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Artist to Know: Printmaker Dan Wood

Michael Rose, GoLocal art contributor, has a look at the skills of Providence's Dan Wood:

In an unassuming industrial building in Providence’s West End, printmaker Dan Wood is at work on a major project producing cards with letterpress accents for the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. His shop is filled with vintage printing equipment and there is a steady hum of mechanical elements. His apron is flecked with printer’s inks.

Alongside this busy commercial business, he also produces text-based artworks on the same machines and enthusiastically shares his joy for print media. One of the city’s most active and experienced printmakers, Dan Wood, is an artist to know.

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URI Men's Basketball First 20 Minutes v. UConn

If you saw the first half of the URI exhibition game against the two-time National Champion University of Connecticut, you have to be optimistic for the upcoming season for the Rams.

The Rams looked like they might be able to upset the Dan Hurley-led Huskies.

The second half, not so much.

The new URI 7-0 center Javonte Brown was impressive with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

HOT

Kamala Harris

After an embarrassing performance on the fluff show The View last week, Harris took on Fox News and scored points with direct responses and a strong command of fiscal issues.

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FTC

The Federal Trade Commission announced this week a final “click-to-cancel” rule that will require sellers to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up. Most of the final rule’s provisions will go into effect 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” said Commission Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”

The Commission’s updated rule will apply to almost all negative option programs in any media. The rule also will prohibit sellers from misrepresenting any material facts while using negative option marketing; require sellers to provide important information before obtaining consumers’ billing information and charging them; and require sellers to get consumers’ informed consent to the negative option features before charging them.

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Ken Block's Smart Analysis About McKee and Alivit's Incompetent Management of the Washington Bridge Failure Fiasco 

Block writes:

Rhode Island’s Department of Transportation (RIDOT) is an out-of-control mess. Director Alviti has spent the better part of a year lying, deflecting, and generally obstructing any effort to understand how his organization failed to detect that a major bridge deteriorated to the brink of failure.

The RIDOT solicited bids for a major procurement to build a new bridge, but no company bid on it (an almost unheard-of situation). The state is suing nearly every substantial company capable of building large bridges in our state, and it wonders why companies are not flocking to do business with it.

In keeping with its spirit of secrecy and opaqueness, RIDOT recently held a “community meeting” that lasted nine minutes and did not allow community members to ask questions. RIDOT’s transparency is so lacking that when reporters asked Alviti for the name of the person who filled a key, federally mandated position within the RIDOT, he refused to name the employee.

We just learned that RIDOT will not award a contract to build the new bridge until June 2025. If someone actually bids this time, it will be years before the job is completed.

No one within our state government has stepped up to provide the adult supervision the RIDOT lacks.

Under Governor Dan McKee, the executive branch has done nothing to illuminate what is happening within the RIDOT. Incredibly, McKee has allowed Director Alviti to keep his job even after he exhibited poor judgment, lied, screwed up the maintenance of the bridge, failed to detect the bridge was failing, and botched the new bridge procurement. Alviti would be out of a job almost anywhere else that isn’t RI government.

The legislative branch, under RI’s most powerful political figure, Speaker Joe Shekarchi, has done little to rein in the RIDOT circus. More than enough has gone wrong to justify the speaker empowering his oversight committee to issue subpoenas and haul in everyone at the RIDOT to testify under oath about what is happening. Shekarchi has said little about the bridge disaster despite the RIDOT’s ineptitude, which cost us hundreds of millions.

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Patriots Christian Barmore's Claims Providence Police Are Racist

On Wednesday, Patriots star defensive lineman, after a traffic stop by Providence Police, took to X and claimed racism.

The body camera of the incident does not support Barmore's claims and, in fact, shows Barmore repeatedly calling officers the "N-word."

SEE BODY CAMERA HERE

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Cooking Providence's Crime Data

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley claims data shows crime is decreasing. GoLocal’s tracking of cases shows that some violent crimes are being undercharged, raising questions about Providence Police data under the Smiley administration.

One example of Providence Police undercharging was the report of a beating of a man in downtown Providence on the evening of August 15.

According to police, a man was jumped by multiple men and severely beaten. GoLocal dug into the case.

Police Report: Victim Beaten Unconscious, Internal Injuries, Teeth Knocked Out

The reported beating occurred just outside of Providence City Hall on Washington Street.

On a Providence Police body camera clip, a member of the Providence Fire Department treating the victim can be heard saying to the victim, "Your eyes are swollen shut, you're bleeding."

The video was secured by GoLocalProv Access to Public Records Act request.

According to police, the witnesses said the suspects had been riding e-scooters at the time of the assault; the victim reportedly lost teeth and was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for potential internal injuries.  A security camera from a nearby building captured the assault.

Twice during body camera footage secured by GoLocal, a Providence Police officer described the severity of the crime. At one point one of the officers said, "It's going to be felonies." 

At another point in the body camera footage, the officer said to a witness he was interviewing, "Obviously, he was very badly assaulted."

Ultimately, four men were arrested and charged with only misdemeanors, rather than felony assault. FBI crime data does not track misdemeanors.

GoLocal asked Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez repeatedly why the men arrested for the beating were charged by Providence Police with misdemeanors rather than felony assaults, he refused to respond to multiple messages.

Court records showed that two of the suspects have arrest records, and one was already facing a lengthy list of felony charges stemming from a breaking-and-entering in the city in 2022 “with criminal intent.”

Now, two months later, all four have had their charges resolved.

Of the four individuals arrested, charges were dropped against two of the men and the two others pled “Nolo Contendere,” court fees were waived and they received no jail time.

The charges are on record with the court for six months.

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Poor Harvard - Donations Slide 15%

Bloomberg reports, "Harvard University’s donations tumbled the most in nine years amid a surge in alumni anger over the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus, and its top financial official sounded a warning on rising costs.

Cash gifts fell 15% to less than $1.2 billion during the fiscal year ended June 30, Harvard said in a financial report Thursday. Some of the largest donors, including billionaires Len Blavatnik and Ken Griffin, have paused donations to their alma mater over the past year, as did other less-wealthy graduates."

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Who Is Running Providence?

Mayor Brett Smiley and the Providence City Council are endlessly at odds with one another.

- School funding battle

- Comprehensive Plan

Smiley threatened to veto the entire Comprehensive Plan if it included the committee-approved amendment to prohibit new gas station development. 

In response, Council President Rachel Miller released the following statement:

“The Comprehensive Plan guides our vision for growth over the next decade. The City and City Councilors have engaged hundreds of residents in thorough conversations, including countless community meetings, four public hearings, and hundreds of letters of testimony. Clear themes emerged around a vision of growth for Providence's working families: housing development, affordability, health and safety, maintaining the character of our neighborhoods, and resiliency in the face of a changing climate. The amended Comp Plan does exactly that. To threaten a two-year process—potentially relinquishing our ability to govern our land use to the state—over this issue is irresponsible. There are over 40 gas stations in the city, land which can be used as gas stations in perpetuity. There is no known demand for more. Rhode Island has the highest asthma rates in the country. Last year, Providence rents increased at a higher rate than any other city nationwide. The amended Comp Plan simply says: available land will be prioritized for uses that meet our urgent needs. Every square foot should be prioritized for new homes and clean, family-sustaining jobs. That the Mayor would risk the entire plan for the potential of building more gas stations is reckless.”