Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not?
Russell J. Moore, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™
Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not?
Side of the Rhode: Who's Hot and Who's Not? - February 13, 2015
HOT
Joe Paolino
The former mayor, who happens to be one of the larger property owners in the City of Providence, told various media outlets throughout the last week that Mayor Jorge Elorza's administration should direct the public works department to begin dumping the snow into the Providence River. Paolino, albeit very diplomatically, also said the city needs to get the roads plowed better going forward. At least someone's telling it like it is around here.
HOT
Bernard Buonanno Jr.
Buonanno, a partner at Riparian Partners, an investment banking firm in Rhode Island, has been named to the board of the Convention Center Authority, which also oversees the Dunkin Donuts Center and the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. Buonanno is a close Raimondo ally and will be an influential RI player going forward.
HOT
Patricia Morgan
The Republican state representative who represents West Warwick and Coventry has introduced a bill that would prevent the use of food stamps on alcohol, entertainment, cigarettes (or used any other thing that isn't a necessity). Rhode Islanders are very generous and want to help the less fortunate, but they shouldn't be expected to pay for luxuries. Morgan deserves credit for proposing this bill.
HOT
Roger Williams University
On Tuesday, February 17, Roger Williams University will welcome filmmaker David Wilson to the school for a presentation entitled "How to talk about race without starting a riot", an event, which will focus on race relations in America and a discussion will take place following a screening following a screening of Wilson's documentary "Meeting David Wilson. It's frustrating that America still has problems with race relations, but constructive dialogues are one of the best ways to alleviate them.
HOT
6th Coziest
Honeywell Heaters ranked Providence the 6th Coziest city in their poll of the nation's most cozy places. The criteria for what went into this study isn’t clear, but the City of Providence will take all the positive press it can get these days.
HOT
Coastway Community Bank
The bank has pledged to donate $100,000 to the Rhode Island Mentoring Partnership, which will help the organization to expand into Cranston. The Rhode Island Mentoring Partnership, which brings adults into the schools for a few hours a week to spend some quality time with at risk youngsters, is a tremendous program, and the donation to expand it is highly commendable.
NOT
Representative Joe Almeida
Almeida has been arrested by the state police for allegedly misappropriating roughly $6,000 in campaign cash. Almeida is one of the nicest guys you’ll meet at the statehouse, and according to our great American tradition, Almeida should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but it wasn't a good week for him.
NOT
Gina Raimondo
In one of the most disingenuous moves I've seen this year, Governor Gina Raimondo has set up a tip line for employees in Rhode Island to report instances of gender wage discrimination. Sounds good to me, but shouldn't Raimondo get her own house in order first? GoLocalProv.com recently reported that there are far more men in her administration, and they make more money even when they hold similar positions.
NOT
Brett Smiley
The Elorza administration has come off tone deaf to the struggles that Providence residents have suffered due to the recent snowstorms. Smiley, the city's Chief Operating Officer recently told Channel 10 that residents should "hang out with friends in the suburbs" as a way to cope with the storm. Or, maybe the city could just plow the snow and throw the excess amounts into the Providence River?
NOT
NBC News
It was another bad week for the legacy media. A week after it had become obvious that news anchor Brian Williams had repeatedly lied about taking enemy fire a decade earlier in Iraq, the organization suspended Williams without pay for 6 months. His lie was especially insulting to the men and women of our armed services who actually do put their lives on the line every day to protect our freedom, and for that, he should've been fired.
NOT
Rhode Island NPR
The state's affiliate of the national public radio has earned some low ratings as of late (holding just 1/2 percent of the listening audience), and is losing two of its key administrators to other stations in Joe O'Connor and Catherine Welsh. The station still contains very talented local journalists, but the station must solve its financial and ratings woes going forward.
NOT
Boston Bruins
Just when it looked like the Boston Bruins had turned a corner after posting an impressive record in January, the Bruins lost back to back games this week, first to their arch rival the Montreal Canadiens and then to a mediocre (at best) Dallas Stars. Bottom line: the Bruins just don't have enough goal scorers, and that's kind of the point of the game.
