Rhode Island
Ashley Kalus, candidate for RI governor, seeks mediation with DOH
PROVIDENCE — A lawyer for Republican Ashley Kalus, the Rhode Island newcomer operating for governor, is in search of courtroom mediation of Kalus’s high-profile contract dispute with the McKee administration.
Courts spokesman Craig Berke confirmed on Friday that Stephen Del Sesto, a lawyer representing Kalus’s COVID-19 testing firm, has invoked a contract provision permitting the 2 warring sides to enchantment to the presiding justice of the Superior Court docket for mediation, although there is no such thing as a lawsuit pending at this level.
Berke mentioned Presiding Justice Alice Gibney assigned the matter to retired Decide Michael Silverstein, who has organized a primary convention for subsequent week.
The dispute facilities on the state’s resolution to chop quick the $7.9-million contract it had with Kalus’s firm to do COVID-19 testing at a number of websites, together with within the Westerly police station, and provides the work to different firms already working below state contracts.
Days after the dispute reached a boiling level in mid-January, Kalus – who final referred to as Illinois house – registered to vote in Rhode Island for the primary time on the highway to saying her bid to interchange Democrat Dan McKee as governor.
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What we knoab:Gubernatorial candidate Ashley Kalus embroiled in dispute involving Westerly police, DOH
She has alleged unspecified “waste, fraud and abuse” and painted herself and her firm – Docs Check Facilities – because the sufferer of retaliation in opposition to a “whistleblower.”
“Each time I’ve reported noncompliance or high quality issues, you may have retaliated and defamed me,” Kalus wrote Kristine Campagna, the chief working officer for COVID operations on the Division of Well being, at 5:01 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 14, in one in all a number of emails obtained by The Journal.
“This can be a federal contract and what you may have accomplished to me is just not authorized,” Kalus wrote.
“Whistle blowers do have safety when citing problems with waste, fraud and abuse. I might counsel that you just not erase your cellphone in preparation for litigation as you need to have been informed months in the past as we complained,” she wrote in her e-mail.
There’s one other aspect of the story, nevertheless.
As tensions rose, the Division of Well being requested Westerly police to maintain watch on Jan. 15-16 to verify there have been no end-of-contract disruptions – and in the end to assist get well gadgets faraway from the positioning that belonged to the alternative firm, MedTech.
Then-deputy state Well being Director Thomas McCarthy informed The Journal on Friday that Docs Check Facilities “was an incredible companion” with the state within the COVID vaccination marketing campaign.
He mentioned the state determined to not renew the stand-alone testing contract when it expired on Jan. 31, at a degree when the extremely transmissible Omicron variant was sweeping by means of the state and the demand for checks was excessive.
“We had been centered on guaranteeing that we had the very best expertise for Rhode Islanders getting examined, with the ability to get out and in shortly at their appointment time. We all know a number of the challenges we had with lengthy strains and doubtless a sub-optimal expertise at a few of our websites,” McCarthy mentioned.
Past that, he mentioned, “I feel you’ll be able to sort of get a way of the connection [between] the contract supervisor of the testing workforce and the seller.”
“That’s not essentially unusual,” he mentioned.”A few of it’s they’re making an attempt to decrease the competitors and we see that amongst totally different distributors.”
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McCarthy mentioned “what mattered most was efficiency, and that is what we had been utterly centered on.”
Backside line, the choice to not prolong the six-month contract with Kalus’s firm – and at some websites, to chop it quick – was made “on the peak of the testing [demand] in Rhode Island” McCarthy mentioned. “We wished to make certain we had the very best distributors in place. … so it was seamless for Rhode Islanders. And that is precisely what the workforce did, eradicating all emotion from it.”
The corporate owned by Kalus and her husband, plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Weizweig, is expressed this fashion within the state contract: “Covid Medical Options Illinois LLC dba Main & Quick Care Options LLV Docs Check Facilities” in Chicago, Illinois.
