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"It's not the same as [for] a judge. You are correct, but it's not that they just pick their best friend. There's a process to go through it and a review process and a very extensive background check." Researchers in the 1970s uncovered McKim's architectural drawings for the State House showing at one point a statue of a female figure holding a stalk on top of the building, but it is unclear if this was ever considered. Since the cracks were discovered in September, engineers have been studying how best to repair the statue, and when. Video from a drone inspecting the upper reaches of the State House revealed two gaps, like slices removed from a cake, in the domed marble platform that the Independent Man stands on.
Police officer fired gun while clearing protesters …
State law defines lobbying as "acting directly or soliciting others to act for the purpose of promoting, opposing, amending, or influencing any action or inaction" by the government. In some cases, the divide between lobbyist and advocate can be a blurry, with some nonprofit, community, business and industry leaders registering as lobbyists. Sign-up sheets to testify are typically outside the hearing rooms and it's first-come, first-speak, although lawmakers and agency officials get to cut. The House Finance Committee vets the state budget in Room 35, a frigid, brick-walled space in the basement where the air conditioning pumps year-round. The House Judiciary Committee, Oversight Committee and others meet on the first floor in Room 101.
Rhode Island State House
Rhode Island's State House is often described as a "living museum," and there's no better way to get in touch with its history than by becoming a part of it through the legislative process. The State House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and much of the interior decoration is original, or closely resembles the original design. The State House Restoration Society has worked closely with state agencies on several restoration and conservation projects since its inception in 1995.
Cumberland’s Witt announces campaign for RI House
But before workers dropped the statue back on top of the State House – by helicopter – he had a brief public tour, appearing in the State House rotunda and for a while outside the Warwick Mall, where folks could take photos with him. The Lavin family of Narragansett won the raffle and in 2000 donated the head to the University of Rhode Island, where it is now on display. When the State House was being built in 1895, the Rhode Island Historical Society requested that a statue of Roger Williams sit atop the new capitol building, but architect Charles McKim worried that Williams would not be recognizable, especially when viewed from hundreds of feet below. The south terrace of the State House offers an overview of Capital Center in the foreground, with the old downtown (or Downcity) behind. It also provides a panorama of the dramatic immediacy with which the tiers of College Hill houses and institutions rise out of the city's center, in summer poking through foliage, in winter starkly exposed.
The difference during the second vote was state Rep. Susan Donovan approving it after initially being opposed and state Rep. Robert Phillips missing the first vote, but voting in favor the second time. The voting sheet for the first time that legislation passed last June showed a majority of House Democrats voted in favor, with the margin being 32-29. “Voas was part of a minority of Democrats to vote in favor of the disastrous campaign finance law taking effect this year which doubles maximum contribution limits, gives lobbyist taxpayers dollars, and opens new dark money channels for political elites,” Witt’s announcement said. "Am I correct that magistrates don't go through that [merit-selection] process? They just are appointed because somebody likes them?" Morgan asked lawyer Craven during the brief House debate. “The public deserves transparency and accountability for this crisis that has upended their daily lives and this legislation will help deliver that to the residents of Rhode Island, while also ensuring that the rebuild of this bridge happens as quickly and as safely as possible,” Rep. Kazarian said. According to state officials, the report will include components like overview of costs related to the bridge, list of consultants retained by RIDOT, updates of pending investigations, answers to questions submitted by chairs of the House and Senate oversight committee and other traffic data regarding the bridge.
This isn’t the first time he’s needed repairs
RI's Independent Man is lowered from State House roof for repairs - The Providence Journal
RI's Independent Man is lowered from State House roof for repairs.
Posted: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Administering RI state taxes and assisting taxpayers by fostering voluntary compliance through education and ensuring public confidence. “As a lifelong Cumberland resident, I’m deeply dedicated to serving the constituents of District 57 in the state house, focusing on the tasks they elected me to fulfill,” he added. For the issue of housing, Witt highlighted the need for public investment and changing zoning laws. Another reform Witt mentioned on the campaign side is instituting nonpartisan open primaries.
