Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - April 16, 2021

HOT

Rep. Anastasia Williams

Agree or disagree with her, she is one elected official who does not shy away from issues.

Kudos to those officials who speak up.

HOT

MB Finishes in "Elite 8"

Students at Providence's Moses Brown School notched a strong performance this past weekend, placing in the Elite 8 of the United States’ “Ethics Bowl” competition.

MB's two teams were comprised of a rookie team of sophomores: Mia Newquist & Massimo Vliet and junior Abigail Bayog, as well as a veteran team of seniors: Nal Ozpolat, Vibha Kamath, Lauren Metters, Nathan Kelton, and Kevin Masse.

The year’s competition was narrowed down from 5,000 high schoolers across 40 states to last weekend’s national tournament of 137 students from 8 high schools across 7 states. 

The Elite 8 single-elimination round included Moses Brown School along with Conestoga High School (Penn.), Hackley School (N.Y.), Kent Place School (N.J.), Stanford Online High School (Calif.), University High School (Calif.), Oxbridge Academy (Fla.) and New Trier High School (Ill.).
 
Moses Brown has participated in the Rhode Island Regional High School Ethics Bowl since its inception in 2016. The competition was launched by Brown University Philosophy Professor David Estlund as a competitive, collaborative event for students to discuss real-life ethical issues. 

This was MB’s first trip to nationals.
 

HOT

Peter Neronha

After years of a lackluster environmental record both as U.S. Attorney and in his two first two years as Attorney General, Peter Neronha is now getting active on environmental issues with a flurry of press releases and announcements regarding projects on Block Island, Jamestown, and now West Warwick.

Neronha has now asked RIDEM to force the medical waste facility to reapply for regulatory review.

As GoLocal unveiled in November:

And, questions are emerging about Rhode Island Attorney General’s enforcement record. In his first near two years in office as the state’s chief law enforcement official, there has been little emphasis on pursuing environmental crimes.

In the first 20 months in office, Neronha issued 139 press releases and just one was related to environmental enforcement. 

The press release claimed that his office had levied a record penalty, but the majority of the fine was waived as part of the settlement — no longer making it a record penalty.

As U.S. Attorney, environmental enforcement plummeted during the Neronha era. Under Neronha between 2013 and 2018, his office issued more than 820 press releases and just two dealt with the environment.  One of the announcements regarded a 20+-year-old Superfund case and the other was a settlement agreement by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against RIDOT.

HOT

RI's Offshore Wind Industry

Rhode Island’s leadership in the offshore wind industry took another major step forward as joint-venture partners Ørsted and Eversource announced they are taking the first steps toward transforming ProvPort into a regional offshore wind hub.

The two companies announced that they will be developing a new advanced foundation component facility to support the assembly of the developers’ portfolio of Northeast offshore wind farms.

The new 228-foot long facility will be used for advanced fabrication and assembly of foundation platforms for Ørsted and Eversource’s offshore wind projects serving Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. This facility will further develop Rhode Island’s offshore wind industry and contribute to the state’s growing blue economy.

“Rhode Island is proud to be home to not only the country’s first offshore wind farm, but also one of the most thriving offshore wind industries in the nation,” said Rhode Island Governor Daniel J. McKee. “Ørsted and Eversource are keeping their commitment to making significant investments in Rhode Island to create new, good-paying union jobs and position our port facilities to become central hubs in this growing industry. Rhode Islanders are ready to get to work building the next great U.S. offshore wind farms.”

Together, Ørsted and Eversource will deliver clean, reliable energy to the Northeast through offshore wind, providing enough electricity for nearly 1 million homes. In December 2016, Ørsted and Eversource teamed up to launch a new clean energy industry right here in the U.S. Northeast. That partnership has now grown to include at least 1,700 MW of offshore wind under development, including the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind project serving Rhode Island and Connecticut; the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind serving Long Island, and the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project serving New York.

HOT

RI Real Estate Market

The number of homes for sale for the spring season in Rhode Island is the lowest on record.

With just 1192 single-family homes on the market in Rhode Island, the current inventory is approximately 25% less than the previous monthly record low of 1594 in the spring of 2002, said the RI Association of Realtors.

Not only has the number of single-family homes for sale averaged roughly half of that recorded during the first quarter of 2020, there seems to be no letup in sight. 

According to the realtors, at the current rate of sales, if no more listings were added to the supply, no single-family homes would be available for purchase within 1.2 months, continuing a record low set in February.

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“Right now, we have the perfect storm of high demand and low supply. We’ve seen renewed interest in moving to homes that better suit the remote lifestyle add to the demand side, as well as enhanced investor interest sparked by rising rents and prices. Unfortunately, our supply has been constricted by a history of constrained housing construction, especially at the low end.  Builders have faced too many costly zoning regulations and now they’re also facing unprecedented prices for materials,” said Leann D’Ettore, president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.

HOT

Red Sox?

It is only April, but the Red Sox have won 9 out of the last 10. 

But, it is just April.

HOT

Theater Is Coming Back

The Wilbury Theatre has never stopped with creative online and socially distant outdoor events.

Now, PPAC has announced they are planning a 2021 return.

HOT

National Economy Is Hot

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 34000 for the first time Thursday after strong earnings and upbeat economic data sent stocks climbing.

The S&P 500 also notched a record close, its 22nd of the year. A powerful rally has pushed both indexes up 11% in 2021, and many investors believe the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines and plentiful government spending mean stocks have room to keep rising.

NOT

RI #2 in Coronavirus Cases Per 100,000

Rhode Island on Tuesday reported 437 new positive COVID cases, which brought the infection rate up to 43.5/100,000 according to covidactnow.org – making it the second most highly infected state in the U.S., behind only Michigan. 

Variant tracking data released by the Rhode Island Department of Health on Monday showed that 78% of positive COVID tests undergoing genomic sequencing were due to variants, up from 66% since the prior report on April 8. The majority of variants found in Rhode Island are the B.1.1.7 “U.K” and B.1.526 “New York” strains.

The B.1.1.7 variant has been shown to be 60% more contagious than the original strain.

NOT

RI Economy

A new report finds that the composition of Rhode Island’s small businesses made it one of the most vulnerable to the fiscal devastation of the ongoing pandemic.

According to WalletHub, Rhode Island ranks as the 6th most vulnerable state out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Rhode Island is also ranked the worst for New England.

Many of Rhode Island's small businesses are tied to the hospitality and tourism industries -- two industries devastated by the coronavirus. Nearly 60,000 work in the hospitality industry in RI. And, more than 50,000 are employed by the retail sector here, according to data from the RI Department of Labor and Training before the pandemic. 

NOT

College Basketball

Transfer...transfer...transfer.

College basketball as we know it may be over.