Thanks for stopping by for my weekly column. As always, I welcome your tips and comments, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1) As the public face of Rhode Island’s response to the coronavirus, Gov. Gina Raimondo fulfills a variety of roles during her daily briefings. She shares the grim news of the climbing toll from COVID-19. The governor thanks Rhode Islanders for their efforts, outlines benefits for the suddenly jobless, encourages us to be kind to one another, and mixes some good news in with the bad. And Raimondo literally lays down the law, with a string of executive orders restricting the activity of Rhode Islanders, in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. The governor’s different roles – as cajoler-in-chief, stern mom, and public health advocate – blur together, as was the case Thursday when she warned of fines for people who violate orders to quarantine in their homes: “This is not easy,” she said. “I hear you now saying, ‘Governor, how am I going to do that? – I have four kids and a small house and one bathroom.’ So I’m just asking you to do your best, you’re very best — please, because it will keep your kids safer, your family safer and it will just help everybody to get ourselves back on track.” Raimondo continues winning points for her empathic leadership. Yet bigger tests for the governor – and the state – lay ahead. The impact of the coronavirus is getting worse by the day. The surge is coming, some time between mid-April and late May, although Raimondo has so far declined to cite specifics from the state’s modeling. At the same time, the weather is getting nicer, offering a bigger temptation for people to push against social distancing boundaries. The debate over the relative cost of closing the economy versus trying to limit the spread of COVID-19 could grow louder in the coming weeks. And then there’s all the economic fallout, from a state budget proposal left in tatters due to lost revenue and the broader effect on Rhode Island workers and companies.
2) By the numbers: As TGIF was going to press on Friday, Rhode Island had 2,015 confirmed cases of coronavirus, up from 711 at this time last week, a reflection of expanded testing. The deaths of 49 people are attributed to the virus, up from 14 a week ago. And a key indicator, the number hospitalized, has climbed from 72 to 169. You can find a lot more data for RI and MA on our updates page.
3) Rhode Island is working with Salesforce.com to develop a digital approach for tracing contacts that spread the coronavirus. Gov. Raimondo, who has repeatedly emphasized a call for residents to keep a log of their daily travels and contacts, calls this broader collection of data crucial for taking steps to reopen the state’s economy. The governor said this will be done without violating civil liberties, although she also notes we’re amid a global health crisis. For his part, Ezra Klein is less than chipper after reviewing some of the major plans for what comes after social distancing: “In different ways, all these plans say the same thing: Even if you can imagine the herculean political, social, and economic changes necessary to manage our way through this crisis effectively, there is no normal for the foreseeable future. Until there’s a vaccine, the US either needs economically ruinous levels of social distancing, a digital surveillance state of shocking size and scope, or a mass testing apparatus of even more shocking size and intrusiveness.”
4) Earlier this year, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza touted his ‘Great Streets’ initiative as a to help residents better utilize the outdoor environment of the capital city. Now, Elorza has imposed some of the most stringent restrictions against using public parks and other public spaces. Our Streets PVD countered with this proposal: “Many other cities (like Denver, Minneapolis, and Cleveland) are closing some streets to non-essential traffic in order to provide more space for folks to walk/bike/roll safely from cars and from each other. We can do the same in Providence! In fact, we already have under Mayor Taveras. Under Covid19 we have closed schools, local businesses, and city hall — now it’s time to close some streets as well. The City has confirmed they are considering it, and the Providence Streets Coalition will be advocating for this going forward.”
5) There are a lot of variables with different models. With that caveat in mind, this model via NPR predicts RI’s peak impact will be April 29, with 31 deaths.
6) What would happen if Gov. Gina Raimondo became infected with the coronavirus and couldn’t work? That’s probably a remote possibility — even if the governor did become sick, the odds are good she’d be able to work from home. Raimondo addressed the issue after being asked about it by Ted Nesi during one of her briefings this week; she said more than 1,000 state employees are working on the response to COVID-19, with a series of different teams pursuing different needs. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Dan McKee has kept up an informative stream on Twitter while remaining distanced from the daily briefing – a practice seemingly in keeping with the messages of the moment. But you might be wondering – what would happen if both the governor and lieutenant governor could not fulfill their roles? In such a scenario, the speaker of the RI House is next in the line of succession. (Before voters backed a series of constitutional changes in 1986, the president pro-tem of the state Senate was next in line, according to John Marion, executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island.) None of this has been much of an issue in recent history, even when then-Gov. Don Carcieri failed to tell Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts he was traveling to Iraq during what turned into the ‘December Debacle,’ a snow storm that briefly paralyzed the state, in 2007. Marion says the line of succession went to someone other than the gov or LG only twice – in 1839 and 1863: “In 1839, there was no first-place winner in the governor and lieutenant governor’s races so the presiding member of the state senate, Samuel Ward King became governor. In 1863, the current governor, William Sprague, resigned to become U.S. senator and the lieutenant governorship was vacant because the Samuel Arnold had also been appointed to the U.S. Senate, so William Cozzens became governor.”
