Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - May 31, 2019

HOT

Twin River HQ Coming to Providence

Twin River's parent company announced on Tuesday that it will locate its corporate headquarters to Providence in 100 Westminster -- a building owned by downtown developer Joe Paolino.

According to Marc Crisafulli, Executive Vice President, the company will occupy space on the 10th floor. They expect to move into the space in June.

"With a geographic footprint that now spans the entire country, we explored many potential options for our new corporate headquarters, but locating in Providence, Rhode Island just felt right to us," said Crisafulli.  "Our roots in this state run deep as do our relationships with our stakeholder community. Importantly, it allows us to remain in close proximity to our flagship property, Twin River Casino Hotel in Lincoln, and our sister property in Tiverton, our 2,500 Rhode Island employees, and millions of customers."

HOT

URI Men's Basketball

The University of Rhode Island (URI) men’s basketball team got a commitment from four-star guard Elijah Wood for the freshman class of 2020 on Monday.

He made the announcement via his Twitter account.

Wood is coming to URI after recommitting from Tulane due to head coach Mike Dunleavy being fired.

“This has been a very stressful and hard process since the de-commitment. But I was told everything happens for a reason and god will have my back no matter what. I would like to thank my coaches who have been here along the way and never switched up. I would like to thank close friends and family that never changed through dark times. Finally, I would like to thank Coach Cox and the Rhode Island staff for giving me the opportunity to be apart of this winning culture,” Wood wrote on Twitter.

Wood also had offers from Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, and Kansas State.

HOT

Peter Neronha and Patricia Morgan

Attorney General Peter Neronha will release documents in the Google settlement fund case -- and also agreed to refund $3,750 in copying and retrieval costs that former House Minority Leader Patricia Morgan was required to pay for some of the documents last year under former Attorney General Peter Kilmartin.

“I am hopeful that the Attorney General’s concrete actions, in this case, mark the beginning of a steady departure from those of his predecessor in addressing open records issues.  The stakes for accountability and transparency in our government are too high otherwise,” said RI ACLU executive director Steven Brown.

After the ACLU and Morgan have a chance to review the thousands of revised records that have now been released, they will consider whether the court appeal needs to proceed. 

HOT

Frank Ricci

Ricci is the fed-up Johnston resident who decided to mow the grass next to a Route 6 off-ramp -- himself.

He took to Facebook to share photos of him mowing the grass -- and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation has responded. 

On Facebook, Ricci wrote, “30 years of living in Johnston, I finally had enough of the on/off ramps Grass NEVER Getting cut on RT6! John Kennedy said it best! Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

Ricci continued:

Well if the DOT can’t cut the grass then We have to do it! What's wrong with having some of the unemployed help who are collecting! There are 1000 still without work in RI! If I can do it anyone can!

When I am elected State Senator next November you better bet I am sponsoring a bill to have our state look presentable! This is Such an Embarrassment!

This was 4 hours of cutting, a gallon of water, and 3 gallons of gas. Ok lets calculate, Home Depot rental $90, Gas $9.00, Labor $32, reflection on Johnston Priceless."

NOT

Nellie Gorbea

Bad space, but another lease.

Huh?

Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea says that a new study unveils that the state archives exhibit and storage location needs to be replaced and is advocating for Rhode Island to spend millions to build a dedicated building to store and exhibit valuable historic document and antiquities.

While calling for new space, Gorbea simultaneously pushed for the state to continue to lease space in downtown Providence from developer Joe Paolino’s company for up to an additional four years.

Gorbea criticized the Paolino space in a press release on Tuesday in announcing the findings of the study, ”The State Archives has occupied a leased space at 337 Westminster Street in Providence since 1990. The building is an office space located in a geographic flood plain, and was meant to be a temporary location. The Archives is home to more than 10 million items in a variety of formats dating back to 1638.”

Long-Term Lease Now Unsuitable, According to Gorbea

The state's lease was renewed with Paolino in March of 2016 for up to four years — the rent payments generate more than $640,000 over the course of the agreement for Paolino’s company.

