Ian Donnis

Now is the summer of our discontent. The freedom of Americans to do mostly whatever they want, gathering, shopping and consuming with abandon, faces a renewed threat from a resurgence of coronavirus infections. Rhode Island has fared well so far by comparison with other states, but it’s only natural that Gov. Gina Raimondo is concerned about possible fallout from July 4 get-togethers. “There’s no question that we’re dealing with extremely complex, unprecedented situation,” Raimondo said last week. “We will forge a path forward that protects health and safety while allowing Rhode Islanders to get back to work. I want you to know that I’m continuing to take a thoughtful, targeted and data-driven approach to every decision that I make.” That sounds good and it helps explain why Rhode Island has been able to avoid the grim predictions cited earlier this year. But the patience of many Americans continues to wear thin, the pending school year presents tough challenges, and the quest for a vaccine continues.

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The broad social movement sparked by the death of George Floyd raises a lot of questions – what does freedom mean on July 4, 2020? Can all Americans be free when some are not? What will it take to make Black Americans free from the threat of premature death at the hands of police? For now, questions like these have come front and center, and issues like revising the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights are on the public agenda. (A Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership poll out this week found that 57 percent of Rhode Islanders think that the process for handling misconduct claims against police is a big or moderate problem.) Young activists are multi-tasking with zealous dexterity. But turning activism into results is another thing, and real change never comes easy.

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Encompass Health, the publicly traded Alabama corporation that wants to create a 50-bed inpatient rehabilitation center in Johnston, was able to change the composition of RI’s Health Services Council ahead of a key vote, as I reported last week. As it turned out, the council recommended approval in March on a 3-2 vote, with an unusually large number of members – four – recusing. Johnston officials say Encompass Health’s project will be a win-win for the town and the state. But hospitals and nursing homes contend it would further destabilize RI’s healthcare landscape after the dramatic impact of COVID-19. The decision of whether to approve or reject the Encompass project rests with state Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, who is taking extra time to make her decision.

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Are the hospitals and nursing homes opposed to the Encompass Health project more concerned about their own turf than potential fallout on RI’s healthcare landscape? “I don’t think it’s a question or either/or,” Robert Hackey, a professor of health policy and management at Providence College, told me. “I think it’s both, honestly.” The five existing providers of inpatient rehab services – Kent County, Newport, Fatima and Rhode Island hospitals and the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island – “all have a vested interest in not having a brand-new competitor in the market. With that being said, I don’t think there’s any evidence that adding a hospital would increase demand for rehab services. In fact, given the current environment we’re in, where we’ve seen hospitals having to [temporarily stop] elective surgeries, hospital in-patient and out-patient volume is down, I think the notion that bringing in a new facility would somehow jump-start a demand for rehab services, I don’t think there’s a real strong case to be made for that … One of the things that’s happening right now is our hospitals are in a very precarious position. Rehab services are one of the more profitable services that hospitals do provide, and in an environment where hospitals have really taken it on the chin because they’ve had some pretty staggering losses because of COVID, adding a new dimension here where you potentially lose that element of your business, I think is very concerning from a financial perspective.”

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The grand jury inquiry into the audit of the Rhode Island Convention Center is casting a shadow over the Statehouse and House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello’s re-election campaign. But where the probe is headed is anyone’s guess. House GOP Leader Blake Filippisued the speaker on his use of the Joint Committee on Legislative Services back in January. Lask week, Filippi said he was unable to get JCLS documents requested by Robert Corrente, the lawyer for former Mattiello campaign operative Jeff Britt. Mattiello spokesman Larry Berman offered this statement: “Leader Filippi’s press conference was purely political theater. If he had taken a few moments to review the General Assembly website, he would have seen the proper procedures for anyone seeking public records pursuant to the Access to Public Records Act. All records requests properly filed with JCLS are answered in a timely manner. Many members of the media and the public follow these procedures without any confusion. It is ironic that Leader Filippi is complaining publicly when he never told anyone in JCLS that he received this request for information.” What’s more, Berman said, JCLS possessed no records in the matter sought by Corrente.

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Eric Hyers, who piloted winning campaigns for U.S. Rep. David Ciciline and Gov. Gina Raimondo, now has a key assignment for Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential campaign: winning Michigan. Back in 2016, a combination of about 80,000 votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania elevated Donald Trump to the presidency over Hillary Clinton. Hyers, who mostly recently ran an anti-Mitch McConnell PAC, becomes the second consecutive Raimondo associate, after Stephen Neuman, to pilot Michigan for Democrats in a presidential campaign.

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If you need a reminder on the importance of local reporting, consider this: as Encompass Health’s proposal was making its way through an obscure and powerful state panel, the Health Services Council, the only reporter tracking the project appears to have been Jacob Marroco of the Johnston Sun Rise. The ProJo, back when Edward Achorn was still editorial page editor, ran an editorial in support of the project, although it has not published any news stories about it, a search of the Journal’s archives shows.

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Sam Howard examines the state of Rhode Island’s political parties, based on what came in as of the filing deadline late last month. Excerpt from his post at the RI Liberator: “This chart measures all General Assembly elections since 2002, and it puts the current state of the parties in perspective. Since 2002, Democrats have never contested fewer than 105 out of 113 seats, and between 2008 and 2018, they always contested either 108 or 109 seats. On average, they win about 97 seats in the General Assembly. This year, Democrats have candidates in 107 seats. If you multiply that against their win rate, you’d end up with an expectation for 96 seats for the Democrats – a four seat loss. Republicans have had a much greater range over the last 18 years. The Republican high watermark came in 2004, when they contested 78 seats and won 20. They came close to that again in 2010, contesting 75 seats and winning 17. On average, Republicans tend to win 15 seats in the General Assembly. This year, they’ve held steady with 2018, contesting only 46 seats. Multiplied against their win rate, and you’d expect a repeat of last year’s outcome: 13 seats in the General Assembly.”

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NYT media columnist Ben Smith caused a stir earlier this year when he basically argued in favor of the death of companies like Gannett, the outfit that has continued cutting jobs while operating the ProJo, newspapers in Newport, Fall River, New Bedford, Worcester and lots of other places. The flip side of the argument – don’t cancel your subscription – via NYT contributor Margaret Renkl: “The only thing canceling your subscription to a newspaper will do is hasten the death of journalism itself. It will leave your community with even fewer full-time reporters to tell you what local leaders were up to while you weren’t paying attention. It will leave you with a far poorer understanding of the place where you live.”

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Welp, the PawSox. There’s supposed to be no crying in baseball, but I could think of worse ideas than having former ProJo reporter Dan Barry come back to McCoy to read parts of his wonderful book about the longest game in baseball history, followed by a sob session. This after minor league baseball canceled its season, meaning the PawSox have – barring the unexpected – have played their last game in Rhode Island. In a statement, the PawSox say the team is mulling ways to have “a fitting farewell” to 78-year-old McCoy Stadium, a project initially considered folly since it was built on a former swamp.

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Rhode Islanders overwhelmingly approve of the pace with which Gov. Raimondo is reopening the state, according to a Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership poll out last week.

Ian Donnis is the political reporter for The Public’s Radio, Rhode Island’s NPR member station. Listen at 89.3 FM or visit www.thepublicsradio.org.