Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? - October 23, 2020

HOT

Yum x 55 = Newport Restaurant Week

Coming soon is Newport Restaurant Week - put on a great sweater and find your favorite spots.

Newport Restaurant Week returns with a remix fit for 2020. Restaurants participating in Newport Restaurant Week: 2020 REMIX will offer up deals of their choosing for the duration of the event, November 6-15, 2020.

Discover Newport says, "Fusing seasonal fall flavors into farm-to-table and dock-to-plate dishes, restaurants will offer a variety of deals and discounts throughout the program’s 10 days. Experience tastefully crafted prix-fixe menus, gift card deals, BOGO options, half-price raw bars, and more from 55 participating restaurants." 

For more on the delicious details -- go here. 

HOT

Twin River, We Mean Bally's

Marc Crisafulli, Vice President of Twin River Worldwide Holdings, appeared on GoLocal LIVE where he talked about the gaming company's growth and national acquisitions -- as well as the future of gaming in a digital, and currently COVID, world. 

The company may be rebranding all their properties to the Bally's brand.

"If you go back a year, we had four casinos in three states — and by next summer, we’ll have 13 casinos in nine states," said Crisafulli. 

"It’s a dramatic transformation. And the thinking is, number one, we’re really set up well as a buyer of these assets - and there’s a lot of consolidation in the industry," he said. "For us, we want to try and add as many different properties as we can into our portfolio, especially at good prices and create a unified network of casinos across the country. A unified benefit of player rewards, and other synergies between the casinos."

HOT

Two RI Women Win New England Entrepreneur of the Year Awards

Two Rhode Island women have won "Entrepreneur of the Year" 2020 Awards for New England. 

Kelly Mendell, President of Middletown's MIKEL, Inc., and Milena Pagan owner of Rebelle Artisan Bagel in Providence are among the 12 recipients of the regional award. 

They are now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020 National Awards.

Award winners in several national categories, as well as the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced Thursday, November 19, during a virtual awards gala. 

Read more here. 

HOT

Central Falls Has the Best Sports Fields - Warriors Rule

There are two new sports fields in Central Falls. Thanks to Narragansett Bay Commission, the Warriors are sporting the best athletic fields - the new Macomber Field will provide playing area for soccer, football, and baseball for students in Central Falls. 

Underneath Higginson Field and track, sewer and drainage improvements mean that the NBC system functions protects the water quality in the Blackstone River.

The construction project is a part of the NBC’s comprehensive Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) project, which deals with wet-weather related overflows that cause impairments to water quality in local rivers and Narragansett Bay and the chairman of NBC Vin Mesolella couldn't be more pleased

“Who would have thought that the most significant investment in clean water ever in the state of Rhode Island would dovetail so perfectly with providing a safe and attractive space for young athletes to develop and show off their skills and abilities?” said Mesolella. The issue of CSOs is a legacy of the centuries-old sewer systems in Providence Pawtucket, and Central Falls. “This field is an elegant solution to a 150 year-old issue,” he added.

HOT

Reinvention

Even a global pandemic can't keep one Rhode Island businesswoman down.

Pat Paolino Cruz, one of Rhode Island’s premier event and networking marketers, is reinventing herself after COVID-19 crippled her business.

Due to the economic downturn more than 59,000 Rhode Islanders are now out of work.

Cruz’s diverse background includes event marketing, hosting a radio show, and being a successful social media innovator, which has ranked her among the Rhode Islanders with the highest calculated social media influence.

From Social Media to Real Estate

Now, Cruz has reinvented herself and become a licensed real estate agent in Rhode Island since the virus hit. It is a significant change since running her magazine New England Women's Journal as well as the RI Women's Expo.

Read more here. 

HOT

NYC Mayoral Candidate's RI Connection

Maya Wiley recently announced her candidacy in the 2021 race for Mayor of New York City -- and she has deep Rhode Island ties. 

Wiley, a former top staffer to outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio and until recently on-air contributor on MSNBC, is the daughter of prominent Rhode Island community organizer George Wiley.

