Rhode Island
What Judge McConnell has learned while leading the Crossroads Rhode Island board – The Boston Globe
Q: Why is now the appropriate time to be stepping away as chair of the Crossroads board?
McConnell: I’ve been chair for 11 years and my time period as chair is expiring. I’m excited to stay on the board, although. Whereas there’s by no means an ideal time for a transition, I’m assured that Crossroads is in a robust place and we now have a dynamic new board chair — Julie Duffy — who will push the group even additional. Julie will give us contemporary eyes and can assist us method the large challenges we face within the state, from low earnings housing affordability to entry to well being care to protected shelter for individuals who want it, with renewed power.
Q: I’m curious how your view on fixing homelessness has advanced throughout your time on the board. Did you are available in with one thought and have it change over time?
McConnell: After I first joined the Crossroads board, I assumed our job was to make individuals experiencing homelessness snug: maintain them fed, maintain them heat, and ensure they aren’t sleeping on the sidewalk. It’s nonetheless essential that we offer individuals with protected shelter, particularly when they’re in disaster. However wanting again, I now see that I considered the work by a really slim lens.
Over the previous decade, I’ve realized a lot in regards to the root causes of homelessness, and I’ve developed a deep perception that the one confirmed resolution to homelessness is housing, and that after we get of us into housing first, we are able to far more successfully help the remainder of their wants, whether or not it’s substance use dysfunction, unemployment, or any of the opposite contributing elements that always result in homelessness.
Q: Your day job is serving because the chief choose of america District Court docket for the District of Rhode Island. Is there one thing our authorized system needs to be doing higher in terms of addressing homelessness?
McConnell: We have to cease coping with problems with homelessness and dependancy and different societal packages by the felony justice system. Housing actually is a foundational want. If we are able to join housing with well being care and join housing with training, extra individuals can have stability.
However when persons are housing insecure, they’re extra prone to discover themselves concerned within the felony justice system. I see individuals in my courtroom far too typically who can be a lot, significantly better served within the social companies system than the felony justice system.
It’s not simply the ethical and moral factor to do. It makes monetary sense, too. Short-term rental help and entry to well being care are so much cheaper in the long term than having somebody bouncing across the justice system for years and years.
Q: What’s the primary factor Rhode Island lawmakers can do to get extra individuals into everlasting housing?
McConnell: I don’t need to weigh in on particular laws or budgets due to my position with the courts, however I’d say the most important factor any coverage maker, enterprise chief, civic chief can do to get extra individuals into everlasting housing is help the development and rehabilitation of extra housing.
We want at the least 2,500 low-income extra models to successfully finish homelessness in Rhode Island. That’s not a moonshot. There’s federal funding out there, and there are underutilized amenities throughout the state that may be transformed shortly to low-income residences.
I’d additionally say that housing and homeless advocates and suppliers want to stay collectively. For the primary time in my decade doing this work, I’ve seen advocates aligned on big-picture targets. We will’t return to a time when dozens and dozens of particular person organizations with related missions are pressured to compete in a zero-sum recreation.
This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free e-newsletter about Rhode Island that additionally incorporates details about native occasions, knowledge in regards to the coronavirus within the state, and extra. When you’d prefer to obtain it through e-mail Monday by Friday, you may enroll right here.
Dan McGowan might be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Observe him on Twitter at @danmcgowan.
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.
49ERS’ BROCK PURDY, NICK BOSA RULED OUT FOR POTENTIAL SEASON-DEFINING GAME VS. PACKERS
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.
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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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