Government
Public services and government action
Questions arise about Governor Raimondo's energy post appointments
"We want to connect [Governor Gina Raimondo's] expressed concern about affordable housing to the need to support PIPP, as a way to assure low-income residents don’t live in the cold and dark," writes the George Wiley Center. "Currently i...
Raimondo's Juvenile and Criminal Justice Working Group releases recommendations
"At what point am I truly allowed to be rehabilitated?" asked Roxxanne Newman, a formerly incarcerated member of the Working Group. Governor Gina Raimondo’s Juvenile and Criminal Justice Working Group issued its final report on Friday, i...
Providence Police gang database policy ‘Tramples fundamental constitutional rights,’ lawsuit says
The department is targeting communities of color and violating local and federal law by using broad ‘association’ criteria to list people in a gang database, a Rhode Island community organization claims. This story first appeared on The...
Speaker Mattiello leads the House in bidding goodbye to a beloved, conservative lobbyist
"Every important initiative that I have worked on, John Simmons has been at the center of," said Speaker Nicholas Mattiello. "He has provided valuable information on what's good in an idea, what's not so good, why we should move forward...
Dr João Goulão, architect of Portugal's drug policy, shares his success with the General Assembly
"Nowadays we have the lowest rates of overdose deaths in Europe," said Dr João Goulão. "We had 38 deaths in 2017, a country of 10 million inhabitants. If you had the same rate of overdoses [here in Rhode Island], you should have three or...
The Womxn Project holds panel on state funded healthcare prohibitions against paying for abortion services
"The fact that state employees don't have abortion coverage is actually a relatively well kept secret," said Rhode Island College professor Mikaila Arthur. "Many of my colleagues don't know that they don't have abortion coverage until so...
Rhode Island Ethics Commission discusses having less transparency
"I just can't say strongly enough how much of a reversal it would be viewed as for us to suddenly take a complaint process, which, when the ethics commission began in 1986, was a secret process," said Rhode Island Ethics Commission Execu...
Rhode Islanders rally against war with Iran
"The same shit's happening all over again," said Nancy Hood from East Bay Citizens for Peace. "We can not have this happen again. We must stop this madness. And shame on our four representatives for voting for this National Defense Autho...
Carolers visit Wyatt Detention Center on Christmas Eve
Just over 60 people sand Christmas carols outside the Wyatt Detention Facility on Christmas Eve in solidarity with the people who are detained inside. Hosted by Sister Mary Pendergast and Providence resident Nancy Green, people sang trad...
Credibility of RI Senate and House Armed Service Committee members suffers yet another mortal blow
“We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan - we didn’t know what we were doing...” In recent weeks, there has been a steady stream of bad political news for the environment. The AFL-CIO joined with the Democrats to hel...