Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - July 14, 2023

HOT

A Rhode Island Creative Star, Shari Weschler

Art Contributor Michael Rose has a great look at the work of Shari Weschler.

Artists go through varying phases of creativity. For local painter Shari Weschler, her own art practice has sometimes taken a backseat to other responsibilities. Now creating new work, Weschler is poised for another chapter in her creative journey. In current exhibitions in Providence and Westerly, viewers can see Weschler’s artworks, which are painterly, meditative, and surreal.

Originally from Larchmont, New York, Weschler trained at the renowned Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She majored in painting but also studied photography, printmaking, and art history. After spending sixteen years in Baltimore, Weschler relocated to Rhode Island in the early 2000’s and has been active here ever since. A productive artist, she has exhibited her work throughout the Northeast and beyond. She was also the co-owner and director of Newport’s former Coastal Contemporary Gallery from 2018 to 2022, where she produced numerous engaging exhibitions focused on other artists.

READ MORE

HOT

Kevin Herchen Is Red Hot

RI Country music artist Kevin Herchen rocked the Bally’s Lounge at GoLocal.

As part of an ongoing series featuring Rhode Island’s best artist playing their original music,

Nominated as Local Male Artist of the Year by New England Country Music multiple times and his song “Beating Heart” was a Top 10 song with The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) in 2022, Herchen has worked with Grammy-nominated producer Jack Gauthier at Lakewest Studios and with Nashville producers Dustin Kirkendall and Maks Gabriel.

HOT

U.S. Inflation Falls to 3% - Plunging From Peak of 9.1% in Summer 2022

The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3% from June 2022 to June 2023, making it the smallest increase since March 2021.

On a monthly basis, overall CPI rose 0.2% compared to the 0.1% rise in May, marking a slower pace than the 0.4% reported in the previous three months.

"Why it matters," reports Axios. "Overall inflation has plunged from a peak of 9% last summer, a relief for American consumers. The core measure, watched by economists, also showed notable signs of cooling in June."

The 12-month change in overall CPI cooled rapidly from the 4% registered in May. Core CPI also edged down from May's 5.3%.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s chief economic adviser last Thursday expressed confidence that inflation would continue to improve in the second half of the year, and said it could drop to a range of 2% or slightly higher before the 2024 presidential election, according to Reuters. 

Unsplash/Ussama Azam

HOT

PPS Upgrade

Will Morgan has an excellent review of the upgrades at the Providence Preservation Society's headquarters on College Hill.

READ MORE

PHOTO: Courtesy of Warren Jagger

HOT

A Little Victory

It is not time to post the "Mission Accomplished" banner. 

But there was a minor victory this week in the battle to regain some semblance of quality of life in Providence. 

Members of the Providence Police Department seized at least three off-road dirt bikes — which are illegal for use on city streets — on Tuesday.

The confiscation of the vehicles took place on Thayer Street on the East Side.

ATVs and other illegal bikes have dominated the city for the past six years and have been tied to accidents, crimes and beatings.

GoLocal freelance photographer Anthony Sionni captured the vehicles being loaded onto flatbed trucks.

According to Sionni, officers said that the vehicles were unregistered — and driving recklessly.

See the photos here. 

NOT

Senate Secret Formula Change - More Damage to Education

The move by Senate Majority Leader Ryan Pearson to shift critical education resources from poor cities to wealthier suburbs is a huge blunder. 

The Senate repeatedly refused to disclose the changes -- back to the bad old days.

The approval of the changed formula by Senate colleagues Speaker Joe Shakarchi and Governor Dan McKee is a mammoth failure.

And RIPEC called them out on it this week. 

“State funding for K-12 schools in Rhode Island is of fundamental importance to the state’s students, parents, and communities, accounting for about a quarter of the state’s total general revenue spending,” said Michael DiBiase, President and CEO of RIPEC. “Ironically, the first year in which the funding formula became fully phased in was the last year in which the formula operated as intended. While the General Assembly made some positive changes, the FY 2024 funding formula consists of a multiplicity of modifications that are complicated and fail to reflect a coherent or consistent policy."

