Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot & Who’s Not? - October 21, 2016

Friday, October 21, 2016

Russ Moore, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

View Larger +

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? - October 21, 2016

View Larger +
Prev Next

HOT

Nicholas Mattiello: The House Speaker had another solid week in the news after receiving the endorsement from the Providence Journal (which staunchly criticized him earlier this Spring for his handling of the legislative grant process, among other things). The Journal editorial pages argue that despite some of his faults, the Speaker is much more pro-economic growth than his potential replacements. Quite frankly, it’s hard not to concur with that assessment. P.S. GoLocal had named him Rhode Island’s Man of the Year in January.

View Larger +
Prev Next

HOT

Connor McCarty: The North Smithfield native and Mount Saint Charles Academy graduate has been named a Cadet Battalion Command Sergeant Major at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He will be tasked with the management of the health, welfare, standards and discipline of 2nd Battalion, Fourth Regiment, United States: Corps of Cadets. McCarty is a credit to the state of Rhode Island and the country as a whole.

View Larger +
Prev Next

HOT

“Kitchen”: Yelp has spoken, and apparently, our state’s best restaurant is the tiny Carpenter Street eatery, “Kitchen”. They’ve got limited hours for breakfast and lunch, and they’re only open a few days a week. They also don’t have a website. But apparently, they’ve got great food.

View Larger +
Prev Next

HOT

Effort to Stop $3.6M to CA Developer: Last Saturday, some of the small business owners that were forced to close or threatened with bankruptcy by Lance Robbins help a press conference calling on Commerce RI to halt the funding to the developer. The  GoLocal investigation found that not only had Robbins come under scrutiny in California after being reported in the Los Angeles Times and other press sources as one of Los Angles' "most notorious slumlords” but tracked down he was sued in Connecticut, has pending litigation in North Carolina, and has the failed small business owners at his Hope Artiste Village speaking out in opposition to his getting millions. 

View Larger +
Prev Next

HOT

Jennifer Gass, MD and Dr. David Edmonson: The two Women & Infants doctors became the first in the state and among the first in the region to become certified in a new technique called Hidden Scar Breast Surgery. The procedure hides the scar in areas not easily visible to the patient or others, making the process of recovering from breast cancer more tolerable for patients.

View Larger +
Prev Next

HOT

Luis Aponte: The Providence City Council President along with the other members of the finance committee deserve kudos for refusing to go along with a $40 million infrastructure bond proposal. Aponte is correct to point out that the city cannot afford to take on any additional debt without making significant structural changes to the city budget since Providence is already on precarious financial ground.

View Larger +
Prev Next

HOT

Tom Brady: Life is so much easier for Bill Belichick when Tom Brady is under center. Since New England’s most iconic athlete returned, he’s thrown 6 touchdown passes, no interceptions, almost 800 yards, and what’s most important, two wins. If Ponce De Leon were alive today, he’d need to meet with Brady, since it’s obviously he that has the fountain of youth stored away somewhere.

View Larger +
Prev Next

NOT

Ed Achorn: If you are a loyal Republican you are not too pleased with the Editor of the Editorial Page of the Projo. Achorn spent the last year blasting Mattiello turns around and endorses the Speaker. HMMM, a desperate effort to preserve the old state law that forces government to buy legal notices in a newspaper. For the past few years Governors Chafee and Raimondo tried to remove the antique provision, but the Projo’s lobbyist Joe Walsh killed the reform effort. Maybe Achorn should focus on removing the self-serving provision that costs city and towns millions rather than lecturing on Line Item Veto. Regardless, can Achorn ever be trusted again by Conservatives again?

View Larger +
Prev Next

NOT

Curt Schilling: The former superstar Red Sox pitcher whose video game company, 38 Studios, blew through tens of millions of dollars in loans backed by Rhode Island taxpayers, and bankrupted his company in the process, still refuses to apologize or even take any responsibility for his blunders. What’s even more confusing is that he thinks he has a shot to defeat Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in the 2018 election, when a much more polished and talented candidate in Scott Brown couldn’t. This man’s relationship with reality is questionable, at best.

View Larger +
Prev Next

NOT

Jorge Elorza: The Mayor has awarded a management contract to a company managed by David Pontarelli (Left in Photo), who was fired by the City in 2012 after a channel 12 investigation found that he was consistently doing other things—like getting his eye brows threaded—while on city time. It’s surprising that the city would opt to do business with a man who had taken advantage of city taxpayers in the past. Do you know how hard it is to get fired by the City of Providence?

View Larger +
Prev Next

NOT

Michael Sepe: Struggling to make much of an impact in the Cranston Mayoral Race, (it seems like everyone is talking about the House Speaker’s race against Steve Frias instead) the Democratic candidate and his allies on the city council have come out in opposition to the anti-panhandling ordinance proposed by Mayor Allan Fung. The common sense ordinance, originally envisioned by former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino, was designed to protect pedestrians, drivers, and other aspects of public safety. There was no need to politicize it. 

View Larger +
Prev Next

NOT

RI DOT: The Rhode Island Department of Transportation planned to move lanes at the route 95 Atwells Avenue exit in order to work on a bridge being constructed as a replacement project. The traffic diversion, however, caused such a massive traffic jam on Tuesday that the plan had to be shelved until supposedly tomorrow. There needs to be more foresight and planning put into these types of traffic realignments. 

View Larger +
Prev Next

NOT

Gina Raimondo: The Governor has delayed the release of the documents pertaining to the 38 Studios investigation until the conclusion of the potential civil trial over the issue. According to legal experts, this delay could keep the public in the dark for another year. The public deserves to know what went wrong and why tens of millions of their tax dollars were squandered—now.  Sadly, GoLocal has had to sue the Governor for the release of the documents. What is the Governor trying to hide?

View Larger +
Prev Next

NOT

Hedge Funds: The risky, speculative, and costly investments have come under fire once again, this time from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose financial regulator is questioning the purpose behind the investments, which cost his state hundreds of millions in fees, but produced so little in the way of results. Sound familiar? Seems like Rhode Island General Treasurer needs to move faster to divest the state from these ridiculous investments.

 

Related Articles

 

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

 
 

Sign Up for the Daily Eblast

I want to follow on Twitter

I want to Like on Facebook