Can Costco thread the Smithfield zoning thicket, and if so, what is the next cri de cœur yearning for Rhode Island’s future? Thanks for stopping by. You can follow me through the week on Bluesky, Threads and X.
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK
In life, as in politics and the news, the urgent often grabs attention from the important. A roaring four-alarm house fire will get immediate coverage, for example, while the slow burn of municipalities’ unfunded retiree benefits mostly fades into the background. So it goes with the long-running effort to improve public schools across the state, and especially in Rhode Island’s capital city. While the leadership fight at the Providence School Board has gained attention, decades of rhetoric about the need to raise school quality and student performance remain a largely unfulfilled promise. As recent standardized RICAS scores show, only 33% of Rhode Island students in grades three through eight are proficient in English language arts and 32% in math. And as my colleague Ben Berke reported this week, many teachers and parents question what was accomplished by the seven-year state takeover of the Providence schools.
State Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green points to an array of points – including decreased absenteeism, an all-time high in graduation rates, a marked decline in low-performing schools, enhanced career and technical programs, and 50 new school buildings across the state – in arguing that Rhode Island is moving in the right direction. During a wide-ranging interview this week on One on One, Infante-Green said she can see the difference when she visits classrooms. “Our kids are leaving more prepared,” she said. “That is a fact. When we got our NAEP scores,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, “we went from 25th to 14th – our kids are making progress. That's not something that we're saying. That's something that is a national assessment that's saying that.”
At the same time, the challenge in Providence has grown ever more complex since Hope High School was depicted on the cover of Life back in the 1960s as an ideal college preparatory school. During a long-ago interview, one of Infante-Green’s predecessors, Peter McWalters, attributed the difference to the loss of manufacturing jobs that once offered a solid living for young people without a diploma and the churn of students coming and going from different communities. Back in the present, Infante-Green pointed to a decline of about 10,000 students, an increase of about 4,000 economically challenged students, about 5,000 students who are learning English for the first time, and about 3,000 students who are differently abled. Add to that how many parents with the economic ability to send their kids elsewhere vote with their pocketbooks.
While she said changing policies and trends represent a swinging pendulum for educators, Infante-Green contends that a foundation has been built for Rhode Island’s public schools to make further progress. After being brought in as a change agent by Gina Raimondo in 2019 – and running headlong with the rest of us into an unexpected pandemic – “We’ve done some amazing things,” she said. At the same time, Democratic frontrunner for governor Helena Foulkes has vowed to replace Infante-Green (she told me she and Foulkes have not sat down to talk), so the commissioner has reason to burnish her tenure. So it goes, as the job of leading the charge on Rhode Island’s under-performing public schools will likely soon move to someone else.
2. THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR
Independent candidate for governor Ken Block may have saved his best line of attack for his closing statement during WPRI-TV’s hour-long debate at Rhode Island College on Tuesday. While Helena Foulkes touts herself an outsider, Block said, “She’s a new face in front of the same political machine, the same political machine that’s been behind decades of governors in our state.” Yes, Foulkes is drawing on the same kind of union support that helped put Dan McKee over the top in 2022, but she has a very different resume than the incumbent and vowed to be “a strong governor who will work every day for working families, not a ‘Republican,’” who wants to cut the millionaires’ tax and has spoken critically about the Affordable Care Act. Looming over his two rivals from the center podium with his towering height, Republican Aaron Guckian talked about lowering costs as he tried to raise his profile in the race. It’s fair to wonder if the debate did anything to change the prevailing dynamic in the race, in part since one top impression was Block and Guckian’s dislike for one another. While Block has expressed confidence in interviews, a poll out this week from Salve Regina University continued the trendline, showing Foulkes leading (with 39% of the support), followed by Block (28%) and Guckian (17%). Foulkes’ commercials remain in heavy rotation on TV and she continues to lean on the benefits of the Democratic coalition, none more prominent than an imprimatur from former President Barack Obama.
