Every Friday, GoLocalProv takes a look at who is rising and who is falling in Rhode Island and national politics, business, culture, and sports.
This week's list includes a big wedding rebound, a GOP leader should maybe give up Twitter, and the opaque Shekarchi slush fund.
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."
Newport’s travel and tourism experts say the wedding industry has recovered from the last two years of the pandemic and for some, there is simply more demand than capacity.
In 2020, the wedding industry in Newport was devastated due to COVID-19.
Newport has always been a top wedding destination, but in October of 2019, Academy-Award-winning superstar actress Jennifer Lawrence held her wedding at Belcourt of Newport.
“It is back one hundred percent-plus. There is more demand than we have dates available,” said Beverly Ware of Newport Preservation Society -- the owners and operators of The Breakers, Rosecliff. and eight other historic properties.
Evan Smith, the President and CEO of Discover Newport says the industry is nearly completely recovered.
A new, locally-owned grocery store and deli has opened in Providence -- "Bodega on Smith."
Located at 373 Smith Street, it is the brainchild of entrepreneur Kenneth Zarabedian, who owns United Valet and food delivery service DASAP.
Zorabedian tells GoLocal he saw an unmet need in the neighborhood where he grew up for a local grocery option.
"I'm from Smith Hill, and what I saw was there was nowhere to get a sandwich," said Zorabedian. "I live downtown, and when I shop at Whole Foods, I'm mainly seeing delivery people buying food for other people. So basically I saw an area where we could deliver fresh local groceries to our community — downtown, Smith Hill and Mt. Pleasant — in under an hour."
So Zorabedian looked around, and put an offer on the building that previously housed an Asian market, and back in the 1990s, the "Better Baking Company."
"I'm shocked they took it -- but they did," said Zorabedian.
He then enlisted the help of industry pros -- and his family.
A new report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project examines how private equity groups invest in the troubled teen industry — specifically for-profit foster care, services for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), and autism services. Some of these companies are tied to lawsuits and investigations tied to allegations of abuse.
Rhode Island’s pension plan has investments in two of the three firms identified in the report as investing in such companies.
The Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island (ERSRI) is chaired by Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner and according to pension fund documents, the fund has tens of millions invested in Centerbridge and Bain.
According to the report, “Several of the largest private-equity-owned companies operating in these industries have had track records of widespread neglect and abuse of youth under their care—including excessive use of physical restraints on children with disabilities (Advoserv – GI Partners), squalid living conditions at group homes and foster care facilities (Sequel Youth & Family Services – Altamont Capital Partners), and neglect that has led to numerous deaths (The Mentor Network – Centerbridge Partners, the Vistria Group)."
The Beijing Winter Olympic TV numbers were a bust.
An average of 10.7 million watched the games in primetime on NBC. Then, add in streaming and digital platforms, the number was 11.4 million.
In the end, it was the smallest prime-time audience for any Winter Olympics on record.
Lillian Rizzo of The Wall Street Journal quoted NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua as saying, “This was probably the most difficult Olympics of all time.”
House Minority Leader Blake Filippi's bizarro Tweets about the reported Nazi incident on the East Side of Providence -- a community with a large Jewish community -- was not a good look.
The only appropriate comment would be to condemn the incident. Conflating it with paranoia about "commies" was pathetic (at best).
In January of 2021, in accepting the gavel of the leader of the House, Joe Shekarchi in quoting John F. Kennedy spoke about "Courage. Judgment. Integrity. Dedication."
Well, how about just holding public meetings of the Joint Commission on Legislative Services so the public can see how $46 million is being spent?
This is well-overdue and not that complicated. And not going away anytime soon.
Kudos to House Minority Leader Blake Filippi for raising the issue and keeping the pressure on.