The mediation clause that Del Sesto invoked in his letter to the Superior Court docket this week says, partly: “The events shall share the mediator’s payment and any submitting charges equally … Agreements reached in mediation shall be enforceable as settlement agreements in any courtroom having jurisdiction thereof.”
It’s not solely clear what Kalus and her husband are in search of from the state.
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Their contract was scheduled to finish on Jan. 31. There was a six-month renewal choice.
This a lot is thought; As a substitute of the $7.9 million anticipated by the contract, the state paid the corporate $6.7 million, in accordance with the Division of Administration.
Neither the Division of Well being nor the Division of Administration has responded to inquiries about how a lot roughly the state is paying the alternative firms – MedTech and Alert Ambulance – given the contract work that was taken away from Docs Check Facilities.
In one in all a collection of the pre-termination emails that got here to mild in latest days, Kalus wrote the RI Division of Well being’s Campagna, saying she wished to go to mediation instantly.
“Good religion? That’s actually wealthy,” Kalus wrote on Jan. 14, two days earlier than a alternative firm was scheduled to begin in Westerly.
“You barely have any actual expertise in drugs,” she wrote. “Have a doctor [who] understands the issues name us for those who consider it’s protected.”
Rhode Island
An appreciation of Joe Biden; RI’s underpaid doctors | Letters
Thank you, Joe Biden
Trump has learned that if he tells lies often enough and loudly enough, they will be believed. He keeps repeating that Joe Biden has been a terrible president.
In fact, President Biden has accomplished much. He tackled the COVID crisis by helping hospitals get supplies, getting COVID vaccines distributed, making free testing kits available, sending checks to all Americans, and helping people return to work and students return to school.
He revitalized the U.S. participation in NATO and supported Ukraine vs. Putin.
He recognized climate change and rejoined the rest of the world in battling its effects.
He appointed the first Black female Supreme Court justice.
He initiated projects to improve the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
He oversaw the U.S. economy’s rebound from the pandemic.
The list goes on.
But, best of all, he stopped the daily flow of lies that had been streaming from the White House.
Cindy Kaplan, West Warwick
Better compensation for doctors
What is happening to the health-care system in America? The quality of care seems to be diminishing. One of the reasons is the abysmally poor salaries we pay to our medical residents and fellows, doctors who have already spent years in medical school and are now honing their skills in hospitals throughout the country.
The problem is especially acute in Rhode Island where these young doctors are paid an average of less than $70,000 per year at our hospitals (“Resident doctors make union bid,” News, Nov. 21).
How can these doctors’ patients and hospital management expect them to excel while trying to survive on such meager wages for four to seven years of residency and fellowship, especially with the high cost of housing in Rhode Island and with their average quarter-million-dollar student loan debts?
The only thing that keeps at bay the hounds who are constantly calling for the nationalization of our health-care system is that our country provides the best medical care in the world. Nationalization would destroy our system as it has done in the UK and Canada.
Poor pay and overly arduous working conditions foisted upon residents and fellows in the U.S. will lead to fewer quality doctors entering the profession. Nationalization will eventually follow.
I have opposed unions in the past, but when we pay our young doctors less than what we pay electrical and plumbing apprentices, something is terribly wrong.
If we want our citizens to continue receiving the world’s best medical care, we better start properly compensating residents and fellows and allowing them a bit of time off. Otherwise, they will enter other professions and the quality of medical care in America will deteriorate to that provided by nationalized health systems.
Lonnie Barham, Warwick
Saving RI’s forests
Many environmentalists are concerned about the upcoming administration being filled with individuals who do not take climate change seriously. While, unfortunately, these next four years will probably take us backwards in the fight against climate change, we can still protect the environment here in Rhode Island.
Currently, Rhode Island is the only state in New England with no protected forests on state-owned land. Rare and endangered species are threatened due to their habitats being destroyed by DEM and solar developers through forest clear-cutting.
