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Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Boston Globe
‘Nonviolence is not for cowards. It's for courageous people.'
While her family stressed the importance of defending yourself, Pina-Warren gravitated toward the role of mediator. 'I wanted peace,' she said. 'I wanted people to get along." Today, Pina-Warren is executive director of the The Nonviolence Institute in Providence, R.I. The Nonviolence Institute The organization formed in response to the murder of Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up The institute teaches the practices and principles of nonviolence, going into schools, businesses, prisons, hospitals, and nonprofits, she said. And it provides 'boots on the ground,' sending street workers into cities such as Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls to mediate gang disputes and head off violence. Advertisement 'Nonviolence is not for cowards. It's for courageous people,' Pina-Warren said. 'It's very easy and cowardly to pull out a knife or a gun or fight someone. To be able to say to another person, 'I don't want this' and to be able to walk away from a situation takes a lot of courage. But the outcome is so much better.' Advertisement Pina-Warren, who recently appeared on 'That really impacted me,' she said. At a candlelight vigil, Gross introduced himself and asked her, 'What can we do? What are we going to do?' Pina-Warren joined the institute in 2009 and rose through the ranks. In July 2024, she replaced interim director Keith Morton, who'd been leading the organization since Pina-Warren spoke about how tragedies involving her family shaped her passion for nonviolence. She said that in 1996 her older brother was involved in a high-speed chase with the police that ended with her brother and his friend dying in a crash. 'That really, really impacted my life,' Pina-Warren said. 'He was my best friend. He taught me how to ride a bike, taught me how to tie my shoes, and taught me how to fight.' In losing her older brother, she said, 'I could have totally gone on the wrong path and given up.' But instead, she said, 'Losing him motivated me to really dig down deep, to help others and also to help myself — just to better my life because I knew that that's what he wanted for me." Advertisement Years later, Pina-Warren heard that a young man she'd worked with had been killed. At first, she was relieved to hear that someone had been charged with the shooting. But then she learned that the person charged with the homicide was her nephew — her brother's son. Pina-Warren said working at the Nonviolence Institute has helped her deal with those tragedies. 'Being able to give back to my community and help others that go through some of the things that I have gone through, or similar, is really healing,' she said. 'There's a passion.' To get the latest episode each week, follow Rhode Island Report podcast , , and other podcasting platforms, or listen in the player above. Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Boston Globe
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
After 13 months homeless, a R.I. writer finds ‘sanctuary' thanks to 3,300 strangers
Lily — who'd once been starving and mangy, tied to a fence in Texas — seemed to believe him, he said. 'And when we got here — she's loving it," Fealey said on a recent morning as Lily rested on a couch in a townhouse in southern Rhode Island where they now live with Fealey's girlfriend, Lane McDonald. Advertisement Fealey now has a place to call home thanks to Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up In the 9,000-word piece, Fealey, 57, a University of Rhode Island graduate and former journalist, described how police rapped on his car window late at night, how security guards ordered him to leave store parking lots, how he feared for his life when a stranger came up behind him in a vacant lot at 3 a.m. The article grabbed the attention of a Narragansett family, who took it upon themselves to track down Fealey, find him shelter, and set up a GoFundMe page. 'My kids love Rhode Island, and they said, 'Oh, my God, Mom, this could be any of us,'' Janice Mathews Advertisement As of Thursday night, 'We are happy that he has a roof over his head and that his life is better,' Mathews said this week. Fealey said, 'It just shows you how many good-hearted people there are out there. It's very heartening and just positive because in these times — with the things that are going on and we're living in a totalitarian democracy — that there's people out there who give a s--t." The Esquire article came out at a time when when 653,104 people were experiencing homelessness across the United States, according to the The number of homeless people in Rhode Island had risen to 2,442 people ― according to a Fealey said the response to his article reflects a widespread concern about the housing crisis. 'Everyone's being affected by it, except a certain higher realm,' he said. 