Rhode Islander, John McDaid, Celebrates Birthday at Blogging Conference

Belated Happy Birthday to Portsmouth's John McDaid!

Yesterday was his birthday, and he went to an event in New York...

Did they sing Happy Birthday to him?

His blog:
hard deadlines
localblogging Portsmouth

is just a wonderful place to visit whether or not you live in Rhode Island.

WTF. Oy Vey. Providence Plans To Register Protesters

Good grief.

From the Providence Journal

Here's one response from Seth Yurdin.

Rhode Island's Very Own Drug Dealing Military Recruiter

This is rich.

Here's an excerpt from Amanda Milkovits' article in The Providence Journal:

CRANSTON, R.I. -- A top recruiter for the Air National Guard is being held on numerous drug charges after state police and Air Force investigators seized illegal drugs and about $40,000 worth of prescription medication from his house in Coventry, his Dodge truck, and the recruiting office on Oaklawn Avenue.

Richard Flamand, 31, is accused of dealing drugs from his house and the Air National Guard recruiting office. He was arrested on Monday after investigators from the state police High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations seized cocaine, marijuana and several thousand types of prescription medication, including OxyContin, Suboxone, methadone and hydrocodone from his truck and his house at 33 Circle Drive, Coventry, according to the state police. Another 40 grams of cocaine was found at Flamand's office at the Air National Guard, the state police said. Flamand had $7,616, which the state police said was seized during the arrest.

There is a certain redundancy in this effort. Selling drugs, selling wars...

Here's the link to the article. This has all the trappings of a national story, complete with multiple late night references...

"Several thousand types of prescription medications."



Update:

I've just found the AP version, and it is quite sparse:

Air Guard recruiter charged with selling drugs

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 2, 2009 13:59:14 EDT

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A recruiter for the Rhode Island Air National Guard who authorities said kept cocaine in his government office faces drug dealing charges.

Tech. Sgt. Richard Flamand was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday for possession of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs. He was arrested Monday by state police and federal agents.

Investigators searched Flamand’s recruiting office in Cranston and said they found 40 grams of cocaine.

A spokesman for the Rhode Island National Guard said Flamand has been suspended without pay. The Guard is investigating his contacts with recruits. He could face military discipline.

Flamand was held in jail after his arrest. It was unclear Tuesday if he had an attorney.

We Want The Videotape ( No April Fooling)

The Wyatt Detention Center and ICE are refusing to share a videotape with the family of Jason (Hui Liu) Ng.

Thank you, W. Zachary Malinowski and Providence Journal for covering this story.

Thank you, John J. McConnell, Jr. and Team.

The Federal Investigation of Jason (Hiu Lui) Ng's Death

The Providence Journal today has the story.

For those who haven't heard about Jason Ng. There is an excellent essay on wikipedia about his death in Rhode Island.

My heart is with his widow and children.

Matt Jerzyk's New Blog!

Closing Argument: a blog on truth, justice, the law (and the politics in between)

Matt emailed a "heads up" to me and other RI bloggers:

i have started a new blog called "Closing Argument" that is going to focus on our three branches of government in RI, MA and the US as well as the politics that play out in between.

i intend Closing Argument to be more legal-based, intellectual and objective than my previous endeavor.

Matt is famous for founding the RIFuture website, for playing a pivotal role in organizing the Roger Williams Law School students, and (are you reading this?) for sharing a birthday with Marguerite Vigliani, Elizabeth(Betsy) Scharf and me.

Mazel Tov, Matt!

Jason (Hiu Lui) Ng's Cellmate And the Wyatt Detention Center (C.F., Rhode Island)

Marino De Los Santos has been making public his experience.

This story is being heard in Rhode Island, but I am not sure how widely it has spread.

I don't think many prisons have positive reputations for medical care or more broadly. compassion. There are doctors, nurses, mental health workers, and social workers I know who work in Locked "facilities". They know what they're doing and I respect them.
Prisons are one of the few growth industries that spring to my mind.

