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Post by dex on Oct 10, 2019 8:24:40 GMT -5
MY TURN How R.I. founded the U.S. Navy By Patrick T. Conley
In December 1774, two-and-a-half years after the burning of the Gaspee on June 9, 1772, and one-and-a half years after the end of the failed investigation into that act of rebellion, England dispatched the formidable 24-gun frigate HMS Rose to patrol Narragansett Bay in search of Rhode Island smugglers.
Its captain, James Wallace, greatly abused his regulatory powers, even raiding coastal farms for provisions and harassing lawful commerce. Feeling quite certain that Captain Abraham Whipple had led the Gaspee raid, Wallace said he would hang him.
Hearing of this threat, Whipple sent Wallace the following message: “Sir, before you hang a man you first must catch him!” Whipple’s full-length portrait now hangs in the main building of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.
On June 12, 1775, Rhode Island responded to Wallace and the ships under his command by establishing a colonial navy, the first of the Revolutionary era. Three days later, its 10-gun Katy under Abraham Whipple captured the Diana, one of Wallace’s armed sloops.
In August 1775, the Rhode Island General Assembly urged Congress to create a Continental navy. Then Stephen Hopkins persuaded the Continental Congress to follow Rhode Island’s lead. As the chairman of its Marine Committee, Hopkins introduced a bill to establish a U.S. Navy. It passed on Oct. 13, 1775 with support from Silas Deane of Connecticut and John Adams and John Hancock of Massachusetts.
Its first ship was the sloop Katy (renamed Providence), owned by John Brown, the leading Providence merchant and a business and political associate of Hopkins. This ship later became the first command of Captain John Paul Jones. By December, Hopkins’ committee had authorized 30 ships. Nearly half of the sailors and officers on them were Rhode Islanders.
In December 1775, Hopkins, after a diligent search, chose his brother Esek, an experienced merchant and privateersman, as the U.S. Navy’s first commander-in-chief. Was this choice nepotism or brotherly love? Hopkins also initiated a move to authorize two battalions of men to serve as amphibious troops on navy ships. Thus, on Nov. 10, 1775 in Philadelphia’s Tun Tavern, the United States Marine Corps assembled for their first recruitment drive.
Disregarding the wishes of Southern delegates to engage the British in the Chesapeake or off South Carolina, Hopkins took a small naval flotilla to the Bahamas in late winter 1776 and raided poorly-guarded Fort Nassau on the appropriately-named island of New Providence. His nearly unopposed raid of March 3, 1776 netted some cannon, munitions and gunpowder. It marked the first military landing of the United States Marines — of 270 of them.
This fact should prompt a rewrite of the Marine Corps hymn: “From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of the Bahamas” — a landing that occurred 29 years before the invasion of Tripoli.
Clearly, as this timeline indicates, Rhode Island’s role in the founding of the United States Navy was paramount, but seldom acknowledged. Unfortunately, Rhode Islanders themselves have done little to preserve that remarkable achievement. When I was chairman of the Rhode Island Bicentennial of Independence Commission (ri76), that agency worked with former Newporter John Millar to build a replica of the HMS Rose and with the Seaport’76 Foundation to do the same for the Sloop Providence.
Both historic ships were constructed and put on display as sail training vessels and tourist attractions. Then the leaders of our Ocean State let the Rose to be sold first to Connecticut investors and then to a San Diego organization for exhibit there. The Providence (once designated the state’s flagship) was recently sold to a group in Alexandria, Virginia where it is now docked for public view.
Their fate diminishes the luster of Oct. 13, Navy Day, which should be a source of Rhode Island pride.
Patrick T. Conley is historian laureate of Rhode Island.
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Post by dex on Oct 15, 2019 10:44:12 GMT -5
MY TURN Politicians make R.I. worse again By Mike Stenhouse
Last month, my organization released its 2019 Freedom Index and Legislator Scorecard for the General Assembly.
Sadly, with only 12 of 113 lawmakers scoring above zero, the members of the political class failed to fulfill their promises to help everyday Rhode Islanders. Worse, the 2019 legislative session was an unadulterated assault on individual and economic rights, the totality of which I have not seen before.
Private property rights were corroded through an expanded eminent domain law, which gives local governments unprecedented power to trespass upon and seize private property.
Rights of freedom of association were trampled upon by a new state “individual mandate” — a penalty tax for those who do not buy the specific health insurance that the government wants you to buy, even though the federal government repealed its version of this tax in 2017.
The rights of public employees were abraded. A new law forces non-union members to utilize and pay for union officials in a grievance. The landmark 2018 U.S. Supreme Court Janus decision ruled it a First Amendment violation if workers are forced to pay a union … but Rhode Island lawmakers and union bosses don’t care.
