Deadly storms moved across the Mid-Atlantic states Friday night.  13 people were killed in a derecho type of storm.  A derecho is a complex of storms in a line shaped like a bow (of a bow and arrow).  Straight-line damaging winds are common in these storms.  In the storms Friday night, the winds reached speeds of 90mph, toppling trees and power lines.  Power was knocked out for more than 3million people. 

Derecho from June 29th, 2012. Almost has a fried egg look to the satellite structure.

We get these type of storms around here, too.  One that stands out in my mind happened on the night July3rd/4th, 1999.  A line of t’storms came roaring out of upstate New York and into New England that night.  The loudest thunder I’ve heard in my life (outside of Florida) occurred that night.  There wasn’t any significant damage reported with that derecho, mainly because it was weakening as it came through our area. 

What makes these storms worse is they quite often happen at night, while people are sleeping.  Unless they have a weather radio, people are often left vulnerable to these storms.  Even around here, weather radios are important.  Consider getting one….for any type of storm….it could save your life.

-T.J.

You know what they say about records right? They are meant to be broken. The jury is still out on record breaking weather today.  The record high temperature at TF Green is 98 set in 1945.  While I have us not quite reaching the record, it’s still a possibility.  We do have 3 main ingredients in place for a hot day: 1) Winds from the west-southwest (land breeze for most of the day).  2) A hot air mass in place.  3) Limited cloud cover.       -Pete Mangione

Welcome to another edition of my weekend column. Keep sending your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi (at) wpri (dot) com.

1. With growing speculation that Gina Raimondo and Angel Taveras could face off in the 2014 Democratic primary for governor, it’s notable that two major events a week ago Friday set the stage for a contrast between them on the pension issue that could benefit the Providence mayor. That morning, Rhode Island’s public sector unions filed a sweeping legal challenge to the landmark state pension law Raimondo championed last year, arguing it violates the state constitution. Hours later, Providence’s retired police officers and firefighters overwhelmingly approved a deal negotiated with Taveras to voluntarily scale back their retirement benefits. While Raimondo spent much of her time last year reaching out directly to pensioners and workers, they never got a vote on the final deal as their brethren in Providence did. Taveras can tell voters (and union leaders): “I fixed a pension problem, too, and I did it by dealmaking, not by dictat – all while running a city.” Raimondo allies, though, can counter that the climate for Taveras to get a deal approved might not have existed without her year of barnstorming.

2. A programming note – I’ll be off most of next week and part of the following week, but Nesi’s Notes will not go dark. Once again a number of terrific writers have kindly agreed to contribute guest posts – op-eds, really – that will run while I’m away, so you’ll have something new to read each day. And there’ll still be a Saturday Morning Post next weekend. Happy Fourth of July!

(more…)

I know I talk about dewpoints all of the time, but hey, it’s summer and they are important! Tomorrow, inland areas will be in the low to mid 90s. That’s about 10° warmer than today. However, dewpoints will be in the upper 50s. That’s about 10° cooler than today. The bottom line? Tomorrow will be warmer, but not nearly as humid. I’ll take that trade off any day!    -Pete Mangione

By Ted Nesi and Tim White

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – House Speaker Gordon Fox on Friday denied that he pushed lawmakers to create a new $125 million loan program in 2010 knowing the R.I. Economic Development Corporation planned to pledge $75 million of the money to Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios.

In his first extended broadcast interview since 38 Studios’ demise, Fox told WPRI 12 about an April meeting where Schilling and Tom Zaccagnino, a 38 Studios board member, asked Gov. Lincoln Chafee to sign two consent agreements, one allowing the company to get tax credits and another to provide bridge financing.

Fox didn’t rule out the possibility that Rhode Island will opt to default on the $75 million moral-obligation bonds the EDC issued for 38 Studios, which are not legal obligations of the state and could require lawmakers to appropriate more than $12 million a year for bondholders through 2020.

Read the rest of this story »

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – House Speaker Gordon Fox will call a vote next year on legalizing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, he announced Friday during a taping of WPRI 12′s Newsmakers.

Read the rest of this story »

The company that rented computers and software to 38 Studios wants it all back.

In court documents filed Thursday, NFS Leasing Inc. said 38 Studios signed 13 separate leases to rent equipment from the company between April 2010 and July 2011. Beverly, Mass.-based NFS says 38 Studios owed it $1.28 million when the video game firm filed for bankruptcy on June 7.