Whether private prisons are all that different from publically run ones, I do not know. My bias is in favor of the ones with unions and with the most transparency.

During my work with alcoholics and addicts, I heard many say, if it weren't for being locked up, they would have died. Others have told me the exact opposite.

Thank You, Providence Journal Editorial Writer(s)!

This editorial which I learned about thanks to Karen McAninch (hope I spelled that correctly) and facebook, is remarkably positive.

It's title is "A Library Lifeline?" and below is its first paragraph.

An intriguing idea has arisen that would put the Providence Public Library’s nine branches into the hands of a newly created nonprofit, leaving the PPL (also a nonprofit) in charge of the central branch — its heart and soul — on Empire Street.

By my lights the Providence Public Library is an atypical nonprofit by virtue of its endowment, its opacity and its history of unresponsiveness to the communities it serves.

The editorial is not the one I would have written, but it is part of the dialogue and presents questions.

Thank You, editorial writer or writers! Thank you also for publishing this on a weekday and not a Saturday...

Let's Recall Rhode Island's Governor ! -- Productive Monday Here We Come!

Pat Crowley has written about this on RI Future, and there is a facebook group," Recall Don Carcieri" which now has 450 members. I just learned about the facebook group this morning. Hmm...
Here's a small quote from that page.

Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri has had 5 years to prove he can lead Rhode Island, he hasn't done it. During his re-election, he painted a rosy budget picture. It wasn't true. He has scapegoated working people, poor people, and everyone who doesn't agree with his way.

There is another facebook group, "Let's Cut Don Carcieri's Salary and Benefits in Half". I say why not offer this idea to Non-Rhode Island States?

We know you harbor secret Ocean State Envies!

Thank the Spirits! RI Has a Chapter of Brit Zedek v'Shalom (Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace)

I was recently reading a copy of the Jewish Voice and Herald, which I had picked up at the Cranston Library (the Sockanosset Branch) and found a reference to the Rhode Island chapter of Brit Zedek v'Shalom. It was not the article below, but that is sadly worth reading. It contains links to statements from RI's delegation in Washington, as well as Gov.Carcieri and Mayor Cicilline...

http://jvhri.org/stories/952.htm

Here's a link to the Rhode Island chapter of this national Jewish organization.
http://btvshalom.org//chapters/rhodeisland/

I missed a meeting last week.
They have an excellent list of links...

R. I.'s 12th: Mother Supports School Bus Monitors Remembering Her Daughter...

Rhode Island's Twelfth: Mother Supports School Bus Monitors

Exercise the "Escape Clause": Build a Community Library in Providence, Rhode Island

Marcus Mitchell: No need to close any library branches

Providence Journal
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, January 15, 2009

MARCUS MITCHELL

FOR THE LAST TWO decades, the citizens of Providence have endured a series of threats by the Providence Public Library to close one or more of its nine neighborhood libraries. Last year the PPL announced that the library system was no longer financially sustainable. Its board set up a “Sustainability Committee” mandated to find a creative solution to the library’s persistent deficit problems — to develop a plan to provide meaningful, substantive library services for patrons throughout the city in a different, more economical form.

Unfortunately, the plan that was approved by the PPL Board on Dec. 18 is neither creative nor economical. After all the time and energy that the trustees have expended on resolving the PPL’s long-term problems, the library has ended up with its usual answer to solving its money woes: Close branches. The PPL is planning to “sustain” its library system by closing five branches, leaving the people of Providence with only the central branch and four neighborhood branches, starting this July. (See “New library plan would close 5 branches,” news, Dec. 19.) The library’s solution is neither necessary nor acceptable.

We urge the city to refuse to provide the present level of library funding to the PPL to support greatly reduced library services after June 30.

