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Rhode Island
Dr. Jerome Larkin is one step closer to leading R.I. Department of Health • Rhode Island Current
After a small clinic’s worth of physicians showed up to testify in support of Gov. Dan McKee’s choice for the next director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services affirmed its support for Dr. Jerome “Jerry” Larkin at a hearing Thursday.
The committee voted 5-1 in favor of Larkin’s nomination, with Sen. Elaine Morgan, a Hopkinton Republican, serving the only nay vote.
Greg Paré, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Senate, said in an email Thursday that Larkin’s appointment will hit the Senate floor on Tuesday, May 19.
The clinicians, many of them colleagues and former protégés of Larkin, came to say nice things about the doctor who serves as medical director of inpatient infectious diseases consultation services at Rhode Island Hospital and teaches clinical medicine as a professor at Brown University. The committee’s mailbox had also been stuffed with written testimonies.
“We got many, many letters,” said Sen. Joshua Miller, who chairs the committee. “I don’t remember seeing a letter that was not in support.”
But the most memorable affirmation may have been from Dr. Sabina Holland, medical director of the pediatric HIV clinic at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
“The highest compliment that a pediatrician can give another pediatrician is to entrust them with the care of their children,” Holland said. “He could have my children.”
The crowd laughed. Chair Miller offered a playful retort.
“He can’t have my children,” Miller said.
Jokes aside, Larkin’s competency with children was underlined in several testimonies — including those from members of the Tiverton School Committee, which Larkin has chaired since 2017. Larkin has served on the school committee since 2012 and was most recently reelected in 2020 with 31.1% of the vote.
The afternoon’s first two testimonies came from school committee members, including Deborah Pallasch.
“I have known Dr. Larkin since he became involved in the anarchy that can be Tiveron politics,” Pallasch said. “In the middle of COVID, as the chair of our school committee — as you can imagine, quite a scary time for us, quite a scary time for our parents, quite a scary time for our children — he led us as a community through that so deftly and so patiently and so respectfully.”
Larkin, in his own words to the Senate, emphasized the at-time martial nature of municipal school politics. “As chair for the last seven years, I am the veteran of 12 hardball budget seasons — some of them scorched earth, some of them merely trench warfare,” Larkin said. “I believe if you can understand the budget of a small-to-medium-sized school district, you have a better-than-even chance of understanding the budget of the Pentagon.”
“The Pentagon might actually be easier, as it seems to be able to spend money unbudgeted, freely, without any apparent consequence.”
Priorities include stabilizing hospitals and nursing homes
The consistency of Larkin’s school board role contrasts the revolving door at the health department, a fixture of the McKee administration. The last permanent director, Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, worked under Gina Raimondo’s administration and led the department during the height of the COVID pandemic. Alexander-Scott was reappointed for another five years in 2020, but vacated the position in January 2022, less than a year into McKee’s governorship.
That vacuum has been plugged by three interim directors since then: Dr. Jim McDonald, Dr. Utpala Bandy, and most recently Dr. Staci Fischer, who took over as acting director when Bandy retired on March 31. Statewide health directors are rare birds nationally, and regional directors are common in larger states. The compensation for such an encompassing job has been criticized for the turnover, although McKee recently and successfully raised the base salary to $250,000.
Speaking to reporters, Larkin said that, if confirmed by the full Senate, his priorities would likely include the stabilization of hospitals and nursing homes, as well as responding to the opioid overdose crisis.
“But I’m still on the outside looking in,” Larkin said.
Larkin was so far outside, in fact, that he was unsure how to assess the time demands of his possible new job. Would he continue serving on the school committee?
“I haven’t made a decision,” Larkin told a reporter. “Certainly, you know, the Department of Health is a full-time job but so is being a doctor.”
We got many, many letters. I don’t remember seeing a letter that was not in support.
– Sen. Joshua Miller, a Cranston Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services
Judging by the afternoon’s testimonies, Larkin is a good clinician. His 1993 medical degree is from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and his research specialty is tick-related illnesses and Lyme disease in children and pregnant women.
Dr. Michael Koster pointed out Larkin’s talents as a “med-peds” physician, or someone who “understands pediatric issues as much as he understands adult medical issues.”
“You don’t get a showing of physicians like this,” Koster said, referring to the turnout for the hearing. “You have to earn it. It’s not something you can buy.”
While the public offered no opposition, the senate committee did have a few questions. Miller pointed out the statute that outlines the health director’s qualifications — a prescription which includes “a minimum of five (5) years full time experience in health administration.” Miller was curious how that requirement fit into Larkin’s experience.
“I think it depends,” Larkin began. “So, if you look at how much time do I spend seeing patients — so, everything I do is subsumed under the title of the director of infectious disease consults service. So in many regards, my clinical work is an administrative responsibility. I have to know how those services work.”
