Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - December 17, 2021

HOT

Loberti Lands Netflix Role -- on First Audition Ever

Rhode Island native Aria Mia Loberti has been cast in a new Netflix series.

According to Deadline, "following a worldwide casting search, newcomer [Loberti] has been tapped as the female lead in All The Light We Cannot See, a four-part limited series adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight."

Loberti, a University of Rhode Island graduate who is blind, will play Marie-Laure, the blind teenager at the heart of the story, whose path collides with Werner, a German soldier, as they both try to survive the devastation of World War II in occupied France.

"A recent Fulbright Scholar, current Ph.D. student in Rhetoric at Pennsylvania State University and former United Nations Youth Delegate, Loberti decided to try out after learning about the casting search for blind and low-vision actresses from a former childhood teacher," writes Deadline. "She had read the book and was a fan of the story. Despite no formal acting training, Loberti beat out thousands of submissions to secure the role of the heroic protagonist. This will be her first-ever acting role."

Read more here. 

HOT

Ambassador Kwan?

As GoLocal reported Wednesday night, President Joe Biden is nominating former Rhode Islander Michelle Kwan to serve as the ambassador to Belize. Kwan was married to Clay Pell who ran for governor of Rhode Island in 2014. Kwan and Pell divorced in 2017.

Biden announcement message was as follows:

Michelle Kwan, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Belize

Michelle Kwan has had a distinguished career in public service, diplomacy, and sports. She is the most decorated figure skater in U.S. history, having won 43 championships, including five world championships, nine national titles, and two Olympic medals. She became the first Public Diplomacy Envoy in 2006 and for a decade, traveled extensively on behalf of the U.S. Department of State to engage youth around the world on social and educational issues. Kwan currently serves as the Treasurer and Board Member of Special Olympics International.

After she earned a B.A. from the University of Denver with a focus on international relations and a M.A. from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, she became a Senior Advisor at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. In addition, she served as an Advisor to the Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State, where she assisted with the U.S.-China Women’s Leadership Exchange and Dialogue. She was also a member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition and Council on Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports initiative at the U.S. Department of State.

HOT

RISD's New President

The Rhode Island School of Design will have a new President in the new year. 

RISD’s Board of Trustees on Thursday announced the appointment of Crystal Williams as the institution’s 18th president effective April 1, 2022.

About Williams:

Currently, Boston University’s vice president and associate provost for community and inclusion, Williams was selected after an international search for a leader with the capability and passion to educate artists, designers and scholars for a rapidly changing future, and one with the global vision to guide RISD’s role in helping to create a more just, fair and sustainable society, said the board in a statement.

They continued: 

"An accomplished leader, collaborator and community builder, Williams brings more than two decades of higher education experience to RISD, having served at Reed and Bates in addition to her current role at BU. Throughout her career Williams has been an institutional catalyst, helping to envision, define and achieve greater outcomes for students, faculty and staff. As a faculty member, Williams advanced artistic inquiry and engagement and, as a leader, she has focused on ensuring institutions are more effective, mission-aligned and diverse, equitable and inclusive. 
 
In addition to her roles in higher ed, Williams is an award-winning poet and essayist. She has published four collections of poems, and her work is part of MoMA’s Poetry Project, a tour of poems responding to pieces in the museum’s permanent collection.   

The site includes a video interview with Crystal Williams, where she talks more about the experiences that led her to RISD, her leadership style, the importance of access and truly opening up opportunities for the world’s most promising creatives, her hopes for the future, and RISD’s unique opportunity to play an essential leadership role in helping to catalyze more inclusion in the arts and in creative spaces across the world."

HOT

Funding for Homelessness

Governor Dan McKee announced on Thursday additional measures to serve Rhode Islanders experiencing homelessness.

McKee announced the expansion of emergency shelter capacity at local homelessness service providers for Rhode Islanders battling homelessness. Additionally, another Quarantine and Isolation (Q&I) facility is opening to serve housing insecure individuals and families who test positive for COVID-19.

“It is crucial that we provide shelter to get Rhode Islanders off the streets – now,” said McKee.

“Thanks to a roughly $5 million investment that we recently made available to our homelessness service providers, we’ve seen roughly 220 new emergency beds in shelters and hotels come online in the past six weeks alone. But we knew more was needed. I want to thank our partnering agencies, communities, hotels, and service providers for committing to this expansion,” added McKee.
 

