Future Was
Technology, full speed ahead “Embrace the future” they all said Faster cars and wider screens No-iron shirts, oven self-cleans SmartPhones put us all in touch Letter writing? Not so much But then progress reached its peak Losing jobs week after week Robots on the assembly line One laptop replaces nine We thought tomorrow was our [...]
Leave Gordon Fox in Hen House of Representatives
This endorsement is one of the most difficult to make because, based on this author’s personal, professional and procedural experiences with Speaker Fox, he is unlikeable on all counts. In the spirit of full disclosure, when a written appeal for help on a personal level as well as a statewide plea for any continuing aid, [...]
Vote For an Independent, Spoilers Are a Myth
“It’s hard to spoil something that is already spoiled” Abel Collins uttered these words on a recent edition of RIPR’s Political Roundtable, and they ring truer today than at any other time in our history. The “spoiler” argument by the lever-voting Democrats in Rhode Island is patently false, and this is an attempt to disabuse [...]
Baldelli-Hunt, Brien Plead Dumb on 38 Studios Vote
The Cicilline-Gemma debate at Rhode Island College wasn’t the only question and answer session for candidates on Tuesday. In Woonsocket, constituents were invited to attend a candidate forum hosted by MyWoonsocket.com and WNRI radio to meet the candidates for General Assembly seats in the city. Radio host Roger Bouchard moderated while local reporters Sandy Phaneuf [...]
So Long, RTW: Obit of Anonymous Commenter
Homer Simpson, in his infinite wisdom, once famously declared alcohol “the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.” The same might be said of anonymous comments on blogs: the potential solution to, but often instead the cause of, all of digital journalism’s issues. Both alcohol and anonymous comments are superfluous to a healthy [...]
Projo Misses News at Doherty, Brown Event
So, if you still have doubts that the ProJo editorial board is the tail wagging the newsroom’s dog; those fears should be laid to rest after the Newspaper Spin Cycle of record’s coverage of the Brendan Doherty event at Metacomet Country Club in East Providence. Journal scribe Phil Marcelo, covered all the political details about [...]
Pension Lawsuit Primer
On Friday, the long-anticipated lawsuits against the 2011 Rhode Island Retirement Security Act (the pension changes passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly and signed by Governor Chafee last fall) were filed on behalf of those impacted by the changes. We believe that the State of Rhode Island has a legal and a moral obligation [...]
Layoffs Could Cause Crisis for Unemployed Rhode Islanders
Recently, the DLT has been informed of an unprecedented reduction in workforce. Up to sixty-nine employees are scheduled to lose their jobs on July 28th, 70 percent of these are to come from the Unemployment Insurance sector. The irony of going from working to serve unemployed citizens in their time of need, to being one [...]
Leadership Lacking in West Warwick
Arriving at West Warwick High School 40 minutes early on June 5, I was able to see the lions and tigers and bears growling and gnashing their teeth; and the clowns practicing their buffoonery at the three ring circus that was the West Warwick Town Council meeting. Part of the buffoonery being several supporters of [...]
Woonsocket: How Tax Equity Can Reduce Burden
There’s no debate about it, Woonsocket, and many other distressed communities, are in trouble. However, while the residents wait for the General Assembly to vote on whether they can issue a supplemental tax bill, there are other measures on the calendar on Smith Hill that could also help the city’s already maxed-out taxpayers. Tonight (Monday, [...]
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 [...]
CRMC Issues Eleventh Hour Decision
The Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC), after another evening filled with heated testimony, issued its decision on a request by the Town of South Kingstown to reclassify a portion of shoreline along Matunuck Beach Road. CRMC would not be forced to make a potentially precedential decision based on an eleventh hour situation being put before [...]
April is National STD Awareness Month
With spring comes warmth and rain and also it’s national STD awareness month. It’s a little known observance by the CDC that pushes people to really talk in the open about sexually transmitted diseases and gives a chance for people to get tested in Rhode Island and across the country. According to the Center for [...]
RI Progress Report: Hinckley Retraction, ‘Devout’ RI, Romney’s Problems and More…
Paula Hodges curates the local news, and provides links to all the recent stories relevant to Rhode Island progressives, so you don’t have to… Hinckley retracts criticism of Whitehouse bill By JOHN E. MULLIGAN JOURNAL WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON — After charging that a tax proposal by U.S. Sen. Sheldon White-house would force municipalities to raise [...]
More Local Action Toward Justice for Trayvon Martin
The perplexing “missteps” by the Sanford police in the handling of the Trayvon Martin killing are adding up at an alarming rate. We recall that a narcotics detective, and not a homicide detective, was first to assess the scene and engage Zimmerman, or that the lead investigator, Chris Serino, had called for the arrest of [...]
Bits & Pieces: Spring in America and Underdogs
Al Jazeera Examines Occupy Wall Street: Occupy Providence has thrown the buzzwords “American Spring” around on their Google Groups page a bit, and I’m still skeptical, but this video on Al Jazeera English’s “Fault Lines” program gives us a reminder of just what was going on then. Undoubtedly, Occupy changed the debate. Since Occupy retrospectives [...]
RI Progress Report: Tax Increases in Woonsocket, Graduation Rates Drop and Lou Raptakis to Run for Old Seat
What’s the plan to fix budget problems in Woonsocket? A special 13 percent supplemental tax increase this spring. But here’s the problem with that plan. According to the Projo: “the special assessment will cost the average homeowner about $350 in a city where the median family income is about $770 a week.” – Lou Raptakis, [...]
RI Progress Report: Central Falls disagrees, lottery logic, Chamber of Charity in SK, Mitt Romney and Goldman Sachs
Seems the state and Central Falls are in disagreement once again. While Rosemary Booth Gallogly issued a three-pager exonerating CF receiver chief of staff Gail Corrigan of any wrongdoing when she let her mom volunteer in the city’s finance department and hired her lawyer’s daughter, the Central Falls City Council plans on doing its own [...]
RI Progress Report: How To Avoid School Suspensions
It turns out the easiest way to avoid discipline at local high schools is to be white. Non-white students at urban Rhode Island high schools are more likely to get in trouble than their white counterparts, reports RINPR’s Elizabeth Harrison, even as they make up a much smaller percentage of the student body. In Cranston, [...]
Progress Report: Whitehouse fights Super PACs, Gemma on Jobs, Chafee Muni Bill, Medical Marijuana and more
Rhode Island progressives, indeed progressives across the country, should be happy Sheldon Whitehouse is a Senator. Not only has he sponsored the Buffett Rule tax code improvement that would prevent millionaires from evading paying taxes on their earnings, he’s also leading the fight against Super PACs and the Citizen United SCOTUS decision, the Projo reports [...]
New Comments