Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - February 14, 2020

HOT

Carol Young

The former Providence Journal editor is being inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Her well-deserved recognition reads:

During 45 years at The Providence Journal, Carol rose from small-town bureau reporter to statewide education reporter, and eventually to deputy executive editor – second in charge of the news department. She was a leader of the Providence Newspaper Guild during a time of labor strife, before becoming the first woman to join the Journal’s management team in 1979. She was a guiding force behind the newspaper’s intern program, serving as a mentor for many who would go on to careers at The Journal and at other publications around the nation.

Since retirement, Carol has remained extremely active in the Rhode Island community. She is chairwoman of the board of directors at Inspiring Minds, which provides tutors and mentors for students in the Providence public schools. She is also a member of the advisory council to the president of the University of Rhode Island; and an active volunteer with Leadership Rhode Island, which named her one of the state’s “inspiring leaders’ in 2018.

HOT

Bernie Sanders

The 78-year-old socialist is stacking up big wins.

In the last 40 years, only one Democrat or Republican has gone on to become the President after losing both Iowa and New Hampshire — Bill Clinton.

HOT

RI's Economy

Not bad, not bad at all. 

According to the report from RIPEC and Bryant University, RI’s GDP expanded by an annualized rate of 2% during the quarter and by almost 2.5% for the calendar year.  

“These data points demonstrate that Rhode Island's economy continues to deliver strong performance, essentially expanding at the same rate as the rest of New England and the nation as a whole over the past year. However, Rhode Island has not been able to close the growth gap that has grown and persisted since the Great Recession,” said RIPEC President and CEO Michael DiBiase.

According to the report, GDP growth is projected to increase by 1.9% in the first quarter of 2020.

HOT

John Ghiorse, Frank Colletta, Karen Adams and More

GoLocal meteorologist John Ghiorse will be inducted into the Rhode Island Radio and TV Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

Ghiorse is one of the founders of GoLocal that launched in April of 2010. Each day he gives an early morning forecast of the daily weather in Rhode Island via The Ghiorse Factor -- it can be found on the top left corner of every GoLocal page.

Ghirose is a graduate of Harvard University and Penn State University.

Other Members of the Class

Other members of the class of 2020 include former WPRI news anchor Karen Adams, WJAR morning host Frank Colletta, 92 Pro FM’s DJ Davey Morris, WPRO’s Mitch Dolan, and the late WJAR investigative reporter Jim Taricani.

HOT

Bill Reynolds

Brown University athletic director Jack Hayes and men’s basketball coach Mike Martin paid tribute to long-time Providence Journal sportswriter Bill Reynolds in a ceremony prior to the Brown game versus Havard University.

The award was bestowed to Reynolds for his accomplishments as a player and for his decades of success as a writer.

This year, the United States Basketball Writers Association of America will induct a class of five new members to its Hall of Fame at the Final Four in March that includes Reynolds.

Reynolds is the author of several books, including "Fall River Dreams" and (with Rick Pitino) the #1 New York Times bestseller "Success Is a Choice." He grew up in Barrington and today lives in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Reynolds retired from full-time duties in 2019, but continues to write his “For What It’s Worth" column.”

NOT

Seth Magaziner

Yikes.

The rate of return for the Employees' Retirement System of the State of Rhode Island (ERSRI) dropped to 6.54% in Fiscal Year 2019 and net investment income fell $100 million from the prior year, according to the Rhode Island Auditor General's audit released Monday. 

The time-weighted rate of return during the fiscal year was 6.54% (compared to 8.03% during the prior fiscal year), and net investment income was $532 million (compared to a net investment income of $633 million during the fiscal year 2018). 

For the period the same period -- July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019 -- equity indices were +10.41% for the S&P 500 and +12.20% for Dow Jones.

"This report indicates that the pension has underperformed both its custom benchmark and 60/40 benchmark for the year and significantly underperformed the S&P 500," said Rhode Island pension critic Edward "Ted" Siedle, who writes for Forbes and recently became the biggest whistleblower in SEC history. 

"While hedge fund investments have been cut in half -- they have not been eliminated," said Siedle. "And greater assets have been allocated to high-cost, high-risk private equity real estate, and infrastructure investments."

"This is hardly 'back to basics,'" said Siedle, alluding to General Treasurer Seth Magaziner's strategy. 

NOT

Newspapers, Part 1

McClatchy, one of the nation’s largest newspaper publishers, filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday.

According to reports in the Washington Post, "The Chapter 11 filing will allow the Sacramento-based company to keep its 30 newspapers afloat while it reorganizes more than $700 million in debt, 60 percent of which would be eliminated. If the plan wins court approval, control of the 163-year-old family publisher would be turned over to hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, its largest creditor. The company has obtained $50 million in financing from Encina Business Credit to maintain operations while it undergoes bankruptcy proceedings."

NOT

Newspapers, Part 2

Charles Munger, who is a newspaper executive as well as a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. vice chairman, said U.S. newspapers have no future this week.

“Technological change is destroying the daily newspapers in America,” Munger, 96, said Wednesday in Los Angeles at the annual meeting of Daily Journal Corp., the publishing company where he is chairman. “The revenue goes away and the expenses remain and they’re all dying.”

“They’re all going to die,” Munger said Wednesday. “It’s a sad thing.” He named some exceptions, saying the New York Times and Wall Street Journal are likely to survive.

NOT

Bryant University and Relationship with the Chinese Confucius Institute

Ron Machtley has done a wonderful job transforming Bryant, but the University needs to answer questions about its relationship with the Chinese government's Confucius Institute.

There is growing criticism by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress about the influence of Chinese “education” programs on college campuses across the country via the Confucius Institute.

The programs have been criticized as being centers for espionage, tools for the Chinese government to control dissent, and structures for developing strategies to collect intellectual properties. Most of the programs are funded in whole or in part by the Chinese Ministry for Education. 

In late 2018, the University of Rhode Island announced it was ending its relationship with the program. The announcement came just months after GoLocal sought thousands of emails tied to the Director of the Confucius Institute at URI — Dr. Wayne Wenchao He.

“In order for us to be consistent with the intent of the United States John McCain National Defense Authorization Act, which had some specific limitations,” Clifford Katz, the acting director of the Confucius Institute at URI, said. “We decided on December 1 that we were going to dissolve our Confucius Institute and terminate our relationship with the Chinese organization known as Hanban, that supports Confucius Institutes.”

Bryant University officials refused to respond to repeated phone calls and emails from GoLocal about the Confucius Institute in Smithfield.