At 7. It won’t be thrilling, and will probably be devoid of substance. But if you’ve got a hankering for pomp, you can come get your fix.

• Saturday the 19th can only mean the 31st Annual Pawtucket Red Sox Hot Stove League Party. 11am-2 pm at McCoy Stadium. Whoop whoop!
• The George Wiley Center is screening the Cynthia McKinney poli-doc American Blackout tonight at 630 at the Bell Street Chapel, and Sunday, Jan. 20th at 2pm at the Mediator Fellowship hall at 55 Rounds Ave. More info here.
• Renowned Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Residency comes to Provi this week. Schedule here.
• Obama Happy Hour(s) at CAV on Wednesday the 23rd, from 5-730pm.
• The Rhode Island Federation of Republican Women is screening HBO doc Hacking Democracy at the Columbus Theater at 7pm on the 24th.
• RI Young Demz and the Dose co-host a State of the Union Party at McFaddens on the 28th. Get prepped.

Notice of two jobs openings just landed in our inbox:

Marriage Equality Rhode Island:

Marriage Equality Rhode Island is currently seeking an entrepreneurial Director of Development and Communications to raise money, develop and manage donor relationships, and direct and implement the organization’s communications strategies and public relations activities.

More at MERI’s website.

Direct Action for Rights and Equality:

DARE is currently seeking a full-time Development/Communications Coordinator to increase the organization’s fundraising capacity.

Contact Sara Mersha at 351-6960 or sara@daretowin.org for more info.

Matt has the info on the mechanisms by which Rhode Island’s delegates to the Democratic Convention will be determined. 40% of the delegates needed to win the Dem nomination aren’t a function of primaries, but are so-called ’super delegates’ — elected officials and party officers and such. It’s a firewall for the party establishment.

In RI and every state, the remainder break down proportionally, based on how many votes candidates receive in the party primaries.

There’s no truer truism. Ian puts RI’s budget woes in context, with some help from the Washington Post:

NEW YORK — Faced with a weak national economy and a worsening housing crisis, a growing number of states are confronted with severe budget deficits, forcing some governors to come up with creative — some say risky — budget gimmicks to find new sources of cash.

At least 13 states — led by California, New York and New Jersey — are facing huge shortfalls for the next fiscal year, and about a dozen others are in serious financial difficulty, according to various budget estimates, reports from the governors, and a survey by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank.

What, you ask? There might be something positive going on in Rhode Island? Something that elicits excitment and media attention from outside of the Oean State?

More (barely) out-of-state press about how sweet it would be if Rhode Island actually got moving on one of the off-shore wind proposals that are being tossed around.

The country’s smallest state may not have oil, coal or natural gas reserves to power the homes and workplaces of its approximately 1 million residents, but Rhode Island is rich in one natural resource with energy-producing potential — offshore wind.A proposal from a New York company puts Rhode Island on track to be the first state to host an offshore wind farm.

Allco Renewable Energy Group is interested in erecting test towers at four sites to determine whether the amount, consistency and direction of winds is enough for one or more wind farms comprised of 250 to 350 turbines each.

We can’t dilly-dally for another year. We have to pass the Power Authority legislation and deeper net metering THIS YEAR or we’re going to lose our opportunity to become a national renewables leader.

Thanks to Chris Barnett at the Secretary of State’s Office for this update.

Mollis Announces Final R.I. Presidential Primary Field

13 candidates make the ballot; 7 with more than 2,000 signatures compared to 1 in 2004.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Jan. 10, 2008) – Thirteen presidential candidates will be on Rhode Island’s March 4 primary ballot, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis announced today.

Today was the deadline for the secretary of state’s office to certify that presidential hopefuls had collected the signatures of at least 1,000 eligible Rhode Island voters that they needed in order to qualify for the primary.

“One sign that Rhode Islanders are taking this primary very seriously is the number of signatures they submitted. In 2004, only President Bush collected more than 2,000. This year, seven candidates exceeded that mark,” said Mollis. “We certified more than 25,000 signatures in all.” (more…)

Crap. We finally learn how to keep the pillow fighting under control, and then the dam goes and springs another leak:

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Invasive plants and animals that can damage the environment and cost millions of dollars to control have increasingly taken hold in Rhode Island waters.

Sadly, this time Barrington seems hardest-hit:

Last year, the Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington spent $6 million on dredging and reconstruction as it removed reed phragmites, an invasive species.

Just moved up in the rankings and beat Farleigh Dickinson. And this one’s from the AP:

No. 23 Rhode Island (14-1) is off to the program’s best start since 1946-47 heading into conference play at 20th-ranked Dayton on Wednesday. The Rams cracked the national rankings for the first time since November 1998, and could climb in the polls following a 94-63 demolition of Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday that extended their winning streak to nine games and kept them undefeated at home this season.