38 Studios is being liquidated under Chapter 7 of the U.S. bankruptcy code. Its creditors are scheduled to meet in Delaware next month. The company’s bankruptcy trustee visited its former headquarters at One Empire Plaza this week to see what its employees left behind.

NFS asked 38 Studios’ bankruptcy judge to make the trustee begin paying rent immediately or otherwise give back the equipment that’s now apparently sitting idle in the Empire Plaza building.

Separately, The Associated Press reported late Thursday that 38 Studios’ board had voted to authorize a bankruptcy filing by May 14, contradicting Curt Schilling’s suggestion that the company wasn’t in serious trouble until Governor Chafee began alluding to its solvency woes.

• Related: Delaware trustee tours 38 Studios’ old HQ to assess assets (June 27)

Tim White contributed to this report.

It’s a muggy and cloudy morning with a few brief showers passing through parts of southern New England.  The showers are in response to a hot and humid air mass that is going to unleash some serious heat over the next few days.  In fact, today is forecasted to be the 1st of 3-straight 90°+ days.  Those temperatures would make it the 2nd heat wave of the summer for inland parts of southern New England.  And while temperatures will be hot here… it’s only a fraction of the record (potentially dangerous) heat that’s been gripping the nation’s mid-section and will move into the southeast and mid-Atlantic today–including Washington DC .

National Temps Today

You can click on this link from the National Climate Data Center to see all of the 131 records that were broken yesterday–mainly in the Heartland.  It hit 114-118 in Kansas!!  That makes our 93° forecast high today seem pretty comfortable, eh?!

We’ll break the heat on Monday in New England as a cold front swings through… that should cool our temperatures into the mid 80s for much of next week.

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Island officials say it’s “full speed ahead” for the state in implementing President Obama’s health care law locally after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it as constitutional. More than 50,000 more residents are expected to sign up for Medicaid at a cost of $1.9 billion over five years.

Read the rest of this story »

• Related: Q&A: Lt. Gov. Roberts on what’s next for health reform in RI (June 28)

Ferguson (r) with Costantino and Roberts

“Is this the happiest day of my life? Pretty much!”

That’s what a smiling Christine Ferguson told me at a press conference this morning when I asked how it felt Thursday to see the health policy she developed as a senior aide to the late U.S. Sen. John Chafee upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ferguson, who started working for Chafee’s son on Monday as head of Rhode Island’s new health insurance exchange, said unequivocally that President Obama’s signature accomplishment is what she drafted for Republicans two decades ago. ”It is based on the John Chafee bill of 1993,” she said. “It is pretty much exactly how we envisioned it.” She added: “I think it’s a great day.”

Ferguson was a key architect of the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993, introduced by the senior Chafee that year as the Republican alternative to the Clinton administration’s so-called “Hillarycare” proposal. (Oddly enough, Hillary Clinton’s 1993 proposal was crafted in partnership with a Rhode Islander, too – Ira Magaziner of Greenhouse Compact fame.)

(more…)

There may be no bigger health wonk in Rhode Island politics than Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts. Now in her second term, the Democrat was tasked by Governor Chafee shortly after he took office with overseeing the state implementation of the federal health care law, and she’s moved quickly to do so.

After this morning’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the health law, I sat down with the lieutenant governor in her State House office to discuss what comes next. The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

This decision just says, OK, Rhode Island, keep doing what you’re doing with implementing the health care law, right?

It says keep doing what we’re doing and with a sense of confidence that the federal government is going to be our partner in this going forward. We also have a lot of regional conversations going on, and there’ll be more consistency from state to state – we now know that as a country we are moving forward with this law. That will change a lot of the politics, and also a lot of the practical work that we’re doing.

Take me through – at 30,000 feet – the big benchmarks and milestones ahead in implementing the law for Rhode Island.

(more…)

The justices are expected to release their opinion shortly after 10 a.m. This post from Monday will get you up to speed. Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, who’s leading the health law’s implementation in Rhode Island, will discuss what the outcome means for the state at an 11:30 a.m. news conference.

Update: The law stands, for the most part, as a number of experts predicted.

“The bottom line,” SCOTUSblog writes, “the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds is narrowly read.” Much more to come.

