Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Freshman Rep. Christopher Fierro, D-Woonsocket, is no stranger to presidential inaugurations.

The 28-year-old stayed at the State House to watch today's swearing-in of President Barack Obama, but two decades ago, he attended both of Ronald Reagan's inauguration in person.

Do the math and you'll see he won't remember much.

Fierro was less than a year old at Reagan's first inauguration in 1981 and just barely five at the second term ceremony.

The lawmaker's father, a Coast Guard medical officer and pharmacist, was asked to coordinate the medical services at Reagan's first inauguration. According to his son, the older Fierro did such a good job, the Reagan team asked him to return for the second event.

The Fierros brought their young son along to both, wanting him to experience history.

"My parents' politics are very different than mine," the Democrat and longtime Obama supporter said with a laugh.

Watching Obama's inauguration today was a whole different experience. And not just because he'll actually remember it.

"Barack Obama really has inspired me to get involved," Fierro said. "He inspired me as someone who wants to do good in government."

At the State House, political insiders mixed with regular Rhode Islanders to watch the ceremony on an oversized screen.

"For those of us who can't be in Washington, it's important to be here in our Capitol, in our house," said Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, who organized the event.

The day started with personal televised messages from U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and Congressman James Langevin welcoming viewers.

Joyce Speaks, 48, an AmeriCorp member, watched the events with a sense of disbelief. She never thought she'd see a fellow African American elected president. "I have a good feeling," she said. "There is finally going to be change for the best."

Rep. Edwin Pacheco, D-Burrillville, brought his 10-month-old daughter Savannah. As Obama took the oath of office, the baby waved an American flag in her small fist.

Pacheco knows the baby won't remember much of the day's events, "But I want to be able to tell her when she's older that she was around for Barack Obama's being sworn in as the first African-American president of our country," he said.

Savannah Pacheco is no stranger to the Obamas. Days before she was born, her father got a chance to meet Michelle Obama when the future first lady visited Rhode Island. Pacheco asked Mrs. Obama to sign the brochure for the event so he could give it to his yet unborn daughter. On it, she wrote: "Happy Birthday. You can dream this big, Michelle Obama."

That message now hangs above the baby's crib.

Looking for a place to watch tomorrow's inauguration?

Be prepared to pick sides.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, a presumed contender in the 2010 governor's race and longtime Barack Obama supporter, is hosting a free, public party at the Providence Performing Arts Center, where the 11:00 a.m. ceremony will be broadcast live on a large screen. The event is paid for by a combination of Lynch campaign funds and the state Democratic party.

Back at the State House, another gubernatorial prospect, Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts, a former Hillary Clinton devotee, is throwing her own party in the rotunda. Hers too is free and open to any Rhode Islanders who wish to attend.

Doors open at 10:30 a.m. for both events.

And those are just the local options. Down in Washington this morning, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, yet another 2010 possibility, held a breakfast for Ocean Staters who traveled to the nation's capitol for the inauguration. Cicilline reported about 400 people attended. "A lot of regular Rhode Islanders, people who wanted to be a part of this momentous occasion," he said. The event was paid for by Cicilline's campaign coffers.

General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio may be the only Democratic contender for governor who isn't hosting a celebratory event tomorrow. Despite rumors to the contrary, his staff reports that Caprio will spend Inauguration Day doing the following: "In the office. Regular work day. Markets are open. Treasury doing business."

The general treasurer has promised to watch the swearing in at home tomorrow night with his young son, Frankie.

Governor Caricieri and his wife, Sue, will attend Tuesday's Inauguration Day ceremony in Washington, the governor confirmed today.

The Carcieris will fly to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday morning and return that night, said the Republican governor.

"It's traditional that all governors attend the inauguration," spokeswoman Amy Kempe said of the trip.

Kempe said the govenor will also pay a visit to the East Greenwich High School band, which is marching in the inaugural parade.

No word yet on whether General Assembly leaders will attend, though they have canceled the day's legislative sessions to free up members who plan to travel to Washington.

PROVIDENCE -- House Speaker William J. Murphy says "you won't see a vote" from lawmakers blocking the Carcieri administration's plan to overall the state's Medicaid system.

That means the controversial five-year deal with the federal government will take effect Monday, a day after a self-imposed deadline the General Assembly had set to reject the plan or let it stand.

Moving forward, House Finance Chairman Steven M. Costantino has promised to draft a bill to introduce protections for those who fear eligibility changes to their Medicaid care.

Also on the Medicaid front, House and Senate leaders have scheduled briefings tomorrow for rank-and-file lawmakers who want to learn more about the administration's proposal.

House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, who will run the chamber's session along with Costantino, said the briefing will offer a good overview of the plan for members who have questions or want more information.

Both the House and Senate Finance Committees have spent more a dozen hours in recent days combing through the proposal, but other legislators have professed knowing little about the plan that's captured headlines and dominated Smith Hill discourse.

The House briefing will take place tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the House Lounge with the full House session to follow. The Senate session will be located in the Senate Lounge at the rise of the Senate, expected to be around 4:30 p.m.

Looking ahead to next week, House lawmakers have cancelled next Tuesday's session in honor of Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, which several legislators will travel to Washington D.C. to attend, Fox announced this afternoon. A Senate spokesman said that chamber's leadership has not yet decided whether to cancel its Inauguration Day calendar.

Governor Carcieri is in Miami, Florida, for the annual conference of the Republican Governors Association, which began this morning at the city's Intercontinental resort.

Fresh off her run for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is expected to headline the event, speaking at some point during the three-day conference about the future of the GOP.