"We're changing how we do things here in New York," wrote Wiley on her Facebook page. "We're showing the world that everyone -- no matter how much money you make, what language you speak, what you look like -- you can live in the greatest city in the world. With dignity."

Rhode Island Roots

Wiley’s father George was a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and a national civil-rights leader. Her aunt is education and athletic trailblazer Bev Wiley.

Maya Wiley's father's tragic death was reported in the New York Times in 1973:

“Rough seas [made] the Maryland marine police call an early halt today to search operations for Dr. George A. Wiley, the former head of the National Welfare Rights Organization who is missing and presumed drowned in the Chesapeake Bay.

The George Wiley Center in Pawtucket is named in his honor.

Read more here. 

HOT

Best Airport in the Free World? Just About.

In the past 12 months, T.F. Green has won the following awards.

#2 Best Small Airport USA Today

#4 in Conde Nast

#5 in Travel and Leisure

To Rhode Islanders, of course -- Green is #1. 

NOT

Boston Red Sox

Letting Mookie Betts get away may come down as the worst decision by any baseball team in history.

NOT

MEMO

TO: Peter Neronha

You can't say you are going to run an independent investigation and then, not once, but twice stand at the podium with the police at their press conference.

Remember, you are investigating the police.

NOT

Lifespan Management Bonuses

Lifespan is giving out “special management compensation” bonuses to top execs — after reportedly receiving more than a hundred million dollars in federal CARES Act funds during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Lifespan - which refused to say just how much CARES Act funding they have received to date - defended the bonuses. 

“This fiscal year Lifespan provided a one-time performance recognition award to a very small number of mid-level managers who went above and beyond in their service during the COVID-19 crisis, working hundreds of extra hours on nights and weekends without being compensated because they are salaried employees,” said Lifespan spokesperson Kathleen Hart. 

“This one-time recognition award is not annualized into the employee’s base salary and does not have any impact on annual merit increases for non-management employees," she added. 

Rhode Island’s “transparency” portal shows two Lifespan hospitals receiving CARES Act funds — Miriam Hospital at $21,011,844.77 and Bradley Hospital — listed under “Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital” — receiving $3,637,531.

The state program differs from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ program, which shows $71 million going to five Rhode Island hospitals — and per Congressman Jim Langevin’s announcement in July, nearly $50 million of that went to two Lifespan hospitals — Rhode Island Hospital and Miriam. 

Lifespan’s CFO, however, reportedly told bondholders in September that the group’s hospitals have received $130 million in federal aid so far. 

NOT

Education Inequality Multiplied By Virus

A Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) report released Tuesday says there are "concerns about increased inequity across Rhode Island's public elementary and secondary education system since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic."

The report, entitled "Elementary and Secondary Education in the Pandemic: An Analysis of School Reopening and Distance Learning in Rhode Island," looked at key aspects of the educational experience in Rhode Island's public schools during the pandemic and provides a full picture of the reopening status of each of the state's 36 school districts.

While Governor Gina Raimondo made a call to open all elementary and secondary schools by October 13, only nine districts were fully open by that date. 

Based on RIPEC's analysis, about one-third of the students in Rhode Island's 36 districts had access to full in-person learning as of October 13, while approximately half had partial access to in-person learning, and about one-eighth had no in-person learning access.

READ REPORT HERE
 
"While there are major public health and operational challenges to reopening our public schools, it should not be acceptable to policymakers that the students most likely to be denied access to in-person instruction are already experiencing low proficiency rates," said RIPEC President and CEO Michael DiBiase. 

"They can least afford to suffer the learning loss expected to result from distance learning," he added.

The school districts that have fully reopened are suburban and rural districts in higher-income areas of the state, whereas many urban districts in lower-income communities are relying more heavily on distance learning. 

RIPEC says there is "clear consensus" among academic researchers that, overall, the educational outcomes of students engaged in virtual learning are worse than those of students in traditional brick-and-mortar schools.

"The report finds it troubling that the least open districts in Rhode Island are also among the state's lowest performing," said RIPEC.