July 06, 2008
Bob Herbert, writing in yesterday's NY Times, touches on the nagging sense of dread felt by many these days.
It was a July Fourth like many others. There was nothing overt to signal anything was wrong. The Red Sox had traveled from Boston to play a weekend series against the Yankees in the Bronx. In Washington, the National Independence Day Parade made its way along Constitution Avenue.
And yet, there was an undercurrent of anxiety in the land. Vacations have been curtailed because of the price of fuel. Since the holiday fell on a Friday, the monthly unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were released a day early, on Thursday. They weren’t good. The Times summed things up with a Page 1 headline:
“Outlook Darker as Jobs Are Lost and Wages Stall.”
The high and the low were being buffeted. The bad news bears were loose on Wall Street, and the prospects for the summer employment of teenagers were abysmal. The national employment rate for teens in June was the lowest in 60 years.
But the anxiety seems more intense than the usual concern for a cyclical economic downturn. Something fundamental seems to have gone haywire. David Boren, a former U.S. senator who is now president of the University of Oklahoma, has written a short book that he called, “A Letter to America.”
His sense of alarm in the opening paragraph could not have been clearer. “The country we love is in trouble,” he said. “In truth, we are in grave danger of declining as a nation. If we do not act quickly, that decline will become dramatic.”
I couldn’t agree more. The symbols of patriotism — bumper stickers and those flags the size of baseball fields — have taken the place of the hard work and sacrifice required to keep a great nation great.
You know that matters have gotten out of hand when, as we learned this week, American instructors at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, gave classes on torture techniques used by the Communists to extract false testimony from American prisoners during the Korean War.
Talk about defining deviancy down! As Al Gore reminds us, this is the first time in American history that “the executive branch of the government has not only condoned but actively promoted the treatment of captives in wartime that clearly involves torture, thus overturning a prohibition established by Gen. George Washington during the Revolutionary War.”
There are signs galore of the nation’s turn for the worse. We are fighting a debilitating war in Iraq without any idea of how to pay for it — or how to end it. No one has any real idea about how to cope with the devastating energy crisis, or how to turn the economy around.
The airline industry is a first-class mess and the knees of the General Motors colossus have buckled. Locks are being changed on foreclosed homes across the country and working families lucky enough to meet their mortgages are watching the value of their homes decline.
We can build spectacular new stadiums for football and baseball teams (the Yanks, the Mets, the Giants and the Jets are all getting ready to move into staggeringly expensive new homes) but we can’t rebuild New Orleans or reconstruct the World Trade Center site destroyed almost seven years ago. ....
July 04, 2008
July 03, 2008
The gov's office released this optimistic statement earlier this week:
Governor’s Renewable Energy Plan Gains Momentum
Funding Approved for SAMP
Governor Donald L. Carcieri today announced that the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Fund Board of Trustees approved funding for the development of a Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) covering Rhode Island’s offshore waters, executed by a joint partnership between the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) and the University of Rhode Island (URI). URI will provide data to the CRMC, who will execute the regulatory framework of the SAMP.
“The SAMP will expedite the permitting of an offshore wind farm capable of supplying 15% of Rhode Island’s electric energy usage, fulfilling my goal to reduce the State’s dependence on fossil fuels and foreign sources of oil and natural gas,” declared Governor Carcieri.
Yet this story, which tops today's Boston Globe Web site, seems a lot more significant:
Governor Deval Patrick signed a landmark energy bill yesterday that does away with long-standing obstacles to building renewable power projects in Massachusetts and making homes and businesses more energy efficient.
The Green Communities Act was hailed by environmentalists as among the most innovative efforts in the nation to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and to encourage use of clean technologies that don't contribute to global warming.
The law will probably result in utilities' designing customized plans for homeowners and businesses to cut energy costs and providing rebates to pay for measures such as installing insulating windows and more efficient boilers. Homeowners and businesses will be able to rent solar panels from utilities to avoid expensive up-front costs, and the law makes it easier for homeowners who have installed wind turbines or solar panels to sell surplus energy.
Supporters said the new law could save hundreds of millions of dollars through energy efficiency, helping to hold down consumers' electric bills as energy prices are skyrocketing.
Back in RI, it remains a struggle to move forward, as I write in this week's Phoenix.