'People know that they're not living as well as they once did, or as they expected. And there's whole generations that are not going to get houses, the way things are going.' Fealey and McDonald moved into the townhouse, which they began renting in May. On a recent morning, a bouquet of sunflowers burst from a vase, and container of sea glass rested on the kitchen table. McDonald said Fealey wakes up early and writes, she paints and works from home, and Lily enjoys walking on nearby trails and beaches. Advertisement McDonald, who'd been struggling to afford rent in Narragansett and living with her parents, said that if a fortune teller had looked into a crystal ball a year ago — showing them living 'in this beautiful place,' no longer worried about whether Fealey is safe — she wouldn't have believed it. 'It's still unbelievable,' she said. 'It's a dream. It's coming out of a nightmare, and it's a dream.' Lane McDonald, left, and Patrick Fealey take Lily for a walk near their home. David L Ryan/ Globe Staff Fealey said he finally feels at peace. 'When I was homeless, I was on high alert all the time,' he said. 'I now feel safe and more at ease, calmer. I think most people feel good when they come home from whatever they are doing. Home is, or should be, a sanctuary. I have that now and am so grateful.' But Fealey is concerned about his health. After contracting Lyme disease, he underwent tests and was told he was close to kidney failure. He attributed that to psychiatric medications he has been taking for years and the stress of being homeless. Fealey has said he was stricken at age 29 with what he describes as 'a violent and disabling onset of manic depression.' For the next 26 years, he got by on a mix of eight medications, traveling the country while banging out literary fiction on a 1939 Smith Corona Clipper typewriter. Fealey said he relied on Medicaid for those psychiatric medications. 'That was my lifeline,' he said. 'I have medications I need, or I will basically kill myself. They are keeping me alive.' Now, Fealey said he is worried that millions will lose Medicaid since Advertisement " That's gonna be more really sick people in the street," Fealey said. 'What's happening in America?' Patrick Fealey is now living in a townhouse in Rhode Island. David L Ryan/ Globe Staff When he was living in his car, Fealey wrote the Esquire article while using the back of his Paul Reed Smith acoustic guitar as a desk. Now, he has a desk in a sun-filled room. Fealey said he has written a nonfiction book about his experience of being homeless, and over the years he has written 14 novels. He said talked to one agent but it wasn't the right fit. So he is now looking for an agent. He said he needs to sell his books so he doesn't end up homeless again. Meanwhile, a play is being written about Fealey's experience. O'Brien, who lives in Los Angeles, said the Advertisement 'Like so many, I was deeply moved by Patrick's essay in Esquire,' O'Brien said. He said he felt 'lots of points of connection' with Fealey's story, and having the essay about his brother in the same issue 'seemed like serendipity or kismet.' O'Brien said he 'kind of staggered' by the quality of Fealey's writing. 'His essay makes personal and human a subject that is too often ignored,' he said, 'and I've always felt compelled to write plays about taboo subjects — problems a culture would rather deny or vilify than reckon with." With housing costs skyrocketing and more people becoming homeless, the situation seems unsustainable, O'Brien said. 'It will be a political play — not at the expense of telling a human story — but it will impart a lot of reality and instigate a desire to change things," he said. O'Brien said there's talk of how empathy is in short supply these days. But, he said, 'His story kind of forced us, or me at least, to feel empathy rather than being overwhelmed or having my eyes glaze over with statistics. That could be me or someone I know and love.' Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Boston Globe
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Edward D. DiPrete, former governor of Rhode Island, dies at 91
Mr. DiPrete was known for his ' Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'I go out in the morning and tap on the door and give him coffee and the newspaper,' she said in 1986. 