Category: RI Progress Report

The must read piece of the day – if not the summer, to date – is Phoenix editor David Scharfenberg’s excellent piece on the marriage equality debate in the state Senate. So great is this piece that I’ll be taking a closer look at it later today, too.

As pleased as I am with Scharfenberg’s piece, I am equally upset with Phillipe and Jorge’s tasteless joke … I might not be Polish myself but I happen to be madly in love with someone who is.

The Projo reports this morning that those who typically want to shrink government now want to “dismantle” the EDC, and are using the 38 Studios debacle as the impetus. Rhode Island may well want to look at new options for how the public sector helps the private sector, but it’s important to remember that the 38 Studios mess is Republican Don Carcieri’s doing; EDC was just doing what he told them to do.

Ian Donnis says money won’t likely be the deciding factor if Angel and Gina square off for governor in two years. That’s good news for the mayor of Providence, because the state treasurer has proven she can raise significant cash from out-of-state donors who might perhaps benefit from her top-down, finance first style of governing.

Dan McGowan keeps hammering on the back and forth over who’s more Rhode Island: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse or Boca Raton Barry Hinckley.

And over at Prosperous Rising (if the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and Anchor Rising are going to report the same stuff, we may as well give them one name) Monique Chartier says there is going to be a protest against the proposed Sakonnet River bridge toll today. This should be a progressive issue, too. It’s a very regressive way to raise revenue and will adversely affect the working class people of the East Bay who commute back and forth across the bridge. It would be imminently better for the state’s economy to make us East Greenwich residents pay a toll to commute to our white collar jobs in the big city.

Anyone who has ever gone through depression should reads the great column in today’s Projo about how Bruce Springsteen did too. Anne Michaud writes: “It’s startling that a person so fabulously successful could have been depressed. Even more surprising, depression hit after his breakthrough commercial album “Born to Run” in 1975. But without role models for healthy recovery, individuals may reject treatment for fear they’ll be mistaken for “crazies” who dye their hair orange and allegedly hunt movie patrons. They rob themselves of the chance for recovery.”

Don’t forget to watch the Perseid meteor shower Saturday night. And, when you do, wish upon a shooting star. But do so judiciously, as it is likely to come true…

Barry Hinckley might just win the not-so-coveted carpetbagger of the year award as it seems the first time he even voted here was in 2010. So, when wondering who understands the Rhode Island better, consider that Sheldon Whitehouse has been serving the state in the US Senate for four more years than Hinckley has been even voting here.

The Associated Press reports that July has been the hottest month ever recorded in the United States, “breaking a record set during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s” and the Northeast Regional Climate Center says 2012 has been the warmest month ever in the area. While we’ve escaped much of the increased heat here in Rhode Island, how is climate change affecting the Ocean State? Here’s how.

By the way, are there still climate change deniers out there or did they all just switch over to become birthers or 9-11 truthers? Either way, these seemingly disparate groups may want to consider forming their own political party. Oh wait, I forgot; they already have one…

And equally as surprising as the fact that the planet is warming – as in not all that surprising at all – some food from big box store Target in Rhode Island may have been tainted with food poisoning. BJ’s, however, seems to have a strategy to avoid tainted food: get it from local farmers.

GoLocal reports that Gina Raimondo might be divvying out state contacts to her political supporters. We’ve been pretty tough on Gina but not because we suspect her of being corrupt, we’ve done so because she has parsed herself as a progressive Democrat but has governed as a more like a moderate Republican.

Speaking of GoLocal, this is the most ridiculous sentence I’ve read in quite some time: “Rhode Island is leading the nation in the advancement of a larger entitlement culture thanks to its expansion of social services through its health benefits exchange, according to the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity.” A commenter on the site clears up the confusion for Mike Stenhouse, a former Red Sox who now heads up Rhode Island’s most Orwellian-speaking political group: “Mike, this program helps poor people. It doesn’t make them poor. Republican economic policies and globalization has done that. Please go coach a baseball team.. You’d be great at that and we would all still like you.”

Media friends: here’s a quick and interesting quiz to see if you’ve been co-opted by the political system or, as they say, swinging on the tire.

If you needed any additional proof that Republicans want to block Obama for political rather than policy purposes, an Iowa congressman wants to pass a bill that would “repeal everything Obama has signed into law.” Why do they do this? Well, for one Obama called trickle down economics “fairy dust” yesterday and, of course, Republicans will do whatever they can to smear those who try to pull back the curtain on this Ozian statement.

