Every Friday, GoLocalProv takes a look at who is rising and who is falling in Rhode Island politics, business, culture, 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 about anyone you think should be tapped as "HOT" or "NOT." Email us HERE.
Julie Ann Sageer, Founder, CEO and host of the cooking show "Julie Taboulie’s Lebanese Kitchen" connected with GoLocalProv’s Laura Afonso to talk about her award-winning cookbook. Sageer’s cooking show airs nationally on PBS, and boasts fresh recipes that come from her rich Lebanese culture.
“The summer of 2007 I stayed a month-long visit with my mom’s mom in Lebanon. It was there that I found my calling, and thought, I am going to teach people how to make Lebanese and Mediterranean cuisine. There was very little representation of my culture’s cuisine here in the U.S, so off I went!”
The show has been nominated for a number of Hollywood Taste Awards including Best Food Program on Television, Best Chef in a Series, and Best Brand New Series. Sageer was awarded the “Spotlight Special Achievement Award" after her series gained popularity.
The New England Institute of Technology will host 31 Rhode Island middle and high schools robotics teams as part of the school’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge.
The competition will feature 31 Rhode Island middle and high school robotics teams as they show off their STEM skills at the competition.
The event will feature students from schools located in Barrington, Bristol, East Greenwich, Lincoln, Little Compton, Narragansett, Newport, North Kingstown, Pawtucket, Providence, Scituate, Wakefield, Warwick, Westerly and Wood River Junction.
The event will take place on Saturday, February 9 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Lincoln School announced it had received a $4.5 million anonymous donation to kick off its Campus Improvement Campaign.
This is the third gift over the one-million-dollar mark secured in the last three years.
“A gift of this magnitude speaks to the strength of the Lincoln School community. This gift is a testament to the power of an all-girls education, and will have a lasting impact on our school that will be felt for generations to come,” said Suzanne Fogarty, Head of Lincoln School.
The Gift
A significant portion, $3 million, has been dedicated to kick off a $5 million campaign earmarked for the growth and enhancement of our Little and Lower Schools, slated to begin in December 2019.
This fall marks the 25th anniversary of Lincoln’s Little School program, which offers boys and girls six weeks to 3 years old a unique path to discovery through a child-directed, Reggio Emilia-inspired approach.
An investigation by GoLocalProv that included drone footage shot of the exterior condition of the vacant Superman building raises questions about the state of Rhode Island’s tallest building. The footage shows hundreds of cracks, crevices, and chipping of the limestone exterior of the building. The decay appears to have dramatically increased over the past two-plus years.
In September 2016, GoLocal captured in photography representatives of an insurance company who repelled down the building to conduct an inspection. As GoLocal reported, a team from the company Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. had been conducting a facade investigation of the building, which has been empty at that time for three years.
Photos from that 2016 inspection compared to GoLocal’s drone footage and photography taken in this past week show a significant increase in the decay of the facade.
As far back as 2014, an appraisal of the building by Scott & Associates of Providence cited that “the exterior of the subject [111 Westminster] has not been well maintained and requires significant pointing and masonry repairs.”
Now, five years later, the limestone is showing even more significant decay.
The demise of the Providence Journal seems to have sparked the interest of the Boston Globe. Sources at the Boston Globe tell GoLocal that the Boston newspaper -- the largest in New England -- is looking to open a bureau in Providence.
The Boston Globe’s editor Brian McGrory tells GoLocal, “Thanks for reaching out. We have no formal plans at the moment, but we're always scanning the landscape for opportunities. The Providence area, even all of Rhode Island, is appealing. It's a vibrant region with what we know to be a highly engaged citizenry and a lot of news.”
“[Providence] has been well covered for a long, long time, but the journalism industry pressures have taken their toll in cities of this size. So we're looking at it. But nothing concrete yet,” said McGrory.
Park at the Convention Center? You May Want to Think Again
The Rhode Island Convention Center parking garage is raising rates for the vast majority of its monthly users by nearly 30%.
New rates posted at the garage show that for that segment of monthly pass holders -- Monday through Friday weekday parking -- the new cost will be $195 in March.
The current rate is $152.
"I think it's outrageous, just to do that," said Geoff Judge, Cumberland resident and monthly parker, who spoke to the Plan "C" price increase.
Bob Sepe, RICC Parking Garage manager, confirmed that he was instructed to implement the assigned price increases, but refused further comment.
Sepe said questions about the price increase should be directed to Becca Ponder at RICC; Ponder did not respond to request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.
The current rates on the RICC website -- new rates BELOW.
Efforts to identify the approval process for the rate increases have proved nearly impossible as Convention Center officials refuse to respond to questions and minute of the Convention Center have not been posted in more than two months.
This week one of the top political scientists in America made it simple. University of Virginia Professor of Political Science Jennifer Lawless joined GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle on GoLocal LIVE, where she spoke to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring's announcement on Wednesday that he once wore blackface, following Governor Ralph Northam's admission he once did as Michael Jackson -- but rebuffed the possibility that he was in his medical school yearbook photo showing someone blackface -- and a KKK hood.
"Blackface is never acceptable. And it was certainly not acceptable in 1984,' said Lawless on LIVE. "I think what people are having a hard time coming to terms with is to what extent representatives, or the Governor’s behavior in the past, should cripple them moving forward, and be an albatross around their neck forever…I put blackface in that category."
"There’s a general state of uncertainty and quite a bit of disgust," said Lawless of the top three elected officials in Virginia. "Northam's tone-deaf press conference made things worse….there’s a sense that there’s just complete chaos. He came across as a bumbling fool — he was oblivious to how racist the press conference came off — remembering being in blackface at another time, how hard shoe polish was to come off — he didn’t seem to grasp the situation."
"As awful as it is, being racist is not illegal at this point — but sexual assault is. The appeal of the Lt. Governor is no longer there," said Lawless. "With a Governor who admitted to wearing blackface, and an AG who’s admitted to it as well…it’s unclear one is worse than the other. While Northam’s political career is essentially over…it’s not one [that’s going to end anytime soon]."