The rights of the unborn were eviscerated via our state’s new unrestricted abortion law. The right to life of a nine-month baby in the womb can now be snuffed-out if the mother claims emotional anguish. Further, if a loved child is killed in the womb by an attack on the mother, the assailant cannot be charged with manslaughter or murder because the baby’s legal status as a human being was also expunged by this brutal anytime-anywhere abortion law.
The health and economic rights of patients recovering from major medical procedures were infringed upon via a counter productive new tax on legal opioid prescriptions. Such a meaningless knee-jerk reaction to a real problem will do nothing to stop the illegal abuse of opioids, and will only increase out-of-pocket and insurance costs.
The health and privacy rights of adults were violated via enactment of a new law that forces medical providers to hand over your personal medical data to the state, without your permission, so that big brother can monitor whether or not you are undertaking the procedures that the government wants you to take.
All of us suffered a loss of economic freedom after I raised awareness about a state law that required a sales-tax rate cut once Rhode Island started collecting sales taxes on Internet purchases. Lawmakers not only ignored the law, but had the gall to repeal the law, while simultaneously increasing the range of e-products that would be subject to the Internet tax.
How much more can we take? Nationally, the economy, jobs creation and incomes are growing. Yet Rhode Island remains stagnant, continually ranking in the bottom 10 on far too many national economic indexes.
Why? The more freedoms we have, the more prosperity we will enjoy. The constitutional government of our great nation was formed to preserve our freedoms. But in the Ocean State, we reduce freedoms … and we suffer the consequences.
The progressive left and special-interest insiders have greatly diminished our liberties so they can advance their narrow and self-serving agendas. In catering almost exclusively to influential cronies, Rhode Island politicians have lost the trust of We, the People, who are also losing hope for our state.
Because voters have not held lawmakers accountable, Rhode Island has become a less hospitable place to raise a family or build a career. And because our state is not keeping pace with the rest of the country when it comes to jobs and population growth, we are likely to lose a prized U.S. congressional seat following the 2020 census.
A state constitutional convention — a true People’s Convention — may be the only way for concerned and vigilant citizens to regain our rightful voices.
Mike Stenhouse is CEO for the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a nonpartisan free-market research and advocacy organization.
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Post by dex on Oct 18, 2019 7:10:14 GMT -5
Raimondo’s disapproval rate is highest in the country among governors
By Dan McGowan Globe Staff,October 17, 2019
PROVIDENCE — This is not the list Governor Gina Raimondo wants to lead.
A poll released Thursday by Morning Consult shows Raimondo is the least popular governor in the country, and she is one of only four governors with a job disapproval rating of at least 50 percent.
The second-term Democrat has a job approval rating of 36 percent and a disapproval rating of 56 percent, passing Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin as the most unpopular governor in the country.
By comparison, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s 73 percent approval rating was best in the nation.
The online survey netted responses from 2,094 registered Rhode Island voters between July 1 and Sept. 30 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Morning Consult publishes its gubernatorial rankings on a quarterly basis.
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Post by dex on Oct 18, 2019 7:43:00 GMT -5
PROVIDENCE — “Is this about the license plate?” Stephanie Anatone, sounding a bit miffed, said into her office phone.
“There’s no big story here,” she said.
Well, this is Rhode Island, where vanity-plate adoration is stamped into the resident DNA, where single-digit plates in particular can spark a trance as they speed past on the 6 /10 Connector. Especially ones with fabled histories like Plate 7.
Anatone's father once paid $25,000 for Plate 7 — then lost it when word got out about the unusual purchase. He fought the state unsuccessfully in court for years to have it returned to him, only to see it turn up on the car of Gov. Bruce Sundlun’s wife as a Christmas present.
Granted, it’s not like elementary schoolchildren are learning Plate 7 history along with the endeavors of Roger Williams, but … no story?
Plate 7 is back in circulation, attached to the Ford Platinum Explorer driven by Anatone’s boss, David Corsetti, president of Premier Land Development, of Providence, and who records show is a regular contributor to Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gina Raimondo.
Anatone says she gave the plate to Corsetti.
The plate had belonged to her father, Carmine Carcieri, 90, of Lincoln.
“He was sick of it,” said Anatone. “There was too much attention” given the metal tag. Two years ago, “he asked me, ‘You want that stupid plate?’ "
It had not brought her father good luck, she said.
“I didn’t want it, but David did.”
Not all the details of the latest Plate 7 transaction are clear. Corsetti did not return phone calls this week, and Anatone did not respond to follow-up questions. Mystery seems to travel with Plate 7.
