Rhode Island's struggles with unemployment and homelessness continue to land in the national press. The latest account, on The Atlantic's web site, personalizes the issue with a look at a newly homeless young father:
Douglas Edward Coates is polite, soft spoken, and articulate. He looks like a typical 29-year-old professional [...]
Representative Patrick Kennedy has not endorsed anyone in the race to succeed his late father, Edward Kennedy, in the U.S. Senate. But with just days to go before the Democratic primary for the seat, a joint appearance with one of the contenders - Congressman Michael Capuano. From Kennedy's office:
Pawtucket, RI [...]ProJo reporter Randall Edgar, who has been covering Cranston of late, will take Cynthia Needham's spot in the State House bureau, columnist Bob Kerr tells us.
Needham left the post in recent weeks to become the paper's chief economics reporter, leaving a hole in the three-person bureau.
The ProJo has maintained its [...]
ProJo executive editor Tom Heslin, in a question-and-answer session after a speech before good-government group Common Cause Rhode Island a few weeks ago, suggested that the paper would consider charging for content. Everyone in the industry, he noted, is weighing the move amid major declines in revenue.
A new Politico piece recalls that Bishop Tobin's clash with Patrick Kennedy is not his first public lashing of a pol for his position on abortion. In 2007, he penned a piece in the diocesan newspaper Rhode Island Catholic taking on Rudy Giuliani and - in an aside - [...]
And the fight goes on.
Patrick Kennedy inexplicably kept his feud with Bishop Tobin alive this weekend in a ProJo interview, claiming that the bishop forbade him from receiving communion because of his stand on abortion.
The bishop, who has proven skillful - if a bit chippy - in the row, [...]
UPDATE: Marina Peterson called N4N to say that she cannot yet publicly discuss her ouster from the Rhode Island Tea Party. But she says she has been informed by the other two leaders of the group, Colleen Conley and Nan Hayden, they are planning to vote her out of the triumvirate. [...]
The Rhode Island Tea Party, attempting to move from protest vehicle to political force, has scheduled an open meeting November 24 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Warwick Public Library.
As I wrote in a cover story in the Phoenix a few weeks back, part of the challenge for the movement [...]
An interesting controversy brewing over Newsweek's new Sarah Palin cover. The image, of Palin in running shorts next to an American flag, accompanies an article titled "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?: She's Bad News for the GOP, and for Everybody Else, Too."
The photo originally appeared in Runner's World. [...]
As noted on RIFuture and the Huffington Post, Stephen Colbert took aim at Governor Carcieri last night for vetoing burial rights for domestic partners. It's a witty little bit and, less noticed, the host takes a swipe at Rhode Island media, too. Pretty amusing stuff. Embedded video at [...]
Some musings on media happenings over the weekend:
The White House may be shunning Fox News, but its surrogates are still pushing the administration's line. Rhode Island's senior senator, Jack Reed, was on Fox News Sunday this weekend doing battle with Rudy Giuliani over Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try some [...]Frank Williams, retired Supreme Court chief justice, went on the radio and television yesterday and spoke with the Associated Press in a bid to squelch talk of an inappropriate relationship with his former driver and her daughter. The notable exception in his media tour: the Providence Journal.
The paper reported [...]
The clash between Patrick Kennedy and Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is but the most public flare-up in a broader effort by the church to build abortion restrictions into health care reform. The Associated Press has a good overview:
WASHINGTON — The call came in from Rome, just as House Speaker [...]
The clash between Patrick Kennedy and Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is but the most public flare-up in a broader effort by the church to build abortion restrictions into health care reform. The Associated Press has a good overview:
WASHINGTON — The call came in from Rome, just as House Speaker [...]
Governor Carcieri's veto of a bill that would allow gays and lesbians to claim the bodies of - and make funeral arrangements for - their partners is proof positive of an old political maxim: elections matter.
In a heavily Democratic state where a majority support gay marriage, in a region that has embraced same-sex [...]
Governor Carcieri's veto of a bill that would allow gays and lesbians to claim the bodies of - and make funeral arrangements for - their partners is proof positive of an old political maxim: elections matter.
In a heavily Democratic state where a majority support gay marriage, in a region that has embraced same-sex [...]
Representative Patrick Kennedy responded, today, to Bishop Thomas J. Tobin's critique of the legislator in the diocesan newspaper Rhode Island Catholic.