The issue of the Medicaid funds is one that matters locally, since it affects what the federal government can and can’t do to Rhode Island’s budget. But for now, looks like implementation of Obamacare moves ahead.

Update #2: The Medicaid is apparently largely irrelevant to Rhode Island because our current leaders support expanding Medicaid and weren’t looking to buck the feds on it.

Coming up this afternoon, I’ll have a one-on-one with Lt. Gov. Roberts about what this means for Rhode Island, Christine Ferguson’s reflections on John Chafee’s framework getting upheld, and more on what happens next. Also catch my interview with Congressman Langevin on WPRI 12 at 5:30 p.m.

It’s a beautiful morning!  The sun is shining, the temperatures are mild and the winds are light.  It’s all just part of the reason today is my pick of the week!

The storm system that brought the mix of sun and clouds and a few showers and t’storms over the last few days is finally getting kicked to the curb, with high pressure settling in.  That high will help promote dry air that will keep us storm free during the day today.  We should see warm summer sun through the day, too.  The main reason that today is my pick of the week is the low humidity!  I am a fan of hot temperatures, so mid to upper 80s with low humidity will be perfect for any beach and boating plans.

The humidity will be much higher tomorrow… and a passing thunderstorm could pop-up as a warm front passes through.

Dewpoint Scale

By Tim White

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The trustee assigned to handle the 38 Studios bankruptcy case flew up from Delaware this week to take inventory of what’s left at the company’s empty Providence headquarters.

Read the rest of this story »

Good Evening…

It looks like the feel of Summer returns, starting  Thursday Afternoon (mid to upper 80s) and hitting 90 Friday thru Sunday. Does not look record breaking, but it will get much warmer.  Where is the heat now???….Here are the high temperatures Today, where you can see the hotter weather thru Midwest.  Tony Petrarca..

Congressman Cicilline is having the tastiest fundraiser ever tonight in Washington, Politico reports:

FRESH LOBSTER, CASH FOR CICILLINE: Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) will be feted with “lobster flown in fresh” among other New England delicacies at a fundraiser tonight at the D.C. home of Gary Jankowski and Michael Schaeffer. And Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is expected. Minimum contribution is $250, with “sponsor” level participation going for $2,500.

The invitation [pdf] describes the event as a “Taste of Rhode Island Reception” and says guests will be served “lobster flown in fresh this morning, Rhode Island-style calamari, and traditional New England clam chowder.” Host Jankowski is apparently a Realtor in D.C. who went to Boston College.

Cicilline’s campaign sent supporters an email blast earlier Wednesday that said the congressman is still $7,450 short of his fundraising goal for the second quarter, which ends at midnight Saturday.

• Related: Chart: The campaign finances of Cicilline, Doherty and Gemma (May 2)

The 2012-13 state budget Governor Chafee signed into law last week will help Rhode Island municipalities and school districts by providing $34 million in new education funding, Moody’s Investors Service says.

The nearly 4% hike in state aid for K-12 schools is the third annual increase in a row and “a credit positive for both school districts and for cities and towns,” Moody’s analysts wrote in a research note Tuesday. “State funding for education now stands at over $900 million, well above the pre-recession peak,” they said.

However, Moody’s said the impact isn’t uniform across the state because of the new school funding formula. Barrington will get the biggest increase in education aid in 2012-13 at 42%, while the Chariho school district will suffer the biggest drop, losing 14%. Non-education aid will be flat after plunging since 2007.

Moody’s also noted lawmakers’ $2.6 million appropriation to offset some of the deep cuts in Central Falls’ pension benefits will help that city emerge from bankruptcy, but expressed concern about the failure of a proposed supplemental tax sought by cash-strapped Woonsocket.

The failure to enact any laws to stabilize the 36 locally run pension plans also drew concern. “Members of the legislature have publicly stated that they intend to take up local pension reform, but the delay into the next legislative year highlights the significant political hurdles they’ll have to surmount,” Moody’s wrote.

(chart: Moody’s Investors Service)

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island is laying off an unspecified number of its employees on Wednesday, WPRI.com has learned.

Read the rest of this story »

The Stephen Hopkins Center for Civil Rights will hold a panel Wednesday at noon at The Old Statehouse (150 Benefit St., Providence) to discuss something that has been largely off the table in the state so far – whether Rhode Island should default on the moral obligation bonds it sold to benefit 38 Studios.