On Dec. 3, 1986, The Providence Journal reported that Carcieri, who ran a Middletown car dealership, had paid one Joseph McDevitt of Cranston $25,000 to surrender Plate 7, which had long been in his family, to the registry.
Once he did, Carcieri reached out to the office of Gov. Edward DiPrete for the necessary permission to have the "preferred plate" transferred to him, a requirement that exists today for low-number or -letter plates, which have often been handed out as political plums.
Over the years, Carcieri never publicly explained why he wanted the plate so badly that he would pay $25,000. But in December 1986, when word got out about the unusual arrangement, the Department of Transportation stepped in. It canceled the plate, saying the transfer raised ethical questions.
Carcieri filed suit, arguing that because the transaction did not violate any law, the cancellation deprived him of property without due process. He lost.
He pursued his case all the way to the state Supreme Court, but in December 1988 the high court sided with a lower court’s decision that Carcieri had failed to show any property right existed in a license plate number.
For eight years Plate 7 remained out of commission. (Meanwhile, the law was changed making it clear that plates could not be transferred for cash.)
Then, in December 1994, in one of his final acts as governor, Sundlun returned Plate 7 to the road — and to the front page of The Journal — by giving it to his wife, Marjorie.
Sundlun “stole that from me,” Carcieri (a distant relative of former Gov. Donald Carcieri) would later say.
The plate remained affixed to Marjorie Sundlun’s black Jeep Cherokee until 2005, when it was transferred to a food and beverage corporation called Helja Inc.
By the following year Carcieri was listed as president of Helja and Plate 7 was now on the Lexus parked in his Lincoln driveway.
“Twenty years later, it has come back to roost," a happy Carcieri told The Journal at the time. “Legally I got that plate and illegally they tried to restrain me from having it because of all the publicity.… Thanks to Marjorie Sundlun, who says I’m deserving of that plate,” Plate 7 was his.
But two years ago, Carcieri began to sour, apparently on Plate 7.
In October 2017, records show, he wrote to Raimondo’s office, explaining he wanted to transfer Plate 7 to Premier Land Development, of 100 Dorrance St., Providence.
The transfer request went through.
The other day Corsetti was at Angelo’s Restaurant on Federal Hill for lunch when a fellow patron asked him if he knew the history of the Plate 7 affixed to his Ford Explorer. Corsetti said he did, and that was about all he said about his license plate.
When Corsetti got back to the office, Anatone said, he remarked about the attention the plate continues to draw.
And not in a good way.
“He said, 'I shouldn’t have taken it.'”
— tmooney@ providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7359
On Twitter: @mooneyprojo
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friar82
Administrator
BCC Member
Posts: 8,158
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Post by friar82 on Oct 18, 2019 11:46:05 GMT -5
$25,000 for a vanity plate? Just plain out weird.
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mikemc
Friar Fanatic
Posts: 3,240
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Post by mikemc on Oct 18, 2019 13:01:00 GMT -5
$25,000 for a vanity plate? Just plain out weird. Not in RI. ....gotta love friartown...
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Post by dex on Oct 19, 2019 7:37:48 GMT -5
"And The Beat Goes On' Sonny & Cher
BREAKING: Mattiello Campaign Consultant Britt Indicted By Grand Jury UPDATED
Friday, October 18, 2019
GoLocalProv News Team
Attorney General Peter Neronha announced on Friday at a 12:45 press conference that Speaker of the House Nick Mattiello's political consultant Jeffrey Britt has been indicted by a State Grand Jury on two charges — felony money laundering and a misdemeanor charge of making a prohibited campaign contribution. The felony money laundering charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years.
These charges are tied to a mailer sent in the coordination of the Mattiello campaign by a third party funded by Britt.
Patti Doyle, spokesperson for the Mattiello Campaign, issued the following statement:
"These proceedings do not involve the Speaker. The Board of Elections resolved this issue for the campaign approximately one year ago."
Statement from Attorney General
On October 18, 2019, the Statewide Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Jeffrey Britt with one felony count of money laundering and one misdemeanor count of making a prohibited campaign contribution – specifically, making a campaign contribution but disguising it as a contribution from someone else.
As alleged in the Indictment, these charges arise from Jeffrey Britt’s conduct while working in 2016 as a paid campaign consultant to Speaker Mattiello’s campaign for re-election to the House of Representatives. It is alleged that Jeffrey Britt funded a $1,000 contribution made through a third party to defeated Republican primary candidate Shawna Lawton, to pay for a mailer endorsing Speaker Mattiello.
