On Politics

Former state auditor Ernest Almonte has made it official -- after announcing for governor last year and vowing to stay in the race, he's decided to run instead for state treasurer as a Democrat:

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.

Two of the candidates hoping to succeed Angel Taveras as mayor of Providence have posted Web sites to offer visibility, attract supporters, and raise money.

Council President Michael Solomon's site is called Mike for Providence.

Capellan, an educator in Central Falls and veteran of Providence politics, is a bit more oblique with his eponymous site (although not so much with a background shot of the Providence skyline, including the now-vacant Superman Building).

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.

In a move that will be interpreted as a kiss to the leadership of the state Senate, Governor Lincoln Chafee on Friday unveiled his nomination of former Senate president Joseph Montalbano as a Superior Court judge. Chafee is also nominating Patricia Asquith as associate justice of the Family Court.

Via statement: