NEWS RELEASE                                                     DECEMBER 19, 2016
 
The ACLU of Rhode Island has called on the Providence City Council to reject the proposed expenditure of hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to purchase police body cameras unless and until clear, strong standards of transparency and accountability are in place for their use.

In a letter sent to the City Council at the end of last week, ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown noted:
 
“The ACLU has had correspondence with the police department and various city officials on this issue for well over a year. It has been our position that police body cameras have the ability to provide a helpful layer of transparency and accountability in police-community relations – if proper policies are in place. Unfortunately, they are not. The PPD’s current policy would allow the public to be kept in the dark if a troubling incident of police misuse of force were to be captured on these cameras. The policy also, in our opinion, is not sufficiently precise in making sure that encounters will be captured on tape from beginning to end. We question the expenditure of so much taxpayer money if, ultimately, the purchase is unlikely to promote trust in the community.”
 
The letter to the Council included a copy of earlier correspondence the ACLU had with Police Chief Hugh Clements, Jr., in which the ACLU pointed out that the recordings of some of the most highly-publicized police shootings in recent years – such as those involving Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Tamir Rice, and Walter Scott, among others – could, if captured by Providence police body cameras, potentially be withheld from scrutiny under the police department’s current policy.
 
Last week, the Providence Board of Contract and Supply recommended purchase of the body cameras from Taser International, prompting the ACLU’s letter to the Council

A copy of the ACLU's letter can be found here:
http://riaclu.org/images/uploads/Letter_to_Providence_City_Council_on_body_cameras_contract_121516.pdf
 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Steven Brown -- 831-7171


Steven Brown
Executive Director
ACLU of Rhode Island
128 Dorrance Street, Suite 400
Providence, RI 02903
(p) 401 831-7171
(f) 401 831-7175
www.riaclu.org

Yes, as astonishing as it may seem ...  The Rhode Island Deparment of Transportation is seeking to limit public review of TIPS ... Transportation Improvement Program. Some...errr.... "Highlights" ...

A. Reduce the length of notice required to a public hearing to 10 days.
​B. Eliminate requirement for Municipalities to hold public hearings on projects intended for TIP.
​C. Reducing the required public review and comment period to 30 days. 

​And Wait! There's More .... See formal document below (Allow Time To Load)
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The FANG Collective                                                            December 15th, 2016
Contact: Nick Katkevich, 401-559-6218
Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion
Contact: Kathy Martley, 401-568-3354

Morgan Stanley Pressured to Cut Financial Ties With
Invenergy’s Clear River Energy Center

Providence - On Thursday, Burrillville, Rhode Island residents in opposition to Invenergy’s Clear River Energy Center (CREC) formally asked Morgan Stanley to cut financial ties with Invenergy’s fossil fuel projects. Members of BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion) and The FANG Collective personally delivered a letter to Morgan Stanley's office in Providence, while similar letter deliveries were carried out in ten other cities.

Invenergy, the largest wind produce in the country, also operates and is trying to construct new fracked-gas burning power plants. Many of these projects are facing stiff community resistance, including in Burrillville where residents have been squaring off against Invenergy and their proposed fracked-gas plant for a year and a half.

“Burrillville is united against the project and over a dozen towns across Rhode Island have passed resolution opposing the plant. Now we need Morgan Stanley to join us and cut their ties with Invenergy”. Kathy Martley of BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion).

Invenergy is also trying to move forward with fracked-gas power plant in Jessup and Elizabeth Township, PA. Residents in those towns are vocally opposed to the projects.

Morgan Stanley is the primary lender for Invenergy’s “Thermal Operating LLC”, having signed a $540 million loan to support Invenergy’s fracked-gas division in October 2015. Two months ago Moody’s downgraded this loan, revising the it’s outlook from “stable” to “negative”. Moody’s cited Invenergy’s “substantial financial underperformance” as the primary reason for this decision.

“In the face of growing opposition Invenergy is struggling. We urge Morgan Stanley to abide by their own policies on ecology and indigenous rights and immediately cut their line of credit to Invenergy.” Nick Katkevich of The FANG Collective.

Letters made out to Audrey Choi, CEO of Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing, were delivered to Morgan Stanley offices in Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York City and elsewhere. FANG wrote in the letter that investing in Invenergy violated Morgan Stanley’s “Environmental Policy Statement” and the principles of their Institute for Sustainable Investing.

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Attachments area

WPRI Channel 12 is reporting that at the worst possible moment, heating assistance payments are being delayed. This, on top of the woes surround SNAP and other entitlement payments, has led to wide spread complaints about embattled Rhode Island Health & Human Services Head Honcho Elizabeth Roberts management skills.

Something not being debated, however, is the salary structure of the agencies responsible for disseminating these funds. Listed below is the most recently available tax return for Tri County Community Action ... then referred to as Tri Town Community Opportunity ... before its merger with South County Community. With executive salaries of upwards of 172K, it would appear that there is good money in "helping the poor", or in this case, simply being a conduit for federal taxpayer dollars to home heating assistance recipients

Editors Note: Allow IRS Form time to load. Click the arrows in the lower right hand corner of the screen to go full page. Executive Compensation figures are on page 7 of IRS Form 990.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Trial date set for arrests at regulatory agency in D.C.

From: FERC4
Press contact: Peter Nightingale, 401.871.1289, nigh@pobox.com
Attachment: picture of protest (credit: DC Direct Action News) 

Four of seven activists who were arrested last May at a protest at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) headquarters had their trial date set at a status hearing at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

The defendants, aka FERC4, are Claude Guillemard of Baltimore, MD, Peter Nightingale of Kingston, RI, a professor of physics at the University of Rhode Island, Ellen Taylor of Washington, DC, and Donald Weightman of Philadelphia, PA. They were arrested at FERC during a peaceful protest, the #RubberStampRebellion, which was part of a long series of demonstrations led by the activist group Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE—https://beyondextremeenergy.org/).

Of the seven activists who were arrested and were charged with "unlawful entry," the FERC4 will go to trial on June 21, 2017 to contest the charge. At the trial, they will testify that FERC approves fracked, natural gas pipeline projects that poison our water, pollute our air and over-heat our planet. FERC has rejected every attempt to hold it accountable to the public. 

As Claude Guillemard puts it: “FERC is an instrument of expansion for the fossil fuel industry. Its hidden funding by the oil and gas companies creates a direct conflict of interest.”  Nightingale adds: “The projects FERC rubber-stamps imperil life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of nearby communities; global climate change makes FERC a threat to life on Earth itself.”

The FERC4 trial will focus on many of the same issues that We The People — http://www.peopleshearing.org/— brought up in the National Press Club in Washington on December 2, namely, the abuses of power and law that FERC inflicts on communities across America.

Three defendants—Guillemard, Nightingale and Weightman— will represent themselves. Mark Goldstone, a well-known lawyer with a decades-long reputation in First Amendment cases, will represent Ellen Taylor. Mr. Goldstone said: "I am honored to stand with the FERC4, brave, nonviolent climate warriors. They demand accountability from FERC, an agency that has been captured by the fossil fuel industry and ignores citizens' demands for clean, renewable energy."
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