Two more of Rhode Island’s iconic summer events – the Charlestown Seafood Festival and Wickford Art Festival — canceled yesterday (Thursday), the latest victims of COVID-19. Heather Paliotta, executive director of the Charlestown Chamber of Commerce, announced that the 36th annual Seafood Festival, scheduled for August 7-9, was being canceled in the aftermath of Governor […]
Frank Prosnitz
Frank Prosnitz brings to WhatsUpNewp several years in journalism, including 10 as editor of the Providence (RI) Business News and 14 years as a reporter and bureau manager at the Providence (RI) Journal. Prosnitz began his journalism career as a sportswriter at the Asbury Park (NJ) Press, moving to The News Tribune (Woodbridge, NJ), before joining the Providence Journal. Prosnitz hosts the Morning Show on WLBQ radio (Westerly), 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday, and It’s Your Business, also on WBLQ, Monday and Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Prosnitz has twice won Best in Business Awards from the national Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW), twice was named Media Advocate of the Year by the Small Business Administration, won an investigative reporter’s award from the New England Press Association, and newswriting award from the Rhode Island Press Association.
Posted inNews
MLK Center helps thousands during the pandemic, expecting need to rise through the fall
For Heather Strout, executive director of the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Center in Newport, it’s the stories from people lining up for the center’s food pantry that are heartbreaking, people “who have never had to come to a food pantry before.” Over these last six weeks as they have seen their jobs disappear to […]
Posted inThings To Do
Coronavirus forces cancellation of South County events
South County’s major spring and summer festivals are quickly canceling or changing in the aftermath of Gov. Raimondo’s announcement today that she was banning large gatherings of all kinds for the summer as the state and nation continues to confront a raging coronavirus. The Ocean Community Chamber of Commerce announced it was converting its early […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Things To Do
Newport Music Festival not proceeding as planned, working on a “floating season”
The Newport Music Festival, where some of the world’s most accomplished classical musicians and new and exciting talent perform in the houses of Newport, has fallen victim this summer to the coronavirus. In a letter on the Music Festival’s website, posted today, Suzanna Laramee, president and chief executive officer announced the 52-year-old festival was cancelling […]
Posted inColumns
Just My Opinion: Prescription for revitalizing the local economy – “Creativity and Innovation”
“Creativity, innovation.” If anything is going to help small businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic it is just that. It is innovation that helps businesses set themselves apart from their competition even in the best of times. Tom Peters, the very well-respected management guru, wrote about it in his book, In Pursuit of Wow, the WOW […]
Posted inSports
URI’s Isaiah Coulter first Ram drafted by the NFL since 1986
For University of Rhode Island wide receivers Isaiah Coulter and Aaron Parker and lineman Kyle Murphy dreams have turned to reality as they now begin their National Football League careers. Coulter, yesterday, became the first Rhody Ram to be drafted by an NFL team in more than three decades when the Houston Texans took him […]
Posted inBusiness, News
Discover Newport lays off staff, consolidates services
These are tough times if you are in the tourism industry. Toughest if, perhaps, you head an agency that oversees one of America’s most popular tourist destinations. Ask Evan Smith. He’s executive director of Discover Newport, the tourism group that coordinates and oversees much of the tourism industry in a city that has been ranked […]
Posted inBusiness, City & Government, News
SBA schedules Webinar to help companies communicate through email during COVID-19 crisis
The Rhode Island Small Business Administration’s Rhode Island District is providing important webinars for businesses, giving them tools that they can use now during this COVID-19 crisis, and when it passes. To that end, the SBA has scheduled a “Marketing Basics Webinar Series – Email Marketing 101 on Thursday, April 23, from 11a.m. to noon. […]
Posted inColumns
Just My Opinion: Let’s take the politics out of the cure
So, a column came in the other day trashing President Trump, and an op-ed came in this morning trashing the Democrats. And the pandemic continues, without choosing a political party to attack or support. We are house bound for the most part until this deadly and persistent virus subsides. Politicians and would-be political pundits step […]
Posted inSports
“Out of the ashes” – three NFL prospects emerge from URI’s highly unsuccessful football program
Sometime between next Thursday and Saturday, when the National Football League holds its 2020 draft in what is a most bizarre year, you’ll possibly hear something just as bizarre – a player or two or three selected from the University of Rhode Island, a team that plays in college’s second tier – the FCS – […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Theatre By The Sea cancels season
Theatre By The Sea, among Rhode Island’s premier summer attractions, has cancelled its 2020 season, the latest victim of the coronavirus pandemic. Peter Hanney, owner/producer, made the announcement on the Wakefield theatre’s website and on social media. Founded by Alice Tyler during the Great Depression to give people work and provide an escape for the […]
Posted inCity & Government, News
Thousands of RI businesses approved for $1 billion in federal aid as PPP on course to run out of funds by week’s end