Revenue Director Rosemary Booth Gallogly criticized that idea on Newsmakers earlier this month, saying the state can’t afford to risk its bond rating even though the 38 Studios bonds aren’t general obligation bonds. The panel will hear a countervailing view from Bloomberg View’s Josh Barro, who previews his thinking today:

Performing on the 38 Studios guarantee will cost nearly $100 million, a nontrivial amount in a state with just more than a million residents. Rhode Island lawmakers owe taxpayers an explanation of why the state issues moral-obligation bonds. If the answer is in order to preserve the option of default, they should provide guidance as to what kind of circumstances would lead the state to consider defaulting — and how that guidance relates to 38 Studios.

If the answer is that the state uses moral obligations to create general obligations, lawmakers should admit that’s an invalid reason, and stop issuing moral-obligation bonds.

Joining Barro on the panel are former R.I. Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders and Roger Williams University Law Professor John Chung. The Hopkins Center is a libertarian legal-aid group organized last year that has taken a number of stands, including siding with Governor Chafee in the dispute over Jason Pleau.

• Related: Josh Barro: Rhode Island should default on 38 Studios bonds (May 29)

Enjoy the comfortable, “average” late-June temperatures today… because sultry weather will be back before the week is up.

Today will bring slightly warmer temps than yesterday, as afternoon highs climb to near 80 with breezy west winds and low humidity.  The storm system that brought the scattered showers yesterday afternoon and evening will still be controlling our weather today… bringing a mix of sun and clouds and just a slight chance of a brief, isolated shower.  Eastern MA has a higher chance of having to dodge more raindrops today… while the RI beaches should stay dry.

Shower Threat Today

Beach Futurecast

Temperatures will warm into the upper 80s tomorrow, but the humidity will still be on the comfortable side… that all changes on Friday, as sultry weather returns.  We could have our 2nd heat wave of the summer from Friday through the weekend as temperatures climb to near 90 each afternoon.

Good Evening..

Even though the 4th of July is a week away, I thought we would take an early look anyhow. The map below represents the  averaged outcome from a combination of long range computer model outputs.  It looks like the core of the heat is going to be anchored Mississippi Valley. Here in New England for the period of  July 2 thru July 6th, our temperatures will average near normal, meaning highs around 80. It looks like a persistent weather feature called an upper level low will be anchored across Hudson Bay in Canada. That will tend to keep at least extreme heat away..however every now and then this low will move in such a way as to allow brief intrusions of hot air…Tony Petrarca

Rhode Island native and La Salle Academy grad Tom Donilon became President Obama’s national security adviser in December 2010 after a career that included a senior gig at Fannie Mae. Donilon has been called one of Obama’s most influential advisers; he even wrote the formal orders to get Osama bin Laden.

Donilon is now getting some unwelcome publicity, Foreign Policy’s Peter Feaver reports:

Outrage over the recent national security leaks has been slowly building. It has all the signs of having legs, as they say in the business — of being a long-term Big Problem, rather than a short-term distraction. …

And the outrage is beginning to have a focus: on National Security Advisor Tom Donilon. Old Beltway hands see the dots as connecting and pointing to Donilon as the most senior, if not the earliest and certainly not the only, source. The focus may be unfair, or at least based only on circumstantial evidence. Undoubtedly others were leaking sensitive information, perhaps without the knowledge or approval of senior leaders like Donilon, let alone his boss, the president. But when folks like Tom Ricks are starting a death watch the focus is likely to stay riveted on White House advisors, and on Donilon in particular.

Feaver goes on to suggest Donilon may have already tendered his resignation, and the president may soon take him up on it to avoid a major campaign distraction. Here’s more on Donilon’s tenure.

(photo: Pete Souza/The White House)

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The R.I. Economic Development Corporation has hired a special counsel, Max Wistow, to examine whether taxpayers have legal avenues to claw back some of the tens of millions of dollars they’re poised to lose after the collapse of Curt Schilling’s video game company, 38 Studios.

Read the rest of this story »

Governor Chafee on Tuesday signed into law the open records changes pushed through the General Assembly by Rep. Michael Marcello and Sen. James Sheehan. Rhode Island was the second-to-last state to pass a public records law when it finally did so back in 1979, and this is the first significant improvement to the statute in 14 years. The changes take effect Sept. 1.