The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office (RIAG) and the Rhode Island State Police conducted the investigation after the matter was referred to the RIAG by the Rhode Island Board of Elections in October 2018.
“Rhode Island’s election laws exist for a reason: to ensure transparency in our elections,” said Attorney General Peter F. Neronha. “They exist to ensure that the public knows the true source of funds used to support political candidates. They exist to ensure that the public can judge the motivation underlying support for a candidate. In short, they exist to ensure the integrity of our elections.”
As alleged in the Indictment, in 2016, the Republican primary for House seat occupied by Speaker Mattiello involved two candidates – Steven Frias and Shawna Lawton. Steven Frias defeated Shawna Lawton and was subsequently defeated by Speaker Mattiello in the General Election. After the Republican primary, in October of 2016, Mr. Britt met twice with Shawna Lawton to discuss the possibility that she support Speaker Mattiello’s campaign in the general election. Specifically, as alleged in the Indictment, Mr. Britt discussed with Ms. Lawton distributing a mailer endorsing Speaker Mattiello as well as funding for the mailer.
Subsequently, as alleged in the Indictment, Mr. Britt approached a person described in the Indictment as Donor 1 and requested that Donor 1 contribute $1,000 to Ms. Lawton’s campaign. Britt delivered $1,000 in cash to Donor 1 for this purpose. As alleged in the Indictment, Donor 1 deposited $1000 in cash into his personal checking account and shortly thereafter wrote a $1000 check from that account to the campaign of Ms. Lawton.
Ms. Lawton deposited Donor 1’s $1000 check into her campaign account, along with another $1000 check delivered to her by Mr. Britt. Ms. Lawton then provided Mr. Britt with a check drawn on her campaign account for $2150, which was used to pay for the mailer.
Ms. Lawton subsequently reported the two $1,000 contributions to the Rhode Island Board of Elections, including listing the source of one of the contributions as Donor 1.
“This is a matter of great concern, and I want to assure the people of Rhode Island that this Office will stand behind the the Board of Elections in its review and investigation of election and campaign finance law violations,” said Attorney General Neronha. “Simply ignoring the Board’s attempts to gain information, without legally justifiable grounds, will send a strong indication to this Office that the full investigatory weight of this Office should be utilized.”
Mr. Britt is scheduled to be arraigned in Kent County Superior Court on November 1, 2019.
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Post by dex on Oct 31, 2019 8:38:52 GMT -5
Twin River’s chief: Raimondo top aide threatened reprisal Governor: ‘This is a distraction by Twin River’ By Katherine Gregg and Patrick Anderson Journal State House Bureau
Smiley
Crisafulli
PROVIDENCE — The head of Twin River’s casino operations in Rhode Island has publicly identified Gov. Gina Raimondo’s chief of staff, Brett Smiley, as the top-level aide he said threatened “consequences” if Twin River opposed IGT’s bid for a 20-year no-bid contract.
Twin River’s Marc Crisafulli told Senate Finance Chairman William Conley in a letter that he was initially reluctant to name Smiley as the aide who made the threat because the casino operator was still negotiating a settlement with the Raimondo administration over a contract dispute involving a debt limit. But that changed after the governor publicly denied the threat this week.
Raimondo on Wednesday again told reporters: “He [Smiley] has assured me there was no threat.”
“This is a distraction by Twin River,” said Raimondo when asked what did happen in a series of June 27 cellphone calls between Crisafulli and Smiley.
Added Smiley, in a statement released by the governor’s office: “I spoke with Mr. Crisafulli several times over many weeks and never once made a threat. That is not how I conduct myself.”
Crisafulli’s disclosure came on the morning after the last in a series of scheduled legislative hearings on Raimondo’s attempt to give International Game Technology a no-bid, 20-year extension of its contract to provide the state lottery with the technology and machines to run everything from scratch tickets to the video slots at the Twin River-owned casinos. The potential contract value: $1 billion.
The he-said, she-said dispute also follows the Oct. 21 announcement by the Raimondo administration that Twin River — which is fighting for a chance to bid for pieces of the IGT contract — had agreed to make a payment of $180,000 to the state and invest an initial $12 million in capital improvements at Twin River’s Lincoln casino — and a potential $24 million more later — to settle the state’s claim the company had taken on more debt than allowed under the terms of its business license.
The disputes over the debt limit and the IGT extension converged in August when Twin River Worldwide Holdings CEO George Papanier alleged in a letter that the Raimondo administration had gone back — after Twin River came out against the IGT deal — on “repeated assurances” that it would ease the debt limit. In that letter, made public by the Raimondo administration on Oct. 21, Papanier said an unnamed “senior administration official” warned a member of his staff there would be “consequences.”
