STORY OF THE WEEK: After Val Lawson won election Tuesday as the new president of the Rhode Island Senate, she faced a battery of reporters’ questions about her dual role as head of that chamber and president of the National Education Association Rhode Island teachers’ union. The focus was easy to anticipate. Lawson, 58, was ready to respond and she stuck by her message — that she will tread carefully to avoid conflicts of interest. “There’s nothing I’m going to do without my due-diligence, I can guarantee you that,” she said. “It’s of the utmost importance to me all the time.” How this actually works in practice, however, will be a story that plays out over time. It takes a certain moxie to win the presidency of a major union and to move up quickly in a legislative body. But organized labor always presses its case, and the Senate has long exhibited a stronger pro-union flavor. The losing Democratic candidate in the race for president, Sen. Ryan W. Pearson (D-Cumberland), called the tandem of Lawson and the new majority leader, Sen. Frank Ciccone (D-Providence) — a former top official with the Laborers’ union — “a labor dream team.” RI GOP Chairman Joe Powers was more withering in a statement, saying in part, “Rhode Islanders should be very concerned. This is no longer public service — this is political self-service.” To her doubters, Lawson can point to how she won the presidency with the support of 65% of the Senate (and 73% of the Democratic super-majority). And labor-related legislation aside, she faces an immediate challenge in getting her chamber up to speed in the intensifying rapids of the legislative session, with six to eight weeks to go and a state budget process marked by uncertainty due to the Trump administration and signs of a softening economy.  

2. THE OPPOSITION: Talking after the vote Tuesday for Senate president, Sen. Pearson said he felt vindicated. “It’s nothing I want to be vindicated on, but literally everything that I was concerned about and what I had expressed my concerns to the president at the time played out exactly as I thought they would,” Pearson told reporters. The Cumberland Democrat, 36, was referring to how he shared his concerns about Dominick Ruggerio’s health with the ailing Senate president last year. Pearson said the two men parted as friends after that discussion at Ruggerio’s home and the subsequent rupture in that relationship, which led to Pearson losing his post as the number two Democrat in the Senate, was engineered, he said, by rival senators. In the end, Pearson got just eight votes in his competition with Lawson — four less than on the opening day of the 2025 session.

3. BUSINESS: House Speaker Joe Shekarchi tells me a bill will be introduced next week as part of an effort meant to keep giant insurer FM Global based in Rhode Island.

4. POLICING THE POLICE: Rhode Island is the last state to embrace reforms meant to thwart “wandering officers,” the practice in which police found responsible for misconduct sometimes move to a different jurisdiction. In 2001, a select commission formed after the shooting death of Cornel Young Jr., a Black Providence officer mistaken by two white colleagues for a criminal, found that Rhode Island Rhode needs “mechanisms to hold individual officers accountable throughout every stage of their careers.” But as Sam Stecklow reported for the Invisible Institute and The Public’s Radio, efforts to address the situation through a bill sponsored by state Rep. José Batista (D-Providence) faced strong opposition from police unions and AFSCME’s Council 94.

5. HEALTHCARE: When an email arrived after the close of business Thursday, with Gov. Dan McKee, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate President Val Lawson using a joint statement to express support for CharterCARE’s transition to nonprofit status, it seemed curiously lacking in context: “We need to focus on supporting these hospitals to allow them to achieve a sustainable future,” the troika said in part. “These are critical hospitals to our state’s healthcare system, employing close to 2,500 physicians and staff, with over 50,000 emergency room visits last year, comprehensive cancer and geriatric care, and as one of the state’s largest providers of behavioral health services.” The Public’s Radio has reported extensively for years on the uncertainty facing Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence, so what was up with this statement? A little digging revealed the communication was sought to bolster potential buyers’ confidence in the up to $165 million in taxable and tax-exempt bonds being marketed to finance the Ceturion Foundation’s acquisition of ChaterCARE. “This was the result of ongoing dialogue with state leaders,” Centurion spokesman Otis Brown told me. “We appreciate their continued show of support.” S&P Global Ratings gave the bonds a BB- rating last month. A spokesman for the RI Health and Education Building Corp., which is helping to facilitate the sale of the bonds, declined to comment on the status of the offer. 

