1. STORY OF THE WEEK: Dec. 11 marks the one-year anniversary of the abrupt emergency closing of the westbound Washington Bridge, a crisis whose full effect will take years to sort out. Gov. Dan McKee and RIDOT Director Peter Alviti can always fall back on how a potential tragedy was averted and no lives were lost. However, even with a relatively fast response to open replacement westbound lanes, Dec. 11, 2023, initiated ongoing aggravation for motorists and merchants in and around Providence, due to worse traffic at peak times and the related psychic fallout. It remains unclear when a new westbound bridge will be ready for use, although the two-step procurement process for picking a contractor is under way, with the initial selection of four firms.

The finalists will be announced Wednesday – in a nod to the anniversary of the bridge closing. After initially downplaying the effect for motorists, McKee has struck a more sympathetic tone and via a ProJo op-ed he defends his leadership: “As painful as the last year has been for everyone who depends on the Washington Bridge, my administration has made significant progress since March 14, when we learned that the affected span was, in fact, beyond repair and needed to be replaced.”

But the full story of what and how things went wrong has yet to be told, and it’s unclear how much the state’s litigation in the case will recover. And although the roots of responsibility for the bridge debacle extend into the past, the effect of the situation and the state’s response loom over the steadily approaching 2026 race for governor.

2. CLIMATE CHANGE: While poor nations are bearing the brunt of climate change, you need not look far to see the effect in Rhode Island. More intense rainstorms now cause periodic flash flooding on a greater number of streets around the state, while the state this week issued a drought advisory due to the scant amount of rain until this month. When it comes to the state’s crown jewel, climate change is “the biggest existential threat facing Narragansett Bay and it will probably be the central focus of Save The Bay’s work, frankly, for the next 100 years,” Jed Thorp, STB’s director of advocacy, said this week on Political Roundtable.

3. FLOOD THE ZONE: As part of a related new state initiative, Rhode Island Commerce (via news release) “has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking a qualified firm to assist in the development of assessments and remediation plans for small business commercial districts (Main Streets) in Rhode Island most vulnerable to severe weather events, coastal erosion, and floods.”

4. THE ENVIRONMENT: Here are some other highlights from Political Roundtable.

• Thorp said he’s optimistic about Save The Bay’s legislative priorities for 2025 – reforming the Coastal Resources Management Council and creating a bottle bill law in Rhode Island. “The General Assembly in the past few years has been a place where you can get good environmental legislation passed,” he said. “That was after a fairly dark period of several years under previous leadership where no environmental bills were passed.”

• When Massachusetts introduced a bottle bill in the 1980s, college kids were among those collecting bottles and cans to get the redeemable five-cent deposit per container. Thorp said this shows how bottle bills reduce litter and improve recycling. “If it can work in Massachusetts, and it can work in Connecticut, and Maine and Vermont and New York, there’s no reason that we can’t do it here in Rhode Island,” he said.

• Although property owners this year won the first round in Superior Court against Rhode Island’s year-old shoreline access law, Thorp said he’s confident the law will ultimately be upheld. 

5. LIFE SCIENCES: At 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi – who has championed the idea of building the life sciences sector in Rhode Island – along with Gov. McKee, Brown President Christina Paxson, Marc Crisafulli from the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission and others, will take part in an Statehouse unveiling of designs and other details for Ocean State Labs. According to a news release, “The state-of-the-art facility will provide critical infrastructure to support early-stage biotech and medical companies, fostering innovation and economic growth in Rhode Island.” 

6. FOOD DESERTS: Competition for the food dollar is heating up in nearby Seekonk, Mass., what with plans for a Market Basket and Whole Foods in close proximity. But Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, via this Take of the Week, points out that many consumers lack this kind of access: “Rhode Island has a grocery problem: one-quarter of the census tracts in our state are food deserts, low-income areas where residents lack access to a supermarket. The absence of a supermarket not only harms residents’ health and weakens neighborhoods but keeps prices high even in neighboring areas through a lack of competition. These ‘deserts’ are anything but natural phenomena; they are created by major corporations exploiting policy failures to push out competitors and restrict access to fresh food in low-income communities.

One of those failures, well-explained in this month’s Atlantic, is nonenforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA), a 1930s federal law to prevent price discrimination and stop the nation’s largest grocers from dominating the market. After federal regulators stopped enforcing the RPA in the 1980s, grocery corporations rapidly consolidated and began using their size to strongarm suppliers, harm independent grocers, and create food deserts by abandoning impoverished communities. Deregulation of the grocery industry has hurt consumers, and it’s up to states to take action. To lower prices and expand access to fresh food in Rhode Island, we should use our existing authority to limit anticompetitive behavior by superstores and empower independent grocers and suppliers to safely report potential violations of the RPA and other antitrust laws. We must stand up to big business to put affordable food back on the table for Rhode Island families.” 

7. ACROSS THE ROTUNDA: The Rhode Island Senate bears close watching in the aftermath of questions about the health of President Dominick Ruggerio, the dean of the General Assembly. So it’s worth noting that Senate sessions will now air concurrently with House sessions on Capitol TV, as JCLS Director Henry Kinch announced during the orientation this week.

8. GOING INDEPENDENT: A massive crane remains on standby near the visitors’ entrance to the Statehouse, ready to eventually return the Independent Man to his perch on top of the building. The Statehouse will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, so the Independent Man can be seen up close before his jaunt. Tours will depart from the Statehouse library every half-hour, per Secretary of State Gregg Amore.

9. HUNTER BIDEN: U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner had the most immediate reaction among Rhode Island’s congressional delegation to President Biden’s blanket pardon for his son Hunter (via ProJo): “I sympathize with President Biden as a father, but I believe this pardon is a mistake. We cannot have a two-tiered justice system where Hunter Biden and Donald Trump can commit crimes without consequence, but the average person gets no such special treatment.” U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo -- who worked in the Biden White House -- was less critical, while U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse offered contrasting reactions.

10. GOVERNMENT WASTE: President-elect Trump’s plan to use Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to cut government waste calls to mind past efforts in Rhode Island under former Gov. Don Carcieri, including the Big Audit and Fiscal Fitness. By one estimate, the initiative came up with $267 million in savings. In Rhode Island, cutting spending is difficult since growth in the cost of state programs exceeds that of revenue, and since most of the money goes into education and human service programs. On the federal level, Musk and Ramaswamy say they want to identify $2 trillion in possible cuts -- more than the amount spent by Congress each year on the entirety of government functions.

11. PROVIDENCE PLACE: The temporary receivers for the big mall near downtown have been made permanent and Superior Court Judge Brian Stern this week said he’s pleased with their efforts, as my colleague Olivia Ebertz reports.

12. KICKER: Rhode Island’s economy suffers by comparison with Massachusetts. But state government in the Bay State offers its share of outrages and howlers, just like virtually every other state. Just consider the arrest of a Boston city councilor in an alleged kickback scheme and how the lawmaker and lobbyist playing big roles in a significant climate bill in Massachusetts are romantic partners.

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@thepublicsradio.org.

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