Tobin had questioned Kennedy's Catholicism in the wake of a nasty war of words over health care reform and abortion. Kennedy's reponse, via the ProJo:
The bishop asked in his [...]
Senator Christopher Dodd has unveiled his lengthy, long-awaited bill on overhauling a financial system that played a central role in the economic crash. The bill is sweeping in scope, but includes - among other things - significant segments of legislation Jack Reed submitted earlier this year cracking down [...]
In an extraordinary escalation of their public feud over health care reform and abortion, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin has penned an open letter to Patrick Kennedy in Rhode Island Catholic magazine questioning his Catholicism.
This comes with news that a meeting between the two to discuss the public war of [...]
Shane Harris over at the Atlantic suggests that last night's 60 Minutes piece on cyber security will raise the profile of the issue. The story, he suggests, also annoints US Representative James Langevin the chief spokesman on the issue:
On the legislative side, electrical plant owners and operators of other [...]
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Rory Smith has named his campaign team. Norway Hill Associates, led by David Carney, White House political director under George H.W. Bush and James McKay, a New Hampshire Republican political operative, will serve as political consultants. The Tarrance Group, a Republican pollster that has worked for Republican [...]
Rhody's Congressional delegation was in the spotlight this weekend. First, Senator Jack Reed was on CBS' Face the Nation doing battle with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, on health care reform. Reed voiced support for a public option, while acknowledging an "active debate" on alternatives to a straight [...]
There has been near unanimous support, in the media, for a law making its way through Congress that would protect journalists from revealing confidential sources. And this scribe is inclined to cheer on the bill. But there's an interesting contrary view at Slate from Jack Shafer who notes that the proposed law is [...]
This just in from the Boston Globe:
After months of speculating, Curt Spalding, the longtime executive director of Save the Bay in Rhode Island, has just been named New England’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief.
Spalding was considered a strong candidate, but pundits were placing bets on Charlie Lord, who helped [...]
I've written a cover story for today's Phoenix on a topic that has fascinated me for years: the lifestyle center. It is a faux Main Street - essentially the mall, gone outdoors - that raises all sorts of interesting questions about public and private space.
With the real Main Street in decline, can [...]
Republican victories in gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia yesterday were striped across the nation's newspapers this morning. The GOP and some in the press were quick to label the results a rebuke to Obama.
Late-breaking results of a special Congressional election in upstate New York that went to the Dems has clouded [...]
Maine voters overturned same-sex marriage legislation yesterday in what is, undoubtedly, a blow to the national movement for gay nuptials. And the vote could have some impact in Rhode Island which, until yesterday, was the only New England state that failed to recognize same-sex marriage.
Momentum matters in politics, after all. [...]
The new elizabethroberts.org is downright Obama-like in look and feel, with a tagline - "restoring hope in Rhode Island" - to match. Providence City Councilman and would-be mayoral candidate John Lombardi's site, unveiled earlier this year, also emulates the president's new media politics.
Look for more of the same, as Rhode [...]
Steve Peoples has a story in today's ProJo about a questionable move by the Moderate Party to swell its bank account. Party Chairman Ken Block donated $10,000 to the party's state committee in September, meeting the maximum allowed under state law. A few days later, he donated an additional $10,000 to the Barrington Moderate Town [...]
In my piece on the Rhode Island Tea Party a couple of weeks back, I wrote a bit about the tea party movement's uneasy relationship with the GOP - here and nationwide. The movement, a collection of ideological purists, have been quick to criticize the Republican Party for its [...]
The chatter around the ProJo in recent weeks was that finances at the paper's Dallas-based parent company, A.H. Belo, might brighten a wee bit with the third-quarter earnings report. Those numbers were released today and, well, they could've been worse. From the Providence Business News:
DALLAS – The Providence Journal’s [...]
Tom Heslin, executive editor of the Providence Journal, opened his speech before Common Cause Rhode Island last night with an amusing tale of his first reporting job at the York County Coast Star newspaper in Maine and spoke of a small abbreviation that appeared on the front of the broadsheet: THWTB. [...]
You've seen the ads, perhaps, touting Target 12's biggest investigation yet. Here's the scoop on the story, to run at 11 o'clock tonight: it's a look at state workers, tasked with investigating unemployment fraud and phony disability claims, running personal errands on state time.
Oh, the irony.
Investigative reporter Tim White tells [...]