Concerned that as early as next summer the PPL might not provide Providence residents throughout the city with full access to library services, the Library Reform Group established by concerned citizens incorporated a new nonprofit organization, the Providence Community Library, which is prepared to raise funds for and operate a nine-branch library system that will continue to provide Providence neighborhood patrons with at least the level of library services and programs they now receive. We call upon the city to dissolve its failed alliance with the PPL and enter into partnership with the Providence Community Library.

How can we claim to be able to run all nine branches when the PPL says it can’t be done? Our budget is based on the real costs of running the nine branches, not a budget based upon inflated costs, as has long characterized PPL projected budgets. Our branch system would hire fewer administrators rather than maintain the current top-heavy PPL administration. We would hire capable administrators and pay them salaries comparable with those of public library directors around America, rather than continue the PPL’s practice of paying exorbitant wages to an ineffectual administration that has lost the confidence of the public. Our branch system would engage in robust fundraising. Not being burdened with the PPL’s troubled history that has alienated both the donor community and library users, we expect, even in these troubled financial times, that we could successfully engage in fundraising that would allow us to expand neighborhood library services beyond the current level within the next two or three years.

Most important, the Providence Community Library would be governed by a board that puts the patrons first. Our board would include representatives of all nine library branches, some publicly appointed members, and some members elected by the board itself. No longer would policy for our city libraries be determined by people living in Barrington and South County!

We call upon the city to exercise the “escape clause” in the Library Agreement and end its relationship with PPL. It is time for a branch library system that will be truly a Providence Community Library! The people of Providence deserve a better library service and they can have it if the city breaks with its tradition of supporting the PPL and supports a community library organization instead.

Marcus Mitchell is president of Providence Community Library.

Thank You, Connie Grosch And Providence Journal

http://www.projo.com/news/content/love_story_pam_essjay_01-12-09_57CNFFN_v19.3909fb6.html
I am as critical as the next person of Rhode Island's lone daily newspaper. Sometimes they publish seriously excellent essays, articles, opinion pieces, et al.

This "Love Story" brought me great joy. I think I've met Pam Brightman or spoken to her in some professional capacity (I've been in RI since 1982, after all)...but no matter...

In a world with so much killing, torture, unkindness, we cannot read too many love stories. It is embarrassing that RI does not allow all its citizens to marry or to divorce. We're working on this!

Thank You, Patricia Raub and the P.C.L. Movement

A few days late, but here's more about the Providence Community Library and the press conference on Monday, January 5...

Dear library advocates,

The press conference on Monday went very well. People from over two dozen community organizations were on hand to listen and speak, and NINE City Councilors participated. Here is a slide show on the press conference: http://media.umb.edu/pclpressconf/

The ProJo covered the conference in Tuesday's paper (see below), and the story was picked up by the Los Angles Times book blog, Jacket Copy: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/01/providence-libr.html (Thanks to Matthew Lawrence for bringing this to our attention.)

Here is the text of the article in the Providence Journal:

Group says it can cut costs at Providence library branches and maintain quality
01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, January 6, 2009
By Philip MarceloJournal Staff Writer



PROVIDENCE -- A new nonprofit organization that is proposing to take over the city's nine neighborhood library branches says that it can save more than $2 million and still offer the same services and the same number of union jobs as under the current leadership.

Providence Community Library treasurer Ellen Schwartz said at a news conference in City Hall yesterday that the organization is proposing a $4.8-million operating budget for fiscal 2010.

"Our budget cuts administrative costs and waste out of the library budget," said Schwartz. "It also calls for dramatic, aggressive fundraising."

The nine branches currently represent $7.5 million of a total $9.7-million operating budget, according to Robert Taylor, vice president of the board of trustees of the Providence Public Library, the private nonprofit organization that runs the city libraries.

The PPL, last month, proposed closing the Fox Point, Smith Hill, Olneyville, Wanskuck and Washington Park branches, but keeping open the downtown central library and the Mount Pleasant, South Providence, Rochambeau and Knight Memorial branches.

The Providence Community Library, which does not seek to take over the central library on Empire Street, will submit its alternative budget and organizational plan to Mayor David N. Cicilline on Friday.

