THE VOLUME 90 | ISSUE III
ANCHOR © The Anchor 2016
RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 2016
Rhode Island College goes Green
college students, the importance of voting third party Editor-in-Chief and the ‘Green New Deal’ she is proposing SHANE INMAN that would end dependence Managing on nonrenewable energy. Editor “Jill Stein is my personal hero and I’m super excited,” reen Party candidate said RIC student Marisa Dr. Jill Stein was who was attending the welcomed to campus last week by her Rhode Island event. Green party organizers and Stein had a very clear Rhode Island College’s message for young voters, Environmental club as “they tell you you’re well as a Media Center powerless, but it’s exactly consortium of reporters. the opposite. You have the Stein spoke with Robbie numbers to come out and Rhodes, General Manager take over this election, to of 90.7 WXIN, in a one on render student debt null and one interview before her void, to make public higher speech and Q&A. Stein education free...” LOUISA D’OVIDIO
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focused on the issues facing
As one of the prominent third party candidates in the 2016 election, Stein has been attracting and relying on the backing of former Bernie Sanders supporters. Throughout the interview, she made it clear that she sees herself as a desirable alternative to the continuation of the current two-party system which has left many voters dissatisfied and angry. Stein made headlines during the campaign cycle for her two arrests, once for trying to attend the first Democratic debate and a second time while protesting with the Sioux Standing Rock Tribe. Stein described the similar policy goals she shares with Senator Bernie Sanders, such as a higher minimum wage and free higher education, but also emphasized where she and the senator differ, drawing attention to her plans to forgive all student loan debt because “it’s time to bail out the victims” of the economic crash. Rhode Island Stein organizer Sue said, “the Democratic and Republican
Photo courtesy of James Sundquist
parties have become two points on the same continuum. Our country is run by corporations and politicians do the bidding of their donors and not of the people they serve,” Sue went on, “Jill Stein, on the other hand, is acutely in tune with the pulse of the people of the nation, she’s close enough to people to
understand what’s caused the pain in our society that has produced the two candidates we have.” Stein’s lasting message was that, “It’s all about rejecting the lesser evil, standing up and fighting for the greater good like our lives depend on it, because they do.”
Schilling balks at day in court
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Derrik Trombley Anchor Contributor
n a surprising move, the former Boston Red Sox pitcher and ex-video game entrepreneur Curt Schilling came to a $2.5 million settlement with the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. The settlement is expected to be approved by the judge overseeing the litigation and is expected to net the state about $2 million after lawyers’ fees are adjusted. By now, there is not anyone in Rhode Island who pays even tangential attention to the news and has not
heard of the great collapse of 38 Studios. The state guaranteed a $75 million loan to the company in 2010 in exchange for operating in Rhode Island and providing needed jobs.
However, not two years later, 38 Studios collapsed into bankruptcy leaving Rhode Island on the hook for the remainder of the $112 million loan, when accounting for interest. Since then, the state assembly has had to take from the tax pool to pay off the remainder of this loan, causing large budget problems and tax increases.
Not all of the burden will be on the state as, in the direct aftermath of the collapse, the leadership of the state of Rhode Island claimed fraud on the part of the bond agencies that approved the loan, on the law firms involved in the deal, on the former Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC), and of course the 38 Studios executives, Schilling among them. At the present time, Rhode Island has settled with the law firm that worked on the deal for $4.4 million, the former Rhode Island
Economic Development Corporation officials for $12.5 million, and Wells Fargo and Barclays for $26.5 million. Altogether the Schilling settlement makes the total amount recovered to about $45 million.
That being said with his current settlement, after lawyers’ fees, the expected balance still left on the loan will be nearly $50 million that the state will have to pay back.
be his opportunity to show Rhode Islanders that he had done nothing wrong.
However, it appears that by settling now Schilling and his co-defendants would pay nothing out of pocket as their insurance would cover the cost of the settlement but would not have done so during a trial. All in all there is now only a single defendant remaining in the 38 Studios litigations, who will go to trial soon.
Schilling’s settlement was considered a surprise by many as he had repeated claimed that the trial would
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