On Wednesday, Crisafulli, the executive vice president of Twin River Worldwide Holdings and president of the company’s Rhode Island operations, filled in the blanks on what he alleges Smiley said in a series of calls on June 27, the day the IGT legislation was introduced:
“Mr. Smiley’s message was crystal clear: If Twin River opposed the IGT legislation which was being introduced that day ... we would suffer regulatory consequences with the State.”
Crisafulli said he decided to name Smiley after hearing Raimondo in recent days “repeatedly deny this unfortunate incident occurred ... [She] has even gone so far as to accuse Twin River and myself of, in effect, lying.”
“The Governor stated that my allegation of a threat was ‘clearly baseless and untrue.’ She made that statement without speaking to me or anyone at Twin River to learn what happened or to investigate the basis for our assertion.
“Brett Smiley, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, is the member of Governor Raimondo’s administration who issued the threat on June 27,” Crisafulli said in his letter to Conley.
“He explained to me the details of the IGT legislation, including some last-minute changes that were made around the VLTs. He asked me not to go scorched earth and oppose the deal. He informed me Twin River would not receive anything directly regarding the VLTs.
“He then stated that the broader relationship between Twin River and the State is important, they are our regulator, they know we need their help because of the leverage ratio to grow our business, and they want to be helpful, but if we oppose the IGT deal they will not be cooperative with us.
“It is our view that there should never be any correlation or connection between our regulatory relationship with the State and our right to oppose legislation which harms us,” Crisafullli said.
Smiley on Wednesday recalled a “tense” conversation with Crisafulli after telling him that Twin River would not get the opportunity it was seeking to supply any of the video slots — also known a VLTs — at the Twin River casinos.
“He was not happy with that news, and it was a tense call. I also told him the state’s broader relationship with Twin River is important and I hope we’ll find other ways to help them grow their business. It’s unfortunate that they would make this accusation months later at the conclusion of the public hearings,” Smiley said.
Speaking to reporters, Raimondo said: “I am so disappointed in Twin River.
“In addition to the way they are behaving through this process, you know what they did in breaching the regulatory agreement with the state is very serious,” she said of the debt limit dispute, which arose from Twin River’s out- of-state expansion moves. (Crisafulli contends Twin River kept the state apprised at every step.)
Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said: It is time to “stop the finger-pointing.”
But House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello said: “The House is deeply troubled by the revelations that [Smiley] threatened Twin River’s Executive Vice President [Crisafulli] with regulatory retaliation should they oppose the IGT contract extension.
“The regulatory system in Rhode Island has been seen as a barrier to business and economic development for many years. Political threats of retaliation at the highest level of government coming directly from the Governor’s office should not be tolerated,” he said in an email.
R.I. GOP Chair Sue Cienki called for an investigation, saying: “It is inappropriate for a Rhode Island government official to threaten consequences to any business or person who chooses to exercise their First Amendment rights by expressing an opinion on legislation.”
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Post by dex on Nov 28, 2019 9:32:49 GMT -5
Generator, kaput + man, 91 = charged scene at Home Depot Customer denied refund blocks store entrance with truck By Tom Mooney Journal Staff Writer
Picture Hayden
Picture Edward Hayden, 91, at his home with his pickup truck, which he used to blockade the Westerly Home Depot in a dispute over a generator.
[THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / SANDOR BODO]
Edward Hayden is 91 and will tell you straight out: his arrest Wednesday at the Westerly Home Depot, where he had blockaded the door with his pickup, had nothing to do with retail rage or other holiday craziness.
It had everything to do, he says, with being disrespected as a customer for months, and a generator that generated only frustration: “Finally I had it.”
“I don’t like to be stepped on.”
The whole ugly sequence of events was costing him sleep. So he rose early Wednesday from his bed in Snug Harbor, in South Kingstown, grabbed his heart pills and hopped into his pickup truck for one more 30-minute drive to the store.
The trips to the store started in the spring when Hayden, who once ran the family business, Hayden Machinery, in Thomaston, Connecticut, went to The Home Depot, dropped several hundred dollars on a Ryobi portable generator, and headed home.
Hayden has a 19-foot travel trailer he likes to take on the road, often traveling to area NASCAR races. The generator was supposed to help power some of the comforts of home on those trips.
He says he hadn’t opened the generator box until a few months ago.
When he did, he couldn’t get the engine to turn over. Hayden knows a thing or two about machinery: “The gas tank had oil in it and it wouldn’t start.”
He brought the generator back to the store with the understanding, he says, that it would be repaired and he’d pick it up in a few days.