3. POLITICAL BLOTTER
In a trying year for Rhode Island Republicans, news of an indictment charging Michael Perik, the husband of now ex-RI Democratic Party Chair Liz Perik, with fraud and racketeering charges, offered an opportunity for the shoe to be on the other foot. Michel Perik is accused in the theft of $20 million from a closed community college in Ohio. Perik’s lawyer, Brad Barbin, said in a statement that the case lacks merit and is a matter of political payback. Regardless, the headlines led Liz Perik to resign as Democratic Party Chair. State Rep. Jenni Furtado (D-East Providence), a native of Peru who was first elected in 2024, has won the unanimous support of the Democratic Party State Executive Committee to take on the role of party chair. Furtado is a 2019 graduate of Roger Williams University School of Law, and her husband, Marc, is a former policy director for East Providence Mayor Roberto DaSilva.
In related news, Kathy Gregg reported in the ProJo that GOP candidate for general treasurer Michael Credle hasn’t paid child support in months and acknowledged in court “that he was counting on Rhode Island voters giving him a much-needed job to help pay his current wife's medical bills.”
4. THE BUZZ ON AI IN RI
The stock market got spooked on Thursday due to concerns about spending on artificial intelligence. Some suspect it’s only a matter of time until the burst of the AI bubble, causing wider economic distress. (“During the first half of 2025, data centers accounted for92 percent of America’s G.D.P. growth, according to a calculation by the Harvard Kennedy School economist Jason Furman,” as this must-read New York Times Magazine piece on Larry Ellison recently reported.)
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, Axios scooped on how unvetted AI agents are gaining access to bank accounts in the U.S.
All this makes for a spicy backdrop when an annual AI and infrastructure summit takes place today at the downtown Marriott. Opening keynotes are planned by Fountainhead RI co-founders David Almonte and Jason Dodier, Seth Kolker, interim director of RI’s AI Hub, Arnell Milhouse, co-founder and CEO of yconic, and Scott Gausland, chief data and analytics officer for the Rhode Island Department of Administration. The overarching theme: “How organizations compete, build, and win in the AI era.”
5. IN THE MAIL
Mailers still get their share of attention in Rhode Island elections, so it’s worth noting when a group mentioned in a mail piece dissociates itself from the sponsor. Such was the case when Sen. Elaine Morgan (R-Hopkinton) sent a mailer with one image showing her in front of the backdrop of AARP RI. Morgan’s Democratic rival, Richmond Town Council President Samantha Wilcox, said via email that the juxtaposition was misleading: “AARP is a strictly nonpartisan organization. That should be respected by all political campaigns. While Senator Morgan has aligned herself with AARP’s priority to eliminate taxation on Social Security benefits, she voted against the state budget, which included the first step to phasing out that tax. Her vote was inconsistent with that position.”
Via email, Morgan responded by saying she’s been the lead sponsor for four consecutive years of bipartisan legislation to completely eliminate Rhode Island’s income tax on Social Security. “AARP has made eliminating this tax its number one legislative priority and has recognized my leadership on this issue,” Morgan added. “The photograph in question was taken during AARP’s Legislative Action Day at the State House. It reflects my longstanding work alongside advocates fighting for Rhode Island seniors, not a claim of organizational endorsement. If my opponent takes a picture in front of the State House, does that mean she’s endorsed by the governor?”
AARP RI State Director Catherine Taylor told me that in the case of Morgan’s mailer, “AARP's logo was used without consent. AARP does not endorse or donate to candidates, political parties or political action committees. AARP has reached out to the campaign and encouraged them to discontinue further logo use.”
While Facebook is full of images of prominent RI Democrats in proximity to AARP’s logo, Taylor said, “AARP takes issue with any political candidate using its logo without consent in political material. There is a difference between capturing an event for official business with a photo and including imagery with logos on a campaign flier.”