Thousands of small businesses in Rhode Island have been approved to receive some $1 billion in federal aid under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a program that Mark Hayward, Small Business Administration (SBA) District Director in Rhode Island, said is likely to run out of money by the end of the week. Mark Hayward The […]
Posted inCity & Government, News
Newport to forgive 4th quarter tax penalties and interest, promising more relief may be on the way
The city of Newport is one of several communities in the state that is forgiving tax penalties and interest, and is also suggesting there may be additional relief for individuals and businesses that continue to suffer financial hardship because of the coronavirus. “We have pushed the deadline back to June 30 and will work with […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion
Just My Opinion: Not the time for a government media bailout
U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both from Rhode Island, and more than a dozen of their colleagues are calling on government to provide a bailout for a beleaguered news media, A news media that has clearly been further decimated by the impact of the coronavirus on the advertisers upon whom they rely. Without […]
Posted inPeople & Profiles
What’s Up Podcast: Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea discusses COVID-19 crisis
Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea today joined What’s Up’s Frank Prosnitz to discuss changes her office is making during this coronavirus crisis to make things easier for voters and businesses. Gorbea also touches on the move of the state archives to a new location, importance of the census, and puts off questions about her own […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Columns, Things To Do
Just My Opinion: What are you reading? The complete list
A couple of weeks ago I posed the question on Facebook asking what people were reading. I expected a few responses, but instead got dozens, with some great suggestions. I planned to eventually put the whole list together, and so that’s what this column is, including the newest entrees. These days, you can’t take the […]
Posted inCity & Government, News
COVID-19’s uncertainties have yet to derail school building projects statewide
School building projects, many strongly suggested by a Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) report identifying schools statewide needing billions of dollars in repairs or replacement to become safe and current, are still “moving forward,” according to Christine Lopes Metcalfe, executive director of RIDE’S School Building Authority. But they are moving forward in a COVID-19 […]
Posted inColumns, News, Opinion
Just My Opinion: The challenges of COVID-19 on media coverage
When I first started writing for Whats Up Newp, I understood that while my journalism history was virtually all in print, journalism’s future was online. My concern was whether online can replicate the robust newsrooms that we enjoyed at places like the Providence Journal, where I worked for years? This is a new world, and […]
Posted inCity & Government, News
Rhode Island, U.S. fall into recession as coronavirus rages
A Rhode Island economy that University of Rhode Island Economist Leonard Lardaro described as limping through 2019, is in a recession that promises to intensify as the state, nation and world struggles in its fight to defeat the coronavirus. “We went into this crisis from a weakened position,” Lardaro said, leaving Rhode Island “very vulnerable.” […]
Posted inNews
MLK Center asks donors to donate money not food
Many of the organizations that provide food for people in need – a growing lot these days – are asking donors to refrain from donating food items and instead contribute financially to the organizations. During this pandemic, neighborhood center officials want to minimize the number of people actually handling food items. “Right now, we’re asking […]
Posted inReal Estate
Real estate market collapsing, falling victim to COVID-19
The signs of spring are everywhere. Daffodils are blooming, tulips are not far behind. Buds are popping on trees. This is also the time of year, when house for sale signs pop up as quickly as those daffodils. But not this year. This is supposed to be the best time of year for real estate […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Just My Opinion: What are you reading? (Part 3 of 3)
Part three of three of “What are you reading,” answers to a Facebook post in which I asked friends to tell me what they were reading. In these days of “home confinement” we should take the time to pick up a book or three and explore the absolute beauty and enchantment of literature. Perhaps somewhere […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Columns
Just My Opinion: What are you reading?
The other day, I asked friends on Facebook what they’re reading in these days of “home confinement.” After all, we do have a bit more time to read, and it’s great to get some good recommendations. I heard from a lot of people, including leading journalists who plied their craft at places like the New […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Columns
Just My Opinion: What are you reading?
These are strange and difficult times – the likes of which have become the subject of numerous science fiction books about pandemics, from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (1722) to Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain (1969) and The Stand by Stephen King (1978). So, I began wondering what people are reading […]
Posted inCity & Government, News
Demands on neighborhood centers, homeless shelters grow as COVID-19 spreads
From Newport to Stonington, Ct. and beyond, the non-profit agencies that feed and house some of the areas most challenged individuals and families are being deluged with new clients and requests from people “devastated” by the impact of COVID-19. In the past two weeks Newport’s Martin Luther King Center has “served more people (1,200) than […]