But when he returned, he says, an employee told him his generator had been shipped to the manufacturer for repairs, in Illinois; the store didn’t fix machines on site.
And they were going to charge him $203 for repairs.
“You ran it,” the employee told him.
Hayden protested: “No I didn’t! I couldn’t even get it started.”
The disagreement dragged on.
Insomnia brought him back to the store Wednesday. He got there around 7 a.m. and hoped a different, more understanding manager might be working the early shift.
“I told him the whole story and told him I had had enough and I wanted my money back.”
The manager refused, Hayden says. Then, Hayden says, he told him: “Well, then I’m going to park my pickup right outside your front door and tell everybody what you did to me, and I’ve got all the paperwork to prove it.”
And so he did, parking so close to the door, he says, you couldn’t get a shopping cart through.
He was reading the morning’s Wall Street Journal there in his Dodge Ram truck cab when two police cruisers showed up.
One of the officers told him he’d have to move.
He refused.
“I told him, ‘I can’t sleep, I can’t get the generator, I can’t get my money, and I’m not getting out.’”
The officers were insistent.
They got the door open “and the two of them grabbed me and double-cuffed me,” says Hayden.
“You should see the bruises I have on my arms.”
Hayden would spend the next couple of hours in a lockup until he was brought before District Court Magistrate J. Patrick O’Neill, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, court records show.
“The judge took one look at me, had the officer read the complaint, then started laughing,” says Hayden.
His case has been continued to Dec. 13.
But Hayden says he’s not the one who should be facing a judge.
“The way those people at Home Depot treated me was a crime,” he says.
Reached Wednesday afternoon, a store manager referred all questions to the corporate office
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Post by johnnypc on Nov 28, 2019 11:31:07 GMT -5
Customer service vs. Greed.
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Post by dex on Nov 28, 2019 21:59:29 GMT -5
Westerly people are very parocial...that manager of that Home Depot should be looking for work asap.
I hope the old fart gets a movement going to picket the place with 80 year olds and up...demand senior citizens discounts every friggin day from those bastages.
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Post by dex on Dec 10, 2019 8:39:55 GMT -5
We’ve heard a lot about the struggles of Providence schools over the last six months, but the Johns Hopkins University professor who led the review of the district is making it clear that Rhode Island’s largest school district is in even worse shape than most state leaders thought. In a podcast interview that published Monday with Education Next, a publication that covers school reform, David Steiner said Providence’s student outcomes “would place it in the bottom four cities in the United States” if the city was large enough to be included among a group of 27 urban districts whose results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are analyzed together. The other cities in that cluster: Baltimore, Detroit and Fresno, California. “And that shouldn't be the case for a city in Rhode Island that, while it has its challenges, doesn't face the kind of abject, concentrated poverty that those cities do,” Steiner said. Steiner, a former New York education commissioner who now runs the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, acknowledged Providence has unique challenges compared to many districts around the country, particularly when it comes to its large population of English learners. But he said his team of researchers was taken aback by the complexity of the governance structure in Providence, noting that nearly everyone they spoke with complained about the layers of bureaucracy that exist between the mayor’s office, City Council, school board and the state. While Steiner praised Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green for taking over the district, he also pointed out that Rhode Island leaders have little sense of whether any dramatic reforms – particularly those involving the teachers’ union contract – would stand up to a legal challenge. He said the state has a law that allows the state to take control of persistently low-performing schools, but it also has strong collective bargaining rules that may supersede reform policies. “No one knows, at this point, what the relative weight that a court might give to one or the other when they conflict,” Steiner said.
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Post by dex on Dec 10, 2019 8:55:23 GMT -5
MY TURN Big gasoline tax hike for R.I.? By Mike Stenhouse
This Christmas season, Gov. Gina Raimondo could be the Grinch who stole affordable gasoline. If the Raimondo administration gets its way and bypasses the General Assembly to sign on to a new regional carbon-tax scheme, called the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), Rhode Island motorists will find a plan to increase gasoline taxes in their stockings this year.
TCI is a cap-and-trade tax on gasoline proposed by environmental extremists who purposely want gasoline to become so expensive — estimated at an extra 24 cents per gallon — that you will be financially forced to walk or bike to work and around town.
Like all far-left contrivances to reduce carbon emissions, TCI, a green-new-deal-type gas tax, will harm economic growth and will take money out of your pocket. Rhode Island already suffers from an Ocean State Exodus, where far too many of our children and loved ones, business investors, and neighbors are leaving for lower-cost living in other states. The TCI tax would be one more piece of coal that will drive people out of state (pun intended).
Most Rhode Islanders want a balanced approach, where there are multiple choices for abundant and affordable energy. But green-Grinches in government want to limit your options, and will force you to pay expensive new taxes if you make the wrong choice.