On this day in 1945, the United States drops the Little Boy atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, perhaps the most destructive act in the history of human beings.

UPDATE: Astute reader Jo Ann Fonseca points out that I didn’t get this item on the second hydrogen bomb to be dropped on Japan quite right. Here’s what she wrote:

On August 9, 1945, another American B-29 bomber, Bock’s Car, left Tinian carrying Fat Man, a plutonium implosion-type bomb. The primary target was the Kokura Arsenal, but upon reaching the target, they found that it was covered by a heavy ground haze and smoke and were unable drop the bomb. The pilot, Major Charles Sweeney, turned to the secondary target of the Mitsubishi Torpedo Plant at Nagasaki. The bomb exploded at 11:02 a.m. over the narrow Urakami Valley northwest of downtown Nagasaki. Of the 286,000 people living in Nagasaki at the time of the blast, 74,000 people were killed and another 75,000 sustained severe injuries.

Rhode Island really does have a great twittersphere: we’ve got journalists, activists, business leaders, union officials and a plethora of other people all engaged in active debate in 140 characters or less. What we don’t have in that mix is a lot of local politicians, as Ian Donnis of RIPR points out. It’s too bad, because having more elected officials join the fun would certainly help inform the marketplace of ideas.

I would add that I happen to think Rhode Island also suffers from a lack of progressive voices on twitter … sure, a bunch of us have accounts and some of us even use it to push out relevant stories or respond to or offer critiques, but our counterparts on the right have made much more effective use of twitter than we have.

Interestingly (probably only to me!), the ones who do use twitter seem to like to pick on me there: I’m pretty sure I’m the reporter Ian refers to when he writes that Rep. Dan Gordon tweaks reporters for having more followers than them, and Rep. Jon Brien often included me in his missive tweets to the old grey lady. To follow me on twitter, click here. To follow @RIFuture, here.

Froma Harrop tears apart the Tea Party today on the Projo’s op/ed page: “The Tea Party movement has become the dead bad-luck bird hanging around the GOP establishment’s neck. Its anger-fueled energy has forced moderate Republicans off ballots in places where moderates tend to win. It has burdened otherwise centrist Republicans with radical positions that don’t go well with a general electorate. The Grand Old Party is being taken over by an ideological fringe with unclear motives, a loose grasp on reality and little interest in actually governing.”

Seriously, even Republicans are starting to implore Mitt Romney to stick up against the fringe elements of the GOP.

Keeping on the topic of low moments in the history of the GOP for just a moment, today in 1974 Richard Nixon becomes the first American president ever to quit the gig.

WPRO’s morning tag team of Tara Granahan and Andrew Gobeil are the first to get Providence Mayor Angel Taveras on the record about the potential of him running for governor in 2014. As we’ve noted, a Taveras vs. Gina Raimondo gubernatorial contest would be the ultimate referendum on how to handle pension reform: unilateral cuts, as Gina did at the state level, or concerted negotiations, as Angel did at the municipal level. Those two playing fields may not be equal, but have fun waiting around for politics to become fair…

Usually the national media comes to Rhode Island when poor cities and towns are going broke or when we’re taking retirement security away from working class people … but recently the Wall Street Journal came to Newport to answer that age-old question that so many are asking themselves in this era of austerity: is buying a yacht a good investment?

Saying there are too few profiles in courage at the State House, Rhode Island’s best political pundit tells why civil unions didn’t work here, as well as offering some wisdom to elected officialswho might settle for the status quo rather than pushing for change.

“Sometimes when one walks down the middle of the street in politics, he or she gets hit by both sides,” wrote RIPR’s Scott MacKay. “This is precisely what happened with civil unions.”

Certainly this is what happened to House Speaker Gordon Fox, who I think saw that writing on the wall and recently said he’d push harder for marriage equality next session. That combined with the fact that the rest of the country is coming to see the social value in supporting same sex marriage at epic speeds (h/t @tednesi), and we’ve got the right ingredients to get this done in 2013.

It all depends on how stubborn Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed and Senator Michael McCaffrey, who chairs the judiciary committee, decide to be on the issue.

McCaffrey, for his part, has to run for reelection against Laura Pisaturo, a very electable former assistant attorney general who also happens to be a lesbian. I’m dying to see this debate.