Back in March, Allco Renewable Energy of New York announced plans to build a solar farm in Johnston Coventry — the first large-scale renewable project in Rhode Island — raising the prospect of much-needed jobs and investment. As described, it would be the largest such venture east of the Mississippi, and the location, a former Superfund site, would generate at least $200,000 annually for the town.
Last Friday, though, Governor Donald L. Carcieri vetoed the related legislation, objecting to a three percent bonus — “unnecessary and unearned,” he calls it — that National Grid would receive for buying renewable energy. In his veto message, the governor also noted that the bill does not require projects funded by Ocean State ratepayers to be located in Rhode Island.
Carcieri also called a guaranteed set-aside for solar energy projects “perhaps the most troubling provision of this legislation . . . The requirement to mandate 5MW [megawatts] of solar energy could cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars more than other sources of renewable energy, not even accounting for the three percent bonus to the local distribution company. The General Assembly should not impose such an onerous burden on the hundreds of thousands of Rhode Island ratepayers by including this provision in this piece of legislation.
Proponents of the bill — who were taken by surprise by the veto, considering how Andrew Dzykewicz, the governor’s energy adviser, had testified in favor of the measure — see the situation very differently.
Bill Fischer, a spokesman for Allco Renewable Energy, calls subsidies a necessary part of moving forward state-based efforts for renewable energy, and Rhode Island stands to be left behind, he says, in the region. Fischer points to efforts in Connecticut, where that state is offering $70 million in solar rebates over the next two years, and in Massachusetts, when Governor Deval Patrick recently announced the opening of a solar manufacturing plant in Westboro that is expected to create 375 jobs.
“This was well thought-out legislation that would have created renewable energy projects in Rhode Island and, more importantly, the beginnings of a green job sector,” Fischer says. “Developers do not want to go into states that are hostile toward renewable development or states that don’t have sufficient laws on their books embracing development. Carcieri’s veto set Rhode Island back.”
July 03, 2008
From the gov's office:
Governor Donald L. Carcieri will be taping a brief interview on Monday, July 7, 2008 with Bill O'Reilly of Fox network's O'Reilly Factor, for broadcast later that evening. The topic of the conversation will be the Governor's Executive Order on illegal immigration, which was issued on March 27, 2008. The interview is expected to air at 8:00 p.m. EST and 11:00 p.m. EST Monday night.
July 03, 2008
Someeone heard that Steve Laffey was seen breaking bread at Fleming's a few weeks back with Buddy Cianci and Joe Paolino.
Buddy (on whose radio show I am an occasional guest) yesterday told me that, as he recalls it, the chat took place during "Meatball Mondays," one of the weekly events held at former aide Artin Coloian's Sidebar bar & grill.
He happened to stop in there. We didn't talk much about the governorship. We talked about being mayor. We exchanged mayor stories [with John Lombardi, a former interim Providence mayor, also in the house] ... It was a social event. Steve Laffey, he's very opinionated, and at least he has a theory and a philosophy. And he's a Republican, and I think he can get the Republican nomination, if he wants it. The question is, can he win [the governor's office]? And anyone can win in Rhode Island. We don't know what's going to happen with this economy, and that is a big question. I think he's a formidable candidate. I think he's a guy who can lead the Republican Party. Whether he can win or not is another story.
I asked Buddy to handicap a 2010 gubernatorial race featuring Laffey, Linc Chafee as an independent, and some Democrat, such as Frank Caprio, who seems to be the favored son of Rhode Island's Italian-American political establishment. (For an update on David Cicilline's possible gubernatorial aspirations, check next week's Phoenix.)
I think Caprio wins that, if he's the Democrat, and he gets the support of the Democratic Party. He fits that mold I was telling you about, not close to the unions. He's south of Division Street, Harvard graduate, clean cut, strong political family.
Chafee running as an independent has a problem. There are three ingredients you need in order to win as an independent, because I've done it three times, four times. Number one, you need strong name recognition; Chafee has that. Number two, you need money; I imagine his wife [Stephanie] has got a lot of money, so they could put it in if they were so inclined to. Could they raise money otuside of their own? Yes, but I don't think it would be phenomenal. Number three, you need something to make an independent candidacy work, and that is an organization. And that he does not have.
Does he have any charisma? Not necessarily. Is he going to walk into a restaurant, or is going to walk into a hall, and everyone's going to yell and scream? Not necessarily true . . . He better think twice about running. I think if he runs as a third-party candidate, he ensures Caprio's victory. So if I were Frank Caprio, I'd be praying for him to run.