Patrick Kennedy and the Catholic Church got in an ugly spat over health care reform last week. And the diocese has invited Kennedy in to meet. From the Congressman's office, a letter back to the church. An olive branch? Sort of:
Thank you for your letter requesting a meeting with me to [...]
Lincoln Chafee's name recognition and Bush-bashing appeal should, in theory, put him in a strong position for the gubernatorial race. But can he put together a winning coalition?
Liberal blogger Matt Jerzyk writes of a left less-than-impressed with Chafee's performance at a gathering of progressive activists last night - and less-than-impressed, in [...]
This just in from the Secretary of State's office on the race to succeed State Representative Elizabeth Dennigan, who has stepped down to challenge Congressman Jim Langevin:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis announced today that just three of the four candidates who filed to run for Elizabeth [...]
E.J. Dionne, one of the most incisive political observers in the land, will be speaking in Rhode Island in a week-and-a-half. This just in from former Brown political science professor Darrel West, now with the Brookings Institution in Washington:
Washington Post Columnist E.J. Dionne will deliver a lecture on “The Good [...]
The ProJo's long promised new design is unveiled today. And it is, in this observer's estimation, a success. Clean and sharp. It will, no doubt, provoke some grumbling from long-time readers. But they will adjust.
The larger significance of the redesign: the new look reflects the much more dramatic changes at [...]
Amid fears that yesterday's news of plummeting circulation numbers at the ProJo could lead to more layoffs, this little tidbit in Providence Business News:
PROVIDENCE – The round of layoffs that took place last week at one of The Providence Journal’s sister newspapers was an isolated event and not part [...]
Liberal group Media Matters has an interesting response to the Washington Post piece by David Waters that I mentioned this morning on Congressman Patrick Kennedy's war of words with the Catholic Church over health care reform and abortion.
The backstory, in a nutshell: some Catholic bishops support universal health care, [...]
Interesting piece on the Washington Post blog, Under God, which considers the intersection of religion, government and politics. The authors suggest that Congressman Patrick Kennedy's critique of the Catholic Church's position on health care is misguided. As you may recall, Kennedy blasted the church for opposing any health reform [...]
The ProJo's daily circulation dropped 17.3 percent in the last year, as circulation at papers nationwide dropped an average of 10.6 percent, according to new numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
It was, according to the Wall Street Journal, the sharpest drop in more than a decade for the [...]
The ProJo has an item in its political scene column today about Senator Frank Ciccone reviving his push to turn the part-time General Assembly into a full-time legislature - of smaller size and larger pay.
There are two reasons the push is likely to fail: a lot of politicians would lose their [...]
Bishop Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence has lashed back at Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who decried the church's opposition to any health care reform package that does not include an explicit ban on federal funding for abortion.
“Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s statement about the Catholic Church’s position on health care [...]
Patrick Kennedy, in an interview with conservative news outlet CNS News, takes the Catholic Church to task for plans to oppose the final health care bill if it does not include an explicit ban on federal funding for abortion.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) told CNSNews.com that the Catholic Church is [...]
Senator Jack Reed is getting some play for his comments on former Vice President Dick Cheney's latest pronouncements on Afghanistan. From The Hill:
Republicans have developed a pattern of criticizing President Barack Obama for trying to fix problems the GOP caused, one Democratic senator said Thursday.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a [...]
The ProJo reports that the Moderate Party, which seems to be taking a real stab at viability, met with former US Attorney Robert Corrente this morning about a possible gubernatorial run:
Former U.S. Attorney Robert C. Corrente met privately Thursday morning with officials from the newly formed Moderate Party to [...]
Bill Lynch, chairman of the state Democratic Party, rolls out in today's ProJo what will likely be the central line of attack on Republican gubernatorial candidate Rory Smith: "I just don't believe that people in Rhode Island are going to elect someboady who is a Don Carcieri clone [...]
This just in from Jim Hummel, the former ABC6 investigative reporter who has launched a non-profit, TV-on-the-web project:
PROVIDENCE - The Hummel Report is pleased to announce that it will be publishing the cartoons of noted local artist Charlie Hall on www.hummelreport.com.
"Charlie's creative genius is a great [...]
This just in from businessman Rory Smith, mentioned of late as a possible GOP candidate for governor:
Providence - Today Rory Smith filed a "Notice of Organization" with the Rhode Island Board of Elections, forming a candidate committee in order to begin the process of organizing a campaign for Governor.
[...]
