News


Pandemic at the Disco: Music venues are empty, but RI keeps rocking out

Heading For A Clampdown As much as I liked the idea of every Yankees, Giants or Jets fan being stopped on the highway without probable cause and the state police forbidding them from leaving their houses — that idea was bat shit crazy. And even though crossing our borders now gives automatic quarantine to people from […]

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Sojourner House Expresses Concern About Domestic Violence: Help is needed for those trapped at home with an abuser

Vanessa Volz is the Executive Director of Sojourner House, which provides services and resources to victims of domestic violence and shelter for women and children, who are trying to escape abusive situations. Volz says that since the coronavirus outbreak, Sojourner House has had distress calls from current and new clients because, “People are literally trapped […]

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RI Creatives Seek Statewide Artist Relief Fund

Our local economy has collapsed in the wake of COVID-19, leaving thousands of people down and out in the Ocean State with an unemployment rate rapidly approaching Great Depression levels. Creatives have decided to organize. Artists, musicians and gig workers under previously existing rules were unable to collect unemployment or benefits for lost income. The […]

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ecoRI March News Roundup

Medical Waste Cooked 24/7 in West Warwick A proposed medical-waste-to-energy processing facility in West Warwick would operate around the clock, heating human blood, pathological waste and syringes to 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit (using a process called pyrolysis) to generate electricity. The net power generated would be sold to the regional power grid. Blood-powered Netflix, anyone? The […]

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RI restaurants ask help and compassion from state government as COVID-19 shuts them down

A group of four independent food service operators sent a letter to RI Gov. Gina Raimondo on March 17, desperately asking for help from state government: “The COVID-19 crisis, and the necessary government-mandated gathering restrictions, [have] shuttered most of us. Those still left open are seeing as much as a 75% decrease in sales. While […]

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Calling All Artists: Motif will display your work in a virtual gallery

Art brings community together and promotes positive mental health, and we want to encourage community and creativity in this time of social distancing. We are asking visual artists, musicians, creative writers, actors, poets and artists of all kinds to submit their original content to our new virtual gallery! #MotifVirtualGallery is a compilation page that showcases […]

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Front Lines: The important role of independent journalism in a crisis

Bill Bartholomew is host of The Bartholomewtown podcast and frequent Motif contributor. As the coronavirus crisis has unfolded, he’s stood shoulder-to-shoulder with other Motif reporters and independent journalists at Governor Raimondo’s daily press conferences (at least until the governor required reporters to stand 3 feet apart). We recently talked to him about the role of […]

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