scott mackay

URI: No interest in varsity hockey

Scott MacKay — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:21:28 +0000

The Atlantic Hockey blog mentions that the University of Rhode Island is being considered by league brass to replace the University of Connecticut, which is moving its Division 1 hockey team into the Hockey East.

The Atlantic Hockey Conference is known as a stepping stone conference for colleges moving up to Division 1. Quinnipiac, for example, started in Atlantic Hockey and is now a national power that plays in the ECAC conference along with such Ivy League schools as Brown and Yale, which won the national championship a few weeks back over Quinnipiac, Yale’s New Haven neighbor.

Filling the Dynamo Building with a museum?

Scott MacKay — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:42:26 +0000

The Dynamo House, the century-old onetime Narragansett Electric power station, now sits as a forlorn reminder of what once thrived along Providence’s downtown waterfront. And as Rhode Island Public Radio political analyst Scott MacKay notes, it now stands as a guard to the old Jewelry District that state and city officials are trying to rebrand as a Knowledge District.

Richard Walton: The Red Bandana Concert

Scott MacKay — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:40:22 +0000

Richard Walton was an unforgettable presence for decades in our cozy state. An activist, he was in the forefront of so many campaigns for social justice and peace during his 84 years on this earth that even his friends couldn’t do a full accounting. A graduate of Brown in the 1950s, at a time when most of his WASP classmates went into banking, law or joined the CIA, Richard took the path less traveled. He became a reporter for the Providence Journal, then worked in New York newspapering during the Golden Age of print journalism.

Rhode Island's big 350th charter celebration

Scott MacKay — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:41:18 +0000

Rhode Island hasn’t had enough to celebrate lately. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay brings us an anniversary all Rhode Islanders can take pride in next month.

Three hundred and fifty years ago, Rhode Island struck a blow that would reverberate around the globe when England granted the colony a charter that for the first time in the modern world put in place a government that granted absolute religious freedom to its people.

RWU kicks off 350th RI Colonial Charter Celebration

Scott MacKay — Wed, 08 May 2013 21:13:46 +0000

Roger Williams University kicks off the state celebration of the 350^th anniversary of the Rhode Island Colonial Charter tomorrow with a panel discussion about the 1663 charter on campus.

Five members of Governor Lincoln Chafee’s Rhode Island 1663 Charter Commission will bring their perspectives to a discussion of the landmark document and how the ideas of Roger Williams influenced American constitutional development and indeed, resonate to the 21^st century.

May Breakfast with Jack Reed and 1,000 of his friends

Scott MacKay — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:17:07 +0000

If ever there was a Rhode Island tradition that never wanes, it is `May Breakfast,’ that old fixture where church fellowship meets scrambled eggs, bacon and coffee. It has an old-timey feel, even when it resembles a political ``time’’ as any gathering of pols was once referred as, especially when the eats were accompanied by a campaign dollar or two.

Can RI keep Superman Building from going dark?

Scott MacKay — Fri, 03 May 2013 19:45:50 +0000

Providence already has too many underused office buildings. RI political analyst Scott MacKay on what can be done to prevent the Superman building from going dark.

Maybe you were driving home from a night Celtics, Bruins or Red Sox game. Or perhaps you visited friends in Boston or were returning from summer vacation on a lake in Vermont or New Hampshire.

Driving down Route 95, at the crest of a hill near the Attleboros, you see the blue beacon beckoning you home from atop the Industrial Trust Building in Providence, known universally in Rhode Island as the Superman Building.

Council President Mike Solomon serious about mayoral run

Scott MacKay — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:03:58 +0000

If Providence City Council President Mike Solomon doesn’t win an expected Democratic primary for mayor in 2014, it won’t be for lack of trying.

Solomon has worked in synch with Mayor Angel Taveras, who is widely expected to run for the Democratic nomination for governor. Solomon, has arguably been the most effective council president since Elmwood's Nick Easton, who held the post under Mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr., in the mid-1980s.

ProJo continues to bleed readers

Scott MacKay — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:39:30 +0000

From the eagle eye of WPRI’s premier blogger, Ted Nesi, comes word that won’t surprise any regular reader of the Providence Journal, Rhode Island’s flagship newspaper. The once robust news outlet continues to hemorrhage readers, which inevitably leads to a drop in advertising as businesses find other ways to reach customers.

RI Public Radio, ProJo, RI Monthly win Metcalf Awards

Scott MacKay — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:42:04 +0000

The annual Metcalf Awards for Diversity in Media sponsored by Rhode Island for Community and Justice have been announced. For the third consecutive year, Rhode Island Public Radio has won. This year, RIPR education reporter and Morning Edition host Elisabeth Harrison is a winner. Harrison won for her ongoing series covering minority students in Rhode Island. Other winners include Billy Reynolds, the ProJo’s wonderful sports columnist and one of a very few Ocean State journalists with a well-known national reputation. Reynolds has long been one of the nation’s top basketball writers.