Chafee, IMHO, would be a strong gubernatorial candidate and assembling an organization would not be particularly difficult for him.
And considering how even six months can be an eternity in politics, it remains to be seen which of any number of Dems will lead the party in 2010.
July 03, 2008
As dispiriting as the Rays' sweep of the Sox was, it's hard not to remember that there's a lot of baseball left, and that Tampa Bay, even with its talented staff of emerging young pitchers, might be playing a bit over its head.
For most of the season, the Sox have looked very balanced and very strong, and this is their first real rough patch of the year.
Yet if the 2008 campaign were to end today, does anyone think that Boston would extend the contracts of Manny Ramirez and Jason Varitek? I have a lot of affection for each player, but their weak performance of late highlights their advancing age.
And the sooner that Jed Lowrie replaces Julio Lugo, the better.
July 03, 2008
We can't rule out the possibility that Democrats would try to make life difficult for Gio Cicione.
Yet when it comes to Gio's last-minute legislative candidates, who bears the responsibility for ensuring that things were done correctly and in a timely fashion?
Yes, that would be Gio.
July 03, 2008
As he gears up for 2010, AG Patrick Lynch has assembled an eclectic and sometimes contrary portfolio of issue-related stances.
As I wrote back in January:
The AG seemed a progressive champion — and he incurred the wrath of Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin — when he ruled that the marriages of same-sex couples who wed out-of-state should be recognized in Rhode Island (a week earlier, his sister, Pawtucket City Solicitor Margaret Lynch-Gadaleta, had married in Massachusetts her longtime partner).
Yet civil libertarians were outraged when Lynch, backing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance amendments, recently supported the role of private telephone companies to help US intelligence agencies.
Earlier this year, Lynch emerged earlier this year as a strong supporter of Barack Obama (a story first reported here). Yet he has now placed himself in the ironic position of sharing George W. Bush's outlook on an important issue affecting the press -- and everyone's right to know.
Ed Fitzpatrick reported earlier this week:
PROVIDENCE — Although the bill is backed by 42 other attorneys general, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch is refusing to support the Free Flow of Information Act, which would create a qualified federal shield law for reporters.
The bill, which has passed the House and been recommended by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would make it harder for judges to order journalists to reveal confidential sources. ....
Lynch became president of the National Association of Attorneys General on June 19 during the group’s annual summer meeting, held in Providence.
Four days later, in a June 23 letter, a bipartisan group of 41 attorneys general urged Senate leaders to pass a federal shield law, and prosecutors intend to deliver the letter when the Senate returns from its summer recess July 8. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, wrote separately to endorse the bill.
In their letter, the 41 attorneys general said the act would bring federal law into line with the laws of 49 states, including Rhode Island. They noted reporter shield laws have been adopted, through legislation or judicial decision, in every state but Wyoming. “An overwhelming consensus has developed among the states in support of this public policy,” they said. ....
And yesterday spokesman Michael J. Healey said Lynch will not sign the letter in part because it deals with federal legislation. “Whether it’s enacted or not will have no bearing or effect on the state law of Rhode Island, the courts of Rhode Island or our office’s functioning,” he said.
Also, Healey said, “Unlike all but two other states, the Rhode Island attorney general also functions as district attorney,” so Rhode Island prosecutors bring many more criminal matters before grand juries than most attorneys general.
“Our position has nothing to do with First Amendment issues,” Healey said. “It’s simply about the propriety of a state that relies on the grand jury as much as we do telling the federal government how they should conduct grand juries. Our rationale is more based on jurisdictional issues than on philosophical issues. To be clear, we absolutely respect the work of journalists and how vital they are to our society.”
With its lack of county-based district attorneys, Rhode Island is an anomaly, and it's no surprise that Lynch would think first of jurisdictional issues and his constituency in law enforcement. Ultimately, though, the AG's is an unfortunate stance, particulary with his prominent leadership role in the national AGs' group.
The Judith Miller case showed how reporters claiming protection under a shield law are not always serving the public.
Ultimately, however -- and I think Jim Taricani, our late friend Jack White, and many of our colleagues would heartily agree -- the ability to protect confidential sources is vital for the public interest.
July 02, 2008
With the RI GOP pressing an effort to pick up legislative seats in November, N4N will be on the lookout for the candidates exhibiting the most imagination in their campaign events.