Only the General Assembly can raise taxes. Fortunately, the governor cannot unilaterally impose a new tax on gasoline without legislative approval. But the governor has purposely tried to keep this TCI tax under the radar. Her team has been working stealthily with unelected bureaucrats at TCI to advance the imposition of gas taxes among 12 Northeast states.
Did you know that the really high electricity prices we pay, among the highest in the country, are partly because of a different regional cap-and-trade program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)? RGGI imposes tax-like fees on electricity power plants, which, of course, get passed on to you. Unfortunately, RGGI has been a complete failure; it has significantly increased the cost of electricity but has resulted in no added emissions reductions!
And now they want to try the same failed idea on gasoline with a TCI gas tax. Like RGGI, TCI is designed to increase the cost of fossil-based fuel so much, that families like yours — and businesses where you work — will be forced to use less of it.
Part of the RGGI and TCI schemes is that the extra money you pay at the gas pumps and on your electric bill is supposed to be spent by participating states on energy projects that are favored by greenie Grinches. Rhode Islanders understand that it is patently unfair for government subsidies to be handed-out to benefit a specific industry or company … at the expense of everyone else.
History has proven that too many government regulations and taxes on energy mean that the beneficial use of America's rich natural resources might be put out of reach for many. Worse, such government imposed taxes as the RGGI tax and the TCI tax are regressive; they disproportionately harm low-income families who already struggle to pay heating bills and gasoline costs.
Also, many businesses, similarly burdened with higher energy costs, will be forced to reduce employee work hours, cut jobs, or even shut down and move to another state.
The secrecy must end now. The governor should have been more transparent about an issue that will cause economic hardship for many. I call on Ms. Raimondo to reject the TCI tax plan, expected out on Dec. 17; and I call on Senate and House leadership to ensure there is a robust public debate about whether you and I should pay higher gasoline taxes.
RGGI has failed miserably ... and TCI is also doomed for failure. Why should any Grinch force any of us to pay unnecessarily higher gasoline taxes if it will not result in any environmental benefit?
Mike Stenhouse is CEO for the nonpartisan Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity.
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Post by dex on Dec 16, 2019 9:12:52 GMT -5
y Donita Naylor Journal Staff Writer
By G. Wayne Miller Journal Staff Writer
Posted Dec 15, 2019 at 12:34 PM Updated Dec 15, 2019 at 8:48 PM Mother credits social media and 200 phone calls from MacColl YMCA in Lincoln for restoring her son’s connection to the world
LINCOLN — The weekend kept getting worse for Benjamin Woodrup, 7, and his parents, Mark Woodrup and Karen Oliver.
Their water heater broke.
The processors for Benjamin’s cochlear implants disappeared from the locker room while Benjamin and his father were swimming Saturday at the North Pole Pool Party at MacColl YMCA.
Benjamin was born without the ability to hear. The implants under his skin, and their external processors, opened the world of sound to him. Without the processors, he can’t hear, but he has to remove them for swimming.
Mark and YMCA staff and members searched everywhere.
“Every trash can, every nook and cranny,” MacColl director Jeanine Achin told The Journal on Sunday.
Nothing.
“Maybe someone thought they were some cool Bluetooth thing,” said Oliver, Benjamin’s mother and Woodrup’s wife. It’s possible: The two implant processors, which cost some $10,000 apiece, have New England Patriots logos.
They could have been stolen with the intent to sell at a pawn shop or on the black market.
But the processors are programmed specifically for Benjamin and would not work for anyone else, Oliver said.
“They can’t be used for anything and they have no resale value,” she said. “If someone took them to a pawn shop, they wouldn’t get a penny.”
So Oliver, a psychologist at the Providence VA Medical Center and an associate professor at Brown University, and Woodrup, a mental health professional at Rhode Island Hospital, turned to the public for help.
“If you have seen them or accidentally took them,” Oliver wrote in an email to media, on her Facebook page, and on flyers the family has distributed, “please return them to the front desk at the MacColl YMCA, no questions asked. We really need these back. Please help.”
Director Achin said she and her staff phoned and emailed about 200 families who visited the Y on Saturday. Oliver thought about contacting the Lincoln police — but only to alert them should someone turn them in. “We’re not looking to press charges,” she said.
By Sunday afternoon, Oliver had a bad cold, and Benjamin was making do with his one backup processor, which at best is a short-term solution.
“He can hear from one side only,” Oliver said. “If that breaks, he has nothing. I just dropped him off at a birthday party and thought, ‘please don’t break it.’”