Cicilline, who has already said he opposes closing any library branch, says the city will look at "all possible options" for the future management of the branches, and that his administration was still scheduled to meet with PPL board members at the end of the month about their proposal.
"For 100 years, the city and the PPL have had a very strong partnership," he said yesterday. "Before even considering dissolving that partnership, we would have to be really certain that we examine how we may be able to strengthen and preserve it."

He declined to say whether he considered the PCL a viable alternative: "It's premature. There is a lot more work that needs to go into this."

Under an agreement reached in November, the city has the option of accepting the PPL's plan; seek to take over the branch libraries itself; assign their stewardship to another entity; or choose to maintain the current library system intact for one year and cover any deficits incurred.

Any decision would be effective July 1, the start of the next fiscal year, but the city needs to notify the PPL by March 1 if it intends to fund the library system as is for another year, according to the agreement.

Ultimately, said Cicilline, that decision rests with the City Council, which appears to be largely in favor of a branch system under the new nonprofit PCL.

"There are nine [councilors] here" in attendance and in support of the plan, Councilman Nicholas Narducci observed at yesterday's news conference. "We already have the majority we need to do what we have to do."

Council President Peter S. Mancini, who was not in attendance yesterday, said he was "very encouraged" by the PCL's proposal.
"Historically, I've felt that the PPL did not want to deal with the branch libraries, that they have not done much fundraising for the past four or five years, and are not willing to spend their endowment on the branches," he said.

The PCL proposes a board of trustees of up to 25 members, with representatives from all nine branches, the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island (the union for library employees), neighborhood groups and delegates from the mayor's office and the City Council.

The board members would be limited to six consecutive years of service. Marcus Mitchell, a local entrepreneur who runs a business strategy consulting firm and is a member of the Friends of the Rochambeau Branch Library, a nonprofit entity, will serve as the first board chairman.

Next year's budget calls for $3.5 million from the city, which currently allocates $3.4 million to the PPL, $750,000 from the state, and $500,000 to be raised in donations and grants, according to Schwartz, the organization's treasurer.

The proposed budget would keep the same 50 union workers employed at the branches at their contractual salaries, as well as eight nonunion, administrative staff. Meanwhile, the PPL is proceeding with the next steps in enacting its proposal, which involves greater detail on how the PPL might turn over the five branch libraries to the city for use as community learning centers, according to Taylor, of the board of trustees.

PPL spokeswoman Tonia Mason declined yesterday to comment on the specifics of the PCL's alternate proposal, which she said had not been made available to the PPL.

"We don't know that the new organization has the infrastructure capable of administering the branch system, including business, human resources, building management and professional librarians," Mason said in an e-mail. "As with any new organization, we would be concerned that it has the financial ability to steward the library for future generations."

pmarcelo@projo.com

I have not looked at the slide show, but if you see any woman in a bright red coat clapping emphatically, well that's me. I was impressed with the presence of Bill Simons, President of the Board of Trustees of the infamous PPL. He stood quietly and listened to many speakers berate the Board... Miguel Luna thanked him publicly for his support. He has not been President of the Board (or I think even on the Board) for that long, perhaps if he'd been on hand sooner, this Tension would not have Escalated to the point of Schism...