Donna Perry, challenging Senate Majority Leader Teresa Paiva Weed, shows she's got some game with this entry, via the state GOP:
Donna Perry of Jamestown, who last week announced her campaign for State Senate district 13, will host a “Nomination Papers” cocktail party to collect signatures for her campaign on Tuesday evening, July 8th, from 6:00pm-8:00pm at Trattoria Simpatico restaurant.
Perry, who has been Executive Director of the state Republican Party, is challenging Senator Teresa Paiva-Weed for senate district 13, which encompasses Jamestown and Newport.
“I invite all Jamestowners who are interested in seeing a change of course at the State House to stop by Simpatico and join me,” Perry says.
Light hors d’ oeuvres will be offered at the reception, which will be held in the air-conditioned, inside dining room.
No RSVP is required. Anyone interested in learning more about Donna’s campaign, can contact the candidate at donnaperry@cox.net.
Yet state Representative David Segal, facing a Democratic challenge, wins today's competition with the special ingredient described below [emphasis added]. From Ariel:
Join District 2 State Representative David Segal for a barbecue this Sunday to learn about his past six years of service and his current reelection campaign for District 2 State Rep.
When: Sunday, July 6, 2008 -- 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: 63 Governor Street, Providence (come around to the backyard)
Find out: why you should register to vote in Providence (in District 2), why you should vote for David Segal for State Rep., and why you should help out with his current campaign for reelection
We will have voter registration forms and volunteer sign-up sheets on hand. We also have a very large trampoline.
Call me at 240-888-2805 with any questions about the barbecue. Call Will Emmons at 859-358-6303 to volunteer for the campaign. Visit www.votesegal.com for more information.
July 02, 2008
You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that proponents of a reconfigured Providence City Council were operating with a very narrow window of opportunity.
Dan Barbarisi has the latest:
Last night at the council’s ordinance committee meeting, two proposals were axed outright, and two others seemed to draw a cool reception from many council members.
Cliff Wood’s idea for a 15-member council with 10 ward-elected and 5 at-large members, and Seth Yurdin’s plan for a 21-member body, with 15 ward-elected and 6 at-large members were both removed from the discussion.
The council then scheduled a public hearing July 21 to consider the two survivors. One plan, by Council Finance Committee Chairman John J. Igliozzi, increases the size of the council to 18, adding 3 at-large members to the 15 ward members.
The second, proposed by Council Majority Leader Terrence M. Hassett and Ordinance Committee Chairman Michael Solomon, maintains the size of the council at 15, but removes three wards and replaces them with three at-large members.
This plan has been backed by a private group of influential city residents calling itself the “12-3 Coalition,” for the distribution of the council after the split.
A change to the composition of the council must be approved by city voters. The first chance would be concurrent with the presidential election in November, and the deadline for sending an approved resolution to the state to be put on the ballot is Aug. 6. The council would have to vote on a change before that date.
With the city knee-deep in budget deliberations, even some of the sponsors questioned whether this is the right time to consider this kind of change — which would involve redrawing ward maps, and changing the nature of representation for Providence residents. An Aug. 6 deadline, Igliozzi said, won’t leave enough time to fully inform the public on the ramifications, and properly debate the issue.
July 02, 2008
A prominent Rhode Island Democrat with whom I spoke yesterday expects Barack Obama to win the November election in a blowout.
Dan Kennedy, however, writing in the Guardian, is not so sure.
Be afraid. It's not just a warning - it's a campaign slogan. For Republicans, fear is a cudgel with which they've bludgeoned their way to victory since the Reagan era, and it's acquired an extra emotional wallop since 9/11. Will it work again?
Even though Barack Obama has a lead of as much as 15 points in the national polls, don't be too sure that it won't. After all, Michael Dukakis led the first George Bush by 17 points in the summer of 1988. That fall, Dukakis collapsed under a vicious assault on his patriotism, his toughness, even his mental stability.
Come September, we can expect the fear-mongering will be at a fever pitch. Recent comments by Charlie Black, the adviser to John McCain who's been admonished for claiming his man would be helped by a terrorist attack on American soil, will barely warrant an asterisk once the White House machine gets cranked up on McCain's behalf.
Consider, for instance, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, charged with being the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, is scheduled to go on trial along with four co-defendants this September. Mohammed, who's being held at Guantánamo Bay, has already declared his lust for martyrdom, and he can be counted on to entertain us with blood-curdling anti-American rants throughout the fall campaign.
