This is sure to mean a tourism bonanza!

In recent years, Providence has not only seen a new convention center and a revitalized waterfront, but historic corridors have also been restored to their Revolutionary-era glory, giving the Rhode Island capital an architectural sense of place. But these cultural trappings, more commonly associated with overcrowded metropolises, have not caused this city of 200,000, near the banks of Narragansett Bay, to lose its small-town flavor. Drivers still request their initials on license plates, sandwich shops let regulars run a tab and Mayor David N. Cicilline greets residents by name and lists his home number in the phone book.

For the record, the Times ended their Friday and Saturday nights at the Black Rep and Local 121, which sounds pretty true-to-life. And did you know that the original State House, “where, in 1776, Rhode Islanders declared independence two months before the rest of the country,” used to be on Benefit Street?

Espresso at Caffe Dolce Vita, brunch at Nick’s on Broadway, and dinner, oh so predictably, at Al Forno. Sounds like a typical weekend!

If that whole Obama/New Yorker cover thing made you unhappy… but you weren’t quite sure why… and you didn’t want to look like a humorless Obama nut… but it didn’t seem funny… but you couldn’t explain why it wasn’t funny… good news. Lee Siegel, writing for The New York Times has it all figured out. It’s a great piece.

The New York Times has a piece today on a RI Training School program that puts juvenile offenders to work restoring old New England diners through the New Hope Diner Project. The youths restore the diners’ decrepit buildings, work the griddles and cash registers, and will (eventually, hopefully) manage the actual businesses sometime in the future. Pam Belluck writes:

“The whole poetry behind it is that these are kids who have been pretty much cast away emotionally and criminally, getting a chance to restore beloved eateries that have been cast off from society, too,” said Daniel Zilka, the acting director of the American Diner Museum, who rescues decrepit diners and helps run the project. “If they continue on the path that they’ve been moving upon they would end up in an adult correctional facility. This is probably their last opportunity.”

The offenders at the detention center, some as young as 13, have been convicted of crimes like sexual assault, armed robbery, breaking and entering, and drug offenses, and sentenced to serve 6 to 18 months. The center, the Rhode Island Training School, also has maximum security for offenders including murderers, but offenders qualify for the project only if they behave well enough to move to the regular detention population. They must also have, or nearly have, a high school equivalency diploma.

Work release is an important reentry mechanism for many offenders, but should these youths be encouraged to spend their time studying and developing more general skills before jumping into this line of work? Or do programs like this create order, stability, and options for young people with seemingly no way out?

I’ve often seen gentrification as a difficult problem to tackle. For many of my friends—young, working people trying to live in diverse areas and support themselves on small, non-profit or public service salaries—it is a struggle to find housing without becoming an agent of gentrification. But a New York Times piece today about Mount Morris Park, a traditionally-black Harlem neighborhood, explores one of the uglier examples of that phenomenon.

Timothy Williams chronicles the recent dispute over the neighborhood’s Marcus Garvey Park where, since 1969, drummers from Africa and the Caribbean have played an important role in shaping the social fabric and dynamic of the place. “The musicians,” he explains, “who play until 10 p.m. every summer Saturday, are widely credited with helping to make the park safer over the years.”

Across the street from the park however, at 2002 Fifth Avenue, is “a new seven-story cream and red brick luxury co-op with a doorman, $1 million apartments and a lobby with a fireplace.” Predictably, there have been some disputes about the character of the neighborhood.

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From Rinku Sen, RaceWire:

On last night’s broadcast, a repeat from June 16, Colbert did the kind of thing that I almost never rely on white media figures to do. He was interviewing Kenneth Miller, who wrote a book about how the proponents of “intelligent design” are trying to teach creationism at schools. At one point, Miller compared creationists to women who fraudulently collect welfare checks, saying they’re asking for a government handout, “I would compare them to welfare queens,” he said.

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The honorable Matt Jerzyk has a post to this effect over at RIFuture, as does Sir Ian McKellen Donnis at N4N, but I feel the need to reiterate: what’s up with the AG? While 42 other attorneys general signed on to support the Free Flow of Information Act, which would create a qualified federal shield law for reporters, Patrick Lynch did not. Lynch, who on June 19 was elected president of the National Association of Attorneys General, does justice (no pun intended) to that organization’s alias: the National Association of Aspiring Governors.

I think a lot of Rhode Islanders take for granted an important lil’ Rhody anomaly: most states have district attorneys and attorneys general, these being two distinct positions and offices. We’re small enough that the two positions are lumped into one office. Our attorneys general, therefore, spend the majority of their time and energy prosecuting criminals and upholding severe criminal justice policies rather than representing the larger interests of all our citizens.

In March, I was privileged to attend the 11th Annual Liman Public Interest Colloquium at the Yale Law School. In keeping with the topic of the conference—”Liman at the Local Level: Public Interest Advocacy and American Federalism”—we had the opportunity to hear from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Ohio Solicitor General William Marshall, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and James Tierney, Director of the National State Attorneys General Program. These four fellows have used their positions as state and city attorneys to compensate for the failings, negligence, and misguided decisions of the federal government and judiciary.

