We’re heading into prime leaf-collecting season. You can follow me through the week on Bluesky, threads and X. Here we go.
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: As he contemplates a possible run for governor, Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi remains unapologetic about growing state spending — and he’s unwilling to commit to reversing that trend in the next state budget. “Yes, there’s been more spending in the budget because quite frankly, there’s been a greater need,” Shekarchi told me during a taping of One on One this week. He said lawmakers needed to take action, in part due to how Rhode Island’s healthcare system was “on the verge of a collapse.” Even Rhode Islanders who don’t pay close attention to politics know that state spending has been on a sharp upward trajectory for years. The General Assembly most recently approved a $14.3 billion budget, up from $8.7 billion 10 years earlier. In August, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council called out how total state general revenue spending climbed by almost 11 percent since fiscal year 2024, about five points higher than the growth of state revenue. “Rhode Island continues to have a spending problem,” RIPEC President/CEO Michael DiBiase said at the time. “Faced with daunting structural budget deficits, policymakers must bring expenditures in line with available resources and shift their focus to evaluating the effectiveness of programs relative to their cost.” But Shekarchi and other top pols have the political equivalent of a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to tackling soaring state spending. That’s because of the uncertainty about federal funding from the Trump administration and the expectation that thousands of Rhode Islanders may lose health coverage. “We’re monitoring that and there are members of the General Assembly who are very concerned about that,” Shekarchi said. Federal funding makes up more than a third of the state budget, and the speaker said the state can’t backfill the difference if there’s a massive cut from DC. So if there is an unusual year-to-year decline in Rhode Island’s next state budget, it will be yet another way in which President Trump is extending his reach into the blue bastion of Rhode Island.
2. SHEKARCHI NUGGETS: Watch an extended version of my One on One interview with the speaker on YouTube, or check out the TV debut of the show on Ocean State Media (formerly Rhode Island PBS) at 7:30 pm Friday or 10:30 am Sunday. Here a few other highlights:
***Shekarchi rejected the idea that businesses generally have a negative view of the General Assembly. While he has described Hasbro’s decision to leave Rhode Island as a fait accompli, the Warwick Democrat cited how the legislature moved quickly to address concerns by Citizens Bank and insurance giant FM.
***The speaker said that neither he nor his allies have made any efforts to convince Gov. Dan McKee to leave the race: “If anyone is doing that, they’re not doing it at my behest or my authorization.”
***I asked Shekarchi who has been the best Rhode Island governor in his lifetime. I half-expected him to say Gina Raimondo. He managed her 2010 campaign for general treasurer, after all, and they continue to travel in similar circles. But he chose someone else. Watch the interview for his answer.
3. MCKEEWORLD: Gov. McKee continues to ramp up his criticism of President Trump. In a statement released by his campaign, he said: “President Trump’s threats to jail [Illinois] Governor JB Pritzker are un-American and unacceptable. Weaponizing the justice system against elected officials who are fulfilling their duty to check power is authoritarianism, plain and simple. Governors will not be silenced or intimidated. I stand with Governor Pritzker — and I urge all Americans to reject this dangerous attack on our democracy.” McKee’s campaign also highlighted an op-ed in which a Middletown pharmacist calls out the role played by pharmacy benefit managers.
4. AG MATTERS: A few days after ending his campaign for attorney general, state Rep. Robert Craven (D-North Kingstown) announced he was stepping down as chair of the House Judiciary Committee and that he will not seek re-election next year. “Many people have reached out to me over the past few days,” Craven said in a statement. “Some I know from my work as a representative, others are colleagues in the law, friends, and some are strangers who are on their own journey of hope and redemption. I am grateful for their support and understanding as I continue on my own personal journey.”
In related news:
*** State Rep. Jason Knight (D-Barrington), liked and disliked because of his advocacy for stricter gun laws, announced his AG run while touting his experience.
***Nicole Jellinek (who is married to Knight) unveiled her run for the state rep seat being vacated by her husband.
***Fellow AG candidate Keith Hoffmann reported raising $210,000 since organizing his campaign.
5. THE PUBLIC’S VOICE: State Reps. Justine Caldwell (D-East Greenwich) and Brian C. Newberry (R-North Smithfield), and Adam Myers, professor of political science at Providence College, joined me at the Providence Athenaeum Thursday evening for a lively discussion of state and national politics. The panel will be broadcast at noon Tuesday on 89.3 FM.
