Latest news with #NEARI
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nesi's Notes: May 17
Happy Saturday! Here's another edition of my weekend column for — as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi@ and follow me on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 1. Senate President Val Lawson and Majority Leader Frank Ciccone are still settling into their new roles, and still introducing themselves to the broader Rhode Island electorate. As part of that, on Friday they taped their first joint appearance on Newsmakers, where both talked about their deep ties to organized labor, but were circumspect about making specific policy commitments. Still, it won't be long before their priorities come into clearer view, since they are facing some major decisions soon. There is of course the difficult state budget picture; more on that below. But the most interesting early question may be how they handle the proposed Assault Weapons Ban Act. The pair were on opposite sides of the issue in the past; Lawson is president of the NEARI teacher's union, while Ciccone is a gun dealer. That mirrors the coalition that elected them, which includes both supporters and opponents of the bill. On Newsmakers, they cast themselves as neutral arbiters rather than advocates. 'I sat through the hearing Wednesday evening, and I listened to the pros and cons,' Ciccone said, indicating changes will be made to the legislation based on the testimony. Will they try to craft a compromise measure? Vote ex officio to get it to the Senate floor? Let the bill die in committee? And what will the House do? Unsurprisingly, Lawson isn't showing her cards yet. 'I'm a very deliberate, process person,' she said. 'That's the way I think is the appropriate way to proceed. And regardless of any issue, that will remain the same.' 2. This is the time of year when so many budget numbers are flying around — fresh revenue estimates, revised caseload numbers, school enrollment updates, final surplus calculations — that it can be hard to follow the plot. Here's the bottom line: Rhode Island leaders are still facing the most challenging budget environment they have in years. State number-crunchers determined late last week that lawmakers will have roughly $65 million more to work with in crafting the final budget bill than had been expected when Governor McKee unveiled his initial $14 billion proposal back in January. But other developments since then have already eaten up a bunch of that money: almost $40 million more than McKee had budgeted is needed just to cover K-12 formula aid and new union contracts. 'You have a little more to work with, but the size of the problem you're dealing with has not really been diminished, and in some cases it might be larger,' House fiscal adviser Sharon Reynolds Ferland warned the Finance Committee at a hearing Wednesday night. 'So the puzzle remains.' And that doesn't even touch on some of the expensive problems that lawmakers also want to address, like a major funding boost for primary care or an infusion for RIPTA to close its deficit, or the potential of deep federal funding cuts. Senate President Lawson and Leader Ciccone are citing the situation as part of why they want to consider raising the income tax on top earners, despite opposition from Governor McKee and Speaker Shekarchi. 'I think it's something we should be open to, especially in this climate,' Lawson said on Newsmakers. RIPEC is fighting the idea. 3. Remember those proposed pay raises for members of the governor's cabinet? The House voted unanimously to block them on Tuesday, but Senate leaders didn't follow suit, so the raises will take effect on Sunday. 4. Attorney General Peter Neronha announced two fresh lawsuits against the Trump administration this week, both challenging immigration-related conditions to obtain federal funding. That left me wondering, just how many times has Rhode Island's top prosecutor taken the president to court since Inauguration Day? The answer: 19 times, according to this webpage that the AG's office has published listing all the federal cases Neronha has led or joined so far. Tim Rondeau, the AG's spokesperson, shared a scorecard Friday on where the cases stand, and Neronha's side has been generally successful so far. Injunctions have been granted in nine of the cases, with a temporary restraining order denied in only one (over DOGE), and the rest still in progress. Neronha, like other Democratic attorneys general around the country, takes pride in his office's work challenging the administration. 'What these cases are about are the president taking power to himself, in an authoritarian way — that's what concerns me the most,' he said Wednesday during an interview on 12 News at 4. 'That's why we have to fight, and why we're doing what we're doing.' 5. Another national housing report, another low ranking for Rhode Island. 6. The team around Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos is under no illusions about the challenges she faces in seeking reelection next year, as she works to rebuild her standing with voters after the signature scandal that rocked her 2023 bid for Congress. Matos recently sat down with our Kim Kalunian and gave her most candid remarks yet about that episode. Acknowledging she contemplated resigning, Matos told Kim, 'It got to a moment in which it was very overwhelming.' But Matos reaffirmed her commitment to seeking another term, saying she is focused on issues such as grocery industry manipulation and business succession planning. Nobody has formally launched a campaign to challenge the incumbent LG yet, though plenty of Democrats and Republicans are toying with the idea — including, we just learned, podcaster Bill Bartholomew. 7. Foreign affairs took center stage at Providence City Hall this week, with Mayor Smiley facing protests over his visit to Israel and the City Council facing backlash for raising the Palestinian flag. Meantime, my colleague Alex Leslie is keeping close tabs on the council's series of budget hearings, where she's reported on concerns over next year's World Cup and a cut to the sustainability office. 