In addition to Palin's visit and the usual rundown of roundtable discussions, the annual meeting will feature an array of extracurricular events: an afternoon boat cruise, a golf outing, an arts district tour -- to include a stop-off at the late fashion designer Gianni Versace's villa -- and something called a "day of beauty," described on the agenda a chance for participants to partake in "pampering to include manicures, pedicures, neck and shoulder massages."

Carcieri is out of state after the news late Monday that the state budget deficit has now swelled to $372 million. Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said the governor committed to the conference some time ago and felt it was important to meet face-to-face with other governors from across the country whose states might be experiencing similar budget problems.

The governor's staff, she said, is working on putting together a plan to deal with the shortfall. Carcieri said in a statement reacting to the deficit figure Monday that he wanted to meet next week with legislative leaders. Kempe said he hopes to do so after he returns, she said.

It was hard to tell where exactly the glitches began on Primary Day.

First a ballot memory pack got locked in a Providence school and a second one temporarily disappeared.

Then the computers in Woonsocket reportedly forgot to count two polling places.
In nearby Cumberland, voters used the wrong ballot pens and had to recast their votes.
The Board of Elections Web site posted the wrong results for North Providence races.
Three other communities had to drive their results to the board's Providence headquarters due to technological problems.

And that doesn't even take into the West Warwick scenario in which Republicans were allowed to vote in a Democrat primary -- leading to demands for a new election and the discovery of a missing box of voting materials a full week after the primary.

From one end of Rhode Island to the other, cities and towns were plagued with Primary Day problems.

None proved to be major hurdles and most didn't even alter the results, but the scope of the trouble raises questions about whether the Ocean State is prepared for what Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis predicts could be a record turnout of more than 70 percent in the upcoming November presidential election.

Read more about Primary Day in Rhode Island and its aftermath in tomorrow's Journal and on projo.com ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- John McCain's chief economic policy advisor was one of the first campaign officials to speak to reporters shortly after the announcement that 17-year-old Bristol Palin--daughter of McCain's vice presidential candidate--is pregnant.

It did not appear to be a comfortable moment for Douglas Holtz-Eakin when he was asked at a lunch meeting whether the campaign had been aware of the young woman's out-of-wedlock pregnancy when her mother, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was selected as McCain's running mate.

Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget, did not directly answer the question. He said the particulars of the Palins' family life are ``best left to them.''

When another reporter asked about the McCain campaign's reaction to the news, Holtz-Eakin again sought to deflect the question. Governor Palin ``has a family, she loves the family, and this is their business,'' he said.

-John E. Mulligan, Journal Washington Bureau

ST. PAUL, Minn--GOP conventioneers already adjusting to the disruption caused by Hurricane Gustav are reacting to the news that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.

Rhode Island delegate Kristine Greene suggested that many voters will respond to word of Bristol Palin's pregnancy with understanding. Out-of-wedlock pregnancy "is not uncommon to the experience of many Americans," said Greene, who heard the news at about 2:15 p.m., Eastern time, during the bus ride from the Rhode Island delegation's hotel in Bloomington to the convention hall in St. Paul.

"The first thing that came to my mind'' Greene said, is that the Palins are "just an ordinary family, and they find themselves in circumstances that are not extraordinary in today's world."

The most important aspect of the news about the teenager "is that she is still pregnant," said Greene, a first-time delegate from West Greenwich who describes herself as a conservative Christian.

"The deed being done, the fact is this young lady is pregnant with this child and is strongly choosing to follow in her mother's beliefs. She hasn't chosen to end this pregnancy," said Greene.

Rhode Island delegate Virginia Butterworth said, "This is like `Alice in Wonderland' - curiouser and curiouser." Far from being "the boring convention I expected," the gathering of the GOP "is really getting interesting."

But Butterworth said she doubts the news about Bristol Palin will much change the outcome of the general election. "People who are going to vote for McCain and going to vote for McCain and people who are going to vote for Obama are going to vote for Obama," she said. "It doesn't matter."

Politics aside, Butterworth said she reacted the way she thinks many voters will react, as a mother. "We don't want this to happen to our child. It would be embarrassing."

"I think people vote for the president. Think of all the bad vice-presidents we've elected, like Spiro Agnew," Butterworth said referring to the Maryland governor who was President Richard M. Nixon's vice president. The Rhode Island delegate doesn't put Sarah Palin in that category however.

What's important to voters is what the presidential candidates stand for, Butterworth said. ``Mr. Obama is clearly a very liberal Democrat whose agenda is very liberal, and McCain is clearly a conservative Republican whose agenda is conservative.''

-John E. Mulligan

The Carcieri administration has awarded temporary cleaning contracts to 15 separate companies and non-profit organizations that will take over maintenance at dozens of state buildings formerly serviced by TriState Enterprises and Falcon Maintenance.

TriState and Falcon's contracts were abruptly terminated last month when they emerged as the employers of the 31 suspected illegal immigrants who were arrested by federal immigration officials as they left work at six state courthouses.

The new, 90-day contracts will go to a variety of organizations including the Cranston ARC, a center that provides vocational training and recreation to developmentally disabled adults and children.

The new contracts span a total of 48 different buildings across state government including those on Smith Hill, at the University of Rhode Island and at the Pastore Complex in Cranston.

Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said the state expects to save more than $14,000 a month off the $121,000 it was paying Falcon and TriState. That's because the new contracts are short term, meaning some of them require less-intensive cleaning services than might be necessary over the life of a longer agreement.

The administration said it plans to begin the bidding process for fresh, three-year contracts within the coming days. It says it hopes to continue with at least some of the providers.

Kempe said the 15 temporary contractors are expected to be on the job by tomorrow. Since the termination of the old agreements, the administration has relied on overtime work from staff janitors throughout state government to help keep the buildings tidy.