#SaborLatinoRI Holds Taco Mania!

Rhode Island Latino Arts, in collaboration with Rhode Island Food Fights, will celebrate Latino Heritage Month from September 15-October 15, 2015 with a month-long culinary exhibition event, Taco Mania.  For the cost of a book of tickets or a passport, patrons will have to opportunity to visit participating venues and receive two tacos.  As of this printing, twelve restaurants are already involved, with a list to be finalized by July 1.  Founded as The Hispanic Heritage Committee Rhode Island in 1988 by Marta V. Martínez, the organization has sponsored Hispanic heritage celebrations since 1989 while promoting pride in the immigrant population, encouraging second generation engagement in Latino heritage, and reaching out to non-Latinos to foster understanding of major contributions of their neighbors.  In 2013, the organization was re-named Rhode Island Latino Arts in celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary.
Parties interested in registering for this event or obtaining tickets can do so at its FaceBook page or by clicking here.

Protest March For Tipped Workers On June 2

On Tuesday, June 2, 2015, Restaurant Opportunity Center of Rhode Island, in collaboration with Rhode Island Jobs With Justice, will hold a protest march to the State House called '20 Years Is Long Enough!'  Beginning at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, located at 15 Hayes Street in Providence, the protest is intended to bring attention to the plight of tipped workers in Rhode Island.  As of this writing, it has been two decades since the minimum wage for laborers on such income has been adjusted, with the current wage at $2.89 per hour.  In a statement issued via email today, one such worker said

The industry teaches servers that we are worth less. We are not paid as professionals with a skill but are instead made to curry favor with whoever we can in order to scrape together a living...  How am I supposed to stand up for myself when the customer who sexually harasses me pays 68% of my hourly wage?  

Parties interested in further details or registration can do so here.

And So It Begins! Bill For 'Public-Private' Funding Sent to Finance Committee

Representatives Stephen M. Casey, K. Joseph Shekarchi, Michael Morin, Mia A. Ackerman, and Cale P. Keable sent a bill to the Finance Committee on May 27, 2015, H 6250, that would allow for what they call 'public-private' partnership funding of facilities and infrastructure.  While the PawSox are not mentioned in the text, the fact is that Michael G. Riley, sometimes Republican political candidate, has called the term 'public-private financing' a lot of "gobbledygook".  This move is not out of step considering the unpopularity of the proposal, with public protests that have attracted the support of the Rhode Island Green Party, Tea Party, Progressive Democrats, and Republicans alike, something that almost never happens in this state.  Larry Lucchino, remaining majority owner of the PawSox after the death of James Skeffington earlier this month, published a multi-column appeal to the masses in the Providence Journal on May 27 with timing that could not be more perfect, titled DOWNTOWN PARK WIL BE RI GEM, closing with the line "We invite you to join us on this journey. We believe your children and your grandchildren will thank you."  Some may beg to differ, including economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson, who have aired their opinions and written papers on how these sorts of funding proposals rarely have long-term benefits for the taxpayers.

ACLU Police Filming App Hits The Streets, Needed in Rhode Island

The American Civil Liberties Union, in collaboration with Quadrant 2, Incorporated, has recently released an app called Mobile Justice.  Originally released for use in California, it now has variants available in North Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi, and Nebraska.  Along with the ability to film a video that automatically uploads the the ACLU servers, it also includes a tab that summarizes your rights when encountering a law enforcement official, the capability to file a digital incident report with the Union, and notifications of upcoming events.  The only question remaining is when this program will be available in the Ocean State.

Janell Brown Takes The Stage June 6

On June 6, 2015, Rhode Island Black Heritage Society will present Classical High School student vocalist Janell Brown in her first solo jazz concert.  The evening, titled THE WAY YOU WEAR YOUR HAT, is being held at 2 PM at the Rhode Island School of Design Ewing Multicultural Center at 41 Waterman Street in Providence, featuring Rod Luther on piano along with guest performances.  Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here.  A senior at Classical, Ms. Brown has previously attended the 'Jazz Is A Rainbow' summer training program led by musicians Michael Palter and Lynne Jackson and with Robb Dimmick as artistic director.  Purchase of a ticket will also enter the buyer in a drawing to win a $150 overnight stay at The Dean Hotel if purchased by 4pm on Thursday, May 28.  Located at 122 Fountain Street in the heart of Downtown Providence, the Dean features as an in-house vendor Bolt Coffee Company and is connected to the German restaurant Faust.
Inquiries can be directed to the following:

• E-Mail: info@ribhs.org
• Telephone: (401) 421-0606

Rhode Island Sierra Club To Hold The "Environment is Everyone's Business" Rally

On Wednesday, June 10, 2015 (rain date June 11), the Rhode Island chapter of the Sierra Club will be holding a rally on the South Lawn of the State House from 5 to 7 PM.  Featuring musical performances by the Eastern Medicine Singers and a host of community artists, the rally will feature keynote speaker Dr. Michael K. Dorsey.  