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One of my mentors here at Brown, renowned conservative-economist-turned-social-activist Glenn C. Loury, frequently debates cultural critic John McWhorter in dialogues about race and politics on Bloggingheads.tv. On Sunday, their conversation turned to hip-hop (the focus of McWhorter’s new book All About the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can’t Save Black America), Barack Obama, and the effect of each on Black America.

While I applaud Loury’s defense of hip-hop and appreciate McWhorter’s defense of Obama, I take issue with the false dichotomy these scholars have erected between the two. Loury says hip-hop is politically-charged and Barack Obama’s message is destructive; McWhorter says hip-hop is destructive in a way that counters the positive message of Barack Obama. But hip-hop, at its roots, is political, and many of its leaders have long championed Obama’s message and agenda through their words and rhymes. Obama, in kind, has become one of few mainstream voices for the ideology that underlies hip-hop.

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Awww, shit, you gotta be kidding me? How come I didn’t get a memo on this one? Oh, right, because my office is my bedroom and my secretary is my cat. Darn.

Apparently, would-be writers, the trick is not to solicit publishers one-by-one hoping to find one for whom your novel/screenplay/poetry/suckpileofhumanexcrement is a perfect fit. No, no, no, that is –so– 2007. Why waste your name with that? Just place an ad on Craigslist like Gina did:

The headline reads “Writer seeking Publisher“…

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Indian-giver [sorry, couldn't resist] Judge Susan McGuirl gave a suspended sentence to three Narragansett tribe members convicted of assaulting state police. Projo’s got it:

The three Narragansett Indian tribal members convicted of assaulting and scuffing with state police during the 2003 raid on a tribal smoke shop will not have to spend time in jail. Judge Susan McGuirl issued a suspended sentence for one of the defendants and filed the case of Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and the other tribe member, ordering them to provide community service by talking to school children about tribe history.

Miller, who famously testified on behalf of the textbook he wrote after Georgia tried to slap an “Evolution is a Theory” bumper sticker on all of their biology primers, and in the landmark Dover, PA case, is a big macher on College Hill.

Tim Russert died today.  He collapsed at NBC news from an apparent heart attack.  A visible shaken Tom Brokaw reported the news of his death of NBC’s cable news channel, MSNBC.  Russert is remembered as a Washington Insider and the anchor of Sunday’s Meet the Press.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ah9IA87DRA]

In case you missed it, the media is very, very fascinated with the “fistbump” that Barack and Michelle Obama shared last week. Also known as a “closed-fisted high five,” “daps,” or “a pound,” this gesture is common among African-Americans, young people, athletes and the fingerless. Also, it is not news.

Micah’s almost famous.

Ari’s dad has a good meeting with Gordon Fox…  And a not-so-good follow-up appearance on John Depetro’s show.  While he wasn’t called a fat lesbian, Depetro’s listeners saw through his shenanigans and called him out on his racket: Don’t you see, he advocates for RiteCare for immigrant kids because he’s a doctor — he’s just looking to line his own pockets.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWfkP6-VF24]

Yup, that’s an alien all right! No doubt about it! I mean, it sure looks like what an alien is supposed to look like. Thank god these nutbags from Colorado were able to capture it on film and then try to make money off it!

The Denver man who is pushing a ballot measure to have the city form an “ET Commission” showed video of what he says is an alien Friday morning at a news conference. Reporters were allowed to view the video, but only a still image of it was released to the media.

Jeff Peckman said aliens visit his friend Stan Romanke all the time.

Romanke, who lives in Colorado Springs, allegedly recorded the alien video while living in Nebraska.

The pair has a deal with a documentary company for the rights to the video.

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We at the Providence Daily Dose do not like to boast, self-promote, or influence political opinion (or, wait, isn’t that all we do?), but contributor Ari Savitzky is famous.  You heard it here first unless you heard him on NPR this morning. 

Speaking for Fair Vote Rhode Island, Savitzky was sound bitten twice.  The first one I heard was about Rhode Island moving from the Electoral College system to a popular vote system.   The second sound bite was about pre-registering 16 and 17-year-olds to vote.  His voice can be described as velvety and smooth.

For one day only, Ari Savitzky’s fame is now slightly above Representative David Segal and one droplet below WRNI correspondent Megan Hall.

Signing off, this is Leslie Friedman, striving to be more famous than the dancing traffic cop.

Have you ever seen those commercials for a credit protection service called LifeLock? This guy shares his social security number and dares the world to steal his identity:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXANhTH_oSo&feature=related]

But, wait! Don’t be fooled: apparently, lots of people are suing the company because the service doesn’t work. And the dude, Todd Davis, has had his identity stolen many times: at least 20 people have used his social security number to apply for driver’s licenses (some of whom succeeded!) and at least 87 others have tried to apply for credit with his name, one of who succeeded in getting $500 from an online loan program.

LifeLock Doesn’t Work

“Security experts say complaints about the company reinforce the time-honored wisdom of keeping your Social Security number secret.”

Uh, duh?