Speaking of Scott MacKay’s wisdom … on Political Roundtable this morning he said legislators would be wise to reinstate the money they and former Gov. Don Carcieri took away from them.

Another issue that heating up here in Rhode Island is public education reform, and leading that charge this week has been a letter to Diane Ravtich about a Rhode Island program to train new teachers that doesn’t seem to be meeting students needs. Aaron Regunberg posted her letter here and wrote more about it for GoLocal this morning.

Best lede of the day: “Attention, criminals: There are no more marijuana plants to steal at 12 Hyat St. in Olneyville.” Turns out the pot farmers who lived there had been robbed 17 times in five years, so they have decided to relocate. The Projo didn’t publish their new address, but I’m guessing that moving truck might just have someone tailing it to the garden’s new locale.

Effects of voterID laws: “2.7 million living people who voted in 2008 have since been purged from the voter rolls.”

Here’s how Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman sizes up 2012 presidential politics: “There has been plenty to criticize about President Obama’s handling of the economy. Yet the overriding story of the past few years is not Mr. Obama’s mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way — and who now, having blocked the president’s policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed.”

Awesome tweet: @benschwartzy: KFC v Chick-Fil-A — gay marriage deserves a better battleground. Are we going to settle immigration at Chipotle?

Happy birthday, Uriah Stevens.

Woonsocket’s diabolical DINO duo of Jon Brien and Lisa Baldelli-Hunt can claim all they want that their decision to block a city-saving supplemental tax bill wasn’t aimed in part at injuring organized labor, but both have drawn local firefighters as opponents in the upcoming election. My early-season prediction: Brien will win reelection and Baldelli-Hunt won’t. She made a lot of powerful enemies during the last legislative session…

Banks should not blight communities in order to boost their profits, and Providence – to its credit – is looking at ways to legislatively prevent them from doing so. “Called the vacant property registration ordinance, it would require out-of-state banks and all owners of vacant properties to register their properties and name a local agent who is responsible for internal and external maintenance and security,” reports the Projo.

More innovative government being practiced in Providence: Mayor Taveras is launching a neighborhood competition to see which one can recycle the most … the competition, he says, will raise revenue AND clean up the environment.

Good work by Ted Nesi to pick up on the diss Wall Street Journal editor David Wessel and NPR delved out to legendary Rhode Island journalist Jack White … the situation reminds me that history is written by the winners: would the error have gone unnoticed if the victim was Jim Taricani, who works for WJAR, a TV station without its own blogger?

So Mitt Romney likes individual mandates for Massachusetts AND Israel … seems the only times he doesn’t like them is when they benefit all Americans, which is an interesting way to run for president we think…

Anybody want to buy a lighthouse in Wickford?

 

When I worked at WPRO, I remember everyone thinking I was some sort of freak because I would take an afternoon break to hang out on Hundred Acre Cove, the brackish tidal marsh behind the Salty Shrine on Wamponoag Trail while I thought everyone else were the freaks for not recognizing the value in this natural habitat we had right in our backyards. Similarly, I was perplexed yesterday listening to my good buddies and right wing ideologues Matt Allen and Dan Yorke perplexed as to why Barrington would consider banning plastic bags.

You guys! How can you possibly not realize the benefit of protecting our environment from pollution??? Those plastic bags are destroying Narragansett Bay … please, please, please go hang out on Hundred Acre Cove – just up stream from Barrington, by the way – before you again proclaim plastic bags more important that our natural world again.

A video showing Senate candidate Barry Hinckley saying more business people should use the political process for their own personal purposes is mysteriously gone from Youtube. Hinckley’s campaign said it has no idea what happened to the video … must be that Hudson Hinckley (remember when his video was the worst thing this campaign had to worry about?) made the call to have it pulled.

Hard not to love the way the “GoLocal Business Team” led into its story this morning on the highest paid Rhode Island CEO’s: “With the Presidential campaign being defined by a political battle over how much the 1% should pay in taxes, the AFL-CIO is weighing in with its own insights into how much corporate CEOs are paid.” But we liked the story better when we wrote it way back in April.

Speaking of taxing the rich, a new study shows that by and large Americans not only think taxing the rich is fair but also economically advantageous.

First Sakonnet Vineyards and now the Wilson’s building in Wickford? Soon enough Alex and Ani will own this entire state.

