News

Let’s make campaign finance reform sexy

Going Big
Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was out on the hustings this week promoting his DISCLOSE Act, which would require the sort of independent political groups playing an outsize role in the presidential election to report on who is bankrolling their operations.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | July 18, 2012

Romney’s Shadow Years

Mitt wants to make his departure for the Olympics a clean break from his business life — but it’s not that simple
With just six weeks to go before the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney's campaign has bogged down over the seemingly insignificant minutia of how to precisely define the leave of absence he took from Bain Capital, while he ran the Winter Olympics from 1999 to 2002.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 18, 2012

Leaking down Memory Lane; let the games begin; two fond farewells

State's Evidence
A state trooper who leaked a report to WPRO's Matt Allen about Caleb Chafee's drinking party in Exeter has created a bit of stir. But that pales in comparison to what the staties could conjure up in the good old days, under Col. Walter Stone.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | July 18, 2012

Brown’s Weinstein on what literature says about our morning, noon, and night

Growing Up
Earlier this week, National Public Radio's "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" spent an hour picking the brain of Brown University's Arnold Weinstein, professor of comparative literature and author of Morning, Noon, and Night: Finding the Meaning of Life's Stages Through Books .

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | July 11, 2012

Andy Kaufman’s Bohemia West premieres in Providence

Man On the Moon
It's just four days until the premier of Bohemia West and the cast and crew, assembled at black box theater 95 Empire in downtown Providence, are working out some final details.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | July 11, 2012

The 15th Annual Muzzle Awards

Our annual look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
Liberal dreams that Barack Obama would somehow usher in a progressive paradise were always misplaced.

By: DAN KENNEDY | July 13, 2012

A fond farewell to Andy; a TV guide; the art of the matter

What it was, was death
Phillipe and Jorge were in their Wonder Years when they were introduced to Andy Griffith, who died last week.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | July 11, 2012

The Rhode Island Racing Pigeon Club takes flight

Homecomings
Late Saturday afternoon Mike Becker settled into a backyard lawn chair to wait.

By: JOHN LARRABEE | July 03, 2012

Supreme machinations; Fox plays dumb; more bad gamesmanship

Baa-baaa, orange sheep
Phillipe and Jorge don't know about you, but we would prefer to have our health care options dictated by a guy who dyes his skin orange and chain smokes.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | July 03, 2012

Teaching the 'fourth literacy': Codery goes live

Geekery
Call me hacker.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 27, 2012

RI’s homeless bill of rights

Liberties
Official Rhode Island's response to the homelessness problem has been uninspiring, on the whole.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 27, 2012

Hot air index; Mr. Alexander goes to Africa; old and in the way?

The interpreter
While the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the world's big "environmental summit," produced enough hot air to accelerate global warming tenfold, there was at least one noteworthy moment.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | June 27, 2012

Embattled Congressman David Cicilline’s re-election strategy

Win with women?
Standing before a crowd of about 100 at a fundraiser at The Dorrance bar and restaurant in downtown Providence a couple of weeks ago, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards left little doubt about her organization's top political priority in Rhode Island.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 20, 2012

New York Times misses the mark with Woonsocket column

MediaWatch
Rhode Island's fiscal woes have attracted plenty of national press, much of it unflattering. But if the locals have grumbled a bit about the stories, they've been forced to concede their basic veracity.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 20, 2012

With soda under siege, Yacht Club

Confections
If soda were a person, it would need a publicist. Those sweet, sugary bubbles — once the image of wholesome Americana — have lately been blamed for rotting teeth, obesity, even teenage aggression.

By: PHILIP EIL | June 20, 2012

The Big Pink One as Ward Cleaver; game over for Fox; some good old days

Mad Man
Phillipe and Jorge have never understood what happened to Mark "The Big Pink One" Patinkin, whose embarrassing column for desperate housewives is still allowed to appear in The Urinal.

By: PHILLIPE AND JORGE | June 20, 2012

Public records: a little more sunlight

This Just In
Late Tuesday night, as the legislative session came to a close, the General Assembly passed a bill strengthening Rhode Island's deplorable public records law. Governor Chafee, though he has expressed some reservations about the bill, is expected to sign it.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 13, 2012