The only thing that broke Sunday was the family’s streak of bad luck.
On Sunday, Alexandria O’Neill, 21, of North Providence, was working the desk at the Y when a member came in and handed over the precious electronics. “She was in tears,” O’Neill said. Apparently the woman’s young child had picked up the devices, put them in a pocket and taken them home.
“It was a mistake,” Achin said. “It was found and returned.” The family that found the devices, she said, “displayed the Y values: respect, honesty, caring and responsibility.”
O’Neill said she called Benjamin’s family right away, then she called Achin.
O’Neill said she was “extremely happy and relieved” that Benjamin’s link with the world was found, but when he and his mother arrived, and she saw how cute he was, and so happy, “I was brought to tears.”
Then Benjamin noticed that the batteries were missing. So O’Neill called the finders, who made another trip to deliver the batteries.
The other mother “felt so badly,” Oliver said. “I definitely gave her a hug.”
Both mothers credited the Y for the story’s happy ending. “It was all of this outreach,” Oliver said. “Without all of this, she never would have thought to check.”
“We’re just thrilled,” Achin said. “We’re just so happy that it was returned.”
Also, she said, “I have a great staff who really cares.”
gwmiller@providencejournal.com
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Post by dex on Jan 28, 2020 9:08:00 GMT -5
MY TURN A tale of two economies By Mike Stenhouse
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Making America great, making Rhode Island worse. Facing the real world, living in a pretend world.
The contrast could not be more striking. Recently in Davos, Switzerland, despite impeachment distractions, President Trump systematically laid out America’s successful roadmap to unprecedented freedom and prosperity, with trillions in investment dollars and a flood of companies choosing to repatriate to America.
Conversely, Rhode Island’s political class follows a government-centric command-and-control approach, resulting in the worst business climate in the nation as well as economic and educational stagnation that is forcing families and businesses to choose to flee our state.
The American Dream is back, yet Rhode Islanders are not fully enjoying its promise. On point after record-of-success-point exclaimed by the president, sadly, our Ocean State takes the opposite approach. The fanciful ideas in Gov. Gina Raimondo’s proposed 2021 budget and the losing approach of the General Assembly in recent years stand in stark contrast to the winning moves of the federal government.
The major themes prioritized in the president’s speech, included:
• Cutting corporate and individual taxes, as opposed to Rhode Island’s persistent stealth expansion of existing taxes being imposed on more and more products, people and entities.
• Removing roadblocks to success via massive reduction in regulations, as compared with ever-expanding red-tape mandates, motivated by political correctness, that restrict people’s access to good-paying jobs and new careers.
• Providing citizens with more and lower-priced energy options, in contrast to Rhode Island’s approach of limiting our choices and punishing us for driving our personal and business vehicles.
• Putting middle-class workers first when it comes to increasing job openings and income growth, in contrast to Rhode Island’s sole focus on low-income workers and its pandering to other workers with employer mandates that end up stifling opportunity and wages.
• Unbridled economic optimism, incentivizing employers to return, invest, or set up shop in America, in contrast to the Ocean State pessimism that drives away many investors and businesses.
• Joy and hope for the future, as opposed to the defeatism and victimization propagated by those whom the president called “the predictors of doom," of whom we have far too many in Rhode Island.
• Celebrating the dignity of work, which lifts the human spirit, as opposed to soul-killing dependence on government promoted by our state’s political class.
• The transformational unleashing of free-markets and capitalism, vs. the stifling restrictions and control of socialism.
• Seeking to thrive via an increased standard of living for everyone, vs. the left’s goal of punishing success so almost everyone will be forced to survive at the same meager level.
• Uniting Americans by a grand and noble purpose — unbounded freedom and opportunity for all — as opposed to Rhode Island’s divisive policies of favoring the special-interest few, at the expense of, and infringing on the rights of, we, the many.
In short, our federal government has implemented common-sense and proven policies, based on centuries of successful capitalism. Conversely, our governor and political leaders promote and implement make-believe new revenue schemes and far-fetched socialist programs that are right out of "Das Kapital."
Our state’s budget is our state’s primary problem. And year after year, its bloated size and misguided priorities are perpetuated by our state’s political class, regardless of how they try to rearrange the chairs on the deck. Nothing in Gov. Gina Raimondo's budget comes close to emulating the positive themes and remarkable results articulated by President Trump in Davos.
At some point, Rhode Island politicians must change policies to realign our state with the American Dream. But, unless voters wake up and change the players, the failed vision of our political class will continue to drag us down ... and Rhode Island will continue to diverge from the rest of the country.
Mike Stenhouse is CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity, the state’s only free-market think tank.
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