Rest in peace, Gore Vidal, the self-proclaimed populist died last night. Highly quotable, he once famously pointed out the future of politics was less substantive candidates and more like Ronny Reagan: “As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days.” More great Gore Vidal quotes here.

Barrington balked a bit in its bid to ban plastic bags last night. The Projo reports that last night “a divided council authorized the town solicitor to draft an ordinance on the use of plastic bags but was unable to define exactly what that measure would say.”

The Council will hold a workshop sometime in August to discuss the ramifications of asking people to supply their own grocery bags – here’s a cheat sheet on how that debate will go down: the environment will be a lot better off and CVS will make a tiny bit less money.

Speaking of recycling, Bradley Campell of RIPR delves deep into how the recycling process works in Rhode Island.

WPRI gives Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee some love … the PCCC called Sheldon “a rising progressive star” in an email it sent out yesterday that Ted Nesi turned around into a pretty informative post. Me, I’m not really sure how much higher his progressive star can rise … he’s introduced the best bills in Congress this year and he seems perpetually willing to stick up for the middle class. Sheldon is the number one star of the progressive movement in America.

A rising star would be more like Darcy Burner, from Seattle. Watch this woman, as she is sure to make some political waves in her career.

By the way, I want RI’s junior senator to start a giant funk band called Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Sheldon and the P Triple C, for short.

Add Projo columnist Ed Fitzpatrick to the list of journalists to take issue with Anthony Gemma’s unbelievable social networking prowess.

Hitchcock himself would have a hard time scripting a scarier trip abroad than what Mitt Romney just pulled off. He managed to make enemies with England, of all countries, before running roughshod like a bull in a china shop over one of the most delicate political situations on the planet. but Chris Cilliza of the WaPo wonders if it matters.

In his post, he quotes prominent Republican Ed Rogers who sums up everything you need to know about the presidential campaign this year: “Let’s face it,” Rogers said. “Romney can’t win, but Obama can lose.”

I’m glad Ted Nesi stumbled upon the American Human Development Index, which indicates Rhode Island is the 11th best state as far as “well-being” is measured. It’s a nice contrast to the drone of voices who chime on and on about how unfriendly to business CNBC thinks the Ocean State is.

I haven’t studied it too close but there’s a pretty obvious inverse correlation between the two rankings – states that are more friendly to business tend not to score too high in the well-being rankings, and vice versa. Not that it’s an either/or proposition … but if we’re to invest our shared resources to improve either the Ocean State’s well-being or business friendliness, I know which way I’d vote…

Unfortunately, though, we might not being as well on the well-being scale as this index suggests … or at least there is competing data. A new Kids Count report indicates Rhode Island is 25th nationally for child well-being.

Ed Fitzpatrick on Barry Hinckley’s business plan of running for office to garner free pr: “Hinckley’s message clearly was not an idealistic call to public service. No one is going to confuse his “Free PR” speech with JFK’s “Ask not” speech. If anything, it was cynical. And while we absolutely do need new people and new ideas here in Rhode Island, we definitely do not need people running for public office to benefit themselves, their unions or their businesses. We have too many of those already.”

Hinckley also got some free pr on the national stage … I’m sure this is just what he had in mind.

Congrats to the two Jamestowners who are in DC this week lobbying for new legislation to curb climate change.

In trying to defend taking a political donation from, of all organizations, Citizens United – famous for the SCOTUS decision but also known for its hit job movie on Hillary Clinton, Brendan Doherty’s campaign says Sheldon Whitehouse’s DISCLOSE Act “clearly is designed to provide an advantage to one side of the political spectrum.”

Wait, what? Really? It is? I’d like to know how, Brendan … Are you trafficking in the lie that unions are exempt from it? Or do you just believe that Republicans benefit more than Democrats when it comes to secret money and shadow messengers in the political process? And if it’s the latter – which is true, by the way, Republicans do benefit more than Democrats from secret money and shadow messengers in politics – why would that affect your support of it? I suppose because Brendan Doherty is already siding with Republicans over Rhode Islanders.

Meet Sam Lovett and Charlie Tsonos … two Democrats vying for one East Providence seat in the state House of Representatives.

Gina Raimondo defends herself and her pension-gutting efforts against Bob Walsh’s boasting that the law is on the side of the retirees whose benefits she slashed … unlike Walsh, Raimondo didn’t offer a prediction, but she did indicate what might be the state’s defense: the pension fund was 48 percent funded and the economy here was bad. Okay, but a judge might not care that you didn’t want to raise taxes on Rhode Island’s richest residents…

This is not how you want your the fancy marriage proposal you planned for your vacation on Block Island to go down.

