Happy Saturday! Here's another edition of my weekend column for WPRI.com -- as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to [email protected] and follow me on Twitter, Threads and Facebook. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Nesi's Notes SIGN UP NOW 1. Is Hasbro already gone? While CEO Chris Cocks insists no final decision has been made on moving the toy company's headquarters, he's already scouting office space in Greater Boston and talking informally with Governor Healey's team about a relocation. What's surprising is that Rhode Island leaders were taken by surprise. Cocks' predecessor, Brian Goldner, made no secret of the fact that Hasbro was planning for a new headquarters in the years before the pandemic. Then COVID intervened, Goldner died of cancer, and the company suffered business setbacks. But if anything, Rhode Island leaders should have been growing more concerned about Hasbro's commitment to the state. For one thing, Cocks is a West Coast transplant who had no deep ties to Rhode Island when he was hired in 2022. Plus, the last member of Hasbro's founding family on the board of directors, Alan Hassenfeld, stepped down in March. Now officials are scrambling to see what it would take to get Hasbro to stay put. Governor McKee met with Cocks for an initial conversation on Thursday -- the first meeting the two men had ever held -- alongside Speaker Shekarchi. "We’d love to have them stay in Pawtucket, if possible," Shekarchi told reporters, while also stressing that it would be better for Hasbro to move inside Rhode Island than leave for Massachusetts. Congressman Magaziner had spoken with Cocks a day earlier to reinforce state leaders' concern. "I underscored the importance of giving Rhode Island the time necessary to develop a plan to meet Hasbro’s needs," Magaziner told me, "and highlighted the fact that hundreds of Hasbro employees and their families currently live in Rhode Island and a move to another state would no doubt be disruptive to their lives and to their work for the company." 2. So what does Hasbro want? A document circulating in Boston indicates the company is looking for 250,000 square feet in either the central business district or the suburbs, with planned occupancy during the spring of 2026. (For comparison purposes, Hasbro's current headquarters in Pawtucket is about 343,000 square feet.) The downtown office towers 500 Washington, 100 Summer and Winthrop Center are all seen as possible landing spots for the company, which is working with real-estate broker firm Cresa. 3. Another piece of the funding puzzle for the Washington Bridge clicked into place on Friday, when Rhode Island's congressional delegation announced that the state has secured a $125 million federal "Mega Grant" for the project. Governor McKee pointed out that there was only $850 million for the grants nationwide, so the country's smallest state managed to secure 15% of the pot. While there was much sharing of credit for the award, it's worth noting that Jack Reed is not just a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee -- he's specifically a senior member of the subcommittee that allocates transportation dollars. (There's a reason Reed has doggedly held onto that 18-year-old special waiver which allows him to have seats on both the Appropriations and Armed Services committees.) The glass-half-empty view: the McKee administration had sought a grant of $221 million, leaving a hole of nearly $100 million in the state's financing plan for the bridge. But the congressional delegation is making optimistic noises about Rhode Island soon winning a different federal award -- an INFRA Grant -- to make up some of the gap. (The INFRA program was actually modeled in part on a bill proposed by Sheldon Whitehouse years ago.) The rest of the gap would be covered with more debt backed by future federal highway funding, in addition to the $140 million borrowed last month. There's another fly in the ointment, though: state leaders no longer have any idea how much the price tag for the bridge crisis will be when all is said and done. But it's now expected to be higher, perhaps significantly higher, than the current official estimate of $473 million. 4. The Washington Bridge turns out to be a hot topic of conversation -- in Kansas. Specifically, it's become a frequent topic for Casey Jones, a professional engineer out in the Sunflower State who posts YouTube videos about infrastructure topics in the news and has a good-sized following. Suffice to say, Jones is skeptical about how Rhode Island officials have handled the crisis to date. Commenting on the state's suit against contractors who worked on the bridge, Jones said in one video, "Essentially, the narrative if you really look at it is, 'hey, we're the state, we have a DOT, but we know nothing about bridges, we know nothing about inspections, we know nothing about design -- we're 100% reliant on whatever our consultant tells us and whatever the contractor does.' And I'm not buying that." 5. The good news: Rhode Island's budget surplus for the 2023-24 fiscal year just came in $13 million higher than forecast. The bad news: that's not nearly enough to forestall a tough budget cycle in 2025. 6. The UNH Survey Center's latest poll of Rhode Island voters reinforced the conventional wisdom about the big races this fall: Kamala Harris is up 20 points over Donald Trump, and Sheldon Whitehouse is up 18 points over Patricia Morgan. There was a noteworthy finding on the decennial ballot question asking whether the state should hold a constitutional convention: a 39% plurality say they plan to vote yes, while 28% plan to vote no. But with one in three voters undecided -- and many of the others acknowledging they don't know much about the topic -- opponents announced Friday they will begin a digital advertising campaign urging a no vote. (Funders include the state's ACLU chapter and the Rhode Island AFL-CIO.) Former congressional candidate Nick Autiello is among those making the public case for a convention, though there's no organized campaign so far. 7. One of the most interesting findings from UNH was one I got in response to a follow-up question. As part of the survey, the pollsters asked Rhode Island likely voters to identify themselves by ideology. So how does the Rhode Island electorate divide up? According to UNH's findings, the largest bloc in Rhode Island is self-described moderates, who make up 29% of voters. That's followed by conservatives (23%), liberals (20%), progressives (15%), socialists (9%) and libertarians (4%). 