slides: Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot & Who’s Not? - March 24, 2017

Friday, March 24, 2017

Russ Moore, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

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Russ Moore

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. 

 

Related Slideshow: Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot & Who’s Not? - March 24, 2017

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HOT

Teresa Paiva Weed

The Senate President has taken a job as President of the Rhode Island Hospital Association--a position that requires her relinquish her to step down. Paiva Weed will successfully transition from the high profile job of Senate President into an important position in the private sector, (which paid $280,000 in 2015).  Her tenure was basically scandal-free, and that’s no small feat for a high ranking Rhode Island legislator.

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HOT

Domenic Ruggerio

The Providence Democrat moves from the number 2 man in the Senate and is set to assume the top job with Teresa Paiva Weed’s departure. It will be interesting to see where Ruggerio sides with respect to some of the high profile squabbles between Governor Gina Raimondo and House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello. There's cause for optimism about Ruggerio, since he recently spoke out in favor of allowing Norwegian Air to fly direct international flights out of Warwick, and he's been pro-economic development on other key issues as well. In any event, Here’s hoping Ruggerio can bring compromise between the two government leaders in the best interests of all Rhode Islanders.

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HOT

SquadLocker

The Rhode Island based company has teamed up with SportsEngine Inc., an NBC Sports Group Company, for a long term partnership to provide custom team apparel stores to SportsEngine clients, which will include over 600,000 local youth sports teams. It’s nice to see an innovative Rhode Island-based company expanding.  

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HOT

Trumpcare

Apparently our Congressional delegation hasn’t seen this study, but the average Providence resident would benefit more under the proposed Trumpcare law than under the current Obamacare system. WalletHub conducted a study that looked at what kind of subsidy the average a two-person, joint-filing household would receive under each health-care law in major cities throughout the country. In Providence, the average resident would receive an extra $1,339 in subsidies under Trumpcare as opposed to Obamacare. 

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HOT

URI Men’s Basketball

The Rams did Rhode Island proud last weekend in the NCAA tournament. The team easily dispatched a very tough Creighton team and then gave Oregon, one of the best teams in the country all year long, all they could handle before losing (and suffering a few bad calls at the end of the game). Here’s hoping the team can build on this year’s late season success going forward. 

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HOT

Olneyville

The United Way of Rhode Island has recently awarded roughly $90,000 in community grants to eight organizations that will help the ongoing revitalization of the Olneyville section of Providence. The grants will benefit health services (Hope Clinic) to educational services (such as the Providence Community Library and English for Action) and even the environment through the Woonsaquatucket River Watershed Council. 

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NOT

Steven O’Donnell

The former head of the Rhode Island State Police, who stepped down from the state police in 2016 was subject to some serious accusations by Charles “The Ghost” Kennedy, who alleges that O’Donnell had a FBI/Whitey Bulger-like relationship with informant Wayne David Collins, which allowed Collins to commit crimes under O’Donnell and other leading police officials' supervision. Those are some serious accusations, which should be investigated. 

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NOT

Governor Gina Raimondo

Senator Teresa Paiva Weed’s departure from the Senate Presidency could hurt the Governor politically, since the former senate president was the Governor’s major legislative ally, particularly on the issue of providing free college tuition to Rhode Islanders going forward. It will be interesting to see how the Governor navigates the often rocky legislative waters going forward. 

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NOT

Charles Denno

The former Providence Plan Director pleaded guilty in court this week to embezzlement. Denno convinced the U.S. Department of Education and the Bloomberg Family foundation to deposit funds into Providence Plan bank accounts, and then fraudulently converted funds to his own accounts for personal use. How lovely. Here’s just one more example of someone in a leadership position in Rhode Island finding a way to get our taxpayer money into his own pocket. And then people wonder why there’s so much cynicism. 

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NOT

Jorge Elorza

What’s frustrating about the Mayor of Providence is the fact that he seems to like to play lip service to certain concepts (with fiscal reform in being the main one) but never wants to take the necessary steps to back up his rhetoric--so you never really do know where he stands. Mike Araujo, the Executive Director of RI Jobs With Justice, makes that point in GoLocal on Thursday, noting that Elorza constantly talks about protecting undocumented immigrants, but hasn’t pushed the city council to pass the Community Safety Act, which would direct the police department to not comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If Elorza is such a big supporter of illegal immigration, why hasn’t he dont more to make this a reality?

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NOT

London Terror

Terrorism struck again as multiple people were killed and at least 25 were injured outside the Houses of Parliament in London as a deranged man drove his car into a group of people and then attacked others with a knife. The 21 students from Roger Williams who are studying abroad are, fortunately, all safe, but this incident is a sad reminder of the fragility of life and the dangers posed by terrorist monsters. 

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NOT

College Students

Three Providence City Council members, Jo-Ann Ryan (Ward 5), Terrence M. Hassett (Ward 12), and David Salvatore (Ward 14), are calling for college students to control themselves and for administrators to crack down on misbehavior following some rowdy, and in some cases, violent incidents. Here’s hoping their pleas have a positive impact. 

 

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