RI ‘Trailing Behind’ On Evaluating Tax Incentives
According to a bill being heard today (H7723/H7724) introduced by Rep. Teresa Tanzi (D–Narragansett, South Kingstown), Rhode Island spends over $1.6 billion on tax incentives. These are the various credits, deductions, exclusions and exemptions that most citizens enjoy. They range all over the place, but tax incentives usually tend to favor the well-off rather than those [...]
‘Unions Buy Local’ Campaign Set to Launch
Two of Rhode Island’s largest unions, NEARI and the RI Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, are launching a new Unions Buy Local campaign just prior to this Mother’s Day weekend. Shopping locally makes sense as we try to work with our neighbors to help grow our local – and state – economies. Rhode Island union [...]
Raimondo Advocates Against Tax Equity
If you’re still looking for the evidence that likely 2014 gubernatorial candidate Gina Raimondo is a progressive Democrat, as she told many a union member during her push for pension reform last year, you won’t find it in local tax policy. Instead of advocating for more revenue, Treasurer Raimondo decided to again side with business [...]
Who Pays for Tax Cuts to the Rich? The Poor
A correspondent tells me that last week there was a meeting over at University Heights where some residents got bad news about their rent. University Heights was built in the 1960s as a mixed development, split about half and half between market rate apartments and subsidized apartments, available to poor people and families. It’s had [...]
![Elections in Europe: Watch Out Austerity [Update]](http://www.rifuture.org/wp-content/uploads/paris-150x150.jpg)
Elections in Europe: Watch Out Austerity [Update]
Today, Europeans will go to the polls in three countries; France, Greece, and Serbia. Legislative elections are taking place in Greece and Serbia, and presidential elections are taking place in France and Serbia. Austerity is expected to be the big loser here, and the people responsible for austerity will be the ones taking the brunt [...]
Woonsocket Cross Built in 1952, Not 1921
There is a lot of confusion right now about the Woonsocket Cross at the center of a controversy caused by a letter sent by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to Mayor Leo T. Fontaine demanding the removal of said cross from public land. I don’t want to address the various legal arguments surrounding the validity [...]
Child Health Deficiencies Explain RI Education Gap
It’s often said that Rhode Island doesn’t get good value for its education dollar. The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council says so every year, and the claim is dutifully repeated on the radio and I’ve heard it at the State House, too. But is it true? A while back I was looking at education funding [...]
East Matunuck Goes Green, Beach Gets a Wind Turbine
Among dark and cloudy skies, the East Matunuck State Beach pavillion construction project saw the rise of its newest addition Thursday, a 120 ft., 10-kilowatt wind turbine. One of DEM’s renewable energy projects, the wind turbine, along with solar panels installed on the facility’s roof will generate 21,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, saving [...]
New Law Helps Farmers, Fishermen Market Locally
A new state law designed to “boost Rhode Island agriculture and seafood industries” will provide grants to farmers and the fisherman to help them market their products locally. It will also create the Interagency Food and Nutrition Policy Advisory Council that would, “develop solutions to regulatory and policy barriers to developing a strong sustainable food [...]
Foes of Marriage Equality Fear God, Communists
It’s both sad and bizarre the logic used by the religious right to argue against marriage equality. Even more sad and bizarre, of course, is that Rhode island legislators aren’t brave enough to flout the ridiculous arguments proffered by the opposition and grant same sex couples the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts. Consider why [...]
Homeless Bill of Rights Passes State Senate
Taking a “historic step” forward according to advocates, the Rhode Island Senate voted 33-2 to pass Senate Bill 2052, a.k.a. the Homeless Bill of Rights. The law provides homeless people with protections against discrimination based on their housing status, preventing them from being told to move along if they enter libraries or sit on park [...]
South County Chamber Gets the Nod – Budget Passes
The South Kingstown Town Council, in a session often resembling a scene from a junior high lunch table, passed the Town budget for fiscal year 2012 – 2013 in total. In a 4-0 vote, with one recusal, the budget was adopted – inclusive of a contentious $7000 line item allowance to the South County Chamber [...]
Corvese Amendment Denies Rep. Ferri Equal Rights
The controversial Corvese amendment to the recently enacted civil union law, which legislators will reconsider today, is seen as an affront to the very rights the new law bestows on same sex couples – it allows religious institutions to not recognize the relationship or otherwise adhere to the law. But for Rep. Frank Ferri, a [...]
Lawmakers Briefed on Plan to End Homelessness
As marchers gathered for their May Day march on the west side of Providence to protest unfair economic conditions, a crowd of over thirty people, nine of whom were sitting legislators, listened to a briefing in the Rhode Island Senate lounge on the state’s Plan to End Homelessness, known as Opening Doors Rhode Island. The [...]
Tassoni: Second Legislator To Drop Out of ALEC
Citing the “self-serving ideas of corporations and rich, powerful interests,” Sen John Tassoni, a Smithfield Democrat, become the second member of the General Assembly to officially distance himself from the American Legislative Exchange Council, the shadowy far right wing organization known as ALEC that pairs legislators with corporate interests, after news that more than 20 [...]
Chafee Helped Brown, Providence Behind Scenes
It’s a huge day for Providence which, among other bits of good news, announced today that Brown University will pay the city $31 million over the next 11 years. While Mayor Angel Taveras and Brown President Ruth Simmons both deserve much credit for getting the deal done. So does another local leader who rarely wins [...]
May Day: Haymarket and the 8-Hour Work Day
May Day, or International Workers Day, is a holiday celebrated in more than 80 countries around the world. But not so much in the United States, even though it started here and, for a brief time served as this country’s de facto Labor Day – a holiday to remember and honor the working class and [...]
Low Income, Homelessness Issues at State House Today
The powerful House Finance Committee will hear a bill today that would restore the $12 million cut from the Neighborhood Opportunities Program last legislative session. According to Housing WorksRI’s website, the NOP program is “a unique, state-funded program designed to provide homes for low-wage working families and individuals with disabilities. The program provides funds to [...]
Providence Poised for Annual May Day Holiday
May Day, it’s the original Labor Day and it’s been celebrated with direct action since the first one in 1886 when more than a quarter million workers across the country went on strike to fight for an eight-hour workday. Tomorrow in Providence, the numbers may well be smaller but the issues are no less important. [...]
Why the Projo Has Nobody to Blame But Themselves
By Frymaster on May 5, 2012
Over on the Facebook, dude of awesomeness Peter Hocking shared Ted Nesi’s blog post about the continuing deterioration in the Projo’s circulation. Surprisingly, their web traffic is also down and down hard. Call it 30%. You know me; I wrote a snarky comment about how newspapers have nobody but themselves to blame for their predicament. That [...]
Posted in Business & Tech, Featured | Tagged comments on newspaper websites, david brauer, linda borg, media, newspaper websites, newspapers, peter hocking, web 2.0 | 8 Responses