Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - May 10, 2019

HOT

Narragansett Brewery

The RI brewery is now planning to build a micro-brewery along the waterfront in Providence near India Point Park.

Congrats to the Narragansett team for moving forward with a big vision.

HOT

Karl Wadensten

Wadensten, the only member of the state's economic development board to vote against Rhode Island's $75 million investment in 38 Studios, is now urging Governor Gina Raimondo and Attorney General Peter Neronha to slow down the process and be cautious of the mega-acquisition by Boston-based Partners HealthCare's Rhode Island’s second largest hospital group, Care New England.

Wadensten, the President and CEO of VIBCO Vibrators in Pawtucket, joined GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle on GoLocal LIVE to share his concerns. 

“My antenna goes up every time we try and rush things here in the state — and generally it's done behind the scenes. This is a little bit more transparent, but well, when we rush things in the state we get outcomes that are a mixed bag and I'm really concerned as a manufacturer and a consumer,” said Wadensten.  “We have over a hundred people in our organization so I consume healthcare — you consume healthcare — so to do something like this it changes the landscape of Rhode Island.” SEE THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

HOT

Governor Solon

Cumberland’s Cadence Solon, the winner of the 2019 Governor for a Day essay contest, joined Governor Gina Raimondo on Monday at the eMoney Advisor announcement -- and spoke to her day as "Governor" of the State of Rhode Island. 

"Cadence wrote a fantastic essay about important issues facing our state. Her passion for education is inspiring," said Raimondo at the time of selection. 

Solon is a fifth-grade student at Ashton Elementary in Cumberland, wrote her essay about equal pay for women, the need for ESL and special education teachers, and school construction in Rhode Island.

On Monday, she spoke to what she hoped to learn from being "Governor for a Day" -- specifically "how hard it is," by shadowing Raimondo.

Raimondo spoke to the need to show young girls and women that they can be leaders, and said how a young neighborhood boy, when told by his father that Raimondo was Governor didn't believe it, because "she's a woman." 

HOT

Rose Weaver

Add another well-deserved statue to the mantle.  On Wednesday night, Weaver was admitted into the RI Heritage Hall of Fame

In January, GoLocal named the multitalented singer and actress “RI’s Woman of the Year.”

Joining her in this year’s class are:

Judge Frank Caprio

Col. Lester W. Cory

Richard I. Gouse

Dr.John B. Hattendorf

Sister Mary Reilly

Charles "Chuck" M. Royce

Dr.Stephen P. Salloway

Neil D. Steinberg

HOT

Entrepreneur Kevin Eve

Kevin Eve of Providence, whose business, Uproot, was declared the top winner at the 2019 Rhode Island Business Competition, taking home $83,975 in winnings – $15,000 in cash and $43,975 in professional and consulting services as the Entrepreneur Track winner, plus a $25,000 bonus cash award.

He is a mechanical engineer who has developed a space-efficient dispenser of non-dairy milks for use in cafeterias and other commercial food service operations.

HOT

RI's Working Women

Rhode Island is ranked as one of the best states in the country for working moms.

According to a recent study completed by WalletHub, RI is ranked as the 2nd best state for working moms behind only Massachusetts.

“Women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, and more than 70 percent of moms with young children are working. Yet women earned only 85 percent of what men made in 2018 and have far less upward mobility, as evidenced by the fact that only 4.8 percent of S&P 500 companies’ chief executives are female,” said WalletHub.

RI’s Rankings

11th Best - Child Care
8th Best - Professional Opportunities
2nd Best - Work-Life Balance
5th - Lowest Gender Pay Gap

HOT

Lt. General Reggie Centracchio and Bruce Raffensperger

This year’s ALS 2019 Evening of Hope honors Centracchio and Bruce Raffensperger for their efforts to raise awareness and combat this complex and devastating disease.  

They are receiving the following awards:

Bruce Raffensperger
with the "Brian Dickinson Courage Award" and 

Lieutenant General (ret) Reggie Centracchio
with the "Spirit of Lou Gehrig Award

You can support the RI ALS Chapter here.

NOT

President Donald Trump

Trump laughs when rally-goer suggests 'shooting' migrants. President Trump made an appearance in Panama City, Florida, on May 9 to host a campaign rally. When he rhetorically asked the audience “how do you stop these people,” in reference to migrants, a member of the audience replied, “shoot them!’ This caused the President to chuckle, and the crowd to laugh and cheer at the remark. 

NOT

Dispute Over Water Quality

One major environmental research group is warning that 12 Rhode Island drinking water sites impacting more than 50,000 Rhode Islanders have detected contamination of toxic PFAS — toxic fluorinated compounds.

The Rhode Island Department of Health, however, is challenging the accuracy of the methodology.

The known extent of contamination of American communities with PFAS "continues to grow at an alarming rate, with no end in sight," said Environmental Working Group (EWG) in their release of the data this week. 

As of March 2019, at least 610 locations in 43 states are known to be contaminated, including drinking water systems serving an estimated 19 million people, according to EWG.

EWG is now proposing drinking water and cleanup standards for all PFAS chemicals as a group at 1 part per trillion (ppt). Presently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's action level is 70 ppt.

In Rhode Island, the 12 locations identified by EWG impacts more than 50,000 and includes schools systems and two entire communities water systems.

NOT

Kyrie Irving

Don’t let the door of the charter plane door to NYC hit you in the rear as you go to your free agency meeting with the Knicks.  You deserve each other.

NOT

RI's Budget

Democratic lawmakers were told Thursday afternoon that the state is facing a $150 million shortfall for Fiscal Year 2020, as the state’s revenue estimating conference wraps up Friday. 

The news was delivered at a caucus of House Democrats at the Rhode Island State House before the House went into session on Thursday.

NOT

Tax Policy

Things that make taxpayers crazy.

The Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Rhode Island Division of Taxation’s position that a special sales tax exemption for Rhode Island authors applies only to works of fiction, and not to non-fiction, because non-fiction is not “creative and original.”

The lawsuit, filed by ACLU of RI cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger, argues that making such a distinction on the content of the work violates the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

“Any reputable biographer or historian should take great offense at the idea that their end product of often thousands of hours of work is not ‘original and creative.’ Just as importantly, under the First Amendment, the government does not have the authority to make an arbitrary distinction like that," said Steven Brown, ACLU of RI Executive Director: 

“Although the intent behind the original statute may have been a good one, in practice it has created a profoundly unfair situation for the published writers who live and pay taxes in our state," said Steven Porter, plaintiff and president of the Association of Rhode Island Authors. "ARIA has maintained from the beginning that treating books and authors of fiction and poetry differently than books and authors of non-fiction was not only a clear violation of their rights, but was illogical on its face. It is our sincere hope this matter can be rectified quickly on behalf of all our state's talented authors.”