The League of Women Voters - South County (LWVSC) has announce that applications are now open for the 17th Annual Susan B. Wilson Civic Education Merit Awards.
With a first prize of $2000, the Susan B. Wilson Civic Education Merit Award is a statewide competition for teachers or teams of teachers of grades K through 12 in any public, charter, private or parochial school who incorporate civics in innovative ways into the classroom. Any individual educator or team of educators directly teaching K-12 students in a Rhode Island school (public, private, charter) is eligible to apply for the merit awards and applicants do not need to be history, civics or social studies teachers. Also, any RI resident or RI group/organization may apply for the merit awards on behalf of an educator or team of educators currently teaching in a Rhode Island school upon consent of that person or teaching team. All Rhode Island educators and the individuals or groups who nominate them are encouraged to apply here (the deadline is March 20th) The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation has announced a new request for proposals (RFP) to increase and promote attraction and destination events across the Ocean State.
The RFP is being funded by a $2.27 million United States Economic Development Administration (EDA) Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Grant. “...We are empowering Rhode Island’s cities and towns, regional tourism boards, and nonprofits, to think boldly and creatively,” said Governor Dan McKee. “We look forward to seeing their proposals that will help grow our economy and create memorable experiences for all Rhode Islanders and visitors.” Awarded funds can be used to promote, maintain, or improve existing attractions, or to assist in the development of new attractions, with extra consideration being given to proposals that drive tourism during the off-season months. The State of Rhode Island announced last November that visitor volume increased 5.4% in 2022 to 27.7 visitors. In 2022 visitor spending totaled $5.3 billion; a 17% increase over 2021, which helps the local economy to sustain nearly 85,000 jobs. Awards made will generally not exceed $200,000 To get more information or to apply, see the full RFP here On Monday, February 29th, Six 2024 U.S. Presidential candidates from various parties will participate in the upcoming Free & Equal sponsored debate.
The candidates chosen to participate in the debate will be done through ranked-choice voting via a blockchain powered voting app, which was funded by donations, and is powered by Nexus.io. The app is now live, allowing voters to rank up to six of the presidential candidates that they would prefer to see take a podium at the debate. According to the debate website, the series is "committed to providing an open and accessible platform for all voices in the democratic process, reflecting the diversity and dynamism of American political discourse" and candidates are invited to E-mail info@freeandequal.org in order to be added to the poll. About Free & Equal Elections Foundation: The Free & Equal Elections Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to open the electoral process through education and collaborative action. Visitors to the newly refurbished website, RILegislature.gov, are now met by a clean looking, user friendly, and functional homepage. “Our new website is aesthetically cleaner and easier to navigate. Our focus is to improve the website and make it easier for Rhode Islanders to engage with their Legislature,” said House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio. “We think this site offers significant enhancements that will greatly benefit members of the public. This is the first major website update in decades.” In regards to ‘Capitol TV’ (the streaming and on-demand video portion of the site) the archived broadcast content is now better organized, and will offer closed captioning. A new ‘Getting Started’ page provides General Assembly schedules, how to find and track legislation, and various ways to participate in the legislative process. New pages about House and Senate members make it easier to find each legislator’s news, biography, and contact information. Also, the ‘Legislative Calendar’ section allows visitors to quickly access information on legislative sessions, committees, and commission meetings. The State says that the website work is ongoing, with a longer-term overhaul being done in stages with additional improvements emerging throughout 2024. Suggestions for updating the website can me emailed to: websitesuggestions@rilegislature.gov The Rhode Island Civic Learning Coalition is currently accepting event proposals for Rhode Island Civic Learning Week 2024.