Larkin estimated that administrative duties probably comprise half his time currently.
Sen. Linda Ujifusa, a Portsmouth Democrat, asked Larkin about the state’s shortage of primary care doctors as well as reimbursement rates. Could any initiatives from the health department help shape a more positive environment for Rhode Island’s doctors?
Larkin replied that neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut are well known to have superior reimbursement rates, but that “rectifying that ultimately is actually a federal issue.”
“Would you mask our kids again?”
Morgan asked Larkin about the state’s handling of the pandemic. Larkin suggested looking at a map, and that Rhode Island ultimately “dodged a bullet” given the severity of the pandemic in nearby Massachusetts and New York.
Morgan then narrowed her focus. “Closing down the state: Would you do that again?” she asked.
“Do I think the decision was right to shut down in March of 2020 at that time? Yes,” Larkin said. “Could we have reopened faster? Probably. There was certainly a loss in school districts, and there’s certainly an economic impact on this. So that’s my sort of armchair general retrospective perspective on it.”
“Would you mask our kids again?” Morgan continued.
“Yes. Yes,” Larkin said, and pointed to the measure as effective in reducing transmission, allowing kids to get back in school sooner.
At 4 p.m., bells started ringing.
“It’s not a fire alarm,” Sen. Pam Lauria said. “It’s just the bells for the Senate.”
Miller used the literal sounding of the alarm as a backdrop for one more comment.
“And with that bell from the Senate, I just would like to ask you to be aware of a couple of issues that we have discussed in committee this session,” Miller said, and pointed to recent discussions involving scope of practice. Should committees in the General Assembly be tasked with regulating scopes of practice, or should that be left entirely to medical boards and the health department?
But rather than discuss “going down a very slippery slope of having scope of practice legislated,” Miller filed the question away for another day, and the motion for a vote on Larkin’s advancement began. Sen. Alana DiMario seconded the motion. Only Morgan voted no.
Larkin’s own words to the committee were punctuated with the occasional cough.
“Excuse my voice. My allergies decided to start today,” Larkin said after he sat down in front of the mic, following odes from his colleagues. “Yeah, I guess that was the easy part. It’s the fondest wish of every Irishman to attend their own wake, and I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing this afternoon.”
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As if the aftermath of her explosion at the Studio 54 party wasn’t enough to deal with, Liz also now has to figure out what to do with the six bunches of bananas that Gary accidentally ordered when he meant to order six individual bananas. But until they’re ripe enough to make banana bread, she’ll focus on the other issue. “I came across as a bitter, drunken, witch,” she tells Dolores — three words that I have to imagine also appear on the show’s casting notice.
Meanwhile, Ashley takes some of the other women to her favorite beach, and Alicia, who is used to her country club, is terrified. “This is not my vibe, I’m freaking out,” she whispers as she’s forced to carry her chair, bag, and snacks. The snacks in question are something called “pizza chips,” which appears to just be bread with sauce on it? Alicia, being the brain behind Pizza Mamma, tries to break down the science to us, saying that cheese can’t sit out in the sun, but she need not explain. She had me at pizza chips.
She also had me when she revealed that Rulla apparently met Brian while he was married to Alicia’s high school Spanish teacher. “I don’t know if this is true, Brian cheated on his first wife, my Spanish teacher,” she says with her hands over her heart, “with Rulla. I hope that’s not true because I really did like my Spanish teacher.” Yet again, I’m obsessed with how deep the ties between these women go. A game of six degrees of separation hates to see them coming. I also love Alicia starting a declarative sentence with, “I don’t know if this is true,” but she should say it in Spanish next time.
And speaking of those deep ties, we already know that there was some connection between Jo-Ellen’s sister and Jo-Ellen’s husband while they were in high school, before Jo-Ellen swooped in. But now we’re finally getting to meet Jen, who is basically subbing for Jo-Ellen at the house while she’s on a work trip. “She perpetuates this fun little game of flirting with my husband,” Jo-Ellen explains, but assures us that nothing is going on. That being said, Jen does joke that they’re like an old married couple and Jo-Ellen tells us that Jen wants his sperm to have a baby…but apart from that I guess everything is totally normal! I’m putting together a list of side characters who should be in the running to hold clams in future seasons, and so far Jen and Alicia’s Spanish teacher are leading the pack.