We’re super happy that Gov Chafee will meet with the Narragansett Indian Tribe, but super bummed that a simple meeting with the gov is the benchmark for victory for native Rhode Islanders. It’s really sad and unfair that, if there is a full-fledged casino in Rhode Island, it won’t be theirs…

And speaking of latent racism … a Romney adviser says President Obama “fully appreciate” America’s “Anglo-Saxon heritage.”

And speaking of Romney … he seems to be pulling a page out of Anthony Gemma’s social networking playbook.

Why is Barry Hinckley running for Senate? Probably for the same reasons he told others they should run for office:

“This is one of my wackier ideas but run for office,” he told a group he was speaking to in 2009 (watch the full video here, the good parts start at about 6:40). “Even if you lose running for office you actually win because you get tons of free pr. You can actually raise money from friends, co-workers, people who support your candidacy. Run on as jobs platform – I will create jobs – that will get free press.”

Hinckley tells Tim White and Ted Nesi that despite telling others to run for office for selfish purposes, that’s not why he is doing it. It’s hard to believe, given that his entire campaign playbook seems to mimic this 2009 speech – right down to where he advises listeners to exploit family and young children to help gain campaign attention … something that will probably be Hinckley’s most enduring political legacy.

Speaking of Republicans running for office … I can’t really tell if Brendan Doherty thinks assault rifles should or should not be protected by the Second Amendment based on his comments in this Projo article. Hinckley didn’t really give a clear answer either but I wasn’t expecting one, given safety issues have little ability to help his personal career.

It’s actually pretty entertaining some of the excuses conservatives are offering up in an attempt to not have to take a stand on gun control right now.

Ian Donnis raises a good question: why won’t Anthony Gemma appear on RIPR’s Political Roundtable? The irony here is he did go on Buddy Cianci, who beat the heck out of him and even sandbagged him with a question about a fake issue. Donnis, on the other hand, is well-regarded as one of fairest political reporters in Rhode Island. So the answer is probably nothing personal against public radio, just another miscalculation by the Gemma campaign…

Prolepsis aside, it’s fair to call Rhode Island’s own Roger Williams the first progressive in the New World.

Did you hear that the CEO of Lenovo donated his $3 million bonus to lower-paid employees?

Welcome to downtown Providence, HousingWorksRI.

 

It’s actually cheaper for the taxpayer to take care of our least fortunate residents than to let them live in squalor on the streets. A new study from Providence College professor Eric Hirsch shows that the state spends upwards of $60 million a year providing medical services to homeless people and that the state could save millions annually by offering housing to even just 67 of these people. That’s right, if we provided housing to just 67 homeless people the state would save millions of dollars.

It’s actually some pretty basic logic: if you invest in something it will generally take less overall resources to take care of.

But don’t expect such economic logic from the Projo editorial board … instead, today the tackle the (much less) important issue of making it easier for the affluent to fly to Block Island. They write: “Until now, most Rhode Islanders eager to partake of Block Island bliss have had to drive to the ferry terminal at Galilee and, all too often, tried to dodge seasickness, and the occasional inebriate, aboard the ferry.”

Stop the presses. Rhode Islanders have to endure seasickness to get to an island. What a crisis.

They go on to write, “We suspect that those who fly to Block Island will be considerably less overtly colorful than those on the Block Island Ferry. Indeed, that’s one reason the proposal for service to Block Island from Green sounds so appealing to some folks, especially to the affluent who can afford it … even if leveraged-buyout specialists planning to build gigantic summer houses might rival people behaving badly on the ferry as threats to Block Island’s allure.”

In other words, making it easier will likely destroy Block Island’s natural beauty, but that’s worth it if rich folk don’t have to deal with the rest of society when they are making their way out to the island they are destroying. Perhaps we should also invest in special highways for the affluent so they don’t have to see colorful jalopies some of the rest of us drive…

I’d like to invite the Projo editorial writers vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, or perhaps Kennebunkport. Vail and Aspen are lovely, too, as is Malibu. These places are already designed for your pretty snobby logic. But, please, as a former Islander (my first job in journalism was with the Block Island Times) please do not come to the Block. It’s one of the “last great places” and some of us would like it to stay that way.

