Enjoy the heat while you can, since we’ll be complaining about the cold in four months or so. Thanks for stopping by for my weekly column. As usual, your tips and comments are welcome, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1. Rhode Island’s job growth this year has so far lagged behind 2015, there are no visible signs of progress in the I-195 District, and CNBC recently called us the worst state in the nation for business. But to hear Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor tell it, things are far better than those indicators suggest. “For the first time in recent memory, we’re actually getting a nice stream of businesses coming into Rhode Island,” Pryor said on this week’s RI Public Radio Political Roundtable, pointing to plans by GE Digital to grow in Providence, and by the British tea and coffee company Finlay’s to establish a research/manufacturing/distribution facility at Quonset Business Park. The board of Commerce RI this week approved millions of dollars in incentives to attract the companies. Pryor calls this a wise way to use incentives: “The vast majority of these dollars wouldn’t exist, except that these businesses are moving here or expanding here,” he said. “It’s not like we’re reaching into the treasury and pulling out these dollars. Instead, we’re pledging the [tax] dollars that they will generate in the future to them in order to create these business developments.” In the I-195 District, Pryor said “it’s going to take a heavy investment” of incentives to get forward motion on Wexford Science & Technology’s proposed life-sciences park, although “we’re very far along on that negotiation.” As far as CNBC’s unflattering rating for Rhode Island, Pryor said on RIPR’s Bonus Q&A that Rhode Island improved by six slots, from 45th to 39th, on CNBC’s sub-ranking for business-friendliness. It’s not good enough, but it shows, Pryor said, how Governor Gina Raimondo‘s administration is working with the General Assembly to move the state’s business climate in the right direction.
2. While fall legislative races will impact the future of the General Assembly, the RI Latino Political Action Committee is taking a novel approach with its 2016 endorsements. “Beginning next week, RILPAC will extend an invitation to every municipal candidate in the 5 municipalities with the fastest growing Latino population in RI, Cranston, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Central Falls and Newport, to apply for our endorsement,” RILPAC President Jose F. Batista writes in a news release. “Candidates applying for our endorsement will respond to a questionnaire, sit for an interview and will be evaluated on a non-partisan rubric centered on determining which candidates will best serve the interests of the Latino community and in so doing, the interests of all Rhode Islanders. A slate of endorsed candidates will be announced later this month.” Batista explains the focus on cities and towns this way: “If the states are the laboratories of democracy for our country — the places where “novel social and economic experiments can be conducted” — then the municipality is the foundation of those laboratories. Municipalities — like Cambridge, Denver and San Francisco — are paving the path for what is possible when municipalities lead and dedicate themselves to attracting diverse talent to create broad opportunity. Working together, municipalities here in our home state can embrace the new ideas and diverse talents that will cast open the sails to propel our ocean state forward.”
3. Some highlights from Rep. Mike Chippendale‘s (R-Foster) appearance on this week’s WPRI-TV Newsmakers, where I joined Tim White while filling in for Ted Nesi: 1) Chippendale, who is Brian Newberry‘s preferred successor as House minority leader, said fellow GOP Rep. Patricia Morgan (R-West Warwick) and he haven’t talked about their competing interest in that post; 2) Chippendale said he’s not concerned about the number of independents running for legislative seats, some with encouragement from Morgan. As far as he’s concerned, Chippendale said, the more ideological diversity in the House, the better; 3) Chippendale said he has high hopes for Republicans in the 2018 gubernatorial contest, but declined to offer a name when asked who might represent the GOP.
4. Bill Malinowski was an unassuming guy with a sharp wit and a great skill for telling stories. The former ProJo investigative reporter died Thursday, at age, 57, after a battle with ALS. You can remember Bill through a variety of sources, including former colleague Dan Barry‘s lyrical description of a trip to Fenway Park; some of Bill’s past work for the Journal; and, as Ed Fitzpatrick suggests, by making a contribution for ALS research. Ed also has the details for Bill’s services: Visiting hours 4-7 p.m. Monday. Watson Funeral Home Riverside. Funeral Mass St. Luke’s Barrington 10 a.m. Tuesday.
5. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell‘s challenge to House Majority Leader John DeSimone remains one of the marquee matches of Rhode Island’s September 13 primary. An ethics complaint filed this week by the RI Progressive Democrats, who are backing Ranglin-Vassell, left DeSimone once again in the position of having to explain his repeated delinquent tax payments. (The complaint is due to be discussed Tuesday by the Ethics Commission.) Yet the composition of the contested Providence district, which is said to still contain a relatively large percentage of Italian-American voters, could be impactful in the race.
6. Does Rhode Island need a full accounting of 38 Studios to bolster confidence for the kind of incentives being used by Commerce RI? During this week’s Political Roundtable, Commerce Secretary Pryor responded to that question by pointing to the amount of material already aired about the debacle, as well as Governor Raimondo‘s initial stance against the company. “She’s insisted that we undertake the kinds of transactions in Rhode Island that are sound,” where “the jobs have to be created before we pay out …. We’ve learned our lessons and we are moving forward with economic development.” Pressed on whether a more detailed probe might diminish public cynicism, Pryor said, “Look, I think that the key elements of what we need to know, we do know, actually. I think we know that this was a bad investment on a pre-revenue company that others had passed up. The kind of due diligence we’re doing today at the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation under Governor Raimondo is the kind of due diligence we should be doing — the kinds of structures like these repayments of income taxes generated by the businesses themselves are structural safeguards that ensure that jobs actually get created. We’re doing it right.”