But when it comes to side characters, the real stars are of course Alicia’s aunts, who are thankfully back on our screens for a backyard barbecue with some of the ladies. And what better group to speak frankly to Rulla about her situation with Brian? The second Rulla alludes to bumps in the road, this beautiful coven of scorned divorcées pounce, encouraging Rulla to leave him. “Do you want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder?” one of them asks her, and later in her confessional Rulla even admits that those words stayed with her. I feel like we’re seeing something real with Rulla and she’s finally letting the glossy veneer slip. But the best commentary comes from Alicia’s mother, who says, “I just hope and pray that you somehow hurt him…I’m gonna pray you get him back.” Forget the usual Bravo aftershows, I want a show that’s just all of Alicia’s aunts watching and commentating on each week’s episode. The ratings will be higher than the MASH finale.
As for Liz and Kelsey’s simmering conflict, the pair finally meet up to clear the air by the water where Liz’s boat is docked. I’ve seen similar meetings play out just like this on The Sopranos, so I had to keep reminding myself that Kelsey was safe because surely Bravo would never broadcast a woman being murdered. Then again, this would be the show to break that glass ceiling. As it turns out, I had no reason to fear because the sit-down goes incredibly smoothly. Liz explains that it felt like Kelsey was co-signing the rumors by bringing them up, and Kelsey says her instinct for Liz to keep her distance from Dino actually had more to do with her own history. She explains that ten years ago she and Dino hooked up but it didn’t go well, and now his presence is a reminder of a time in her life that she’s trying to forget. She even says she has PTSD over it and now avoids him like the plague, but respects that Liz has a meaningful friendship with him. I still have a lot of questions about this, but ultimately Liz and Kelsey clear the air and reconcile.
And thank god, because then they’re able to go rail biking in peace. All of the women split up into groups to cycle their way three miles down an old railroad track, with drinks in hand of course. “Rullala, how you doing back there?” Alicia asks as they ride, which made me scream out in delight upon once again getting to hear my new favorite word: “Rullala.” It’s my mantra. I say it no fewer than 50 times a day. It’s a greeting, it’s a prayer, it’s a way of life. Better yet, when the camera cuts to Rulla, she finally wins me over. Mid-cycle she’s shaking a cocktail shaker and pouring her tequila into a wine glass. Leave Brian and his bullshit at home, this is the woman that I want to see on my screen.
I’m even more enamored with her once they get to their location and she’s horrified to discover Alicia’s financial situation. She’s telling the ladies about not feeling valued given that her husband won’t put her name on the house or business, and Rulla, being a financial planner, springs into action. Seeing this smart, powerful side of her, especially as she’s trying to empower Alicia, is a great look and is far more compelling than watching her meekly defend her cheating husband. It gives a glimpse at what an independent Rulla might look like on this show in a couple of seasons.
But she’s not the only one supporting Alicia — Kelsey steps up to play Billy in a role-play so Alicia can practice airing her grievances. Sidebar: everyone talks about these women looking alike, but the real problem is that all of their partners have such similar names. Alicia’s is Billy, Kelsey’s boyfriend’s is Bill, Rulla’s is Brian, Jo-Ellen’s is Gary, Liz’s is Gerry, Ashley’s is Jared, and thankfully Rosie’s is just Rich. But oh my god, how am I supposed to keep that all straight? Anyway, the little role-play Alicia does ends up being heartbreaking, as she gets emotional saying that he makes her feel worthless in their relationship. But the fact that we’re talking about this so much feels promising, and I hope we get to see Alicia ultimately bring all of these feelings to Billy. And if he doesn’t listen, I hope her aunts attack him.
The conversation then turns to how Liz has been gelling with newbie Ashley, and they joke about how Ashley is a little scared of her. When the Studio 54 party comes up, Liz says that that wasn’t her finest moment and wasn’t a good representation of what she’s really like. “Alicia, you said she’s always like that,” Rosie says, throwing Alicia right under the bus. “Don’t flip that shit, don’t do that to me, don’t put shit in my mouth,” Alicia fires back, as Dolores looks on like a proud mother. “She twisted my words, you’re a fucking troll,” Alicia yells, saying that Rosie fucked her. It’s a line-o-rama of iconic outbursts, one after another: “Welcome to Rhode Island, bitch, this is how we roll,” then, “Fucking thirsty bitch, so thirsty its scary,” and finally, “I need to get out of here cause I’m gonna end up killing her.” Our first death threat!
But the craziest part of this comes when Alicia and Rosie step away from the group for a moment. It’s allegedly to sidebar, but I was convinced it was so Alicia could murder her with fewer witnesses. Alicia tells her that if she apologizes everything will be good, Rosie apologies, and then things are good. “Did she just hug her?” someone asks from the circle, shocked. The series has had a lot of incredible moments thus far, but this one is what is most promising about its longevity as a Housewives show. The secret sauce of these shows is resilience — the ability to be as angry at someone as humanly possible, and move on like nothing happened so they can do it all over again. Long, drawn-out grudges make for bad television (as RHOBH proves), so this cast’s ability to reconcile and move on will be the thing that makes it great.
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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