is accused of misappropriating $12,074.06 in campaign contributions for his personal use and embezzling $127,153.02 from the Providence Cobras, a youth track and field organization.
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HOT
John DePetro: The morning talk radio host at 630 WPRO, who occupies the 9-12 slot, and is technically still the subject of a boycott by union members, took to the offensive on Wednesday when he organized a rally at the statehouse in criticism of Governor Gina Raimondo. DePetro points out that the Governor is too preoccupied with raising her profile on the national level and not concerned enough with raising up the state she is responsible for governing. Would anyone be surprised if DePetro's favorabilty rating was higher than Raimondo's?
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HOT
5th Hottest: The verdict is in and according to Travel + Leisure Magazine, Providence has the 5th most attractive people in the country! Although we dropped from second place last year, only Miami, San Diego, Charlestown, and Los Angeles have better looking people than us. For all our issues, at least we're a good looking bunch!
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HOT
Dale LePage New England Pride TV: LePage, an award winning singer, has launched his new show, "New England Pride TV", which he hopes will improve the perceptions and relations of the gay, lesbian and transgender community. While he's at it, LePage also promises to be witty, entertaining, and funny, in addition to informative. We've come quite a long way with respect to gay rights and acceptance, but there's much more ground to cover. Here's hoping that this show continues to bridge that divide and have some fun while doing it.
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HOT
Peter Manfredo Jr.: "The Pride of Providence" comes out of retirement tonight at Twin River Casino tonight to take on Vladine Biosse tonight. Manfredo, who starred on NBC's The Contender back in 2005, is truly one of the sport's good guys--you'd be hard-pressed to find a more hardworking, humble, and genuine gentleman. Here's hoping Manfredo emerges victorious once again, for the 41st time, tonight.
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NOT
Kevin Jackson: The arrest of the Majority Leader of the Providence City Council by state police for for allegedly misappropriating campaign contributions and embezzling from the Providence Cobras, a youth track and field organization, is disappointing, to put it mildly. Like everyone else, Jackson should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise, but his arrest highlights another rough week in Rhode Island government.
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NOT
Jed Thorp: The RI Public Radio staffer is showing media bias by complaining that GoLocal covered the statehouse rally held by Patricia Morgan and John DePetro. Thorp is not aware or may not care that GoLocal covers hundreds of events including #BlackLivesMatter, Libertarians, pro-immigration, anti-immigration, Bernie Sanders rallies, Bill Clinton rallies, Donald Trump rallies, and just about everything in between. Criticizing coverage of Rhode Islanders speaking out seems misguided, but worse, it is simply un-American. Folks have the right to demonstrate and they have the right to seek media coverage. Sometimes, the media coverage is critical. Thorp’s political bias falls into the ever present criticism of public television and radio that the government funded, non-profits are politically biased. Lastly, Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin covered the event and wrote an (admittedly good) column about it. Does Thorp have a problem with him too?
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NOT
Chad Mellen: What a coincidence! Less than two weeks after GoLocal broke the story that former A.T. Cross CEO Chad Mellen has been volunteering at the RI Commerce Corporation, following the farcical tourism campaign roll out, the organization announced $1.9 million in tax credits and incentives to A.T. Cross on Monday. That's not a good look so far as ethics is concerned and raises questions as to whether Mellen is really there working to help us, or his old friends. P.S. Does he have some stock that might benefit?
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NOT
RIPTA: Three people have been killed by Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) buses in the past two years and dozens more have been injured. Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been filed over the death of a 9-year old girl who was killed in a RIPTA accident last year. All of this raises questions about the state agency's safety and training programs.
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NOT
Legislative Grants: If the leadership of both houses of the Rhode Island General Assembly is serious about restoring the confidence of the Rhode Island citizenry in the state government, the time is long past due to eliminate the issuance of legislative (and local) grants. There is absolutely not accountability (outside of the state police and FBI) and no evaluation of how the money gets spent. All the grants are good for is vote buying by legislative leadership. It's time to eliminate the programs once and for all.
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