GoLocal asked Gorbea’s office why if the space was inferior, did Gorbea’s office not oppose the lease renewal with Paolino. Her spokesman Nick Domings said Gorbea’s focus was on finding a permanent location.

Over nearly 30 years Paolino has been paid millions by the state in rent for the Westminster Street space  — used by the Secretary of State's archives, for “temporary” space which is deemed to be putting Rhode Island’s history “at risk.”

NOT

Partners HealthCare Offshoring $100M

A report issued by the Massachusetts Nurses Association charges that officials at Partners HealthCare and other leading hospitals are offshoring more than $1.6 billion in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens.

According to MNA, Partners Healthcare offshored $100,909,744 in its most recent fiscal year tax filings. 

MNA is calling on Massachusetts lawmakers to pass legislation requiring financial transparency from hospitals and the returning of excess profits and CEO pay to the public good.

Presently, Partners HealthCare is moving to acquire Rhode Island's second-largest hospital group — Care New England, who owns Women & Infants, Butler and Kent Hospitals.

“We can improve our health care system by shining a light on hospital finances, limiting excessive CEO pay and ensuring that the public has a stronger voice in shaping how our health care dollars are spent,” said Karen Coughlin, a 35-year RN from Mansfield and Vice President of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

MNA spokesperson David Schildmeier told GoLocal that Partners HealthCare "needs to be stopped."

"Before they close a hospital or a service they need to bring the $100 million back from a tax haven. They closed half the detox beds at Faulker Hospital and would have closed all of them if [MNA] had not made a stink. They close the beds in the midst of the biggest overdose epidemic in history,” said Schildmeier.

“[Partners] closed the pediatric unit at Cooley Dickinson and made people drive to Springfield citing costs,” said Schildmeier. The extra travel amounts to about 30 miles.

The MNA argues in its report that the offshore funds “are taxpayer funds from Medicare and Medicaid.” The report cites 65.6% of Partners HealthCare’s revenue is from Medicare, Medicaid, and state funds. The data is from Partners HealthCare 2016 tax filings.

NOT

Beverly Hills "Opportunistic" Low Income Housing Company

The Beverly Hills, California firm that owns multiple low-income properties in Rhode Island including the controversial Park Plaza apartments in Johnston receives millions of dollars in subsidy payments from Rhode Island Housing, GoLocal has learned.

Boulevard Capital LLC, which goes by “BLVD Capital," self-describes itself as "an opportunistic real estate investment firm that focuses on the acquisition and rehabilitation of distressed and value-add real estate investments on the west coast, and the acquisition and preservation of low-income multifamily properties nationwide.”

The properties that the Beverly Hills firm owns are intended to provide housing to the poorest in Rhode Island. The first of what lawyers say will be upwards of 40 lawsuits were filed in Superior Court last week alleging the Park Plaza development in Johnston has been “grossly negligent.”

Boulevard Capital has set up a web of corporations to control its projects. In Rhode Island, the names of the low-income housing properties' corporations are “Stay Away From The Cans, LLC,” “WHERE DO YOU SUMMER, LLC,” and “Is This Hand Shucked SPE, LLC.”

Each corporate name given by the Beverly Hills firm is tied to lines from movies — “Stay Away from the Cans” a quote from “The Jerk” by Steve Martin; “Where do you summer” is from another Martin movie “LA Story;” and “Is this hand shucked” is a line from “What About Bob?” starring Bill Murray.

NOT

Death of Local Media

What made the Valley Breeze special was that Publisher Tom Ward lived in the community.

His brother was on the Woonsocket City Council. His staff lived in the area -- their children went to the local schools.

The Valley Breeze was one of RI's only stable newspaper groups, but now it is owned by a Virginia media group.

NOT

Brad Marchand

Can't be a superstar playing in the NHL playing like this in the Stanley Cup Final.