The number of Rhode Island families that have stayed in homeless shelters so far this year has increased by more than 30 percent, reports the Providence Journal this morning. If that isn’t startling enough, some 60 percent of the families staying in shelters aren’t even unemployed. That’s right, they have jobs but still can’t afford or can’t find housing.
As Crossroads President Anne Nolan told the ProJo, “It’s trickle-down economics. The people at the bottom have been pushed out and are continuing to be pushed out.” And Nolan is not to be confused with a strict Keynesian.
Meanwhile, the AP reports this sad news: “Police believe a Warwick man barricaded himself in his home and then killed himself after being served with foreclosure papers.”
And as Rhode Island continues to crumble from the bottom up, the Middle East continues to tear itself apart. Let’s hope lame duck Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can inject some peace into the escalating crisis between Israel and the Palestinians.
I really don’t have a good sense of what Rhode Island, or the local progressive community, thinks of this situation. Is Hamas engaging in terrorism, or is Israel engaging in apartheid? Of course, these two loaded terms are in no way mutually exclusive of each other and we like our geopolitical strife to be much more black and white than this conflict is. Unfortunately, it seems it’s not something we debate on the local level. To that end, I’d like to invite a wide variety of voices to share their thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Joe Caramadre may have pleaded guilty to fraud, but I’m not convinced it’s entirely accurate to say he “preyed on terminally ill people.” ProPublica wrote in August that it can be argued he was a Robin Hood-like character, who stole from insurance companies and split the ill-gotten gains with those on or near their deathbeds. I certainly can’t fault him for taking a bigger slice of the take, as he bore a lot more of the risk than did his elderly clients, but they bore some and there’s no evidence he apprised anyone that what he was doing could be construed to be illegal. and given how clever Caramadre seems to be, I’m guessing that at least occurred to him…
I think it’s ridiculous to think that a judge can’t be impartial because a couple of her family members have financial stakes in the case. Though I should add I don’t think it’s unreasonable that the case be delayed until that question is reasonably flushed out. I should also add that it’s very reasonable for the state to delay the cuts until their legality is reasonably flushed out. Besides, won’t all judges have a direct financial stake in the case?
Gov. Chafee met yesterday with activists who say driver’s licenses should be given based on the ability to drive, not where one was born.
The Hollywood Reporter addresses its dark past in blacklisting communist sympathizers.
I second Ian Donnis’ call for more tweeting by elected officials … politicians, I promise your constituents will think better of you for doing this, whether they tweet themselves or not.
I also second Dan Lawlor’s call for mandatory press conferences by legislative leaders. Seriously, it’s comical what reporters sometimes have to do to get a quick quote from either the Senate President of Speaker of the House after the session. In fact, in addition to cars, they also each have security guards whose sole job sometimes is making sure I can’t ask them a question or two.
On this day in 1962, President Kennedy banned discrimination in federal housing programs … 50 years later we’re still trying to implement the spirit of this executive order