Common Cause Rhode Island has been a leading advocate for public records reform, so I asked its executive director John Marion to explain what the new law will do, and what remains to be done:

The newly amended Access to Public Records Act (APRA) makes several significant changes to what information will be made public and several significant changes to the processes for making information public.

The most significant change is the removal of the blanket exemption for personally identifiable records with the addition of a balancing test that would allow records to be kept private if it meets the standard of being an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” This is the federal standard that has been in place for decades. In addition to this new standard, the law classifies several specific types of records as public, including employment contracts and pensions being received by beneficiaries. Sharp Nesi’s Notes readers will note that the latter were declared public records last year in an advisory opinion by the attorney general’s office, but we wanted to make sure those remain public records even if the attorney general’s opinion changes.

The process-oriented changes include putting into statute that you do not have to disclose who you are when making a request. This protects the requester from harassment. Also, the new law requires public bodies to have a designated person trained to handle APRA requests; requires the public body to give the records in the preferred format of the requester; and increases the fines for violations of the law by public bodies. Our public records law, last amended in 1998, was showing its age, and making sure that you can get records scanned and emailed to you, if that’s not a burden to the public body, brings the law into the 21st century.

What we proposed, but did not make it into the final bill, included lowering the number of days for a response by the public bodies from 10 to seven days and a partial repeal of the exemption for correspondence of elected officials. I hope we will be able to revisit those questions in the future because there is a real value in knowing what public officials are doing on our behalf.

That reference to correspondence of elected officials includes all of David Cicilline’s emails from his time as mayor of Providence, which Tim White and I tried (unsuccessfully) to obtain last year.

Tim will have more details about the new law at 6 p.m. on WPRI 12.

• Related: With no info-nudists, RI needs public records laws (March 21, 2011)

(photo: Tim White/WPRI)

This post has been updated and revised.

It’s back – the secretary of state’s office is posting a list of who’s pulled papers to run for office in Rhode Island this year. Check it out here. The filing deadline is Wednesday.

The Democratic incumbents with primary challengers so far are Reps. Anastasia Williams (challenger is Euridici Jimenez), Scott Slater (Ana Quezada) and Art Handy (William McKenna) and Sen. Dan DaPonte (Rep. Bob DaSilva). There are also potential contested primaries in House Districts 3, 30 (GOP), 54, 63, 65 and 73, and Senate Districts 17 and 19.

Want to run for office yourself? Here’s a PDF explaining how.

Update: Warwick Mall owner Aram Garabedian pulled papers to run as an independent against incumbent Democrat Hanna Gallo in Senate District 27. (Good catch by Don Botts.)

A curious poll is being done in Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District.

A reader who lives in Providence got called on Sunday for a telephone survey that asked about the three candidates running in the 1st District – Democrats David Cicilline and Anthony Gemma, and Republican Brendan Doherty – plus two other Democrats: Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts and Treasurer Gina Raimondo.

Roberts and Raimondo? For Congress?

The poll tested their favorability ratings, Raimondo’s job approval rating and how they’d fare against Brendan Doherty in the November election. It’s unlikely either woman is planning to jump into the race, though – they’d need to declare their candidacies by Wednesday to get on the ballot.

Much of the poll focused on Cicilline and Doherty, checking how voters react to various potentially divisive facts about the Democrat (tax issues, support for Nancy Pelosi, Providence’s solvency, mob connections) and the Republican (Bush tax cuts, abortion, Medicare cuts).

The tipster wasn’t familiar with the name of the polling firm, but said it sounded like “Kalamata.”

• Related: New WPRI 12 Poll: Cicilline 40%, Gemma 36%, undecided 20% (May 16)

It’s a beautiful morning with dry air, partly sunny skies and light northwest winds.  Low pressure is lifting into Maine and taking the widespread showers and thunderstorms along with it… overall–a nice start!

While it’s not going to be a “washout” today… I do expect weather changes as we head through the day.  The storm center currently lifting into Maine will get stuck in northern New England, keeping the weather a bit unsettled, even all the way down here.  Clouds will begin to fill-in through the morning with partly to mostly cloudy skies expected for this afternoon.  There will probably be a few scattered showers, too.  They should be brief, and spotty, with lots of dry time in between.  If you’re planning on an outdoor activity today… keep an eye out for an isolated thunderstorm–lightning, small hail and brief, heavy downpours are possible in any t’storms that develop.  Temperatures are still running cooler than average with highs climbing into the low to mid 70s.

