1. STORY OF THE WEEK: As we roll into the weekend, perhaps you’re savoring the emergence of spring, the arrival of March Madness in Providence, an expected return to form of the Red Sox or any number of other things. Looming in the back of the mind of many Rhode Islanders is the Washington Bridge. If you cross it at mid-day during the week, the experience is typically quick and easy. But backups persist during peak travel times, particularly eastbound, adding to a pile of accumulated frustration. More than 15 months have passed since the abrupt emergency closing of the westbound bridge on Dec. 11, 2023, and the accountability pledged by Gov. Dan McKee remains elusive. A major milestone will come when the finalist to complete the new westbound bridge is selected in June and the cost and timeline for completing the project are expected to come into view. But it seems unlikely the new span will be complete until after the September 2026 primary for governor. The same is true of the state’s lawsuit against 13 companies that worked on the bridge -- described by McKee as the lever for delivering accountability. How will Rhode Islanders process all this when they go to vote next year? “I know it's an ongoing frustration for Rhode Islanders,” Attorney General Peter Neronha, who is leading the state’s lawsuit, told me during an interview this week. “And I think at the end of the day, they'll be assigning responsibility and blame for how we got to this point.” (McKee’s office and his campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the AG’s remark.)

2. The Washington Bridge will be the focus of a special episode of Rhode Island PBS Weekly airing at 7:30 p.m. this Sunday, March 23. Michelle San Miguel reports on the search for accountability for what went wrong. Attorney General Peter Neronha talks with me about the state’s lawsuit, whether RIDOT Director Peter Alviti should have been put under oath during a joint legislative Oversight hearing last month, and whether public officials like Alviti should be more accessible in talking about the bridge. (Alviti was scheduled to talk with me, but his office cancelled the interview a few days before it was slated, citing the lawsuit -- which was filed months before the interview was scheduled.)

3. INQUIRY: The National Transportation Safety Board has included the Newport Pell bridge among 68 bridges nationally recommended for more scrutiny in case of a possible vessel strike.

4. DEPORTATION, DOGE & MORE: My colleagues were all over local angles to news this week related to President Trump’s administration in Washington: Ben Berke describes how thousands of federal workers in our region find themselves in limbo. Olivia Ebertz covered Brown University advising students with visa and green cards to reconsider travel plans, the deportation of Brown-affiliated Dr. Rasha Alawieh, and the legal limbo of a German green-card holder.  

5. DEMOCRATS IN TROUBLE: In a new NBC News poll, just 27% of respondents said they have a positive view of the Democratic Party -- the lowest rating since the poll began in 1990. Asked on Political Roundtable why his party’s brand is so damaged, Secretary of State Gregg Amore offered this response: “I think that’s cyclical. I remember when Bill Clinton was elected, it seemed that no Democrat would be elected again, and he was elected to two terms, and the party adjusted its messaging. And I think that’s what has to happen here. You know, I’m a well-known labor Democrat in this state, and I think that’s the focus that we should really, really be leaning into, is economic issues supporting working class people. And I think that message has to start to resonate with the broader American populace.”

6. THAT’S AMORE: Some excerpts from our interview.

***Amore said U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse got it right by voting against the continuing resolution to fund the government in the preceding week. “I think that the filibuster is one of the tools that can be used to resist and I don’t buy the argument that things would get worse,” he said. “I think things are pretty bad for federal workers right now, and there’s got to be some leverage so you can negotiate going forward.”

***While he refused to rule anything out, given the general uncertainty of life, Amore said his intention is to seek another term as secretary of state next year.

***Ever the realist, Amore -- a hardcore Yankees fan -- recognizes that the Bombers face uncertainty due to depleted pitching and the Sox seem headed in a more winning direction.

7. RHODE ISLAND SENATE: Another week goes by, and while Senate President Dominick Ruggerio has returned home, he has yet to return to the Statehouse. Here’s a statement from Ruggerio, passed along by spokesman Greg Paré: “While I have been unable to be physically present in the chamber over the last few weeks, I am grateful to all of my colleagues for ensuring that the Senate never skipped a beat. Throughout this temporary setback, I have remained in constant contact with Majority Leader Valarie Lawson, Whip David Tikoian, the committee chairs and the members, and I am looking forward to rejoining my colleagues in the Chamber and presiding again in the near future.”

8. HOSPITALS: Attorney General Peter Neronha was so concerned about how the bankruptcy of Prospect Medical Holdings would affect two local safety-net hospitals that he shopped them with major hospital groups in Connecticut and Massachusetts. No one bit, due to how Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital face not just the lower reimbursement typical of healthcare in Rhode Island, but also a poorer census of patients. That leaves the Centurion Foundation on track to use an exclusively debt-based deal to propel its financing. The Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp. is expected to help line up the sale of bonds in the coming weeks.

9. OPEN GOVERNMENT: House GOP Leader Mike Chippendale found himself walking back one of his assertions from a news conference Wednesday, but he maintained his view that the McKee administration has made it difficult to learn about why the pallet shelter at Echo Village became so costly. 

10. HOUSING: Can YIMBYs (Yes, in my backyard) overcome NIMBYs? That’s the main question raised by a housing poll sponsored by Neighbors Welcome! RI. Not surprisingly, it identified housing as the top problem facing the state. But when push comes to shove, will the state’s elected leaders rally behind more aggressive efforts to promote more housing, including in commercial areas and on smaller lots?

11. SECRET APARTMENT: Secret Mall Apartment, opening today, is a treat of a documentary. It’s funny, it’s poignant, it’s grounded in Providence and tells a story that resonates widely. A great short film about the film here from my colleague David Lawlor. Artscape producer James Baumgartner and I got to see an advance screening this week, and I chatted with Michael Townsend, the artist who spearheaded the secret apartment.

Asked about the future of the mall, now in receivership, Townsend told me:  ”I’m hoping for a future where there’s still the anchor of the retail experience because that drives people to the building, but that it expands more from the  fundamentally private retail experience to more of a public experience, where you have public services, where you can, you could leave this space having gone to a clinic or gotten a health scan, or maybe attended some classes and picked up a skill or some sort of skill sharing, or experienced just even a hint of the wealth of imagination and creativity that is just within a half mile of this building. And I think, and I hope that the receivership will find that implementing some of those types of ideas will benefit the people who walk into the space. Because they’re not just, you know, they’re not just customers. They’re fully fleshed human beings that need a lot of stuff. And all that stuff can happen under this roof. The mall’s in a ton of debt. It’s the type of debt I don’t even, I can’t even comprehend. And I think the path out truly is diversifying the human experience that happens here instead of just selling stuff.”

12. KICKER: John “The Mad Peck” Peck, underground artist and creator of the famous Providence poster, left this week for the big drawing board in the sky, at age 83. Our own Ben Berke offered a textured portrait of Peck in 2016: “A self-made man of peculiar taste, the Mad Peck’s job description falls somewhere between “renaissance man” and ‘hustler.’ Over the 50-plus years he’s spent in Providence, the Mad Peck has been, at various times and in various combinations, a published comic book historian, nationally-read culture critic, beloved doo-wop DJ, commissioned poster artist, and television studies scholar.” May Peck’s words echo through the ages: “Providence, Rhode Island where it rains two days out of three except during the rainy season when it snows like a bitch, and Friendship is a one-way street. Rich folks live on Power Street, but most of us live off Hope.”