'He says distance is a matter of mind.' Advertisement Former president Bill Clinton while he was Arkansas Governor and chairman of the National Governors' Association Task Force on School Leadership, left, and former Rhode Island governor Edward DiPrete, who served as vice chairman, meet with reporters in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 23, 1986 to discuss the associations 1991 report on education. AP Photo/Scott Applewhite Edward Daniel DiPrete was born on July 8, 1934 in Cranston, to Frank A. DiPrete, a carpenter and Italian immigrant who moved to the US when he was 5, and Mary Grossi DiPrete, a homemaker. He attended schools in Cranston, graduated from LaSalle Academy in Providence in 1951, and earneda marketing degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., in 1955. Mr. DiPrete was commissioned in the US Navy, retiring after four years as a Lieutenant Commander. He saw active duty while serving on the US Tulare, a Navy attack cargo ship based in San Diego and then in Japan, as well as on the USS Outpost, a radar picket ship Advertisement A year after graduating from college, on Aug. 18, 1956, he married Patricia Hines, a registered nurse, who he met on a bus when they were both parochial school students in Cranston. In 1970, while working in insurance, Mr. DiPrete began his two decades-long political career, serving on the Cranston School Committee for two terms before being elected to the Cranston City Council and then as mayor of Cranston from 1978 until 1985. Mr. DiPrete became governor of Rhode Island in 1985, the first Republican governor of the deep-blue Democratic state in 15 years. Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's According to the American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara, President George H.W. Bush came to DiPrete's home to help raise money for DiPrete's last run for governor in November 1989. While roaming through the house, Bush saw an arcade-size Pac-Man game and asked DiPrete to explain how to play. The president and the governor began playing Pac-Man while Secret Service members looked on, and guests waited for the president to address the crowd in the nearby family room. During Advertisement 'He has long been not only — and I mean this, not just in the diplomatic sense, political sense — but a close friend and a trusted adviser,' said Bush. Bush later sent DiPrete a signed photograph of the two of them playing the video game, which hung on the wall of DiPrete's home for years. In black ink, Bush wrote: 'Ed, Warm regards, from your friend, George.' Mr. DiPrete's legal troubles began shortly after his last term as governor, when he was indicted on criminal charges in 1994 for steering state contracts to political donors. He and his son, Dennis, were accused of taking nearly The former governor was charged again in late 1998 and Mr. DiPrete stayed out of the spotlight after his prison sentence was completed. He had not donated to any local or national political campaigns in years, according to public records. Today's politics are 'more combative' and 'there is not enough give and take in a friendly way. Now there's too much finger-pointing. It's hard to get things done,' said Mr. DiPrete Advertisement While celebrating his 90th birthday in his condo in Cranston last year, He said: 'As a governor who worked very well with both political parties for a better Rhode Island, and who achieved that goal.' Mr. DiPriete's wife Alexa Gagosz can be reached at
Boston Globe
03-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Jim Bennett tapped as interim R.I. commerce secretary
As Commerce secretary, Bennett is expected to work on deals to bring larger corporations and firms to Rhode Island, and is expected to focus on the continued redevelopment of the long-vacant 'Superman' building from office space to hundreds of apartments. (The developer is Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up While serving as president and CEO of Commerce, Bennett was credited for bringing Canton, Mass.-based Advertisement From 2011 to 2015, Bennett served as Providence's director of economic development. He also served on the board of directors of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority on and off from 1995 until he Advertisement Bennett has also worked in the private sector as the executive vice president of Bennett is the founder of Madison Components LLC, a New Hampshire-based distributor of electronic components and independent reseller of refurbished hardware that is now closed. He also founded Mitkem Corporation and Ceimic Corporation, both of which operate environmental testing labs; and investment banking firm Albert, Bennett & Co. The investment firm's registration with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority He was also candidate for state treasurer in 1998 and governor in 2002. He lost in the Bennett graduated from Brown University in 1979, where he played hockey. He was He is registered to vote in Narragansett, R.I., and owns property in Florida, according to a copy of his financial disclosure filed with the state, which was obtained by the Globe. Advertisement Bennett replaces Tanner focused on small businesses during her tenure, and was tasked with helping pull Rhode Island out of a post-pandemic slog, overseeing the development of the Prior to Tanner, focused on redeveloping Alexa Gagosz can be reached at
Boston Globe
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
R.I. poised to join N.H. with ban on deepfakes within 90 days of elections unless disclosed