Rhode Island Civic Learning Week is series of events that will take place from March 11-15, 2024 and seeks to highlight the importance of civic education in sustaining and strengthening constitutional democracy in the United States. Students, teachers, and organizations are invited to host events (in the form of panels, workshops, discussions, etc) around topics of interest related to civics. Those interested in organizing an event for Civic Learning Week can fill out the proposal form available at: https://www.ricivics.org/2024clw by January 12, 2024. The advocacy group independentvoting.org is now accepting applications for their next no-cost spokesperson training, to be held on Tuesday, February 13 at 6:30pm ET. The training, which is a hallmark program of independentvoting.org, is open to people with leadership experience, as well as those who might be looking to speak to a family member or friend about why they choose to be an independent. The program is part educational, part performance training, with a focus on helping every independent better tell their own personal story about why they became independent. There are three segments to the training: 1. An education PowerPoint presentation (which will also be made available for post-training use) 2. a Q&A session with an opportunity to dialogue with independentvoting.org President Jackie Salit 3. A special performance training/improvisational segment with performance trainers. The training last 2 hours and 20 minutes and takes place via Zoom. To reserve a spot, fill out and submit the application HERE independentvoting.org's most recent spokesperson training brought together a group of 20 independents from all over the country, with the trainees including educators, community activists, a pastor, students, an animal rights advocate, a retired archaeologist, businesspeople, authors, leaders of political reform initiatives and independent parties, and a producer. Some in attendance believed in the need to build a new kind of political party to empower the American people. While others are independents because they don't want to belong to any party. independentvoting.org President Jacqueline Salit mentioned during the training: "When you see that half the country is saying they don’t identify as a Democrat or Republican, you’re talking about a level of disjuncture between what the public desires and needs and what the governing and political institutions can deliver. That gap is so huge, and I think it’s a scary situation. But it’s also a situation ripe with opportunity for change and growth." Rhode Island State House – A Senate commission studying alternative voting methods and their potential benefits to Rhode Island has released its findings and recommendations. The commission’s final report provides an extensive review of non-plurality and runoff voting methods, details their potential advantages and disadvantages to Rhode Island, outlines potential legal and logistical challenges to their adoption and presents methods of selecting winners in elections that commission members feel could be beneficial for Rhode Island. “This report will inform our legislators and the public as we consider bills to enact versions of these alternative voting methods in the upcoming session,” said Sen. Samuel D. Zurier (D-Dist. 3, Providence), chairman of the commission. “Our right to vote is fundamental to our democratic form of government, so we must proceed carefully with changes to our system. With that said, our pure plurality voting system has produced results in multi-candidate elections that have raised questions about the consistency of the outcome with the bedrock principle of majority rule. I personally plan to introduce legislation to ask the voters to amend our Constitution to clear the legal path for some of these alternatives.” “I want to thank my fellow commission members for their contributions to our understanding of this complex and important topic, and to the Senate legal staff for presenting the Commission’s work in this comprehensive document,” said Senator Zurier. “And I want to extend a special thanks to all those who testified before the commission. Their presentations added significantly to the report’s quality and scope.” The Special Senate Commission to Study Non-Plurality Voting Methods and Runoff Elections for General Assembly and General Officer Primaries was composed of seven members appointed by Senate President Dominick Ruggerio: Senator Zurier, Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis (D-Dist. 33, Coventry, West Greenwich), Sen. Anthony P. DeLuca II (R-Dist. 29, Warwick), Board of Elections Executive Director Robert Rapoza, Director of Elections Kathy Placencia, Cranston Registrar/Director of Elections Nick Lima and Coventry Board of Canvassers Clerk Lori Anderson. Crowdfunding Campaign Funds Free & Equal Elections Foundation’s First 2024 U.S. Presidential Debate12/10/2023 Free & Equal Elections Foundation reaches crowdfunding goal to host its first U.S. presidential debate for the 2024 election season, moderated by Free & Equal's founder Christina Tobin, in Los Angeles, California this on February 29, 2024 at XR Studios. Six U.S. Presidential candidates from various parties will participate in the debate. The candidates will be chosen by the public via ranked choice voting. Free & Equal Elections is set to release its blockchain voting application powered by Nexus.io with a voting period beginning January 15 and concluding January 26th. “The Democratic National Committee has not announced any debates, and the Republican National Committee has terminated its participation in the Commission on Presidential Debates. These institutions were established to enable the public to learn about the various Presidential candidates, but with the breakdown of these institutions, the responsibility of broadcasting qualified candidates to the public now falls on independent media and non-profit organizations like Free & Equal,” said Christina Tobin, founder of Free & Equal Elections Foundation. The debate will be live-streamed on Rumble. Additional broadcasting partners, endorsements, sponsors, and advertisers will be announced early next year. With the Venue secured by reaching the successful $30,000 funding goal - Free & Equal increases its goal to $100,000 to continue crowdfunding production funds on Givebutter. Free & Equal has hosted independent presidential debates for over 15 years. Founded by Christina Tobin in 2008, Free & Equal’s independent movement has been endorsed by Dr. Ron Paul, Marianne Williamson, Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Past debates have been moderated by Larry King, Ed Asner, and Chris Hedges. |
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