With a B.S. and Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Policy from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, as well as a Master of Forest Science from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and an M.A. in Anthropology from The Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Dorsey has been active for over twenty years in a variety of causes related to ecological and environmental policy, including work for the first Obama Presidential campaign, the EPA's National Advisory Committee, and leadership in the national Sierra Club.  He is considered an expert on the topic of sustainability and implementation of environmentally-sound infrastructure policies on the government level, as well as maintaining a study on the inter-connections between financial instruments and the environmental.  He now serves as an advisor at the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service.
For more information, interested parties can visit the following:

• FaceBook Event Page
• E-Mail Event Organizer Robert Malin
• Contact Via Telephone at 401-497-7419 

Pasha Hookah Bar Remains Closed Over One Death, Others Remain Open Despite Cancer Risks

Photo by Steve Klamkin, WPRO News

The big news story today was the continued closure of Pasha Hookah Bar on Allens Avenue in South Providence after a recent shooting outside the establishment.  However, there was no discussion of the deaths associated with the sixteen other hookah lounges or bars in Rhode Island that allow smoking inside.
Since March 1, 2005, there has been an indoor smoking ban in effect.  However, exceptions exist for the following:

• Cigar bars (income over 50% tobacco products) 
• Outdoor areas 
• Private and semiprivate rooms in nursing homes 
• Retail tobacco stores 
• Stage performances involving smoking 
• Private residences, except used as a licensed child care, adult daycare, or healthcare facility 
• The two state-licensed gambling facilities, Newport Grand and Twin River Casino

In the wake of the general indoor smoking ban taking effect, a niche market of specialized venues to host smokers has become a thriving industry.  Rhode Island has sixteen other hookah bars in operation throughout the state.  And despite efforts to mediate issues caused by smoking by means such as ventilation, tobacco consumption remains a deadly habit that affects not just the individual smoker.  Data from CDC.gov says that there are 42,000 deaths each year among adults from secondhand smoke in America, with 7,333 annual deaths from lung cancer and 33,951 annual deaths from heart disease caused exclusively by secondhand smoke.  Further risks from hookah include the consumption of carbon monoxide by both the smoker and those in the surrounding area.
This can spell certain dire consequences for the staff and servers of such establishments.  Furthermore, pay in these venues is far from ideal.  Many of the servers earn $2.89 per hour plus tips, which can often come at the expense of respect or dignity.  Sexual harassment of female wait staff is a real phenomenon, with patrons making lewd remarks or even physically violating boundaries that would otherwise be deemed poor table manners, especially since these venues also have liquor licenses, Pasha being case and point.

Photo taken from Pasha FaceBook page.

There is now an effort at hand to increase the minimum wage for tipped staff in Rhode Island, a movement bitterly opposed by industry lobbyists and barely acknowledged by Democrats in the General Assembly.  Parties interested in these efforts are encouraged to contact the Providence IWW here for further information.

Opinion: Notes From An Overdose Epidemic, In Memoriam of Danny L. and Elijah F.

As noted by Dan McGowan of WPRI 12 News Providence and other reporters, death due to opiate overdose is becoming a tragic problem in the Ocean State.  According to this collection of data from the Department of Health, 2014 saw 239 total deaths from such overdoses.

However, pure numbers fail to do justice to what has been defined as an epidemic by the DOH.  Already we have seen 91 deaths in 2015, according to this piece by the Boston Globe.  Behind each of these digits stands a family destroyed, a friend loss, a parent made absent.  The addition of a synthetic opiate called fentanyl has increased the potency and fatality of heroin here in Southern New England.
Today I went to the second memorial for someone I knew due to opiate overdose.  Last August, someone I knew at Rhode Island College was also made a statistic in this disaster.  Two memorials in less than one year is far too uncomfortable for any person, but especially when the two individuals were under the age of thirty.  To quote HAMLET:

