slides: Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not - Oct. 2 2015
Friday, October 02, 2015
Russell J. 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 - Oct. 2, 2015
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HOT
Malcolm Farmer III
Farmer will receive the Brighter Futures Award, which is given annually to a person or organization making an outstanding contribution to the well-being of children, at a ceremony on October 20th at the Convention Center. Farmer, an attorney, has devoted his life to fighting for civil rights. In the late sixties, Farmer moved to Mississippi to help African Americans fight for civil rights against state and local governments that practiced segregation. When he returned to Rhode Island, he continued his advocacy for minorities as a Providence City Council member and as Executive Director of the Governor's Commission on Crime, Delinquency and Criminal Administration. The honor is well-deserved.
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HOT
Teny Oded Gross
The Executive Director of the Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence will be leaving Rhode Island for Illinois, where he will create a group similar to the one he ran here. Gross is a tireless advocate of teaching the virtues of finding common ground to resolve disputes, encouraging youngsters to steer clear of the violence of gang life, and caring for victims. Through his actions, and those of the group he led, Gross has put into practice (and taught) the teachings of intellectual giants like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi --namely, that the answer to violence is not more violence, but peace. Rhode Island's loss will be Chicago's gain.
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HOT
Sam Zurier
The councilman from the East Side of Providence had some harsh words for the Elorza administration in his most recent letter to his constituents (which he posts on his website). And Zurier, normally a soft-spoken guy, has good reason to be angry considering the administration now admits that the city ran a $5 million deficit after claiming just two months ago that the budget was balanced. That's alarming, and Zurier, and everyone else who cares about Rhode Island is right to be concerned. As Providence goes, so goes Rhode Island.
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HOT
Brown University
The state's Ivy League University did an excellent job managing it's endowment fund over the last year. The school earned a 5.7 percent return on investment, which brought the fund up to $3.3 billion. Perhaps the state of Rhode Island, which got a meager 2.2 percent return (I have struggled to find a state pension fund or major endowment with a lower return) should outsource the management of its fund to Brown? (The school also rescinded it's honorary degree from Bill Cosby--another wise move.)
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HOT
Jim Vincent
The President of the Rhode Island Chapter of the NAACP had some insightful comments on crime in our capital city earlier this week. While the numbers have technically gone down, he said, the city cannot rest on its laurels. "We understand there are budget constraints and a new class coming in, but we need to get back to that community policing model -- regardless of what those numbers say," said Vincent. "Any crime is too much crime, and unless it's gone from five million to zero, there's a need to better". We're lucky to have such a level-headed, yet passionate person running the state's NAACP.
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HOT
Robert Watson
The former House Minority Leader from East Greenwich has emerged as one of the heroes of 38 Studios fiasco. Before the legislation that paved way for this monstrosity was passed, Watson prophetically stood up on the House Floor and told the other legislators that the bill would lead to a scandal that they'd be reading about print media for a decade to come. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the other legislators were too scared of angering former House Speaker Gordon Fox to listen to Watson's wisdom. We need more legislators like Watson who do what they feel is right instead of trying to fit in.
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HOT
Devin Weinberg
A senior at Moses Brown High School, Weinberg will donate 100 literary classic novels to Hope High School. The youngster from Cranston created his own non-profit, Providence Reading Olympics, (through money he earned working at TeeSpring), and raised enough money to purchase the 100 books from Barnes and Noble. Weinberg hopes to expand the program to other cities in Rhode Island. Here's hoping he remains in the state for decades to come.
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NOT
Jorge Elorza
Two months ago the mayor told the general public that the city had basically closed the fiscal year with a balanced budget. Now, Elorza is singing a different tune. The administration announced this week that the city ended the year with a $5 million deficit. It's alarming that the administration's math could be off roughly $5 million just two months ago, and to make matters worse, the mayor traveled to China this week and thus not around to explain what happened.
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NOT
Nicholas Mattiello
The House Speaker has been in full control of the Rhode Island House of Representatives for two years and has steadfastly rejected the idea of investigating the demise of 38 Studios. Now, with the previously sealed documents from the state's civil lawsuit public and the damning information contain therein, the Speaker has agreed to hold hearings. If the Speaker had foresight, he would have held these hearings as soon as he became the legislature's top dog.
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NOT
Don Carcieri
The state Republicans always wanted to believe that the former Governor was this good government guy, but the release of the previously sealed 38 Studios documents tell us otherwise. Carcieri was aware of the 38 Studio's deal long before the summer of 2010 and worked to bring it fruition by trying stifle dissent from other Republicans so that it could become a reality and simultaneously keeping rank-and-file legislators in the dark.
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NOT
RI Commerce Corporation
It seems only fitting that the successor to the (EDC) would somehow land itself on the "not hot" list the week after the 38 Studios sealed documents and testimony, which were quite revealing (to put it mildly), were released. The Commerce Corporation has selected two out-of-state firms to run the state's $5 million tourism campaign. There were firms here in Rhode Island, including well-respected firms like PriMedia, Duffy and Shanley, and Atom Media, who could have done an excellent job and kept jobs here and revenue in our state.
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