6. FEDERAL SHUTDOWN: U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner made some local media rounds to talk this week about the federal shutdown. His main message, unsurprisingly, was about the healthcare risk faced by Rhode Islanders with House Speaker Mike Johnson unwilling to call his members for a vote. For now, the casualties of the shutdown include Magaziner’s bipartisan push, with U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, to ban congressional stock-trading. “I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to get this done,” Magaziner said, pointing to support from more than 100 members as well as President Trump and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. As far as ending the shutdown, Magaziner said, “I think it’s going to happen and I think it’s going to happen in a way that extends Affordable Care Act funding.”
7. THE CRIME ISSUE: After increases during the pandemic, major categories of crime generally resumed the fall that began in the mid-90s. That was after the fade of both the crack epidemic and the maturation of a large demographic cohort of young Americans. To get a sense of how things are different, there were 24 homicides in Boston last year. That’s less than the half of the 52 homicides in 2014, and far below the record high of 152 in 1990. But “street takeovers” in Boston and Fall River over the last week gave Republicans a chance to amplify images of disorder in the Bay State.
8. TAKING LIBERTIES: The ACLU this week filed an amicus brief “supporting a challenge to a federal law that completely bars unlawful users of controlled substances — including medical marijuana, which, though legal in Rhode Island, remains illegal at the federal level — from possessing firearms.” In a news release, the civil liberties group added, “For decades, the ACLU has contested the criminalization of marijuana possession and the gross racial disparity in arrests and incarceration of racial minorities for violation of marijuana laws. In Rhode Island, the ACLU has legislatively supported, ultimately successfully, the legalization of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana possession, and the creation of marijuana dispensaries even as the drug remains illegal under federal law. The ACLU of Rhode Island has also litigated numerous cases over the years challenging arbitrary police interference with gun ownership, including a successful lawsuit decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2021.”
9. LOCAL MOTION: RIPTA this week announced what it calls the Drive Less RI Challenge — “a year-long initiative designed to increase bus ridership by motivating residents to swap single-occupancy car trips for more sustainable travel. Powered by the new Drive Less RI app, the challenge encourages Rhode Islanders to walk, bike, carpool, vanpool, or take transit and get rewarded for trips they log in the app … As part of a year-long campaign, Drive Less RI will offer weekly and quarterly prize giveaways to users who log their green trips in the app. By walking, biking, carpooling, vanpooling, or taking transit, users are automatically entered to win prizes ranging from gift cards redeemable at local retailers to larger quarterly giveaways designed to keep Rhode Islanders motivated throughout the year.” You’ll recall that RIPTA slashed services last month.
10. MARVELOUS MEDIA MISCELLANEY: 1) Really interesting story from Nancy Lavin on the hidden identity of whoever is behind “What’s Going On In Rhode Island,” the Instagram account that sparked the release of the forensic audit of the Washington Bridge; 2) Don’t miss my colorful colleague Ben Berke on Behind the Story this week; 3) Will former WPRI-TV news director Joe Abouzeid get the GM’s job at the Big Dozen? For the sake of an ongoing commitment to the station’s news approach over recent history, that would probably be the best of all possible worlds.
11. OUT AND ABOUT: Our peripatetic arts and culture desk has some suggestions for your weekend, including music, experimental film and a new production at the Gamm in Warwick.
12. VAX: Dr. Jerome Larkin, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, tells my colleague Pamela Watts that RIDOH urges Covid vaccination for people of all ages, despite new guidance from the CDC.
13. CLIMATE CHANGE: The Rhode Island AFL-CIO is among those suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the end of $7 billion in grants meant to help low- and moderate-income homeowners install solar panels. RI AFL-CIO President Patrick Crowley told my colleague David Wright that stopping the program will eliminate hundreds of jobs in Rhode Island. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin calls Solar for All “a boondoggle.” Crowley disagrees: “It’s going to limit the amount of work opportunities for the members that I represent to do solar installation. It’s going to lead to increased energy costs, because without solar energy as part of an ‘all of the above strategy,’ it means that Rhode Island is going to be subject to more turbulence in the electricity market, like we’ve seen over the last several winters.”
14. KICKER: Give your ears a treat by taking a sound-rich armchair trip to Chan’s, the venerable Woonosocket institution known for its unusual combination of egg rolls and jazz and blues. The venue has been in owner John Chan’s family for 120 years and it’s one of the last supper clubs on the national touring circuit, as Kate Dellis reports. “They always know your name, they listen to you, they all love you,” one patron told her. “It’s like ‘Cheers,’ you always wanna go where everybody knows your name!”