By joining the Save Rhode Island’s Forests Campaign, you can help in the effort to get legislation passed to create laws to finally protect our state forests and endangered species. In Rhode Island, you can save the environment.
Nathan Cornell, Warwick
The writer is president of the Rhode Island Old Growth Tree Society.
Rhode Island
Police recover watch belonging to Travis Kelce in Rhode Island following break-in of his mansion: report
A watch belonging to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was reportedly found over 1,000 miles away from his Kansas mansion that was broken into last month.
The homes of Kelce and teammate Patrick Mahomes were burglarized last month shortly before one of their games — Kelce’s house is in Leawood, Kansas, while Mahomes’ residence is in nearby Belton, Missouri.
The watch was recovered in Providence, Rhode Island, where Kelce’s girlfriend, pop star Taylor Swift, also owns a home.
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NFL players were cautioned by the league to be on high alert after the homes were broken into last month in a wave of burglaries reportedly tied to international organized crime. It was eventually revealed that $20,000 in cash was taken from Kelce’s home.
In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, the NFL issued a security alert to teams and the NFL Players Association, warning that professional athletes in different sports have become “increasingly targeted for burglaries by organized and skilled groups.”
Law enforcement officials say the suspects conduct extensive surveillance on their targets’ homes and have even posed as groundskeepers or joggers. Some have even attempted home deliveries.
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The memo urged players to take special precautions, including installing home security systems. They were also encouraged not to post live updates of their comings and goings on social media or showcase their expensive items online.
“Obviously, it’s frustrating, disappointing. I can’t get into too many of the details because the investigation is still ongoing, but, obviously, it’s something that you don’t want to happen to really anybody, but obviously yourself,” Mahomes said last week.
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The Chiefs suffered their first loss of the season on Sunday, falling to the Buffalo Bills after winning their first nine games.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Rhode Island
Travis Kelce’s watch found in Rhode Island after Kansas City mansion was burglarized of $20K in cash: report
Travis Kelce’s stolen watch was reportedly found in Providence, RI, this week after the NFL star’s mansion in Leawood, Kan., was burglarized last month.
Sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News Friday that a watch taken from Kelce’s residence — and not previously disclosed to the public — was recovered.
Details have yet to be revealed on what type of timepiece was stolen or how much it was worth.
Authorities previously shared that the unidentified criminals stole $20,000 cash from Kelce’s home. They did not specify whether any other items were taken at the time.
Sources told ABC News that they think the athlete’s home was specifically targeted — and thoroughly surveyed — before the Oct. 7 burglary.
Just two days before Kelce’s pad was broken into, burglars also raided the home of his Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes.
Authorities have theorized the burglars may have targeted the athletes as their public football schedule reveals when they will be away from their residences.
“There is a concern about what happens if the athlete or his/her family members are present,” a security source told the outlet.
The insider shared that the burglars have gained access to Kelce and Mahomes’ houses by “posing as delivery men, maintenance workers or joggers to learn about residences, neighborhoods and security systems.”
Captain Jason Ahring from the Leawood, Kan., Police Department told Page Six that they are not releasing any information pertaining to an open investigation and maintained they will not be commenting.
Meanwhile, a Providence Police Department Public Information Officer told Page Six that they do “not have any record or involvement related to this incident.”
Kelce, 35, has yet to address the crime, but Mahomes, 29, previously expressed how “disappointing” the violation was.
“I can’t get into too many details because the investigation is still ongoing, but it’s obviously something you don’t want to happen to anybody — and obviously yourself,” Mahomes said during a press conference earlier this month.
Meanwhile, a source told Page Six that Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, was “thankful that no one was hurt and that neither of them were home during the robberies.”
Kelce’s home was broken into around 7:30 p.m. local time on Oct. 7 – just 15 minutes before his team kicked off against the New Orleans Saints.
Meanwhile, Mahomes’ mansion was burglarized while he was celebrating Kelce’s 35th birthday on Oct. 5.
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