HOT

James Diossa Sets Sights on Higher Office

James Diossa, the former two-term mayor of Central Falls, announced his candidacy for Rhode Island General Treasurer. 

Diossa helped oversee the turnaround of Central Falls after the city's bankruptcy.

“Next year I will be a candidate for General Treasurer,” said Diossa. "I believe the government needs to serve the people -- not the other way around," he continued. "As General Treasurer, I will continue working toward positive change for my state through hard work and honesty, because that's the kind of leader Rhode Islanders deserve.” 

In 2020, Diossa was a candidate for the vacant Lt. Governor's position, but was not selected by Governor Dan McKee. 

This is expected to be a crowded field in the Democratic primary. 

“I’m running for Treasurer to move Rhode Island forward,” said Diossa, “and not let it slip back into the old way of doing things. It doesn't matter if you live in Warren, Warwick, Westerly, or Woonsocket. I have a record of getting stuff done and making progress," said Diossa.

Diossa, 36, lives in Pawtucket with his fiance State Senator Sandra Cano, and their two-year-old daughter. He currently works at The Policy Lab at Brown University.

NOT

Failed Facts, Failed Strategy

Rhode Island House Republican leader Blake Filippi and other House GOP members issued one of the most irresponsible statements during the pandemic on Wednesday.

They claimed that the Rhode Island Department of Health's regulation that requires healthcare workers to be vaccinated is the cause of the current hospital crisis.

First, both hospital groups Lifespan and Care New England set those policies in place prior to RIDOH's requirement -- as had most hospital systems across the country. 

De facto, the GOP's argument is that if we had more healthcare workers, then we could then entertain more infections, more people on ventilators, and more ICU patients. Forget about any preventative measures.

The GOP strategy is irresponsible, lacks a basic understanding of science, and is built on a foundation of failed facts.

NOT

Inflation

The Biden Administration announced last week that the consumer price index hit 6.8% -- the highest level of inflation in 39 years.

For middle-class Rhode Islanders, this is a significant economic hit.

“As you know, inflation erodes an average family’s purchasing power. The actual impact will depend on the basket of goods and services a family is purchasing. For example, the increased cost of housing is a driver of inflation, but some families have mortgages and rents that are fixed,” said Michael DiBiase, the executive director of RI Public Expenditure Council.

“For the average family making the same income and purchasing the average set of goods and services, their income would purchase about 7% less over the past year, which would be the equivalent in purchasing power to a 7% pay cut,” DiBiase said.

Read more here. 

NOT

RI Department of Transportation

Does RIDOT care about Rhode Islanders -- or just contractors?

One year after the lead contractor on the 6/10 construction site — Barletta Engineering/Heavy Machine —  was ordered to remove the contaminated soil from the Olneyville neighborhood in Providence, the site today is littered with debris, broken fencing, and what one of the abutting homeowners calls “a disaster.”

Virginia Carmona and her husband Teofilo (or “Ramon” to his friends) own one of the adjacent homes to the site and have suffered from two years of contamination and the trashing of their neighborhood.

She and her family have endured pounding that they say damaged their foundation and cracked their steps, contaminated soil that covered their backyard making it unusable, and soil deemed contaminated by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) that was stacked up to their second-floor window.

“They did not clean,” said Carmona in an interview on Monday. “They did nothing, nothing.”

For the better part of two years, the Carmona family and other neighbors have been unable to use their backyards, grill, or enjoy family get-togethers outside.

NOT

Kip's Closing, Chase Bank Coming

There are few restaurants that are such an institution, that they have a city corner named after them.

Such is the case of Kip’s Restaurant in Pawtucket at the corner of Newport Avenue and Armistice Boulevard, which was officially recognized as “Kip’s Corner” in 2009, for “fifty years of community service and friendship.”

The restaurant was founded in 1959.

Now, it is slated to be demolished, and current owner Hank Macomber told GoLocal he was informed by his landlord he needed to be out by February 1, 2022; he is closing Kip’s on January 19. 

Macomber said that last week, city officials came into the restaurant asking “where the drive-up window was slated to go.”

Except that Macomber had put in no such zoning request.

He soon found out the “window” is for the next business coming to the location in Pawtucket — a Chase Bank branch.

“This is terrible,” said Macomber. 

Read more here.