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Great Rhode Islanders

When you look at the accomplishments of the list of 50 Greatest Living Rhode Islanders, they are a marvel of creative, business, and inspirational talent.

There are Noble Prize winners, brilliant actors, and two of the top professional coaches.

See all 50 HERE.

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Bill Reynolds' New Book, “Story Days: Highlights From Four Decades Covering Sports”

Bill Reynolds, arguably one of the best sports writers in America, has a new book.

The title, Story Days: Highlights from Four Decades Covering Sports, is a collection of his best and most important columns.

“In the 1980s, the world of sports was undergoing phenomenal change. No longer confined to the back pages of newspapers, sports were turning into a mega-business, an industry as much as a past-time that soon came to dominate American culture. Award-winning author and sports columnist Bill Reynolds saw it all,” according to the announcement of the book.

The book can be purchased here and in bookstores.

Story Days, a collection of Bill’s columns spanning the last 40 years, documents this evolution in sports. With an eye for the offbeat, unusual access to some of the biggest names in sports and a willingness to travel to out-of-the-way places to get his story, Bill captured the changing times with depth, humor and verve.

No topic was off-limits for Bill, who wrote about the tragedies and social issues that arose under the umbrella of sports, as well as its successes and joy.

Story Days includes famous sports figures, but the less well-known also appear, either because their stories were so poignant or because they reveal a side of sports seldom seen. This is the side where athletes don’t always win, they don’t always get rich and they don’t always achieve their dreams.

In 2021, GoLocal wrote a feature about Reynolds and interviewed more than a dozen of those that knew him -- and whom he made an impact on -- throughout his storied career. 

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Apple is Worth 3 Trillion Dollars

Let that sink in for a bit.

The Standard Oil Rockefellers had nothing on these Apple guys.

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Winners, Winners

The Providence Gay Flag Football League (PVDGFFL) has secured two national tournament championships – the first in the league’s history – with wins in two divisions at the annual Pride Bowl tournament in Chicago.

Held on the banks of Lake Michigan, this year’s Pride Bowl drew more than 750 players from the U.S. and Canada, who made up 47 of the best flag football teams in North America.

PVDGFFL sent three teams to compete at the tournament and came home with championship titles in the B2 and C Divisions.

“We’re so incredibly proud of all our players and thrilled to share these titles - and all they represent – with our PVDGFFL family and the community that’s supported us,” said Chris Almonte, PVDGFFL’s Commissioner and Captain of the Lobsters Blue team that secured the C Division Title. “At these tournaments, we face the best of the best, including teams that have been playing together for years. Our league is still incredibly young by comparison, so to take home two titles is a testament to the talent we have in our league and the hard work that our players put in over months of practice. These wins are the culmination of years of growth in our tournament program and they put the Providence league on the map. They affirm our league’s values and the fact that our community is so much stronger when we work together.”

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Two Senators Probe Allegations of Sexual Abuse and Cover-up at Coast Guard Academy - NOT RI SENATORS

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Chair of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Fisheries, Climate Change and Manufacturing, which oversees the Coast Guard, sent a letter to the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Linda Fagan, seeking answers and accountability for the mishandling of a previously undisclosed, years-long investigation into sexual assault allegations in connection to the Coast Guard Academy. 

The Committee learned of these reports that had previously been withheld from Congress and the public through its routine oversight role during a briefing from the Coast Guard.

Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse have not issued press releases on the matter nor signed onto the letter.

“We write to express our grave concern regarding the reports of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment at the United States Coast Guard Academy between 1988 and 2006 and the Coast Guard’s lack of action to properly and timely investigate, prosecute, and report these criminal acts,” wrote the senators in their letter. “We are also concerned about the Coast Guard’s failure to disclose its investigation that began in 2014 and ended in 2020, the withholding of which some have described as intentional.”

According to Coast Guard officials, in 2014, the Coast Guard established “Operation Fouled Anchor” to investigate certain reports of sexual assault and sexual violence during the years 1988 to 2006. The Coast Guard indicated that the “operation” identified 62 substantiated incidents of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment that occurred at the Academy or by Academy cadets. The letter recounts that the Coast Guard further identified 42 individuals against whom there may have been substantiated claims of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment through “Operation Fouled Anchor,” yet it does not appear that the Coast Guard appropriately investigated at the time the incidents were reported. 