8. Most of the people writing about the Washington Bridge for the last year and a half are not engineers; we've done our best to summarize the technical aspects of the bridge's failure, but it hasn't always been easy. So I highly recommend this short mini-documentary from the YouTube channel Practical Engineering that uses animations to show what went wrong. (It has 1.2 million views as of this writing.) Host Grady Hillhouse, a civil engineer, ends with a mixed view. 'This is one of roughly 617,000 bridges in the U.S., and in some ways it's a success story: a serious problem was identified before it became a disaster,' Hillhouse says. But, he adds, 'Just like engineers design structures to be ductile — to fail with grace and warning — we want and need projects like this to happen in an orderly fashion. We should be able to recognize when replacement is necessary, plan ahead for the project, do a good job informing the public, and execute the job on a timeline that doesn't require panic, chaos and emergency contracts. And the Washington Bridge is a perfect case study in why that's so important.' The bridge will be back in the headlines soon, with June 6 the target date for the state to announce a winning bidder and a revised price tag for the project. 9. Eye on Congress … Senator Reed kept up his criticism of President Trump on military issues, including the jet from Qatar and Pentagon spending … Senator Whitehouse confirmed he wants to become the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee in 2027 … Congressman Magaziner and his bipartisan allies are closing in on a deal to ban stock trading by lawmakers … Congressman Amo spent last weekend in the U.K. on a bipartisan parliamentary exchange trip, meeting with current British officials as well as former PM David Cameron … Congressman Auchincloss and Magaziner both joined the new bipartisan Build America Caucus, aligned with the principles of the recent bestseller 'Abundance.' 10. Few Rhode Island politicos have climbed as high as Mike Donilon, who hitched his star to Joe Biden in the 1980s and followed him all the way to the White House. The two men are so close that The Washington Post once described Donilon as Biden's 'conscience, alter ego and shared brain.' But that closeness also means Donilon will be a central character in 'Original Sin,' the new book on Biden's decline by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that is already making waves. A New York Times review says Tapper and Thompson will identify Donilon, along with fellow veteran operative Steve Ricchetti, as members of 'a group of close aides known internally as 'the Politburo'' who 'closed ranks around Biden.' But, the reviewer adds, it remains unclear how much was 'desperate rationalization versus deliberate scheming.' Still, Donilon remained defiant at a Harvard event in February. 11. Rhode Island's biggest company, CVS Health, is having a bit of an identity crisis. 12. People in the news … Brown sophomore Alex Shieh won his battle with the university … former gubernatorial candidate Ashley Kalus has bought a $3.3 million home in Providence … R.I. Superior Court Judge Daniel Procaccini will retire at the end of the month … Warwick Police Chief Bradford Connor is retiring, too … Kelly Furtado belatedly won council approval as Fall River police chief … Keith Stokes has been named Rhode Island's next historian laureate, with a term lasting into 2030 … Utilidata CEO Josh Brumberger announced a $60 million investment in the Providence company … Hayley Gray-Hoehn is the new communications director for Congressman Amo; she previously worked for his Michigan colleague Haley Stevens … Grace Voll is the new spokesperson for Treasurer Diossa … Rhode Island native Michael Cadenazzi's nomination to be an assistant secretary of defense cleared the Armed Services Committee … former Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere has been nominated to the R.I. Board of Education … Bally's executive Tracey Wiley has been nominated to the R.I. Commerce Corp. board … Bristol County Savings Bank exec James Ferrara and Electric Boat exec Sean Morrone have been nominated to the Governor's Workforce Board … Karen Bradbury has been nominated to the R.I. Public Utilities Commission; she is a former Sheldon Whitehouse staffer now at the Office of Energy Resources … Bill Klements will be the Providence diocese's new superintendent of Catholic schools … Brown is awarding an honorary degree to Amos House CEO Eileen Hayes … Taco's John Hazen White Jr. received an award from The Broadway League for his support of PPAC. 13. Our Ray Baccari is on Senate District 4 watch to see who will win Dominick Ruggerio's vacant Senate seat. So far , the former state rep, and , brother of the former Providence mayor, are both seeking the Democratic nomination. Candidates have until May 30 to pull papers; the primary is July 8. 14. Of course, the biggest local news since the last edition of Nesi's Notes has undoubtedly been the announcement that 'Real Housewives of Rhode Island' is going into production. Elected officials generally went into rah-rah mode in response to the news, suggesting it will be a win for tourism and the local economy. (Though not Senator Reed, who deadpanned on social media: 'Brace yourselves America.') But is there any risk the 'Real Housewives' franchise will play up a version of Rhode Island that makes locals wince? Governor McKee, for one, is looking at the bright side. 'I think you have to put things in perspective,' he said Tuesday on 12 News at 4. 'We talk about reality TV — I'm not sure how real it is, but it is entertaining to a lot of people.' All I know is, they better visit Twin Oaks in the premiere. 15. On vacation I read 'Murder the Truth,' a new book on libel law by the NYT's David Enrich, and I liked this passage about the reality of journalism: 'Yes, reporters sometimes were sloppy or irresponsible. They sometimes wrote biased articles or harmed innocent people's reputations. But was this a product of thinking they were legally invincible? A simple explanation was that journalists are humans, and humans make mistakes.' Simply put, journalism is a human enterprise. For the same reason, journalists ourselves should always remember a word from the same Latin root: humility. 