Rhode Island to inventory all state buildings that display word ‘Plantations’
PROVIDENCE, R. I. — So what now for the smallest state with the longest name no more?
Well, a concrete facial, of sorts.
A day after voters chose to strike from the state’s official name “and Providence Plantations,” the state Department of Administration said work would begin on an inventory of all places “where ‘and Providence Plantations’ is inscribed or otherwise permanently placed on state property.”
For starters, the centuriesold moniker appears on the marble facade of the State House, the outside of the old Registry of Motor Vehicles building across Smith Street and the bronze state seal on the floor of the State House rotunda.
The inventory will be done over the next few months by the Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance, said Department of Administration spokesman Robert Dulski, “so we can take the necessary steps for removal.”
In June, Gov. Gina Raimondo signed an executive order removing the word plantations from future executive orders, citations, and the governor’s office website.
It also instructed agencies under the governor’s control to remove the word from their websites and letterhead and replace it with an alternative state seal.
With passage of Question 1 on Tuesday, the attention will turn to bigger things, literally.
State Rep. Anastasia Williams, who advocated for the name change, said the state will have to be conscious of the cost of removing the words from state buildings — but remove them it must.
“We are going to be very practical about the matter, but we want to be very clear about the matter as well,” she said Wednesday.
—Theprovidencejournal
Well, one thing is certain: Kanye West will not be elected
president
As of Wednesday afternoon, we still don’t know who will be elected the next president of the United States.
But we definitely know who won’t be: Kanye West.
After trailing President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden by tens of millions of votes, the rapper conceded defeat Tuesday night — and announced plans to run again in the future. West appeared on the ballot in a dozen states as an independent after launching a last-minute campaign over the summer.
“WELP,” the “Stronger” hitmaker tweeted, along with a photo of himself standing in front of a red and blue election map. “KANYE 2024.”
West later deleted that tweet and replaced it with another nearly identical one — minus the “WELP.”
Earlier in the day, the Grammy winner voted for himself — and nothing else — as evidenced by photos and videos he posted of his Wyoming ballot, which was unmarked except for a write-in entry for West and his running mate, Michelle Tidball.
“God is so good,” he tweeted. “Today I am voting for the first time in my life for the President of the United States, and it’s for someone I truly trust … me.”
In addition to his own, West has received about 60,000 votes across Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont, according to Deadline via The Associated Press. Of the regions that included him on the ballot, Tennessee racked up the most West votes at about 10,000.
The recording artist has failed to surpass more than .04% of the vote in any state. At press time, Biden is leading the race with 248 electoral and about 70 million popular votes, while Trump is close behind with 214 electoral and about 67 million popular votes.
Still unclear is whether West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, voted for her husband. Like many celebrities, the reality TV star has been vocal about the importance of voting and sharing resources leading up to the election, but she has not endorsed any candidates.
“I VOTED!!!! Did you?!?!” she captioned a photo of herself posing with her “I Voted” sticker Tuesday. “If you are in line when the hours of operation close at the polls, they are required to stay open and allow you to vote, so do not get out of line.”
—Losangelestimes
British government
trying citywide coronavirus testing program in Liverpool to
slow virus spread
Faced with the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, the U.K. plans to pilot a test program for every resident of Liverpool, in northwestern England.
As England prepares for a second lockdown starting Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a mass testing program to begin later this week on Liverpool’s entire 500,000 residents, symptomatic or no. Liverpool’s infection rate is among the highest in England.
The idea is to test everyone regularly, isolate those who test positive, and theoretically be rid of the virus in weeks.
The virus has already killed more than 46,000 people across the U.K., according to the Associated Press, and the second wave promises to be worse than the first.
“These tests will help identify the many thousands of people in the city who don’t have symptoms but can still infect others without knowing,? Johnson said, according to AP. “Dependent on their success in Liverpool, we will aim to distribute millions of these new rapid tests between now and Christmas and empower local communities to use them to drive down transmission in their areas.”
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson told BBC Radio 4 that about 30 test units will be placed at strategic points across the city, reported Politico. eu. He said the pilot program is expected to last six to eight weeks.
If the pilot program is successful, Johnson said new, rapid tests could be distributed throughout the country by Christmas, thus potentially saving the holidays, Reuters reported.