Telling a story about Councilwoman Castillo
This is the beginning of an ongoing blog about making Councilwoman Castillo – The Film. Why make this film in the first place? It’s not just that Carmen Castillo is an inspiration to me. Of course she is. She is the salt of the earth. Committed beyond 100% to her community and her family. She [...]
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Taveras bikes to work
Thanks Mayor Taveras for celebrating Bike to Work Day showing us how easy it is to bike to work! Did you bike to work today? If so, tweet us your pictures to @RIFuture or share them with us on Facebook.
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Olneyville SHINES! Neighborhood Cleanup
Tomorrow, May 18th, from 10am-1pm, you can be part of the solution when you volunteer to help cleanup Olneyville in collaboration with the Olneyville Housing Corporation. Registration begins at 9:30am, Tools, bags and gloves will be provided. We’re meeting at Joslin Park on Florence St and afterwards there’s going to be a FREE BBQ for [...]
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Report shows education reform isn’t working
A new Economic Policy Institute report that is highly critical of the so-called “education reform” movement reads like an indictment of Deborah Gist’s tenure as commissioner of public schools in Rhode Island. The report compares large urban school districts with New York, Chicago and Washington DC – three cities that have implemented strategies almost identical [...]
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Northeast Young Democrats convene in Providence
The future of the Democratic Party was front and center at the RI Convention Center on Saturday as the Young Democrats of America (YDA) came to town to hold their New England regional conference. Nearly 50 attendees from New York to Maine met for day of talks, panels, and business (including the election of their [...]
Sales tax elimination: intriguing idea but bogus economics
The RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity, whose funding sources I look into here, has a so-called “prosperity agenda” that calls for elimination of the sales tax. At first glance this would appear to be a reasonable direction to move our State. It is no secret the sales tax is one of the most regressive [...]
37th vote on Obamacare
Three years ago, over strong Republican opposition, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law a historic health care reform bill. Opponents of the bill took their case all the way to the Supreme Court…and still lost. And later today, Republicans in the House are going to vote for a 37th time to repeal all [...]
Warwick Progressive Democrats Meet & Greet
The Warwick Progressive Democrats will be holding and promoting a series of non-partisan neighborhood meetings this summer, to increase Warwick residents’ access to local politics through speaking directly with their city councilors, state reps, state senators, school committee members, and other officeholders. In preparation for these neighborhood meetings, we are proud to host a meet [...]
What is a 501c(4), how do they affect local politics?
Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is helping to raise a long overdue conversation in American politics, and it’s closely related to the IRS scandal. The role 501c(4) groups play in politics. Read his speech here, or watch it below (John McDaid of Hard Deadlines has a great piece on it here): [...]
May 25 in Prov, planetwide: March Against Monsanto
Providence will join activists from around the world in ten days for the May 25 March Against Monsanto. Monsanto is the biotech giant that is bankrupting American farmers and destroying our food supply, all for its own profit. Demonstrations in dozens of countries will draw attention to genetically engineered seeds and foods. In Providence, we [...]
Dump Deborah Gist
Deborah Gist is nothing if not polarizing. Nearly 90 percent of local teachers want a new leader. But the Chamber of Commerce supports her. She backed the firing of Central Falls teachers, but she has the backing of the East Greenwich School Committee. Tom Sgouros and the Providence Student Union have twisted her in knots [...]
Bill sponsor Malik more unbiased than WPRO news
Here’s an interesting instance of media bias: a WPRO preview story on a proposal to eliminate the state sales tax was less balanced than an op/ed in the Fall River Herald News written by the bill’s sponsor, Jan Malik. The WPRO report uses an interview between conservative talk show host Matt Allen, a supporter of [...]
Young Dems host Northeast Regional Conference
The Young Democrats of Rhode Island and I are proud to announce we are the host chapter for the Young Democrats of America’s Northeast Regional Conference, this Saturday at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Our theme this year; Forward, is in honor of President Obama’s campaign slogan and the march our country must take! The [...]
Ban the Box activists march to State House today
Surely there are some convicted criminals who may not be ready to rejoin the work-a-day world. But just as surely there are many who are. The Ban the Box bill would make it harder for potential employers to confuse the two by doing away with generic questions about criminal records on job applications. Watch this [...]
Jessica Ahlquist featured in PBS show on Constitution
At 9pm on Thursday evening, May 16th, the second episode of Constitution USA with Peter Sagal will premiere on channel 36, Rhode Island’s PBS affiliate. This episode prominently features the Cranston West Prayer Banner case and interviews both Jessica Ahlquist (my niece), the high school student who successfully had the banner removed, and David Bradley, [...]
More fake reasons for fighting affordable housing
Jim Hummel, an independent journalist who lives in Barrington, took a very different tack than me on the issue of affordable housing in Rhode Island’s favorite suburban utopia. Last fall, he reported Barrington actually has a lot of housing that meets the state’s definition of affordable housing, but that not much of it fits what [...]
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