7) As John DePetro first reported, 20 members of Rhode Island’s executive branch of state government (which has about 8,000 employees) have tested positive.
8) As U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and other Democrats in Washington press the case for direct aid to help states with their pandemic-related budget woes, RI’s House Finance Committee is planning to gather at some time in the weeks ahead. According to a note sent to RI House members, “In the coming weeks, the Finance Committee will convene to begin discussions of the evolving financial situation, including opportunities and limitations of the recent federal aid packages. On a related note, the May 2020 Consensus Caseload and Revenue Estimating Conferences will take place with testimony in late April, with the actual conferences likely occurring on May 5 and May 8. Bearing in mind the ongoing COVID-19 emergency, the exact schedule and the way testimony will be provided is still being finalized, but all proceedings will be available for remote public viewing via Capitol TV.”
9) You need not worry about losing access to alcohol during the pandemic, as I reported this week. The owner of Town Wine & Spirits in EP thinks civil unrest would become an issue if the booze was cut off, telling me, “Honestly, if they closed all the liquor stores in Rhode Island, I think it would be an issue for the police.” It’s true, too, that tax revenue from alcohol continues to trickle in at a time when the wider economy is moribund. Yet the most significant reason for keeping liquor stores open has to do with the adverse effects of alcohol withdrawal and how that would exacerbate the mounting pressure on hospitals and healthcare professionals.
10) Via Brookings: “Amid the public health crisis, many communities across the U.S. suffer from a lack of local reporting. Of the 2,485 U.S. counties that reported COVID-19 cases as of April 6th, 50% are news deserts (home to only one local newspaper or none at all). Fifty-seven percent of counties that have reported cases of COVID-19 lack a daily newspaper and 37% saw local newspapers disappear between 2004 and 2019. It is impossible to know what will not be told in the communities that have seen local newspapers disappear in recent years, but undoubtedly, important stories will go uncovered as the coronavirus spreads across the country.”
11) During her briefing Thursday, Gov. Raimondo gave a shout-out to Patricia Coyne-Fague, director of the state Department of Corrections, and the ACI’s medical director, Jennifer Clarke. While Raimondo and state Health Department Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott are front and center during the daily briefings, the governor’s mention underscored how many other women are serving in various leadership roles. As many people noted in commenting on Twitter, these ranks include state Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green; Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea; state GOP Chairwoman Sue Cienki; DEM Director Janet Coit; DHS Director Courtney Hawkins; a string of university presidents (Brown’s Christina Paxson, RISD’s Rossanne Somerson, CCRI’s Meghan Hughes, Salve Regina’s Kelli Armstrong, and JWU’s Marie Bernardo-Sousa), and probably a lot of other worthy folks I’m forgetting. FWIW, our current newsroom director at The Public’s Radio is a woman, as were her two predecessors.
12) While many categories of serious crime are considered down during the pandemic, domestic violence calls are up in a lot of places, Rhode Island included. The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence is encouraging victims of abuse to reach out: “The 24/7 confidential statewide helpline, which can be reached at 1-800-494-8100, continues to operate, providing assistance and referrals. Domestic violence advocates also offer confidential support through a 24/7 live chat helpline, accessible by visiting www.ricadv.org.” Steve Ahlquist has more on the governor’s plans for what she describes as a comprehensive response.
13) The abrupt interruption of legislative activity in Rhode Island has short-circuited such familiar staples as spring fundraisers and the presence of lobbyists at the Statehouse. Business is so bad that even big companies like IGT are furloughing employees. While lobbyists might rank with reporters, dog-catchers and members of Congress as unsympathetic figures, the prolonged coronavirus crisis will lead to some lobbyists losing clients. But since the rich get richer, out of town tech lobbyists are keeping busy and big investors are looking for profits in companies affected by the virus.
14) The stock price for Gannett, the company that owns the ProJo, the Newport Daily News, and newspapers in Fall River and New Bedford, among many other place, fell to 65 cents this week.
15) Adjusting to the new normal: so much stuff has moved online from content and classes at Trinity Rep to virtual music lessons offered by the group FKA Girls Rock RI.
16) Eight peak moments from Bernie Sanders’ two presidential runs.
17) Just a few examples of people doing kind stuff out there:
– Job Lot is donating material to make facial coverings;
– Central Falls is conducting a ‘Seven Mask Challenge;’
– A video with nice spirit from Dante Bellini.
– There’s a fund to help artists impacted by the crisis;
– RI’s Chinese-American community has donated more than 200,000 face masks;
– Covid Connectors is linking patients with the digital gear needed to communicate with others.
– The RI Department of Health’s page on how people can help.
18) Will there be any kind of baseball season this year, even an abbreviated one? Who knows? But at least Josh Kantor, the organist at Fenway Park, plays 30 minutes of songs on his organ and streams it on FB every day at 3 pm, during a segment he calls 7th-Inning Stretch. Says Kantor, “We’ve committed to doing it every single day (what’s a weekend?) until people get sick of it or until baseball starts up.”