Further, according to information provided by the Coast Guard, a number of those individuals continued to serve for decades without any subsequent investigations into their conduct throughout their careers, raising a number of questions about their conduct, their access to sensitive information and their treatment of members in their commands. The “operation” concluded in 2020 but was not disclosed to Congress or the public.

“It is unclear how many other officers had substantiated claims against them, were not disciplined, and remained in positions of leadership or management,” the senators continued.

According to the Coast Guard, the “operation” also uncovered Coast Guard personnel, including Coast Guard Academy leaders, who failed to respond to reports of rape, sexual assault and harassment. Despite the serious nature of those findings, the Coast Guard chose not to further investigate or discipline those leaders for their lack of action and dereliction of duty. 

“We understand from the Coast Guard that the ‘operation’ revealed Coast Guard leaders had knowledge of, and in some cases received formal or informal complaints or other disclosures of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment yet did nothing,” the senators wrote. “More disturbingly, some of these leaders discouraged survivors from filing formal complaints or otherwise disclosing their assaults.”

In their letter, the senators request answers and documentation related to the reports of crimes, subsequent investigations and Coast Guard leadership decisions related to what was, and what was not, investigated by the Coast Guard when the incidents occurred and during the “operation.”

“We must resolve the past to build a better future for the Coast Guard, and in this case, that means pursuing full accountability for perpetrators and investing in meaningful support for survivors,” the letter concluded.

Cantwell has been a staunch defender for accountability for sexual assaults at military academies and Coast Guard Academy oversight. In the most recent Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2022, Senator Cantwell included significant provisions to improve oversight and investigations over sexual assault in the maritime industry, providing the Coast Guard with the authority to revoke credentials for those who commit crimes, establishing a process for reporting and strengthening policies to ensure victims are provided care as soon as possible. 

Additionally, it expands penalties for failure to report a sexual assault or harassment at sea from $5,000 to $50,000 per violation. In 2021, after maritime allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment made by midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), Senator Cantwell sent a letter demanding answers and accountability from the then-Acting Administrator of the Maritime Administration (MARAD) Lucinda Lessley.

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They Want to be Towed - So Do It 

Editorial by GoLocal:

There should be a special place in hell for those who willfully park illegally in handicapped spots or block fire hydrants.

More and more those oh-so-busy and/or "important" people are taking the spots for those who are disabled — literally in wheelchairs, on crutches, and using canes.

They are rushing to nowhere.

Then, there is the growing number of flashy vehicles blocking fire hydrants. It seems like this is a new TikTok challenge “Who can be the biggest loser (parking, that is.)"

We live in Rhode Island — we simply are not that important. It is impossible for us to be in such a rush.

But some people apparently think they are more important than disabled individuals, or allowing emergency personnel to save lives. 

It is time for those with the little ticket machines -- that are paid for with taxpayer dollars -- to step up and crank out little additional tickets at a minimum.

But you know what would be much better?

Tow these vehicles to the special place they think they're so deserving of -- “Dante’s Inferno."

Those who park in a handicapped spot -- and even too close to a handicapped spot, so people can't utilize it for wheelchair purposes -- or in front of a fire hydrant need to go looking for their vehicles in that particularly special "hot" place waiting for them. 

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Brown's New Giant White Shoe Box

Architecture critic Will Morgan was overly kind when he opined in his column titled "Brown Performing Arts Center: White Hope or White Elephant?"

He wrote, "The main lobby is also something of a downer. This gravity-defying cantilever is the most dramatic feature of the PAC’s exterior, yet it has an oppressively low ceiling supported by a forest of columns. Ramos claims that a low lobby is a necessary prelude to fully experiencing the great open hall. This is not so much a repudiation of the grand lobbies of the Paris Opera, say, or Lincoln Center, as the disguise of a complicated structural solution necessitated by the difficult location."

Read his full column HERE.

PHOTO: ULINE

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More Media Slashing

In recent weeks WEEI has slashed, Cumulus cut Kim Zandy at WPRO and this past week it was ESPN cutting many of the biggest names in sports.

Chop, chop, chop go the media jobs.

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Crime in Providence, Providence's Response

If there is a strategy to make Providence safer, please forward a copy of the plan.

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