7 Disciplined Following Jason (Hiu Lui) Ng's Death

7 disciplined in probe of Wyatt detainee’s death

Below is the text from an article in today's Providence Journal.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, January 8, 2009
By KAREN LEE ZINER and W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writers
Journal Staff Writers CENTRAL FALLS — Seven employees of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility are facing punishment ranging from reprimands to firing in connection with the death of Hiu Lui Ng last August while he was in Wyatt custody.
Ng, 34, a computer engineer from New York, died as a result of complications from advanced cancer; he also had a fractured spine. Ng’s lawyers allege that he was denied access to medical care and legal counsel, and that Wyatt guards accused him of faking his illness.
The disciplinary actions result from a just-completed internal investigation that exonerates Wyatt, a privately run detention center, with regard to Ng’s medical care.
The seven unnamed staff members are being punished for “specific failures to comply with facility policies and procedures during Mr. Ng’s 25-day detention at the Facility,” according to a statement issued yesterday by the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, which operates the prison.
“The CFDFC stands by its initial statement that Mr. Ng was provided appropriate and timely medical attention to diagnose the late-stage cancer which ultimately caused his death, both in-house and through the use of outside hospitals,” the statement said.
According to the statement, neither the center, nor its staff learned that Ng was suffering from late-stage cancer “until after Mr. Ng was diagnosed at Rhode Island Hospital on or about Aug. 1, 2008. Mr. Ng remained in hospital care from the time of his cancer diagnosis until his passing on Aug. 6, 2008.”
“The CFDFC reiterates that the actions of the Facility’s staff, including the actions of those staff members that have been disciplined, did not contribute to the cause of Mr. Ng’s death.”
The statement noted that the state medical examiner’s office determined that Ng. died of natural causes associated with metastatic liver cancer.
Wyatt spokesman Dante Bellini Jr. said the internal investigation began shortly after Ng’s death, and examined Ng’s care while housed at Wyatt between July 3 and Aug. 1. Bellini declined further comment citing “pending investigations,” including an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington.
Bellini said he believes the ICE investigation has just been completed. An ICE spokesman would not confirm that yesterday.
The New York Times last year chronicled Ng’s odyssey, from his arrest in 2007 on a deportation order that court records state he never received; to his being shuttled among jails and other facilities around New England where ICE detainees are held; to his last weeks at Wyatt as his medical condition allegedly went untreated and undiagnosed.
Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union — which represents Ng’s family — said the investigation results “are an important first step, but the public still deserves a lot of answers. If the facility itself acknowledges that seven staff members need severe punishment, that should raise red flags that there’s something very serious going on at this facility.”
Brown added, “What were the violations of policy that occurred? How could they have occurred to such a great extent and affecting so many employees if it’s not a systemic problem at the facility? Their belief that there was no problem with medical care remains very troubling, since the records we’ve seen so far make it clear it was only in his very last days that Mr. Ng was diagnosed with terminal disease.”
On Dec. 8, ICE abruptly removed all 153 immigrant detainees from Wyatt and transferred them to five other states, as a team of investigators from its Washington headquarters and elsewhere arrived to investigate Ng’s death. The mass transfer marked at least the third time since 2007 that ICE has moved all detainees out of a facility following a highly publicized in-custody death.
Meanwhile, Wyatt has begun “across-the-board cuts” that include layoffs, the elimination of prisoner programs and a freeze on new hires in the months ahead unless the prison gets an influx of new detainees. The loss of immigrant detainees is costing the prison about $100,000 a week and officials have been forced to reduce expenses. That has led to this week’s layoffs and cuts in services.
Bellini, the Wyatt spokesman, refused to say how many of the prison’s staff of 204 administrators, guards and support staff have lost their jobs, what programs have been cut or how much the facility hopes to save each week.
The Journal has learned that two top officials, including an associate warden, were let go this week. Their combined annual salaries totaled more than $100,000.
Others may be gone by week’s end.
“We have put into place the contingency plan,” Bellini said. “We still don’t know what the final look of this is going to be.”
The action could have a crippling impact on Wyatt, which is reimbursed about $100 a day for each prisoner housed there.
Yesterday, there were 512 prisoners in Wyatt, about 150 to 200 fewer than its normal population in recent years. Bellini said that the prison also has shut down two of its 12 pods, each of which houses up to 100 inmates.
The cuts are also bad news for the financially strapped City of Central Falls, which Wyatt paid $504,656 in the fiscal year that ended last June 30.
kziner@projo.com

I agree with the questions raised by Steven Brown.
“What were the violations of policy that occurred? How could they have occurred to such a great extent and affecting so many employees if it’s not a systemic problem at the facility?"