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

Rhode Island's substance abuse problems are not new fare, having previously been ranked for one of the highest concentrations for marijuana, cocaine, and binge drinking per capita population.  The state does not have a substance abuse problem as much as a recovery problem.  Detoxification centers are one of the major businesses in the state.  What is truly wrong is the dynamic and method we as a society not just encourage but sanctify as praxis.
Journalist Johann Hari has written in this story on Huffington Post and in his new book CHASING THE SCREAM: THE FIRST AND LAST DAYS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS that addiction has almost nothing to do with chemical hooks and everything to do with social standing.  He writes:

Professor Peter Cohen argues that human beings have a deep need to bond and form connections. It's how we get our satisfaction. If we can't connect with each other, we will connect with anything we can find -- the whirr of a roulette wheel or the prick of a syringe. He says we should stop talking about 'addiction' altogether, and instead call it 'bonding.' A heroin addict has bonded with heroin because she couldn't bond as fully with anything else…  [T]he opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection…  When I returned from my long journey, I looked at my ex-boyfriend, in withdrawal, trembling on my spare bed, and I thought about him differently. For a century now, we have been singing war songs about addicts. It occurred to me as I wiped his brow, we should have been singing love songs to them all along.

Here is Hari this past February on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman:

When I talked with people who were also familiar with these two drug deaths I knew of, what struck me was that both ended their short lives in extreme loneliness.  That is a painful life.  The need for an outlet, be it drugs, drink, or other vices, is powerful and obviously deadly.

So what do we need to do as a state?  There are some obvious steps to take:

• Encourage the abolition of our social stigma about addiction and replace it with a dynamic of empathy.
• Re-design our drug abuse prevention curriculums to create a better understanding of the user as an individual.
• End the Drug War and our Prohibition culture while re-directing the funds spent putting people in jail for being lonely towards programs based around this new socialization dynamic about addiction.

In the meantime, we must mourn those we lost and pray we might not loose others.  This is a long-winded, tedious, seemingly endless process.  But until we implement the aforementioned steps at the minimum, we will continue to loose people we love.

Opinion: Why You Should Oppose The PawSox Stadium

James Skeffington, PawSox Owner.

On February 23, 2015, the new ownership of the Pawtucket Red Sox, led by Boston owner Larry Lucchino and Providence political superstar James Skeffington, announced their intent to move the team from McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket to a prospective stadium in Providence, suggested to be built on a parcel of land newly developed following the re-routing of I-195.

Proposed Site of New Stadium.

There are several reasons why this is an awful idea.  I will expound in the following sections.

THE OWNERSHIP

The new owners of the PawSox are all known players in the corrupt system that is the Rhode Island government.  The most problematic persona in the circus is Mr. Skeffington.  As a lawyer at the law firm Edwards Angell Palmer and Dodge, he has been instrumental in arranging financing deals that have resulted in the tax payer getting the raw end of the stick, such as the arrangements for the Providence Place Mall and the Rhode Island Convention Center.  The Convention Center is of particular note because, in the fine print, Mr. Skeffington arranged for taxes to fund the operation until they should get out of the red.  Founded in 1994, the Rhode Island tax payer continues to subsidize this debacle.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Following the removal of the de-comissioned sections of the interstate, Providence began a project to re-design the sewer system.  In order to accommodate a new stadium, this newly-laid sewer would need to be renovated, which could cause further leaks and pollution of the waterfront.  Furthermore, construction of such magnitude would cause air, water, and noise pollution.  This in and of itself would be a disaster.

THE FINANCING

The owners have argued that they will require what they call 'public-private' financing, a scheme that local businessman Michael G. Riley has described as 'gobbledygook'.  In essence, the taxpayer foots the bill and the owners reap the profits.  The details of the actual financing are galling and seem like a nightmare from the mind of Charles Dickens.  They want $5 million per year from the taxpayer.  They want a 30-year lease, $1 per year, and the option to buy the land at fair market value at the end of the lease.  And no doubt, if the team does not do fantastic, they will include a sub-clause to move the team to greener pastures at their whim, leaving Providence with a monstrosity that has no chance of being re-purposed.  In the case of the 38 Studios debacle, the offices and computers were easily re-sold and re-purposed.  It is very difficult to do the same with a baseball stadium.

THE POLITICS

This move will bring Brown University one step closer to it's goal of re-designing the voting districts in Providence so to disenfranchise the poor and minority populations of South Providence.  Such types of gerry-mandering are commonplace on the agenda of the rich and privileged.  This will eventually result in an end to efforts to make the various colleges in the city pay property taxes, something former Brown President Ruth Simmons was dragged kicking and screaming to.  Ultimately, a new stadium will mean that the black/brown or poor in Providence get a bat over the back of the head.