6. WOMEN IN POLITICS: The mannerisms and the familiar voice remain the same, but Gina Raimondo has been playing on a bigger stage ever since Joe Biden drafted her to be part of his team back in 2021. That — and Raimondo’s acknowledgement to former Obama strategist David Axelrod that she is considering a run for president — makes their extended conversation well worth the watch. For all her status as a high-flier, our former governor still has a bad taste about what she called a double-standard in gender politics. “Every woman who has ever run for office gets the same s*** — ‘There’s just something about her.’ Everyone! Just go ask any woman,” Raimondo said. She recounted how her likability improved when her pollster displayed pictures of her in jeans rather than a business suit. If it’s any solace, though, the percentage of women in the General Assembly has climbed since Raimondo’s time as general treasurer.

7. YOUNG VOTERS: The Rhode Island Young Republicans have launched a series of new local chapters around the state in recent months as part of an effort to build a more competitive GOP. The Young Democrats of Rhode Island have also been active, trying to bring some fresh energy to a party challenged at the national level. Ken Naylor Jr., chairman of the YRs, and Autumn Guillotte, a board member of the YDs, joined me on Political Roundtable this week to discuss their efforts, their concerns and their favorite current elected officials in RI. We spoke after a recent Harvard Youth Poll found high dissatisfaction among young voters with both parties. Another finding: more than 4 in 10 Americans under age 30 report barely getting by financially. “This is a generation that's weathered pandemic isolation during formative years, entered an unstable economy, and faced skyrocketing housing and education costs — all while being told they're not resilient enough,” John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, said in materials accompanying the poll. “What Gen Z needs isn't another lecture, but genuine recognition of their struggles and leaders willing to listen before they speak.”

8. BREWING PROSPECTS: Craft brewing has been a bright spot in Rhode Island’s economy, as I reported earlier this year, even though some brewers say that state government has been an obstacle to stronger growth. Come down to the Guild in Pawtucket at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, for a screening of my TV report on this topic and a panel discussion, moderated by yours truly, featuring Matt Gray, co-owner of Ragged Island Brewing in Portsmouth, Nick Fede Jr., head of the Rhode Island Liquor Operators Collaborative, and state Rep. Carol McEntee (D-Narragansett), chair of the House Small Business Committee. The event is free, but registration is required. 

9. RUNNING DRY: As part of an ongoing series, my colleague Olivia Ebertz reports on the problems caused by a shortage of fresh water on Prudence Island: “While most of the state’s water systems are connected to the well-stocked Scituate Reservoir, some island and coastal communities like Prudence Island have to be self-reliant, gathering their water from fractures in local bedrock or aquifer systems. Many of these communities are more directly dependent on rainfall, and detached from the mainland, and can’t rely on emergency water services in a pinch. As the climate continues to change, many of these communities will need to find more secure sources of drinking water.”

10. MEDIA: Via statement, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed responded to President Trump’s effort to strip funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides some support for local stations like The Public’s Radio (most comes from our listeners and other groups in our area): “Public broadcasting is for the public benefit in every single state across this great country. It provides trusted local and national news, culture, lifesaving emergency alerts, and public safety information. NPR and PBS stations play an important role in the media landscape. They are not ratings driven or just trying to reach one target demographic. Whether you’re listening in Idaho, Alabama or Rhode Island, NPR and PBS are fact-based and their goal is to inform and ensure all voices can be part of the national discussion. It’s not sensationalized or slanted: It is civic-minded. At a time when newsrooms are shrinking, and when billionaires are buying up and controlling the editorial content of big papers, TV, and the internet, public broadcasting is the opposite: It’s for everyone and not beholden to any individual or ideology.”

11. KICKER: If you can’t get to a May breakfast, travel there in your mind with this story from David Wright.