Blog

Today is the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day—and I’m old enough to remember that first event on April 22, 1970. My friends and I would mark the day by walking the five miles to school rather than riding the bus.

On this Earth Day, I participated in the Great River Pull event in Woonsocket, aimed at cleaning up and protecting the Blackstone River (for more Blackstone cleanup events, click here). 

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I visited the Westerly Red Cross shelter the week of the floods, speaking with the more than fifty people who had been forced from their homes by floodwaters. It was so stressful for them. But I noticed that many of them were passing the time reading. There were children and adults in the center sitting at the long tables usually used for meals, engrossed in a book.

Right now, readers around the state are participating in Reading Across Rhode Island....

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Good news on the FEMA front: RI has qualified for public assistance to reconstruct infrastructure damaged in the recent floods, so the federal government will reimburse us for 75 percent of what we spend (and we’re trying to get that last 25 percent waived as well). This is good news for Rhode Island taxpayers.

In addition, two more FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers open today (Tuesday) in Cumberland and South Kingstown, bringing the total to seven, with centers...

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With the passage of health reform, many are wondering what that reform will ultimately look like. Who better to discuss the challenges and opportunities of health care reform than officials from our neighbor to the north, Massachusetts, which has a head start in the health reform effort with their 2006 law that mandated insurance coverage for all residents.

So I’m excited to be hosting Sarah Iselin, president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts, on Thursday as she talks about the second phase of that state’s health reform effort: cost containment. Sarah was most recently the commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, where she managed critical phases of the state’s health care reform law.

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The sun is shining, I-95 has reopened, and the flood waters that have devastated wide swaths of Rhode Island are slowly beginning to recede—without the loss of lives. We now begin to think about recovery—both how to get help if you’ve been affected by the flooding, and how to help your neighbors in need. On my office website, I’ve posted a long list of flood information and contacts to put those in...

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I am thrilled at Congress’s passage of the historic health care reform bill last night.

As today’s New York Times editorial states, this is a beginning on health care reform—not the end. But what a momentous beginning! In the coming months, I will work with lawmakers and the health care community to ensure reform is implemented smoothly here in Rhode Island.

From...

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So often we focus on what’s not working in Rhode Island—and certainly the challenges we face are real. But I’d like to take a moment to celebrate what’s going right in downtown Providence at the moment.

If you’ve walked around downtown in the past few days, you’ve felt the palpable buzz. With the NCAA tournament in town for a few days, we have an opportunity to showcase what’s best and unique about Rhode Island and Providence—our great restaurants, cultural...

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One in five Rhode Islanders will be without health insurance at some point in 2010. And 140,000 are uninsured right now. That number is expected to grow, given our state’s unemployment situation and changing industrial patterns.

These are some of the troubling facts reported in a study, commissioned by the Rhode Island Foundation and myself, of Rhode Island’s uninsured that was presented last night as part of a series of talks I’m hosting on health care...

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Today I’m announcing legislation I’ve introduced to close the Lucas Group loophole that allowed $370,000 in payments to a company without a contract with the state—a move that angered many last summer, myself included.

To quickly refresh your memory, the Lucas Group, a Boston-based consulting firm, had been engaged in what was described as a voluntary agreement to provide guidance in the development of the Global Medicaid Waiver that was approved last January....

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I spent Monday afternoon at the White House as the guest of President Obama and the First at a celebration of International Women’s Day—not a bad way to spend a Monday.

In the company of current and future women leaders— everyone from Cabinet members to high school students—I had a moment to pause and reflect on how much has changed for women, how much we still have to accomplish, and how many women around the world continue to face serious oppression and...

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