The Senate Judiciary Committee meets in Room 313 on the third floor, but since that is the only Senate hearing room with permanent camera equipment, the Senate has been holding more meetings in the well-appointed Senate lounge (behind the chamber), with mobile video cameras wheeled in. On the issue of corruption, Witt explained she wants to roll back a new state law that increased the maximum contribution a candidate could receive from $1,000 to $2,000. Witt told 12 News that during this campaign, her main three priorities are fighting corruption, combatting the housing crisis, and building a future-friendly economy. Forte rejected James Florio Jr.’s appeal of General Magistrate Daniel V. Ballirano’s refusal to transfer the Florios’ divorce case to a judge. "And I'll trust him because I think he's a tremendous asset to the Family Court as chief judge," Craven said.
Florio had argued through his lawyer, Evan M. Kirshenbaum, that state law does not allow magistrates to preside over contested divorce cases, The Journal has previously reported. Florio cited, too, that decisions by a magistrate must be appealed first to the chief judge before the state Supreme Court, an extra step that forces the parties to exhaust more time and money. Senate, noted the distinction between judges, who are nominated by the governor after a highly competitive and public judicial nominating process, and magistrates, handpicked by the chief judge in each court.
The crown jewel of Providence is McKim, Mead & White’s white-marble monument, eminently located slightly below the crest of Smith Hill. Designed exactly at the same time as the architectural firm’s contributions ( ) to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, this is the first permanent expression of the thorough-going classicism that infused the vision for that fair and captivated taste across the whole spectrum of the western world. In that broad context, it was perhaps the most severe and restrained public building erected since the 1850s surpassing the firm’s Boston Public Library nearing completion as this was designed.
The severe ornamentation of white marble in the lower portions of the space gives way to the lively color of coffers and murals in the upper reaches of the space and dome, the latter of which received the planned mural decoration only in 1947 with The Settling of Providence, by James Allen King. (The virtues painted in the squinches below the dome are apparently of earlier date.) What surely accords with McKim, Mead and White's intentions are the coffers in green and gilt, as well as the corridors in Pompeian red, gray, and ochre. The architects must have expected that sculpture would go into or onto places in the lower zone of the staircase which seem designed for it and appear a bit bare compared to the ornamentation in the dome above. Working drawings (now in the New-York Historical Society), however, give no indication of any intended embellishment for this part of the building. The marble dome, the fourth largest structural-stone dome in the world, recalls both Michelangelo’s dome at St peter’s in Rome and Sir Christopher Wren’s at St Paul’s in London but goes them one better because of its siting. Visible literally for miles, the dome captures the brilliant colors of sunset’s fading light, and its evening illumination provides a lucent centerpiece to the city.
The chamber of the Rhode Island Senate is located in the east wing of the building, and the chamber of the Rhode Island House of Representatives is located in the west wing. Other notable rooms include the rotunda (beneath the dome), the State Library (north end), and the State Room (south end). The State Room is an entrance area for the office of the governor and contains a full-scale portrait of George Washington by Rhode Island native Gilbert Stuart. This room is also where the governor has press conferences and bill signings at the State House.
RIDOT will be required to submit the first report within 30 days of it being signed into law. General assembly members said the legislation would require monthly reports until the restoration of the bridge. The Independent Man was designed by George Brewster, a Massachusetts sculptor who taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, and installed on top of the State House in 1899. Last year's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on firearm-related bills drew thousands to the capitol, and went through the night and into the next morning.
Wide toward the outer walls, narrowing toward the stairs, the halls funnel the visitor from the north and south entrance fronts of the building to flights which make a pyramid of stairs within the rotunda. These rise to a landing, elevated in the center of the space between the ground and legislative floors, then break at right angles into another pair ascending east and west toward the two chambers. Actually, the space possesses some of the quality of a tight vertical shaft characteristic of Victorian staircases, a verticality which the raised stair landing halfway between the principal floors partially mitigates by raising the floor below the dome well above the ground level.
Other state offices are located in separate buildings on a campus just north of the State House. To local residents it is always the “State House,” never the “Capitol,” in deference to the old multi–state house system which prevailed, in theory if not quite in practice, in Rhode Island until this building opened in 1901. A key monument of the American Renaissance, the Rhode Island State House is the product of an elaborate—and probably “arranged”—competition.
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