Every Friday, GoLocalProv breaks down who is rising and who is falling in Rhode Island politics, business, and sports.
Now, we are expanding the list, the political perspectives, and we are going to a GoLocal team approach while encouraging readers to suggest nominees for who is "HOT" and who is "NOT."
Email GoLocal by midday on Thursday anyone you think should be tapped as "HOT" or "NOT." Email us HERE.
Three Rhode Islanders made the rankings of the most powerful working mothers. Actor Viola Davis, Alex and Ani CEO Carolyn Rafaelian, and CVS Exec Helena Foulkes all made the list published by Working Mother magazine. The magazine writes, "The most rewarding part of cultivating our yearly Most Powerful Working Moms list is the opportunity it gives us all to learn about how notable influencers—movers and shakers from a wide variety of personal and professional backgrounds—manage to get it all done."
Davis is ranked #8 on Working Mother’s list.
Rhode Island’s top female CEO Carolyn Rafaelian of Alex and Ani comes in at #19.
The median price of single-family home sales rose to $264,950 in October — a significant increase year-over-year. In 2016, the average single-family home price was $235,000, according to sales data released today by RI Realtors.
“Diminishing inventory caused pending sales to fall by 18.2 percent, an indication that the rate of sales will likely slow in the months ahead. The supply of homes for sale dropped by 8.7 percent from October 2016 to October 2017,’ reported the Realtors.
“We saw a slight slowdown in single-family home sales in September, but sales rebounded again in October. Though 2016 broke records, we’ve seen even more sales this year than last from January 1st through October 31st,” said Joseph Luca, president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.
White each day saves the lives of two to three people — five days a week and he has done it for the past 20 years.
White, who practices in Kenya, is extraordinary, He is a cardiothoracic surgeon from University Surgical Associates in Providence, R.I. Recently he was awarded the $500,000 L’ Chaim Prize.
“…so I'm able to do two cases per day on general five days a week I do three days a week of open-heart in two days a week of esophageal I have 550 people right now on a waiting list for surgery and it gets bigger every single day there's not many other options and this is the motivation,” said White during his appearance on GoLocal LIVE’s Business Monday.
Virgin Pulse is moving its Framingham, MA headquarters to Providence. Its a big win for Providence.
In December of 2016, Virgin Pulse announced at a State House press conference that the company would grow its footprint in Providence from about 75 in the jewelry district to upwards of 300. The company is slated to receive $5.7 million in subsidies from RI Commerce. The agency approved the package in late 2016.
Virgin Pulse acquired Shape-Up, the Rhode Island-based work wellness company founded by Dr. Rajiv Kumar. The expanded RI footprint will be located in downtown of Fountain Street -- in the building which was housed the Providence Journal exclusively. Now, the office building has been rehabbed for multiple companies.
Rhode Island has lost 3,900 jobs over the last three months including the loss of 200 jobs in the month of October, according to the RI Department of Labor and Training.
While RI was losing hundreds of jobs in the past month, Massachusetts added nearly 5,000 in October.
Overall, the number of jobs in Rhode Island is up 4,500 since the beginning of the year and up 4,600 from a year ago. But, Rhode Island has lost all momentum.
The RI labor force totaled 554,500 in October 2017, down 700 from September 2017 and up 2,800 from October 2016.
National corporate radio group Cumulus Media has been delisted by the NASDAQ for failing to meet the $1.00 minimum pricing requirement and other financial performance issues. On Wednesday, the first day of trading after the delisting. the stock dropped over 34 percent and is now be traded on the OTCBB.
In Rhode Island, Cumulus is the parent company of the largest group of radio stations in the Providence market — WPRO AM and FM, HOT 106, LITE 105 and others and now the company faces financial uncertainty.
Not only was the Attorney General incompetent at in his role in protecting the interests of Rhode Islanders and the pensioners when CharterCARE was sold to Prospect of California in 2014, but now that the St. Joseph pension fund has collapsed, he trying to block the release of critical documents.
According to court documents secured by GoLocal, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin is trying to limit the scope of a subpoena regarding the St. Joseph pension fund collapse.
The subpoena was issued by special investigator Max Wistow, requesting all documents tied to Kilmartin's office approval of the merger of CharterCare and Prospect of California. Just three years later the pension fund of St. Joseph employees was bust.
The law is very specific to the responsibilities of Kilmartin and his office, stating, “The department of attorney general [is] to preserve and protect public and charitable assets in reviewing both hospital conversions which involve for-profit corporations and hospital conversions which include only not-for-profit corporations.”
Now, 2,800 retirees face millions in cuts to their pension — the fund is underfunded by tens of millions of dollars.
In a motion filed in Superior Court last Thursday, Kilmartin claimed the subpoena requested too many documents and that many of the documents requested were “privileged.”
Classical High School's ability to conduct functioning evaluations is in question.
A parent of a student at Classical High School in Providence is questioning the school department's teacher evaluation process, after she said her son told her his English teacher falls asleep in class -- and expressed her concern to the school administration following a parent-teacher conference, to no avail.
Lynette Kapsinow spoke with GoLocalProv about both her son's experience -- and hers -- with Classical High School English teacher Kathleen Flynn.
"The ELA teacher is [around] her eighties and should have retired 10 years ago. I met with her [on Thursday] and was horrified that she can teach at all. My son has told me she dozes off in class, loses all their papers, room was disgusting and has no concept of grading. My son told me he has no idea what his grade is from week to week," said Kapsinow. "My understanding is that all grades from her class are frozen and the school is grappling with her ineffectiveness."
"[My] bigger question is, how did she ever get through her last evaluation? I did call the superintendent’s office and was asked to put my complaint in writing. I also complained to a guidance counselor, all I received was, 'We know,' said Kapsinow.
Max Wistow has issued a subpoena requesting documents from the Diocese of Providence and Bishop Thomas Tobin relating to the collapse of St. Joseph Health Services pension fund. While approximately 2,800 pensioners are threatened with massive cuts to their payments, the Diocese of Providence is working to delay and block the release of critical documents now being requested by the receiver.
On Tuesday, Wistow filed a 16-page motion with nearly 100 pages of supporting documents to Superior Court Judge Brian Stern asking the court to order the “Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence to be compelled” to respond to the subpoena.
Wistow argues in his motion that Tobin told the Diocese’s newspaper, The RI Catholic, that that he was praying for the “very dedicated and faithful employees” of St. Joseph and that “The important thing now is to try to figure out what happened and also to see if anything can be done to rescue the pension fund, even to some degree.”
The receiver for the pension fund, Stephen Del Sesto told GoLocal in a phone interview Tuesday night, “The subpoena (to the Diocese) was issued as we need to understand what happened. The Diocese has numerous documents that are critical.”
Andrew Schiff, CEO of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, appeared on GoLocal LIVE on Tuesday where he spoke to the recently released 2017 Status Report on Hunger in Rhode Island.
The prevalence of hunger in Rhode Island is at its highest level in ten years.