"The result is a patchwork of funding allocations that appear to make little sense when comparing funding outcomes for communities that are similar in terms of student demographics and their relative ability to raise local revenue for their schools,” said DiBiase. 

NOT

Can Rhode Island Do Anything Right?

Lauren Lee Malloy is still waiting for answers about her mother's death, 162 days after the remains of Lori Lee Malloy were exhumed by the Rhode Island Medical Examiner’s Office. 

Lori Lee Malloy was deemed to have died of “natural” causes in East Providence in 1993, but Lauren Lee Malloy — who was 18 months old at the time of her mother’s death — believes her mother may have been murdered.

Her mother’s body had been found naked in her apartment, with hair wrapped around her hands and feet, a faucet running, and the front door open. 

The detective 30 years ago wrote in his report that the circumstance appeared “suspicious,” and the case should be treated as a homicide investigation — but it never was. 

Armed with another forensic pathologist’s opinion that the case should be reexamined, Lauren Lee Malloy petitioned the state to reopen the case, and in November 2022, got the court to grant a motion to exhume her mother’s body. 

Malloy has been waiting. And waiting. 

“It’s hard to explain how it feels to still be waiting for my mom’s forensic exam results. It’s like holding your breath and not knowing when you’ll get to breathe again,” said Malloy. “You wait for the next gut punch, having no idea when it will happen — but knowing it will happen. Some moments it hurts, some moments you just feel numb.”

READ MORE

NOT

Bank of America, Again!

Bank of America is looking a lot like Wells Fargo and other sleazy big business.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Bank of America to pay more than $100 million to customers for systematically double-dipping on fees imposed on customers with insufficient funds in their account, withholding reward bonuses explicitly promised to credit card customers, and misappropriating sensitive personal information to open accounts without customer knowledge or authorization.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) also found that the bank’s double-dipping on fees was illegal. Bank of America will pay a total of $90 million in penalties to the CFPB and $60 million in penalties to the OCC.

This is not the first enforcement action Bank of America has faced for illegal activity in its consumer business. In 2014, the CFPB ordered Bank of America to pay $727 million in redress to its victims for illegal credit card practices. In May 2022, the CFPB ordered Bank of America to pay a $10 million civil penalty over unlawful garnishments and, later in 2022, the CFPB and OCC fined Bank of America $225 million and required it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in redress to consumers for botched disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NOT

Cranston - The Capitol of Crime

Sin City is at it again.

This week Tera Norberg, a member of the Cranston School Committee and President of the Stone Hill Elementary School Parent Teacher Group, has been arrested by the RI State Police.

Norberg was arrested by members of the State Police Financial Crimes Unit on charges including Unlawful Appropriation, Embezzlement, Filing a False Document, and Obstructing an Officer in Execution of Duty. 

READ MORE ABOUT SIN CITY

NOT

Reality Hits Home Again and No Leadership in Sight

Not much has changed in Rhode Island’s business climate since 2022, according to CNBC.

According to the latest ranking for “America’s Top States for Business 2023” — Rhode Island, for the second year in a row, ranked #45 in the country.

The top state in 2023, according to CNBC is North Carolina.

While Alaska is at the bottom of the rankings, only West Virginia, Hawaii, and Mississippi also rank below Rhode Island. 

Rhode Island’s best sub-ranking was for “Life, Health, and Inclusion” (#12), and its worst was for "Economy" (#48).

About Rankings

“To rank America’s Top States for Business in 2023, CNBC scored all 50 states on 86 metrics in 10 broad categories of competitiveness. Each category is weighted based on how frequently states use them as a selling point in economic development marketing materials. That way, our study ranks the states based on the attributes they use to sell themselves,” writes CNBC. 

NOT

Biden and China

The Biden team knew the Chinese hacked top administration members, so they responded by sending the U.S. Secretary of Treasury over to Beijing to kowtow. 

Hmmm...