6. IMMIGRATION
With the midterm elections coming up fast, ICE and its approach remain a polarizing topic. Defenders say the agency is pursuing its mission. But more than 500 American citizens have been detained by ICE, as ProPublica reports, buttressing critics who say the focus is not on the worst of the worst. In related news, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed said he was seeking answers after ICE tried to detain a man in Providence as he was holding two toddlers. Via statement, Reed said, “No Rhode Islander can watch this video of a man simply trying to keep his children safe and think that the actions of these federal agents are acceptable. Surely we can acknowledge that traumatizing toddlers on the streets of Providence is a betrayal of our values as Americans. Professional law enforcement don’t behave this way. They don’t repeatedly make these reckless mistakes and unforced errors that we have seen time and again from ICE agents. It has to stop.”
7. FLOCK OFF
Following a backlash near and far, Gov. Dan McKee this week introduced voluntary guidelines for use by communities in regulating Flock-style automated license plate readers. As my colleague David Wright reports, it remains unclear if cities and towns will take up this approach: “The ACLU of Rhode Island says it is still studying the new policy. But in a statement Monday, the group said even a quick read turned up ‘fundamental concerns.’ The first is how the policy defines a legitimate reason to run a search. It allows the cameras to be used for ‘information gathering,’ the ‘prevention of crime,’ and ‘ensuring the safety of the public,’ whether or not anyone suspects a crime has been committed. ‘In other words, for just about any reason,’ the ACLU wrote. The group also says 30 days is too long to keep the data. That’s longer than Flock Safety's own default, which the company cut to seven days in August, responding to nationwide criticism.”
8. MENOPAUSE
Rhode Island last year became the first state to offer workplace protections for women going through menopause and perimenopause. Two Pawtucket Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Lori Urso and state Rep. Karen Alzate, were prime movers in the effort. The duo even turned up talking about the issue on Real Housewives of Rhode Island. Urso told my colleague Mareva Lindo that her focus on the issue grew out of her own experience: “One reason women have kept this particular condition silent is because they don't want to be discriminated against or spoken about or felt that they're no longer valuable. So by adding it to that law, it now becomes an anti-discrimination. You're able to disclose this without fear of retribution, loss of your job.”
9. TALE OF TWO CORPORATIONS
How valuable are locally based corporations? Just consider how commercial property insurer FM this week announced a $5 million gift from its foundation to the United Way of Greater Rhode Island, the largest single corporate gift in the agency’s history. “For generations, FM and its people have stood with us and been part of United Way of Rhode Island’s story, showing what it means to invest in the place we call home,” Cortney Nicolato, the United Way’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “This gift reflects a deep partnership built on a shared commitment to helping Rhode Islanders and strengthening our communities.” A bit to the north, Hasbro plans to invest around its new HQ in Boston with “some cool stuff and cool ideas that will add to the texture and flavor and energy of the city,” CEO Chris Cocks told WBUR, as reported by the Globe. Cocks cited a bigger talent pool as one of the reasons for the company’s move from Rhode Island, along with the proximity to Logan Airport and the Hub’s vibrance: “That sounds like a small thing. But if you walk outside of our office today in Pawtucket, Rhode Island... there’s not a lot of places to go after work and hang out with a colleague. There’s not a lot of places to go and find a meal.”
10. ALTERNATIVE POLITICS
Fans of open primaries have a chance to move Massachusetts in that direction via Question 3 on the Bay State ballot. If approved, the measure would create primaries in which the top two finishers advance, regardless of party. With independents forming the biggest voting bloc in Massachusetts (and Rhode Island), “all-party” primaries are touted by supporters as a way to improve elections. Polling suggests a modest lead for Q3. California and Washington are the only states currently using “top-two” primaries. Critics argue Q3 would diminish choices for voters.
11. CLIMATE CHANGE
How will historic Newport fare amid the threat posed by climate change and higher seas? That’s the focus of a symposium being hosted by the Newport Restoration Foundation this weekend, entitled, “Keeping History Above Water: Looking Back, Moving Forward.”
12. KICKER
Bit by bit, old Rhode Island is slipping away. The latest example is the former Rialto Theatre building on Mathewson Street, demolished and possibly poised to become …. parking. In related news, the Providence Preservation Society reports that the distinctive “Tri-Store Bridge – which crosses over Clemence Street to link three former Westminster Street department stores” is also slated for the wrecking ball. Welp.