7. Stephen Miller offers the out-of-town view on the potential benefits of a commuter train station in Pawtucket/Central Falls (an idea backed this week by the ProJo’s editorial board). Excerpt: “Officials are optimistic the train station can unlock the area’s development potential. ‘There are 20 acres of development property out there,’ [Mayor Donald] Grebien says. ‘That’s the next phase of this.’ State tax credits already include bonuses for high-poverty areas and transit zones, and the mayors say tax-increment financing of station and street improvements, tax stabilization agreements, and rezonings are under consideration to spur development. The foundation’s role, [Jan] Brodie says, is to guide the cities through this planning process. It wouldn’t be her first time: before starting at the Pawtucket Foundation earlier this year, Brodie led the state commission redeveloping 27 acres opened up after Interstate 195 was relocated away from downtown Providence. The area surrounding the planned station has already attracted the new headquarters of Narragansett Beer and the old Union Wadding mill was converted into more than 200 apartments.”
8. Don’t miss John Oliver‘s bracing take on the news ecosystem and the importance of newspapers. Dan Kennedy offers some additional thoughts, including this: [I]t’s too easy to blame newspapers’ financial woes on readers who refuse to pay for the news. Newspapers were done in by larger forces. If you think it’s the readers’ fault, then that leads to the fallacy that you can force them to pay. In fact, they may not have found what you were offering all that compelling even when you were print-only and they took home delivery mainly so they could read the funnies and clip out the Wednesday grocery-store ads.
9. Ted Nesi has a good read on some key takeaways in the six months since Governor Raimondo signed the RhodeWorks bill into law.
10. Another race to watch in RI’s Democratic primary: Michael Gazdacko‘s challenge to Rep. Anastasia Williams (D-Providence), one of the remaining members from the large class of incoming reps first elected in 1992. While Williams’ longevity speaks for itself, Gazdacko said he’s walked the district daily and found voters to be responsive and engaged. The Pittsburgh native also sent a detailed two-page letter to about 700 people in the district, describing his background and how “when I arrived here 12 years ago, for the first time in my adult life, I felt like I was home.”
11. “It wasn’t important on its own, but it became incredibly important in political history.” Travel back in time to 1988, and Mike Dukakis‘ tank ride, via this short FiveThirtyEight/ESPN documentary, on how to destroy a presidential campaign.
12. With Anya Rader Wallack stepping down at the end of September as the state’s Medicaid director (to run a post-doc program at Brown’s Center for evidence-based Medicine), the state’s two deputy Medicaid directors, Darren McDonald and Deb Florio, will take on the interim leadership. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services says it will conduct a search for a new director. As it happens, McDonald is the husband of Jamia McDonald, currently overseeing the Raimondo administration’s attempted revamp of another element within EOHHS, the long-troubled state Department of Children, Youth and Families.
13. Fifteen Years After 9/11, Are We Any Safer?
14. Man-about-town Noel Rubinton has a fun read in this weekend’s New York Times on finding the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft in Providence — and it’s timely since a Lovecraft film festival is coming up later this month. Excerpt: “Lovecraft’s is one of the most visited graves in the cemetery [Swan Point] and workers at the gate often meet foreign tourists who struggle with English except to say ‘Lovecraft.’ Offerings frequently adorn his grave, and the day we visited, there were pennies (a visitor said it’s connected to Lovecraft dying penniless), a plant and notes, including one marked with a lipstick kiss …. [A] car drove up and two men, off-duty police detectives, got out for a look. One of them said he was a Lovecraft fan and had always been curious to see the grave.”
15. “Lost in the debate over Donald J. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns is the story of where the custom of disclosure comes from — and why it can be so valuable as a measure of character,” writes Mitchell Zuckoff. As the author and former reporter notes, the story goes back to Richard M. Nixon and the role played by a fine Rhode Island reporter. When the IRS sided with Nixon against disclosure, “the story stalled until Oct. 3, 1973, when Jack White, a 31-year-old suburban reporter for The Providence Journal-Bulletin, broke the biggest story of his career. While big-time reporters prowled Washington for details about President Nixon’s taxes, White covered small-town politics and high-society events as manager of his paper’s bureau in Newport, R.I. But White, rumpled and easygoing, had a knack for earning the trust of sources. One source provided him with evidence that Nixon had paid taxes of only $792.81 in 1970 and $878.03 in 1971, despite having income exceeding $400,000. By donating his papers with a backdated deed, Nixon had slashed his tax bill drastically. He paid the equivalent of a family of three earning about $8,000 in 1970 dollars. After White’s article was published, demands rose for full disclosure. The next month, White’s colleague at the Providence paper, Joseph Ungaro, asked Nixon about his taxes during his appearance at a newspaper editors’ conference in Florida. Nixon replied: ‘I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.’ ”
16. Moses Brown alum Sue Minter won the Democratic primary this week to become the next governor of Vermont. Back in April, Anya Rader Wallack and Kate Coyne-McCoy were among the hosts of a fundraiser for Minter at Rader Wallack’s Providence home.
17. The new president of Rhode Island College, Frank Sanchez, sits down to talk with RI Public Radio’s Elisabeth Harrison about his goals for RIC.
18. “My Crazy Year with Trump” — Katy Tur reports.
19. What happens when some summer camps enforce a ban on smart phones? “Many campers say it took them a week or two to detox, but ultimately they’ve surprised themselves,” reports NPR’s Tovia Smith.” ‘I haven’t read a book in like five years, and I just recently started reading one,’ says 16-year-old Jonah Bachman. ‘I forgot how much I loved reading!’ Since quitting his phone habit, he says he’s also more engaged with friends and the outdoors.
‘Often times I’ll sort of just find myself walking around, like enjoying, like you know going down to the ocean, just sort of being there.’ ”