If you’re gearing up for a vacation week around the 4th of July… we’re looking at a trend towards warmer-than-normal temperatures for much of the nation.  Here’s the temperature anomaly forecast from the Climate Prediction Center for July 3-9.

Temperature Outlook July 3-9

It looks we won’t have to wait until next week to get into the warmer than normal temperatures… by Thursday, Friday and especially this weekend, both temperatures and humidity will be on the rise in southern New England with afternoon highs well into the 80s to near 90.  In terms of precipitation around the 4th of July week… it’s looking like a “normal” to perhaps slightly drier than normal stretch could be in store for much of New England.

Precipitation Outlook July 3-9

DaSilva

DaPonte

Two East Providence lawmakers are set to square off at the ballot box in a referendum on the new pension law.

State Rep. Roberto DaSilva filed paperwork on Monday to run against incumbent state Sen. Dan DaPonte in the Democratic primary for Senate District 14, DaPonte told WPRI.com in an interview.

The two East Providence Democrats took starkly different positions on the pension law last fall. DaPonte played a pivotal role in pushing the legislation through as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, while DaSilva supported amendments to change the committee bill and voted against the final version.

DaPonte noted that DaSilva is a public employee who works for the Pawtucket Police Department, and said his wife works for the government, too. “He’s obviously concerned about his pocketbook and wallet,” DaPonte said. DaSilva did not return a phone call after business hours.

(more…)

Good Evening..

Very stormy weather this morning with strong thunderstorms. You can click HERE to view our storm photo gallery. At one point our lightning tracking system this morning was registering hundreds of cloud to ground lightning strikes per hour. Chance of shower or thunderstorm this evening but the risk is small. Here are some basic  lightning safety tips:   Tony Petrarca

1. PLAN in advance your evacuation and safety measures. When you first see lightning or hear thunder, activate your emergency plan. Now is the time to go to a building or a vehicle. Lightning often precedes rain, so don’t wait for the rain to begin before suspending activities.

2. IF OUTDOORS…Avoid water. Avoid the high ground. Avoid open spaces. Avoid all metal objects including electric wires, fences, machinery, motors, power tools, etc. Unsafe places include underneath canopies, small picnic or rain shelters, or near trees. Where possible, find shelter in a substantial building or in a fully enclosed metal vehicle such as a car, truck or a van with the windows completely shut. If lightning is striking nearby when you are outside, you should:

A. Crouch down. Put feet together. Place hands over ears to minimize hearing damage from thunder.

B. Avoid proximity (minimum of 15 ft.) to other people.

3. IF INDOORS… Avoid water. Stay away from doors and windows. Do not use the telephone. Take off head sets. Turn off, unplug, and stay away from appliances, computers, power tools, & TV sets. Lightning may strike exterior electric and phone lines, inducing shocks to inside equipment.

4. SUSPEND ACTIVITIES for 30 minutes after the last observed lightning or thunder.

5. INJURED PERSONS do not carry an electrical charge and can be handled safely. Apply First Aid procedures to a lightning victim if you are qualified to do so. Call 911 or send for help immediately.

Bob Ryan – whose Boston Globe column will be dearly missed after he retires this summer – traveled to Pawtucket last week for the ceremony honoring the late Ben Mondor, who saved the PawSox in the 1970s. The resulting column is a must-read for Rhode Islanders:

PAWTUCKET, R.I. – He did not want the stadium named after him, and he more than likely would not have been too thrilled about what they were doing to perpetuate his memory now, but when you leave so many people behind who loved and respected you, the issue is out of your control.

That is why visitors to McCoy Stadium will now find a life-sized statue of the truly beloved Ben Mondor just outside the left-field foul pole, adjacent to what is known as the “Mondor Gardens.” At the base of the statue is an oft-heard Mondor passage that sums up his outlook on being involved in baseball:

“We’re blessed to make our living playing a little kid’s game on a field of freshly cut grass under God’s blue sky.”

Read Ryan’s entire column here.

• Related: Pawtucket celebrates birthday at former mayor’s stadium ‘folly’ (Aug. 23)