Happy Thursday! I'm Dan McGowan, and I admit that I watched the ESPYs for Shane Gillis last night. Follow me on X (Twitter) @DanMcGowan, on Blusky @DanMcGowan, or send tips to
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🎷 Contest: Globe Rhode Island is partnering with the Newport Jazz Festival to give away a bundle of tickets to this year's festival at Fort Adams. You and three friends can attend all three days of the festival, and we'll also send you hats, T-shirts, and posters before the event.
Check out this year's lineup here (spoiler: it's pretty amazing).
The new Morning Consult poll on the country’s governors is out, and the news is seriously mixed for Rhode Island’s Dan McKee.
On one hand, his 45 percent approval rating is substantially higher than several other recent polls that raised serious doubts about his ability to win reelection next year. His disapproval rating was 40 percent.
On the other hand, McKee’s approval rating is tied for second-lowest in the country with Indiana Governor Mike Braun. Only Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who announced earlier this year she isn’t seeking reelection, ranked lower, at 42 percent.
Morning Consult conducts its online surveys on a rolling basis over three months, and releases quarterly approval ratings for all governors and US senators.
Among New England’s governors, Vermont Governor Phil Scott (72 percent) has the best approval rating in the country, followed by Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (63 percent), Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey (59 percent), New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte (50 percent), and Maine Governor Janet Mills (49 percent).
The bigger picture: As I wrote in The Globe’s Starting Point newsletter this morning, Rhode Island has a long history of assigning low approval ratings to its governors, but that doesn’t guarantee McKee is dead in the water.
McKee’s surrogates will undoubtedly note that former governor Gina Raimondo had a 43 percent approval/47 percent disapproval rating in a July 2017 Morning Consult poll, and she won reelection a year later in relatively comfortable fashion.
Then again, Raimondo didn’t face the same kind of credible Democratic primary challenge that McKee is likely to face next year. Former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, who narrowly lost to McKee in 2022, is expected to report raising more than $600,000 in the second quarter of this year, and House Speaker Joe Shekarchi is also mulling a run.
Still, if politics is the ultimate “what have you done for me lately?” sport, McKee can at least use Morning Consult’s numbers to assuage the fears of some of his donors and other supporters for the time being.
🤔 So you think you're a Rhode Islander...
In keeping with the contest above, can you name the 14-time Grammy award winner who performed at the first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954?
(The answer is below.)
Do you have the perfect question for Rhode Map readers? Don't forget to send the answer, too. Shoot me an email today.
The Globe in Rhode Island
⚓ On this week's edition of the Rhode Island Report podcast, Ed Fitzpatrick talks to Nonviolence Institute executive director Lisa Pina-Warren.Listen here.
⚓ With the mental health care system overburdened and millions of Americans unable to access adequate therapy, some people are turning to artificial intelligence for a form of therapy. But there are concerns: Risks posed by unregulated chatbots include misdiagnoses, privacy violations, inappropriate treatments, and exploitation. Read more.
⚓ Alexa Gagosz brings you the perfect Hot Girl Summer guide to Rhode Island. Read more.
⚓ Newly released police body-camera video from an immigration enforcement operation on Sunday sheds light on how Providence police officers interacted with ICE as the federal agents sought to detain an accused drug trafficker in the city, raising questions about whether police are adhering to an ordinance prohibiting them from assisting in immigration enforcement. Read more.
⚓ The Rhode Island Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a former Providence Public Schools administrator who assaulted a teen by forcibly massaging his foot at a Warwick gym in 2021. Read more.
You can check out all of our coverage at Globe.com/RI
Also in the Globe
⚓ The ballooning cost of renovating and expanding the Federal Reserve’s Washington, D.C., headquarters might give President Trump the reason he's looking for to fire Jerome Powell. Read more.
⚓ Governor Maura Healey is resurrecting a proposal at the center of a long-running legal dispute between wealthy property owners on Martha’s Vineyard that, if passed, could redefine when a beach in Massachusetts is considered public. Read more.
⚓ Here are some first-half superlatives for the Red Sox.Read more.
⚓ Rhode Map readers, if you want the birthday of a friend or family member to be recognized Friday, send me an email with their first and last name, and their age.
⚓ The special legislative commission that is studying the Act on Climate law will elect a chair at its 3:30 p.m. meeting.
⚓ The Providence External Review Authority meets at 5:30 p.m. Here's the agenda.
⚓ The Johnston School Committee is meeting at 6:30 p.m. to name a new superintendent. The Sun Rise's Tara Monastessehas a list of the finalists here.
🏆 Pop quiz answer
Ella Fitzgerald was among the most notable performers at the first Newport Jazz Festival.
RHODE ISLAND REPORT PODCAST Ed Fitzpatrick talks to Nonviolence Institute executive director Lisa Pina-Warren. Listen to all of our podcasts here.
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