Here’s this week’s Sour Grapes; enjoy!
Columns
A look at What’sUpNewp’s latest columns.
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Real Estate
Tyler Bernadyn: Why listing with a local real estate professional is worth every penny
Selling your home is one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make and in a market like Newport County, where price points are significantly higher than the national average, the stakes are even greater. There’s a common misconception that listing your home For Sale By Owner (FSBO) will save you money. But the […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: Holiday time, for short stanzas that rhyme
A limerick is funny, but terse, A short and succinct piece of verse. In only five lines The humor it mines Runs from ribald to bawdy to worse. So there you have my home-made contribution to one of the least known May holidays, which arrives each year on the 12th: National Limerick Day. The date […]
Posted inColumns
Helen Hames: More than music, a CHIME to open hearts
One recent afternoon, a little-known musical debut occurred at The Edward King House Senior Center in Newport. It featured a new maestro of sorts and a most unusual orchestra–made up of a human keyboard, if you will. The conductor, 25-year-old Lauren Ceres of Newport, made her debut as an apprentice to Heidi List Murphy, founder […]
Posted inColumns
Michele Gallagher: It takes a matriarchal village to make a shop feel like a home
May is busting out all over! And we couldn’t be happier. As the founder of ThamesGiving in Newport, I’ve had the joy of connecting with many savvy, creative business owners across the Thames Street District. One thing that stands out is how many of these businesses are run by mother-daughter duos and trios! For this […]
Posted inColumns, History
This Day in RI History: May 9, 1861 -U.S. Naval Academy moved to Newport
The U.S. Naval Academy was established in Annapolis, Maryland on October 10, 1845 with Commander Franklin Buchanan its first superintendent. The first class was comprised of 50 students and 7 professors. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, then superintendent Captain George S. Blake made the decision to move the Academy to Newport. Although […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion
Charles L. Roberts: I dream of my mother on Mother’s Day
As I considered my “Voices” topic for May’s WUN, my thoughts turned immediately to my mother, Bessie L. Walker Roberts. “Miss Bessie,” as friends called her, was born in Newport on September 30, 1925, and passed away in January 2010. One night, remembering her voice and the lessons she taught me, I awoke from a […]
Posted inColumns
Frank Prosnitz – Just my Opinion: Lessons from an Egyptian cabbie
I nestled into the passenger seat in the yellow cab in NYC on my way with my cousins to Carnegie Hall for a concert. I always like the front seat because I can engage the driver in conversation. That’s what you do when you’ve spent your whole career as a journalist, a storyteller (and listener), […]
Posted inColumns
Dr. Michael Fine – What’s Crazy about Health Care and Intelligence: Artificial and just lacking
I want a T-shirt that says Artificial Intelligence Isn’t. I spent a very long twenty minutes on a Zoom this week with a surgeon-turned-tech-entrepreneur from Stanford, who was trying to persuade me that the new software he’s developing is going to save primary care. Artificial intelligence is better than humans at making diagnoses, he tried to […]
Posted inNews
Helen Hames: Time to treat mental health like heart health – a wake-up call for aging well
Mental health has come a long way—but for older adults, it’s still too often a hidden struggle, fueling isolation at a time when connection matters most. According to AARP, between 2019 and 2023, mental health diagnoses among adults 65 and older jumped by over 57%—the highest increase of any age group in the U.S. And […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: In any lingo, some amusing sports jargon
This may sound a bissel meshuga (a little crazy), but the name of a common play in pro football these days comes straight from Yiddish. And the term has given new meaning to the most important part of the game, the end zone. That’s because we have witnessed the rise of the “tush push,” the strategy of […]
Posted inColumns
What’s my house really worth? Why Zillow isn’t your most accurate resource
It’s a question I hear all the time: “What’s my house worth?” And more often than not, it’s followed by, “Zillow says…” While it’s tempting to rely on online estimates for a quick snapshot of your home’s value, the truth is that those numbers can be off sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot. […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion
Charles L. Roberts: More voices from Rhode Island’s nonprofit community
Earlier this month in WUN “Voices”, I shared my thoughts about David W. Blight’s recent op-ed in the New York Times on the heels of the current president’s devastating executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The imperious language used in the order, and its dire consequences, which are being felt already, […]
Posted inColumns
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about 25,000 people losing their doctors
You may have heard that 25,000 people in Rhode Island are losing their primary care doctors because a large practice called Anchor Medical is closing its doors. Not my problem, you might think. Anchor is in Warwick, Providence and Lincoln. Not in Newport, Middletown, or Portsmouth. Or Jamestown. Or South Kingston. I still have my […]
Posted inColumns
Gerry Goldstein: The wages of power, in one man’s book
In his disturbing novel 1984, George Orwell famously took readers into a blood-chilling, futuristic nation where the totalitarian government of Big Brother controlled every life, policing not just people’s actions, but even their thoughts. It was a government that demanded absolute fealty, where the job of the “minister of truth” was to rewrite history and the “minister […]
Posted inColumns
Helen Hames: From your house to the State House – How SACRI connects your voice to action
At a time when many feel their voices aren’t heard, the Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island (SACRI) provides a “collective of wisdom, experience, and outrageous transparency,” said Carol Anne Costa, Executive Director of SACRI. “Our board is robust, full-throated, and we speak our minds–with focused participation and a shared passion to connect a single […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Michele Gallagher: Rhode Island women are investing their power and principles back into Mother Earth
This statistic more than doubles the national trend of women owning businesses at approximately one-third the rate of men, or 22%. Rhode Island has approximately 105,000 small businesses (those with fewer than 500 employees); 90% have 10 or fewer employees; Nearly all are micro-businesses with just one person at the helm. This dovetails well with Rhode Island’s […]
Posted inColumns
Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about the HHS
Ok, Chicken Little. Is the health care sky falling? Since Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr) has announced the departure of about 20,000 of the 80,000 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) employees, my health professional and policy colleagues are predicting doom and disaster. And it’s not just the HSS employees: hospitals, universities, […]
Posted inColumns
Charles L. Roberts: How the current political landscape is affecting Rhode Island’s fledgling non-profit organizations
For those WUN readers who have been following my Voices contributions over the past few months, you’ll know I’ve spent a lot of time discussing the Black experience in American history. We’ve recently honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January), Black History Month (February), and Women’s History Month (March). I like to think the legacy […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Real Estate
Tyler Bernadyn: How rising insurance premiums are impacting real estate in Rhode Island
It’s no secret that life by the water comes with a price—but lately, that price has been rising in ways that are changing the game for coastal real estate. In Newport County and across Aquidneck Island, homeowners and prospective buyers are facing an increasingly costly reality: insurance premiums have quietly jumped by 25% to 40% […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion
Gerry Goldstein: In the wild, beauty’s more than skin deep
As a wildlife specimen, the gila monster is as off-putting as they come. This lizard’s head seems too big for its body, its legs are short, it’s slow and sluggish, and its venom is fatally toxic. It’s hardly a poster child for National Wildlife Week, coming up April 5-9. But wait – millions of human […]
Posted inColumns
Proposed lumber tariffs could tighten the screws on Rhode Island’s housing market
As Rhode Island continues to grapple with a mounting housing crisis, proposed federal tariffs on lumber and other essential building materials could add more pressure to an already strained market. While the policy change is national in scope, its impacts will be felt acutely here at home—especially by homebuyers, builders, and affordable housing developers striving […]