The time is here once again for the midterm elections, and wee doggy, what a quagmire we find ourselves in. When I sat down to write this piece, I told myself I wasn’t going to make it about Donald Trump, but, in the current political climate, it’s difficult to find anything politically that doesn’t have […]
One of the most basic principles of government is that the immense powers entrusted to it by the public must always be used in the interest of the people thoughtfully, deliberately, and carefully, rather than in paroxysms of emotion because, dammit, something must be done! Democratic Socialism The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as an […]
1. Higher Education Facilities Bond Measure — $275 million This bond would use $165 million to create an integrated health building at the URI campus, open to the public, which would also be used for labs and clinics by URI students in health care fields. URI has schools of nursing and for medical technologists. URI […]
Bruce McCrae, aka Rudy Cheeks, aka Jorge of Phillipe & Jorge, passed quietly on Friday Night. Bruce had suffered several health events in recent years, and wasn’t out much, but in his heyday he was the sort of public figure you could find at major art, political, and music events almost every night of the […]
Much has already been written on the passing Sep 18 at age 76 of Bruce McCrae, who used the stage name “Rudy Cheeks.” The death was reported by his brother, W. Scott McCrae in a public forum for the Tolman High School Class of 1968. He hardly needs yet another obituary, and I highly recommend […]
The unionized workers of the Community Libraries of Providence have been without a contract for two years now. Their patience, which had been wearing thin, was stretched to the breaking point by a recent move on the part of management that, by union rules, crossed a line. On August 4 & 5 they went into […]
“We will continue pushing back on ill-planned attempts to force A.I. into our newsrooms and onto our readers, who deserve quality, human-led journalism…” – Philip Eil, freelance journalist Why would a newspaper company partner with Palantir, the notorious tech company co-founded by Peter Thiel? Well, according to USA Today Co.’s CEO Mike Reed, who spoke […]
Two years ago in these pages I wrote “PPSD in Peril” to mark the five-year anniversary of the state assuming control of the Providence Public School District and my general take on it. Rereading it now, I came off a tad cynical about the bureaucracy, the theater, and the posturing behind it all. Now, the […]
David Morales, candidate for mayor of Providence, who will challenge incumbent Brett Smiley for the Democratic Party nomination in the Sep 9 primary election, has made disturbing statements that, in my opinion, should be disqualifying. Morales has characterized Israel’s conduct in Gaza as “genocide,” which is offensive and inherently antisemitic. Why is local government preoccupied […]
Artificial intelligence became a mainstream sensation in late 2022, its flames fanned by the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. What was previously a high-tech field became a highly visible mass-market product, carrying with it a minefield of ethical considerations. There are pros and cons at every turn, but one thing is clear: AI is a double-edged […]