The number of jobs in Rhode Island continues to decline …. how could this be after we slashes income tax rates for the so-called job creator class??? Oh wait, I forgot … people don’t create jobs just because they have extra money in their pocket, they only do so when they think hiring can make them more money.

The Bain outsourcing debate comes to Rhode Island!! It seems Brendan Doherty doesn’t think politicians should criticize those who give them money … I actually think this is something we should encourage.

I’m completely confused by why WPRI is trying to smear Congressman David Cicilline for supporting Capco Steel, the second (at least?) company to default on an EDC loan. The story says he helped the company secure state and federal funding. Cicilline started a jobs program for low-income residents that Capco took advantage of. It’s unclear from the story how he helped secure state dollars.

Speaking of strange reporting, GoLocal dubs Barry Hinckley as being “hot” because he held a press conference this week. Meanwhile, he raised half as much in donations this quarter than he did last quarter and his campaign is becoming increasingly dependent on personal loans from the candidate. But he held a press conference.

Someone should make a GoLocal-to-journalism dictionary. Exclusive = bi-lined story; top secret = found on the internet, etc…

Good news for the local Democratic party: Bill Fischer.

Sure Rhode Island has its share of business failures, but it’s also got some success stories – none bigger in recent memory than Alex and Ani, the Cranston-based jewelry company that bought Sakonnet Vineyards. The company employs almost 300 people, almost as many jobs as 38 Studios was supposed to bring to the Ocean State. We’re impressed that the company chose local agriculture as part of its expansion plans as it shows genuine business acumen. Good luck!

Speaking of local businesses, Senator Jim Sheehan raises an important point in a GoLocal article about the EDC and Capco: “This may or may not have been a bad decision by EDC, but, the lack of transparency about Capco Steel’s default makes one question the wisdom of the initial decision.”

Notice the map Ted Nesi posts this morning showing which states get more federal dollars than they send to Washington … at a quick glance it looks as if the more conservative the state, the more money they get from Washington. Ironic, or just plain dumb? We report, you decide…

Welcome to Rhode Island, Craig Shwalb, you’ve got big shoes to fill … Here’s hoping Paul left you the referee uniform, you might just need it!

Congrats to progressive Portsmouth blogger John McDaid, who just got his press credentials to cover the Democratic National Convention in September … we look forward to your reports!

Not so fast, Republicans, you can’t have it both ways … either government spending creates jobs or it doesn’t.

 

 

Here’s my advice to any Rhode Islander playing the stock market: bet against any private company that former Governor Don Carcieri and the EDC invested public money in. Not only are taxpayers on the hook for 38 Studios collapse, but it turns out that the state is already paying on a guaranteed loan made to another company, Capco Steel.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think Carcieri must be some secret soldier sent from Corporate America to bleed government by redistributing public dollars to the private sector. Oh wait, that isn’t a secret … it was his campaign platform.

Speaking of guaranteed loans, there is a debate about whether or not the state should pay on the 38 Studios loan as it was a moral obligation bond rather than a legal obligation … I say we pay it; moral obligations should be the highest priority commitments in a civilized society. Then again, I also think we had a moral obligation to the retirees whose pensions we cut. It remains to be seen whether or not the state has a legal obligation to pay those retirees what we told them we would…

Talk about government intrusion … the Woonsocket animal control officer has confiscated a local family’s chickens.

Speaking of local food, is the state’s $11 million a year lobster industry in danger? According to the Projo warmer Bay waters are leading to less lobsters.

And speaking of losing local residents, Justin Katz continues on his crusade to prove that people are moving out of Rhode Island to avoid paying local taxes. This time he’s got great data to back up that people are leaving but absolutely no evidence whatsoever that they are going to skirt taxes … in my opinion, it’s highly more likely that, if people are making life choices based on government services, it’s probably public schools not taxes that are driving the decision. More likely, its a function of a changing demographic … as younger families move away in search of better schools and or jobs, they are being replaced with baby boomer retirees affluent in assets but no longer in income.

Hope to see you tonight at Common Cause RI’s first-ever post-session General Assembly Roundtable. It’s at 6 pm at the Providence Art Club on Thomas St.

Here’s one way sexual bigotry negatively affects society … Think Progress reports that almost half of homeless youth are of the LGBTQ community and cite being ostracized by their family as a reason for being on the streets.

And another bird video, this one of an osprey in a tree (apologies for the shaky camera, I was shooting from a kayak):