8. Rhode Island's two undeclared-but-clearly-running candidates for governor, Dan McKee and Helena Foulkes, have been stepping up their fundraising efforts for 2026 ahead of the Sept. 30 quarterly deadline for their next financial reports. Foulkes has been holding a series of events, including a gathering Thursday evening at the Providence home of Meredith Curren and Gary Frishman that was co-hosted by Collin Bailey, Ro Mede, Josh Rosenthal and Sheri Sweitzer. Meanwhile McKee's finance director, Tony Silva, sent an email to supporters Friday about a goal to raise $25,000 by the end of the month. The subject line: "is your name going to be on the list?" Silva explained in the message, "I'm going to print a list of donors from this quarter for the Governor's review. Can you chip in now to add your name to the list?" Foulkes and McKee were nearly even in cash on hand as of June 30, with Foulkes having $470,000 and McKee having $421,000. Of course, both totals are peanuts compared to another potential candidate -- Joe Shekarchi, who had $2.8 million as of the same date. (Shekarchi says he won't run if McKee stays in the race.) 9. East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva is our guest on this week's Newsmakers, sitting down with Tim White and me to discuss the Washington Bridge crisis, tensions with the City Council, the future of Crescent Park, redevelopment near the Henderson Bridge and more. East Providence voters didn't impose term limits when they created the still-new position of mayor, so we also asked DaSilva if he plans to run for a third term in 2026. "I certainly hope to run again," he said. "We've got a lot of great projects that are in the fire -- the iron's in the fire, we're getting things done -- and I want to see those projects completed." 10. The big changes happening at Lifespan, Rhode Island's largest hospital group, continue to be a major story. The latest development came Friday, when CEO John Fernandez announced the system had laid off 20% of its executives, in an effort to save $6 million during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Fernandez is still grappling with the financial challenges he inherited from his predecessor, Tim Babineau, with the system's base operations running over $70 million in the red for the first nine months of its current fiscal year. All this comes as Lifespan is finalizing its takeover of the Steward-owned hospitals in Fall River and Taunton -- that transaction is expected to close next month -- and is preparing to roll out its rebranding as Brown University Health. 11. The Woonasquatucket River has been closed to swimming and fishing for generations, but a $100 million settlement in 2018 was supposed to get it reopened. So why has so little been done in the years since? Tim White and Eli Sherman investigated what's gone wrong. 12. Our Alexandra Leslie has the scoop on two more Providence schools merging. Alex also has the story on advocates urging Mayor Smiley to get rid of parking minimums in the city. 13. People in the news ... Congressman Amo is traveling to Philadelphia today to serve as a campaign surrogate for Kamala Harris once again ... former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank is headlining a fundraiser for the Harris campaign on Sunday in Jamaica Plain ... Speaker Shekarchi will be on Capitol Hill to testify before Sheldon Whitehouse's Senate Budget Committee about housing affordability on Wednesday ... Providence Mayor Brett Smiley is on Cape Cod for the U.S. Conference of Mayors fall leadership meeting in Chatham, moderating a panel on public safety ... Patriots great Adam Vinatieri endorsed Cranston City Council candidate Alan Rudolph; he faces Frank Ritz ... Time magazine named Ken Block to its list of 11 democracy defenders ... longtime Rhode Island Community Food Bank CEO Andrew Schiff plans to retire next year ... Rhode Island Press Association President Ethan Shorey announced the group will open its membership to digital-only outlets ... North Kingstown Town Manager Ralph Mollis announced the community has been designated a World War II Heritage City by the National Park Service ... the Greater Providence YMCA announced 11 new board members: Gregg Amore, Richard Blockson, Melanie Coon, Angelyne Cooper, Donna D'Aloia, Kevin Gallgher, Jack McConnell, Dan McGowan, Patrick McQuade, Jay Sabitoni and David M. Williams ... local journos Alex Torres-Perez, Nancy Lavin, Chris Shea, Rob Smith, Ben Berke, Grace Ferguson and Colin Hogan were all selected as New England First Amendment Institute Journalism Fellows for 2024. 14. Mozart died in 1791, but scholars are still discovering new music he wrote. 15. Rachel Cohen argues too many millennials don't appreciate volunteering. 16. Set your DVRs: This week on Newsmakers — East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva. Watch Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on WPRI 12 and 10 a.m. on Fox Providence, or listen on the radio Sunday at 6 p.m. on WPRO. You can also subscribe to Newsmakers as a podcast via Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you back here next Saturday. Ted Nesi ([email protected]) is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi's Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Threads and Facebook.