Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - November 22, 2024

HOT

On Saturday Night, Not One Empty Seat

The recent run of Mamma Mia! at the Providence Performing Arts Center made history this month. 

Lynn Singleton, president and CEO of PPAC, announced that the November 12 -17, 2024, engagement of Mamma Mia! at PPAC broke box office records.

Mamma Mia! is now the highest-grossing one-week Encore Series engagement in PPAC history, grossing over $1.572 million. Nearly 24,000 people went to see the 25th-anniversary production of Mamma Mia! during its eight performances.

“Last week’s engagement of Mamma Mia! at the Providence Performing Arts Center was a smashing success," said Singleton. "Those who attended the show gave an economic boost to Providence, packing our city’s restaurants and parking lots. We are elated by this great response from our subscribers and patrons; we are looking forward to Mamma Mia's next return to Providence.”

HOT

Track Record of Success

Arthur Parks, the Senior Associate AD, de facto, the sports information director at Providence College, has been managing an ever-growing department now for decades.

He has done it for 30 years — kudos to Parks.

HOT

Breaking the Mold - Again 

Digit Murphy knows sports. 

Murphy coached the Brown University Women’s Ice Hockey team and the U.S. National Team, before she went on to the National Women’s Hockey League and the Chinese professional hockey league. 

Now, she mentors top-level players and coaches, consults on the development of athletics facilities — and is setting out to reinvent the NIL space for women.  

This fall, Murphy — a Providence resident — launched the United Women's Sports NIL Agency here in Rhode Island. 

NIL stands for "name, image, and likeness" and refers to the legal right of college athletes to profit from their own image, name, and likeness. The NCAA changed its rules to allow NIL on July 1, 2021.

Based on projections, the NIL market for college athletes is expected to reach $2.55 billion in its fifth year, up from $917 million in its first year. 

Read GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle's story HERE

HOT

PC and URI

The Providence College and Rhode Island men's basketball programs are a combined 9-0 to start the 2024-2025 season. 

NOT

Two Worlds

Brian J. Foley lives the good life. The nursing home chain boss lives in a waterfront Newport mansion. 

In Rhode Island, one of Foley’s nursing homes was recently hit with a penalty totaling as much as $500,000 for deficiencies impacting elderly patients, and this is far from the first time this home has been cited. Across his corporation, his nursing homes have been cited for hundreds of violations.

Foley owns about 20 nursing homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut under the name Apple Rehab, and it has many other companies in both states, including one of Newport’s entertainment hot spots.

If that was not enough, Foley and his wife were also tied to one of New England's biggest political corruption cases.

Hundreds of Thousands of Fines at One Rhode Island Nursing Home

The amount of the latest fine is disputed. ProPublica reports the Westerly nursing home, Apple Rehab Clipper, was assessed with penalties totaling $562,495 for its most recent violations since May.

The Rhode Island Department of Health had slightly different numbers for the violations. It says the most recent penalties totaled $491,815.

Michael Landi, Vice President of Operations for the nursing home chain, told GoLocal that the most recent fine for the Westerly nursing home is $270,940.

Landi said the company is appealing the fines. "The most important thing to say at the outset, though, is we have multiple appeals pending," said Landi in a phone interview with GoLocal last week.

He added that one factor in the assessment of the penalty had to do with the sprinkler system. "The last thing to get fixed is used in the calculation method of the per day fine and the last thing to get fixed was a sprinkler repair," said Landi.

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PHOTOS (L-R): The Foleys' home in Newport, estimated to be valued at $14M (Newport Tax Assessor) and file photo.

NOT

Self-Inflicted Financial Chaos

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and his predecessor Jorge Elorza tried to avoid having the city of Providence pay its share of the Providence School Department bill, but they got caught.

Now, Smiley faces a budget crisis and admits that the city may have to implement a mid-year tax increase to address the financial shortfall.

This would be the first mid-year tax hike since the late Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, Jr. was Mayor of Providence — the first time before he was convicted of his first felony — since 1981.

Neither Rhode Island’s near depression-like credit union crisis of the early 1990s nor the financial crisis Mayor Angel Taveras found after David Cicilline left City Hall for Congress in 2011 caused the city to implement a mid-year tax increase. 

The New York Times reported in April of 2012, “Taveras had been in office for two months last year when he announced that this capital city was in dire financial shape — not the Category 3 hurricane he had expected, he said at the time, but a full-on Category 5.”

Now, a lawsuit by the Rhode Island Department of Education is forcing the city of Providence to pay its share of the cost of the Providence Public School Department (PPSD), and the recent decision by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Lanphear has forced Smiley to settle the case and pay up.

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NOT

Any Reporter in Rhode Island Who...

Any reporter publishing an article about Gina Raimondo thinking about running for Governor in Rhode Island again should hand in their press pass and go get a PR job.

Clearly, they know nothing about Gina Raimondo. 

She wants to run for the White House, not return to the State House.

NOT

Trump's Appointments

Matt Gaetz was a bad joke. Some of the other appointments, like Dr. Oz, Robert Kennedy, and Pete Hegseth, are raising significant concerns.