Thanks @steveahlquist.bsky.social for reporting on the event last night at the George Wiley Center. It was important to hear from those directly impacted by our for profit utility system which prioritizes corporate greed over people's needs & to discuss solutions with Dr. Diana Hernández #PassPIPP
Energy Affordability for All: George Wiley Center holds event with national policy expert Dr. Diana Hernández
“Despite all the rhetoric about affordability, the cost of utilities has only gone up! We are pushing for clear, common-sense policies that will give utility consumers needed relief."
Rent stabilization supporters announce effort to overturn Providence Mayor Smiley's veto
"Let’s build the kind of pressure that turns a veto into an override," said Councilmember Roias (Ward 4), "because this moment isn’t the end of the fight."
steveahlquist.substack.com/p/rent-stabi...
Damn, @steveahlquist.bsky.social event is sold out today. Sorry that I didn’t get tickets in advance!
Bask in the glory today, Steve.
If you are still banking at Citizens Bank: leave. Put your $ somewhere else. Do not be complicit in concentration camps and the imprisoning of children & adults under vicious conditions.
& thank you @steveahlquist.bsky.social for your reporting on this./7
steveahlquist.substack.com/p/protesters...
The nice clean-cut young man who knocked on my door last week campaigning for him seemed surprised that my instant response was "Nope, no way."
smiley cannot get the boot fast enough, what a crook
“…Whether it’s called a rent control or rent stabilization proposal, the outcome is always the same: higher rents, less housing, deeper inequity and legal challenges our own city can’t afford.”
From Providence Mayor Brett Smiley:
“After careful consideration of the City Council’s recently proposed rent stabilization ordinance and its impact on those goals, I have made the decision to veto the proposal…
A federal judge in Rhode Island just DISMISSED the Trump DOJ's lawsuit against Secretary of State Gregg Amore over access to your private voter data.
Rhode Island Attorney General concludes investigation into Smithfield High School football team hazing incident
“We have received a resolution from the Attorney General’s office that the school committee has looked at and agrees to,” said Smithfield School Committee Chair Richard Iannitelli.
Thanks to @steveahlquist.bsky.social for capturing our amazing, insightful, deliberative students' words. I want to live in the future these young people will build, not the one in which their elders make decisions based on fear. Our RIC students inspire me, & their voices deserve to be listened to.
By investing in librarians, the Save Our Rhode Island School Libraries Act will improve public school student outcomes
"Students with access to well-funded school libraries with full-time certified school library media specialists see higher reading achievement and greater overall student success."
What’s weird is that Brown University police ARE armed. Their guns had no effect on the outcome.
I teach at RIC. I worried things would turn this way after the Brown shooting, and now it has.
Fear vs. Reason: RIC and CCRI police officers will soon be carrying firearms on campus
“Putting guns on this campus without properly hearing from the people who live and learn here every single day is not a safety measure," said student Dante Digregorio. "It’s an encroachment."
Well, a start ot a more perfect world, then, would be not existing...
Rent-a-bank schemes target economically vulnerable Rhode Islanders; There’s a legislative fix that needs to pass.
“In a perfect world, we may not exist. I readily acknowledge that,” said Thomas Coleman, a lobbyist for OppFi, a leader in rent-a-bank lending.
ECRI seeks to protect Rhode Island's climate goals, expand conservation funding, decarbonize buildings, and save RIPTA
“We have a federal administration that... is attacking... our efforts to build good, high-paying private-sector green jobs and a green economy," said Speaker Shekarchi.
Big thanks to @steveahlquist.bsky.social for covering my talk on the Wyatt Detention Facility last week.
His article, which provides a transcript for most of my presentation, includes a lot of what I've learned about the Wyatt and also some comments on why I find the place so interesting.
Phil Eil reveals the colorful, dramatic, and disturbing history of the Wyatt Detention Center
"...when public debate about the Wyatt bubbles up ... it’s almost always in financial terms. Very rarely is it about legal, moral, humane, or humanitarian concerns," said Eil.
The cannabis oligopoly flourishes while potential social equity licensees hemorrhage money
"I can’t stand here today and say that this process has been done in good faith,” said Jason Calderon, owner of the cultivator Bonsai Bud and a licensed applicant.
steveahlquist.substack.com/p/the-cannab...
Secretary of State Amore on the importance of passing the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act
"...to ensure voting rights protections going forward in this state, so that Rhode Islanders are protected from voter dilution, voter suppression, and voter discrimination."
Connor Burbridge is challenging Jack Reed for his Senate seat
"Universal healthcare, taxing the greedy billionaires who have rigged the system against the working class, and having a government that is responsive to the needs of working people..."
steveahlquist.substack.com/p/connor-bur...
Very real
7pm or so, today
You might not understand what this mural means, or why it’s problematic. But these guys do.
Some fans on a field trip.