If the ‘Taylor Swift tax’ is getting you down, you can snap up a Wyoming ranch bigger than Rhode Island for a cool $79.5 million. Welcome back to my Friday column. You can follow me through the week on Bluesky, threads and X. Here we go.
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: If the Washington Bridge is one subtext for next year’s statewide election in Rhode Island, the overall state of the economy is a political evergreen. Now, with uncertainty about fallout from President Trump’s tariffs, there are growing signs of worsening conditions in the Ocean State. As the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council noted this week, the state’s labor force participation rate fell for the fourth consecutive quarter, to 63.7% in the second quarter of this year. Gov. Dan McKee has suggested that Rhode Island has shed its perennial status as the economic sick man of New England, in which it was always first in the region to experience a downturn. The numbers from RIPEC indicate otherwise: “Rhode Island’s unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent and has now either risen or remained unchanged for eight straight quarters. Rhode Island’s unemployment rate exceeded both New England and the U.S. for the sixth consecutive quarter.” In an accompanying statement, RIPEC President/CEO Michael DiBiase said the news isn’t all bad — some local sectors continue to add jobs and tax receipts underscore growth in consumer demand. However, he added, “[T]he broader trend in employment and labor force participation suggests that we are entering a period of increased uncertainty.” If that uncertainty continues, it could work to the advantage of anti-incumbent candidates seeking office next year.
2. PRYOR NOTICE: You can leave Rhode Island for 20 years and walk back into the same conversation, as my friend and former colleague Scott MacKay is fond of saying. So while Gina Raimondo spoke about the urgent need to reinvent the local economy — something that has eluded elected officials for decades — familiar challenges persisted when she shipped off for Washington in 2021. Raimondo announced the hiring of Stefan Pryor even before she took office in January 2015. He served as her top economic deputy for Raimondo’s entire time as governor and stayed on when Dan McKee took over more than four years ago. To supporters like Matt Sheaff, a former spokesman for Raimondo/McKee, Pryor “was there from inception to reality creating a thriving I-195 Innovation District w/ the Wexford/CIC building as a centerpiece. And he was instrumental in reopening businesses during COVID.” It’s true that the decline of General Electric — once touted for a plan to bring “hundreds of new tech jobs” to the Ocean State — can’t be laid at the feet of Rhode Islanders. The bottom line, though, is that the local economy remains a work in progress. With Pryor poised to return to his job as Commerce secretary, his irrepressible bearing and familiarity with the agency are seen as assets. He nonetheless has his work cut out, including moving past some of the controversy associated with his time as state Housing secretary.
3. THE POLITICS OF RIPTA: The fate of Rhode Island’s cash-strapped public transit agency is increasingly entering the chat as a political football in the run-up to campaign season. RIPTA’s board this week tabled a move to make broad cuts in bus service. That came after Gov. Dan McKee sent a letter encouraging the board to develop “a new, more balanced proposal” to “right-size RIPTA, rebuild its financial foundation, and protect the core services that so many rely on.” Also weighing in: Ashley Kalus, who ran against McKee as a Republican in 2022. Via X, she commented, “Bet we could fund RIPTA if we stopped wasting money on useless consultants and studies — especially when they use metrics completely at odds with the purpose of public transit, like profitability per route. Telling the Board to ‘figure it out’ isn’t leadership. Go help them.” For an inside view, consider this thread from Zachary Agush, principal planner for capital development at RIPTA, who underscored that he was offering his own personal, non-official view. Excerpt: “RI: transit is an asset. Many places across the country would love what is in place here now, and what it could be, for the benefit of their communities. Do not forsake it.”
4. BROWN BACKLASH: As my colleague David Wright reports, Brown University has to win over skeptics on campus after placating the Trump administration. Excerpt: “ ‘Universities should not be negotiating with this administration — I feel strongly about that,’ said Jacinda Lomba, a 2017 graduate now doing her pediatric residency at Brown Medical Center. Lomba sees the deal as a betrayal of some of the progressive principles that she feels are the heart and soul of her alma mater. ‘Negotiating with an administration that is committed to the very antithesis of those ideas — exclusion, hatred, and creating very narrow definitions of what it means to exist — that is very unfortunate,’ she said. ‘It breaks my heart.’ ”
5. PARTISAN PUNCH I: Would you believe the DNC is celebrating Sen-elect Stefano Famiglietti’s lopsided special election win in Senate District 4 this week as part of a national trend? In a news release, the DNC said, “With this win, Democrats have either won or overperformed in 36 out of 37 key elections in 2025. Additionally, this election marks Democrats’ second-biggest overperformance of the year, a clear sign of momentum heading into the 2026 midterms.” While it’s true that Famiglietti got 83% of the vote, let’s remember that this is Rhode Island, where Democrats hold a super-majority in the General Assembly and the GOP has lost ground over the last 20 years while struggling to increase its legislative presence. Famiglietti benefited from his familiarity as a town councilor in North Providence and his connection to the late Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, whose son, Charles, managed the Democrat’s campaign. Republican Alexander Asermely hoped to score an upset, but got just 16% of the vote.
