For the seventh straight year, Rhode Island legislators have presented a bill to tax and regulate cannabis, much like the alcohol and tobacco industries are regulated. According to Regulate Rhode Island, the Adult Use of Cannabis Act (2017 H-5555) would replace Rhode Island’s existing policy of cannabis prohibition and permit adults over the age of […]
Rhode Island is unusual among the states for a tax policy that treats rolling papers as equivalent to cigarettes, such that a package of 20 sheets of rolling paper is taxed as if it was a pack of 20 ready-made cigarettes, the current excise tax for which is $3.75. Sales tax of 7% is then […]
Massachusetts voted and decided to legalize marijuana. It then promptly shot itself in the foot over the question of how and on what timetable to fulfill that promise, but is lining up the ducks and now seems to be on track toward allowing canna businesses to actually operate. The response among many Rhode Islanders has […]
T he music scene in RI is currently at an all-time high. Young individuals are taking it upon themselves to curate events for the community, and with today’s online world, artists and companies are looking for new ways to gain exposure. Live-streaming has become one such major platform. I recently attended an event by B08 studios […]
Dear Nick, Spring is taking its grand ol’ time in arriving fashionably late to Lil Rhody. It’s more like “Winter 2: Electric Boogaloo” than any kind of fairer, milder, out-like-a-lamb type weather. While I am stuck indoors, it gives me time to think, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, and is sometimes more difficult than […]
Pretty Faces Perception is reality, as the old political saying goes. So what do you think people from elsewhere perceive when they look at the face of government in Little Rhody now that “Rubbers” Ruggerio has been chosen Senate president by his peers at Halitosis Hall? No, not necessarily a police line-up, but don’t discard […]
This is a time of instability. A time for us to reflect on our sustainability as individuals, artists and organizations and reflect on how we’ve been depending on systems built by the interests of specific groups — structures that project an image of safety and consistency that hides how fickle and volatile they can be. […]
Human beings are driven to express themselves, and we are naturally uplifted by a sense of having done something, having accomplished something. Ultimately, communication is an act of love, and accomplishment is an act of affirming one’s existence. Combined, that is art — affirming one’s capacity for love — and people always have and always […]
“This is how it works You’re young until you’re not You love until you don’t You try until you can’t You laugh until you cry You cry until you laugh And everyone must breathe Until their dying breath.” -“On the Radio” by Regina Spektor Dear Nick, I attended the Regina Spektor concert last week at […]
The core concepts deployed when using alternative facts as a political weapon are far from new (The Rosetta Stone was a multi-lingual piece of ancient propaganda, attempting to get the Egyptian public to accept a Roman conqueror as a manifestation of a local god). But the particular spin lent to the practice by recent events […]