July 02, 2008
Cynthia Needham has the details:
As the law now stands, if someone on probation is arrested, he or she is sent to prison with no recourse should they be found innocent of the new crime, or if the charges are dropped.
The legislation –– passed with widespread support in two separate bills –– would free violators in those circumstances.
But Carcieri in his veto message said case law shows that a person on probation “enters into a contractual agreement with the state that requires ‘[k]eeping the peace and remaining on good behavior.’ ”
The governor cited a Rhode Island Supreme Court decision that suggests the burden of proof for a probation violation is “considerably lower than in a criminal case” and “does not require the commission of an illegal act.”
This is the second prison-related bill the governor has rejected in the last week. Last Monday he vetoed a plan to eliminate mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug dealers.
July 02, 2008
Speaking of music, the Phoenix this week offers a look at the top bands to emerge from the 50 states of this fine land.
Here's the entry for the Ocean State:
All-Time Best Band: Talking Heads
All-Time Best Solo Artist: Tanya Donelly
Best New Band: Deer Tick
Rhode Island is a tiny little state with freakishly high concentrations of a) Brown-educated landscapers and b) aggressively innovative rock bands: think Lightning Bolt, Six-Finger Satellite, Les Savy Fav, and Daughters. While it’s popular to blame RISD for RI’s long lineage of black sheep, it’s much classier to thank TALKING HEADS, whose inspired and inspiring career in elevating art-rock kicked off in Providence (and delivered listeners to another one entirely). | Newport native TANYA DONELLY has been a creative force for years: lending snaky chord progressions to Throwing Muses, enhancing the arid sensuality of early Breeders, detonating her pop payload as Belly, and continuing now as a solo artist. We haven’t heard much from her lately, which is odd considering what green-movement jackpot could be sustainably hit with a few cleverly placed snippets of “Feed the Tree.” Come on, Tanya — let’s get rich! | Lately, we heart DEER TICK’s War Elephant. Their salty, country-damaged rock just has a way of, you know, burrowing into your skin and feeding on your blood.
Video: Talking Heads
Video: Tanya Donelly
July 01, 2008
Jake's Bar & Grill, which has been enlivening Providence's Jewelry District with music, food and drink since 1999, plans to close for renovations.
Proprietor Jackie Nichols tells N4N that the bar will close after this Saturday. She hopes to reopen after Labor Day.
Jackie says the renovations, to create a warmer ambience, have been mulled for a long time and are overdue. This seemed like a good time to go forward, she says, since it's a slower time for business. No major changes in entertainment, staffing, or the menu are planned for when busines resumes.
July 01, 2008
Here's the reax from AG Patrick Lynch:
Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch today issued the following statement regarding the opinion by the Rhode Island Supreme Court, State of Rhode Island v. Lead Industries Association, Inc., et al, that reverses the judgment of abatement with respect to lead-pigment manufacturers Millennium Holdings LLC, NL Industries, and The Sherwin Williams Company.
“Today’s decision affects every Rhode Islander, every taxpayer, every parent and, especially, every child - who has been injured, is still threatened with injury today, or will be poisoned by lead in the future. This reversal is enormously disappointing, and I disagree with it in the strongest terms.
“Our fight has always been about standing up for our citizens. Standing up for our children. Standing up for taxpayers. Standing up for public health. Each day that’s what we do. Never in more challenging circumstances.
“This case was litigated in the Superior Court for more than eight years. Despite the multi-million dollar lead industry-funded defense waged by an army of more than 100 lawyers, my office proved to the satisfaction of a unanimous jury that the three defendants were liable for the public nuisance that their products created in Rhode Island. Those products poisoned our infants and children - and continue to poison our infants and children - while bringing great profits to the companies that made and sold them. Today, the Supreme Court ruled that these defendants do not have to clean up the mess they have made. I find this legally and fundamentally wrong. As important, I find it impossible to explain to the kids who have been and will continue to be lead poisoned, to the parents and families harmed and suffering as a result, and to everyone trying on their own, and at their own expense, to protect our children from these defendants’ products.
“I want every resident of Rhode Island to know that this office fought this battle well, and to what appears to be the end. We dedicated more attorneys, staff, and resources to this case than to any other case in the history of our State. We met every legal challenge from Corporate America’s defense counsel and we survived their every attack to secure victory from a jury of our peers. I believed then, believe now, and will always believe, that our peers got it right.”