There is now a facebook group open to anyone which calls for answers...
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21859198024#/group.php?gid=42210608682&ref;=ts

The name of the group is: Make the Wyatt Detention Facility accountable
and it has 63 members as 12:16 (this moment)...

Stronger Than Their Walls, a RI documentary...

From the RI Family Life Center, http://riflc.org/index.php?name=homepage,
comes the following


Stronger Than Their Walls
Guilty Though Proven Innocent
watch trailer at strongerthantheirwalls.com

A documentary about struggles for justice in Rhode Island
RI law allows people on probation to be incarcerated for crimes for which they have been found innocent or for which the charges have been dismissed. This documentary follows the story of several men who were presumed guilty and never given a fair chance to demonstrate their innocence. The families of these imprisoned men take the issue to the Rhode Island Statehouse, where they tell their stories in an effort to reform the law.

Stronger Than Their Walls is currently organizing screenings around Rhode Island. Please contact strongerthantheirwalls@gmail.com to arrange a screening--at your house, your church, your community center, anywhere.


Watch the full movie at a screening near you:

check strongerthantheirwalls.com for new dates

Providence South Side
Tuesday, 9th at 6:00
RI Family Life Center
841 Broad Street

Providence North Side
Tuesday, Dec 9th at 7:30
Mount Hope Neighborhood Association
142 Camp Street

Downtown Providence
Thursday, December 18 at 7:00
Black Repertory Theatre
276 Westminster St.
with panel discussion sponsored by Rhode Island Council of the Humanities

Newport
Sunday, January 4 at noon
St. Paul's Church
12 Marlborough Street

Davey Lopes: An Unsung Rhode Islander Coaches The Phillies

Oddly, I "remembered" that Davey Lopes had played briefly for the New York Mets some time after I began to root for them (1974 + ). When I look on the internet pages, I don't find anything to back that up. The Mets and Dodgers played more often in those days. There were two divisions and no inter-league play, save for the post season.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Lopes

Any way, I have been hoping to meet Davey Lopes ever since I moved to RI (August,1982). I have met more than a few cousins. My dear friend Billy Sylvia was his half brother, I believe. I've driven past the Rec center with his name countless times.

Rocco Baldelli and Dan Wheeler are getting attention in the sports pages for representing our fair state. The ProJo has neglected Davey Lopes.

Davey Lopes has a long and rich history. As hard as it is for me to root for the Phillies -- I will always root for Davey. I'm glad his health is strong enough for him to return to coaching. And I hope he has another chance (or many) to manage.

And Davey, we're all pulling for your sister's health too.

Poli Tsk Tsk Tsk: Sarah Palin: One on One with Poli Tsk Tsk Tsk

Poli Tsk Tsk Tsk: Sarah Palin: One on One with Poli Tsk Tsk Tsk

Dump DePetro Today !

From RI Future [ http://www.rifuture.org/],
I've just learned of an excellent new group whose name is the title of this post.

Here's their site:
http://dumpdepetrotoday.com/index.html

DePetro left RI originally for the larger market of Massachusetts. They wised up to his bigotry and dumped him. It's our turn now.

Slave Trade Remembrance at WaterFire will be OCT 4, not Sept 27

Dear all,

The weather forecast for tomorrow is for a big storm to hit
Providence, and so we've decided to postpone the A Thousand Ships
observation until next Saturday, October 4th. The symposium on the
following day is being postponed to October 5th.

Meanwhile, our prologue, the screening of a thought-provoking
documentary about one particular Rhode Island slave trading family,
will go ahead as planned. This is great opportunity to learn more
about some of the issues we're addressing with A Thousand Ships, and
the filmmaker and many of those who appear in the film will be
attending. After the screening, there will be a discussion / q+a.

Traces of the Trade
3.30pm-6pm

I received the above letter from Dawn at Rites & Reason Theatre, [Thank You, Dawn!]. I imagine more information is at http://www.waterfire.org/