Advertisement The action comes as the Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'This could have been a pyrrhic victory on our part if the Senate hadn't stripped out that language,' said John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. 'It's a good thing that Rhode Island is trying to stay ahead of the curve on requiring disclosure of deepfakes in elections.' Marion said Rhode Island has a history of 'ahead of the curve' on campaign finance disclosure. He noted that in 2012, the state enacted legislation requiring the disclosure of independent expenditures in the wake of the Advertisement The Rhode Island bill would prohibit rival candidates, political parties, and political action committees from creating and publishing recordings or videos that have been manipulated or generated by AI within 90 days of elections. But the prohibition would not apply if that manipulation or use of AI is disclosed, and the prohibition would not apply to 'synthetic media that constitutes satire or parody.' The legislation allows candidates who are the targets of such 'synthetic media' to seek injunctions and to file civil lawsuits seeking damages. Ilana Beller, organizing manager for the democracy team at Public Citizen, based in Washington, D.C., called Rhode Island's 'synthetic media' bill 'a huge win for democracy.' She noted that deepfakes depict a person saying or doing things they never actually said or did. 'That is a form of fraud,' Beller said. 'The concern here is that, with this new ability to create deepfakes using AI, folks are being given the tools to create an alternative reality that looks factual to other people. We don't want voters to make these critical democratic decisions based on something fraudulent.' The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and Common Cause agree on many legislative matters. But the ACLU opposed the 'synthetic media' bill, saying the group appreciates the legislation's intent but fears it could be used to infringe on First Amendment rights. 'In order to ensure that debate on public issues is, in the words of the US Supreme Court, 'uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,' the First Amendment provides special protection to even allegedly false statements about public officials and public figures,' the ACLU said in written testimony. 'AI-generated campaign communications are entitled to these protections.' Advertisement The ACLU acknowledged that free speech rights are not unlimited in the political arena. But it argued that the First Amendment does not allow the government to declare any image or recording fraudulent if it fits the bill's definition of 'synthetic media.' As an example, the ACLU noted that science-fiction Netflix series ' The Senate passed the bill The two legislators who voted against the legislation — Representatives Jennifer A. Stewart and Cherie L. Cruz, both Pawtucket Democrats — said they shared the ACLU's concerns about First Amendment freedoms. When asked about First Amendment concerns, Marion said, 'This is a bill about disclosure of the use of AI, not the prohibition of the use of AI. Courts have consistently upheld the use of disclosure in elections.' Marion said the number of states passing deepfake regulations is growing rapidly. 'It's incredibly popular and bipartisan at a time when almost all election legislation is passed on a party line vote,' he said. Advertisement He noted that in 2024 a Secretary Gregg M. Amore, a Democrat, pushed for the legislation. 'As artificial intelligence becomes more and more prevalent in our society — especially in the world of elections — we have a responsibility to do everything we can to ensure that voters have access to truthful, accurate information," Amore said in a statement this week. Senator Louis P. DiPalma, the Middletown Democrat who introduced the 'synthetic media' bill, said he was not surprised to read a recent New York Times story, ' The article reports that a Russian influence operation using AI tainted the first round of last year's presidential election in Romania, and a court there nullified that result, forcing a new vote and marking the first major election in which AI played a decisive role in the outcome. The article also includes the AI-generated image purporting to show a Canadian prime minister candidate in a pool with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. 'I am surprised it has not happened more in the United States,' DiPalma said. 'It's going to happen. But this shows we can get ahead of the power curve once in a while.' The bill's House sponsor was Representative Jacquelyn Baginski, the Cranston Democrat who chairs the state House Innovation, Internet and Technology Committee. The General Assembly also recently passed Advertisement 'Rapidly evolving and easily accessible AI technology necessitate this update as celebrities and everyday citizens have been the victims of image-based sexual abuse and exploitation,' said Senator Elaine J. Morgan, a Hopkinton Republican. 'Deepfake pornographic images can cause enduring emotional harm, financial hardship, and permanent damage to the reputation of its victims.' Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