6. PARTISAN PUNCH II: Asermely was recruited by the Rhode Island Young Republicans, so I asked RIYR President Ken Naylor Jr. what the group did to support the candidate. Naylor acknowledged Asermely faced a difficult fight in overcoming Democratic advantages, including Ruggerio’s political network. Via email, he added, “Additionally, the Democratic Party’s fundraising advantage against a first time candidate allowed for greater outreach and voter engagement, which was critical given the low turnout typical of special elections. This election was not a rejection of Republican ideas. Younger voters are feeling the impact of rising housing costs and limited job opportunities. Looking ahead, we see opportunity in areas frustrated with one-party rule — like West Warwick, Johnston, Woonsocket. The RI Young Republicans were proud to recruit Alex Asermely and remain committed to identifying and backing strong candidates for 2026 and beyond. We believe investing in the youth is essential to building the GOP’s presence.”
7. SHORELINE ACCESS: Access to where the water meets the beach is considered a fundamental right by many in Rhode Island, sparking an ongoing battle with property owners. Less well known? These clashes stem from “a legal concept from the sixth century A.D., when Emperor Justinian ordered the codification of Roman laws,” old friend Cory Dean reports in The New York Times.” The resulting code declared that features of nature like the air, running water, the sea and ‘the shores of the sea’ must be held in trust for the use of the public. That idea passed into English common law, and then to the United States.”
8. HOUSING: In Massachusetts, housing groups hope to put on the ballot next year a measure to limit rate increases. In Providence, City Council President Rachel Miller said she’s seen some rents double, to $2,200 a month, just in the last five years — and the city is also contemplating a cap on rent increases.
9. REDISTRICTING: While Rhode Island Republicans love to call out local Democrats over contortions in the decennial redistricting process, the battle playing out in Texas shows how the shoe can be on the other partisan foot. As coincidence would have it, a group of Ocean State lawmakers were in Boston for a meeting of the National Conference of State Legislators this week when some wayward Texas lawmakers were also in the Hub. Via House spokesman Larry Berman: “A bipartisan group of about 40 legislators from Rhode Island attended the NCSL conference in Boston. Several of them participated in a rally outside the Massachusetts’ Statehouse in support of the Texas lawmakers and they had the opportunity to talk with several of them. Attending the rally were Reps. Karen Alzate, Jennifer Boylan, Cherie Cruz, Rebecca Kislak, Michelle McGaw and Teresa Tanzi and Sen. Dawn Euer.”
10. REDISTRICTING II: Via Bloomberg: Florida Gov. Ron “DeSantis insinuated that former Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, who led the Commerce Department during the Biden administration, was somehow responsible for her state keeping both of its seats while Florida only gained one.”
11. MIRACLE BABY: How did a newborn with no heartbeat or brain activity get on the path to becoming a healthy young man? David Wright has the story and how it involves a 19th century priest.
12. THE ARTS: AS220 celebrates 40 years of unjuried and uncensored art this weekend with the Foo Fest! My colleague James Baumgartner spoke with founder Bert Crenca about the early days of the organization and current leaders Anjel Newman and Janay Pina about the latest.
13. WHERE ARE THEY NOW?: C.J. Macklin managed Dan McKee’s first run for lieutenant governor, in 2014. He is now senior communications manager for Lyft.
14. KUDOS & CONGRATS: To Globe RI’s Alexa Gagosz on her engagement …. Globe RI’s Christopher Gavin on his one-year anniversary with the paper …. To RI Monthly Editor-in-Chief Jamie Coelho on the publication of her book, Rhode Island Food Crawls. She’ll be signing copies at the independent woman-owned bookstore Ink Fish Books in Warren from 1-3 pm on Saturday, Aug. 23 … and to Annelise Conway of Barrington, who was recently named as the first chief engagement officer at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
15. KICKER: As a baseball nut and something of a traditionalist, I was surprised to once learn via a virtual chat with MLB historian John Thorn that the designated hitter was first proposed in the 19th century. Now come the Savannah Bananas disrupting the status quo of hardball (tickets are $35 — try going to Fenway for that amount). And as Brittany Ghiroli writes in the Athletic, the team offers a host of lessons for MLB, including focusing on fans, making an event of pre-games and doing a better job marketing players.