Rhode Island and Dayton (12-1) have raised the profile of the Atlantic 10 conference, which last season sent just two schools to the NCAA tournament. The early success could bode well for the Rams to get their first NCAA bid in nine years.

As everybody knows, the state budget is a mess. But one glimmer of hope as the session gets underway: A ton of Reps and Senators (Dems and Repubs) have been approaching me about various posts on this blog and rifuture encouraging the vigorous development of renewable energy in Rhode Island, and suggesting that we position Rhode Island as a national leader in this arena.

The specifics could, and would need to, take a variety of forms. But as we look for a way to create jobs — and ideally jobs that fill real needs — Rhode Island is especially well positioned to exploit its long coastline and ample wind energy. (Solar, hydro, and wave power should be explored too, of course.)

As I’ve mentioned before, the first thing that we need to do is allow for net-metering — basically to let entities that put up renewables installations get paid for all the electricity they produce. (The alternative is for anything they produce above what they use to be pumped into the grid — essentially handed over to the utility — with no financial reward going to the producer.)

Deeper net metering would do away with a tremendous barrier to renewables production, and cost taxpayers NOTHING. Also crucial are a variety of targeted incentives, streamlining of permitting, and the creation of the Power Authority that died at the end of last year’s session.

(The other hopeful news is that we finally have labor advocates and environmentalists meeting to try to push a green jobs program. More on this as we move forward.)

Rules to live by: Distrust the Projo, and quote Spiro Agnew whenever possible.

One should be skeptical of all these damn lists, but given the Projo’s obsession with RI’s rankings along any of a million metrics — especially when we turn up low — don’t you think that this should make the paper:

US News and World Report just ranked Rhode Island’s public high schools 4th-best in the country.

**The link above is to an extensive “best high schools” report. I can’t find a link to the state-by-state rankings, but they’re in the hard copy from Nov 29th, which I had in my lap earlier today. Let me know if you can find it online.

Hint, hint, Powers-That-Be (greater than this lowly freshman’s):

More national news today about the potential mega-wind developments in Rhode Island. If we get this much attention for talking about moving the projects forward, imagine how psyched people would be if we actually pushed them forward!

SUGAR LAND, TX–(Marketwire - December 27, 2007) - Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) — Developers are studying the addition of about 620 megawatts (MW) of new power generation for Rhode Island. This would represent an increase of about 33% from the existing 1,890 MW of available generating capacity to about 2,510 MW. All three projects would be powered by renewable energy.

As we express concern about the a budget deficit, foundering economy, and population loss, why don’t we do something awesome and exciting that’d make us a hotbed for an up-and-coming industry. For real, this time.

Blindly following the crowd, I’ve decided that I’m foremost an Atlantic 10 fan this year, for the first time since the 7-foot-1 Yinka Dare — who sadly died of a heart attack a few years ago — wowed the crowds at George Washington’s Smith Center in the early 1990s. (I think Dare’s what first turned me into a college bball fan.)

Jim Baron and the URI Rams make the Washington Post today, in an article mostly about the surprising strength of the A-10:

“I think the league is as strong as it has ever been,” Rhode Island Coach Jim Baron said. “What it has done during the nonconference season really speaks for itself. We have definitely earned what we have done. Everyone is really taking a strong stance on strengthening their schedules.”

  Needless to say, “Weird” and “Rhode Island” are synonymous — more great press for the Ocean State:

The Rhode Island Department of Health fined Rhode Island Hospital $50,000 in November because three doctors so far this year have performed neurosurgery on the wrong side of the patients’ brains. (Two patients survived.)

A couple from Swansea apparently won last month’s big-ass powerball jackpot, likely yielding a whole new crop of local “believers” who will squander even more dough than they already do.Lottos suck: They’re super-regressive — far more so than casinos — and while people should be able to gamble, the state shouldn’t actively try to dupe its constituents into throwing away their earnings.

Perhaps the single craziest Rhode Island factoid of which I’m aware: Lotto sales per-capita are tops in the nation, at $1,373 a pop. You read that right. Mass. is pretty bad too — number 5, at $683. ( Those are 2004 stats.) The median state is Texas, at less than one-tenth our per-capita rate.

The Rhode Island School of Design has named John Maeda to be their new president. Maeda’s background in new media and corporate design makes him a very interesting choice for the school who’s history has usually bent more towards the fine/practical arts. At 41 Maeda will be the youngest president in the school’s history. Outgoing president Roger Mandle describes Maeda as “a humanist. He is a genius — and he gets things done.”

RISD has more information and a cute little video.

Big ups to Barnaby Evans for the tip on this