16. Weekend reads … Antonia Noori Farzan on the strange bedfellows who support new public housing in Rhode Island … Steph Machado on how federal cuts are hampering local scientific research … Nancy Lavin on an insurance bill that could benefit FM and Amica … Patrick Anderson on the far-flung travels of Rhode Island electeds in 2024 … John L. Allen Jr. on the life, legacy, and complexity of Pope Francis. 17. Set your DVRs: This week on Newsmakers — Senate President Val Lawson and Majority Leader Frank Ciccone. Watch Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on WPRI 12 and 10 a.m. on Fox Providence, or listen on the radio Sunday at 6 p.m. on WPRO. You can also subscribe to Newsmakers as a podcast via Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you back here next Saturday. Ted Nesi (tnesi@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi's Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Prefer your Newsmakers on the go?Subscribe to our podcast!Apple | Spotify Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
R.I. senators vying for leadership posts face potential conflicts of interest
Advertisement Lawson, an East Providence Democrat, works full-time as president of 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 John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said, 'If she becomes Senate president, there is a good chance she opens herself up to future complaints if she remains NEARI president because NEARI has so much business before the Legislature and the Senate presidency uniquely controls the agenda and appointments in the chamber.' In 2019, the state Ethics Commission Advertisement And in 2024, the Ethics Commission But the circumstances would be different if Lawson is president of both the Senate and NEARI, Marion said. 'Lawson is no longer a classroom teacher or vice president of NEARI,' he said. 'She's president of NEARI, responsible for a very large organization with lots of business before the state Senate. Her duty to lead NEARI at the same time as exercising the vast powers of Senate president create a unique challenge.' The potential conflicts could involve a wide range of significant issues, including how union contracts are negotiated, and how labor disputes are resolved, he said. Marion said other legislators might be able to sidestep conflicts of interest by recusing themselves from certain votes and stepping out of the room during any debate. 'But as Senate president, you can't really step out of the room when the final decision needs to be made,' he said, noting the Senate president plays a pivotal role in deciding which bills make it to floor votes and in negotiating with the House and the governor. Marion said her potential conflicts differ from those of Ciccone and Pearson because she holds the top job at her union while Ciccone is a consultant for a union, and Pearson is a vice president at a bank. Of course, Lawson could avoid those potential conflicts by stepping down as NEARI president, Marion said. He noted Ruggerio, who was 76, had retired from the New England Laborers' Labor-Management Cooperation Trust when he was leading the Senate. But it remains unclear if Lawson, who is 58, will leave her NEARI post, for which she earns Advertisement Lawson could not immediately be reached for comment. Ciccone, 77, a Providence Democrat, receives income as a consultant for Local Union 808, as a senator, and as a 'federal firearms dealer,' according to his latest financial disclosure form filed with the Ethics Commission. He previously worked as a field representative for the Rhode Island Laborers' District Council and as business manager of Rhode Island Judicial, Professional, and Technical Employees Local Union 808. In 2008, In 2019, the Ethics Commission issued an advisory opinion, saying the ethics code did not prohibit Ciccone from serving as chairman of the Senate Labor Committee. But the commission said he is prohibited from participating in matters that would directly impact his 'business associate,' Local Union 808. As majority leader, Ciccone could face potential conflicts as a union consultant and firearms dealer, Marion said. 'But there are tools to deal with that, like recusal,' he said. Ciccone also has faced criticism for his involvement in a 2012 episode in which Barrington police say Advertisement That issue never came before the Ethics Commission. 'But certainly it was wrong,' Marion said. 'He has a track record of poor decision making.' Pearson, 36, a Cumberland Democrat, receives income as a senior vice president at Citizens Bank, as a senator, and as a partner in Hanaway Real Estate Holdings, according to his latest financial disclosure form. In 2020, the Ethics Commission issued an advisory opinion, saying the ethics code did not prohibit Pearson from participating in Senate discussions and voting on the state budget, but he had to recuse himself from discussions or votes on line items or budget amendments that could financially impact Citizens. In 2024, Pearson 'Pearson would not be immune from navigating ethics concerns if he kept his day job because he works for one of the largest employers in the state,' Marion said. The potential conflicts facing all three senators 'speaks particularly to the challenges of a part-time Legislature where people don't get paid a living wage and therefore have to have outside employment,' Marion said. Rank-and file senators earn Ciccone and Pearson could not be immediately reached for comment. Advertisement Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Community Focus: NEARI Executive Director Mary Barden
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Mary Barden, the executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, joined 12 News at 4 on Wednesday to talk about her organization's legislative priorities for the coming year. Watch the full interview in the player above. Community Focus: NEARI Executive Director Mary Barden February 26, 2025 Western leaders visit Kyiv and pledge military support against Russia on the war's 3rd anniversary February 24, 2025 Community Focus: RI GOP's Niyoka Powell February 21, 2025 Artists banned from Providence Place for secret apartment may be let back in February 20, 2025 Community Focus: RI Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos February 19, 2025 Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