THE ECONOMICS

Holy Cross economics Professor Victor Matheson and Lake Forest Professor Robert Baade collaborated on a 2011 white paper titled FINANCING PROFESSIONAL SPORTS FACILITIES, available here.  Matheson and Baade make clear that there is absolutely no financial benefit for the governments that subsidize these ventures.  Of course, Speaker Nicholas Matiello has hired Smith College economics professor Andrew Zimbalist, a yes-man who is well-respected by the leadership of the Major League Baseball organization, including former Commissioner Bud Selig, a man who did not notice a twenty-plus year scandal involving steroids until half the players in the league had ballooned to the size of small blimps.

THE PRINCIPLE

Gore Vidal once said America is “a unique society in which we have free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich."  This scheme is a brilliant example of such a move.  We are a state that has operated in the red for decades.  Our schools are disasters.  Our pension system is getting marauded by the Wall Street fat cats brought in by Gina Raimondo.  The police force is almost totally made up of white males while the general population is composed of African, Latino, and various other minority populations.  Of the millions of things that could be done with this amount of money, subsidizing a bail-out for Skeffington and Co. is the last thing that should be done.

Do the common sense thing.  Say NO to Skeff-O-Nomics.

Union Organization Meeting For Food and Retail Workers Monday Evening

On Monday, May 18, 2015 at 6 PM, the Providence branch of the Industrial Workers of the World will host a town hall-style organizational meeting for food and retail workers interested in unionizing their workplaces at 319 Broadway in Providence.  Called PRECARIOUS AND PISSED OFF! A FORUM FOR FOOD AND RETAIL WORKERS, the event is described by the hosts as the following:

This is a town hall meeting for and by food and retail workers in the Providence Metro Area to come together and learn about the future of the industry and why we need to organize together as food and retail workers today.

The IWW is one of America's oldest still-extant labor unions.  Founded on July 27, 1905 in Chicago, it is based around the syndicalist model of organization, where members of multiple trades are united in One Big Union instead of divided into different trade unions.  Famous members include Mother Jones, Lucy Parsons, Helen Keller, linguist Noam Chomsky, musician Tom Morello, anthropologist David Graeber, and Roger Nash Baldwin, founder of the ACLU.
For more information or to register for attendance, click here.  Childcare will be available for free.

Providence Police, By The Numbers

The following statistics were taken from the 2014 Providence Police Department Annual Report.

• Providence had in 2013 a population of 1777,994.
• Of that population, 13% is black and 2% is two or more ethnicities.
• The officer to population ration is 2.47:1000.
• There are 443 sworn police on active duty
• There are 14 black police officers.
• In the Academy, there were 7 black recruits and 37 white recruits.

African-American Heritage of College Hill Kick-Off Meeting

On May 14, 2015, members of the Providence community interested in the promotion and preservation of African-American history in Rhode Island gathered at the Old State House at 150 Benefit Street to participate in the opening event of a collaborative effort between the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, African-American Heritage of College Hill.
Edward Sanderson, Executive Director of RIHPHC, opened the meeting with some general remarks that summarized the project and efforts.  Funded with a grant of $25,000 from the National Park Service, this two year project will aim to lengthen the description of the role African-Americans have played in the history of College Hill, which was made a Historic District on the National Register in 1970 before becoming a National Historic Landmark in 1971.  This was followed by a short talk by Joanna Doherty, who gave a deeper description of the Register and the District.
Ray Rickman, Senior Consultant for RIBHS, described this as an opportunity to "darken history up a bit", saying "we're talking about race again" and describing his own experience working in Providence since relocating to Rhode Island in 1979.  Following this opening, the audience had the opportunity to share insights and remarks regarding a five page hand-out listing sites that were notable for their connection to African-American history.  Members of the audience included anthropologist Ramona Bass-Kolobe and historian Ed Hooks, whose contributions were especially enlightening.

For those interested in further information, contact the following:

• Joanna Doherty, RIHPHC, 401-222-4136, joanna.doherty@preservation.ri.gov
• Sarah Zurier, RIHPHC, 401-222-4142, sarah.zurier@preservation.ri.gov
• Ray Rickman, RIBHS, 401-421-0606, rickman@rickmangroup.com

The College Hill Historic District National Register Nomination form can be viewed here.