This story of course brings into discussion an important side-note worthy of dissection. My editor at CounterPunch, Jeff St. Clair, has been adamant in his work as an environmental activist that the nuclear energy industry might at some point try to parlay the approaching depletion of fossil fuels and the global warming trends into an excuse for using nuclear fission as a “bridge fuel” away from carbon-producing ones.

Besides the obvious problems of meltdowns and accidents akin to the disaster at Fukushima, there is also the fact that nuclear waste produced by such plants is poisonous and dangerous. Uranium and other materials that cease to be powerful enough to generate electricity still are potent enough to pose a risk to humans. The disposal of the stuff is quite problematic.

Right now, the University of Rhode Island is host to a small reactor dating back to 1960. While providing some research material for students, it also costs a good deal of money for the state. In 2011, an intern was “accidentally” exposed to radiation in the facility. It is located quite close to the water and, should something ever occur, it would prove to be quite dangerous for the entire Narragansett Bay. The air within a twelve mile radius would be filled with radioactive iodine were there to be a core breach.

The proliferation of the fracking industry poses a viable threat for future tectonic activity that could severely damage the reactor. Climate change will create more powerful storms that could also cause problems. With all these factors in mind, it is important to be on guard for the sneakiness of the nuclear industrial complex.

Can we finally put to rest the false idea that the rich will leave Rhode Island if the state raises taxes? The Earls aren’t fleeing the Ocean State, they flock here. We’ve got the best beaches and we treat our rich like they are royalty.

And even if we only had the best beaches, the New York Times this weekend threw more cold water on the tired old talking point that there will be a wealth exodus if we make the affluent pay their fair share.

It’s an article of faith among low-tax advocates that income tax increases aimed at the rich simply drive them away … That, at least, is what low-tax advocates want us to think, and on its face, it seems to make sense. But it’s not the case. It turns out that a large majority of people move for far more compelling reasons, like jobs, the cost of housing, family ties or a warmer climate. At least three recent academic studies have demonstrated that the number of people who move for tax reasons is negligible, even among the wealthy.

Yes, Rhode Island is going through a scary population decline. But it’s not because the rich are leaving Newport for Westport or Greenport. It’s because middle class folks can’t find jobs here anymore. This study of California shows that while the convention wisdom has been that rich people leave the Golden State because taxes are too high, it turns out that it’s actually the middle and low-income people who make up most of the out-migration.

From 2005 to 2011, California lost 158 people with household incomes under $20,000 for every 100 who arrived, and 165 for every 100 people with household incomes between $20,000 and $40,000. In contrast, just slightly more people with household incomes in the $100,000-$200,000 range left than came to California (103 out per 100 in), and California actually gained a hair more people in the $200,000+ range than it lost (99 out per 100 in). The rich aren’t leaving California, but the poor and the middle class are.

Turns out they do. Here’s the response I got from Phil Corbett, the associate editor for standards:

Our stylebook has long cautioned reporters against using the “right to work” phrasing, on the grounds that it is a loaded term favored by one side in the debate. It also, frankly, just isn’t very informative to readers who don’t know what the fight is about.

This is a case where it’s best just to explain, tersely, exactly what the law would do. That’s what our reporters tried to do in today’s story.

For us, it’s not a question of taking sides, but of trying to use language that’s as neutral as possible. For similar reasons, we avoid using both “pro-choice” and “pro-life” to describe the sides in the abortion debate.

Here’s the story from today’s Times, and here’s how the reporter described the new Michigan law (emphasis mine):

…advocates of the legislation, which outlaws requirements that workers pay fees to unions as a condition of employment, lauded…

The Providence Journal ran an Associated Press story today that used the phrase. My 2002 AP Stylebook lists “right-to-work” as appropriate terminology. If the Associated Press and others are still using this term, they should revisit this decision as it’s both misleading and biased.

RI Future hosted a really interesting debate about it in the comments of my first post on this. It’s well worth giving them a read.

Rhode Island, says New York Times number-crunching blog FiveThirtyEight, is the most politically elastic state, meaning that “a large swatch of its electorate are persuadable voters unaligned with either political party.”In a separate piece on political elasticity Nate Silver describes elastic states as “those which have a lot of swing voters — that is, voters who could plausibly vote for either party’s candidate.”

It’s one of the reasons, FiveThirtyEight reports, that we elect a lot of Democrats to the General Assembly and a lot of Republicans to the governor’s office. (We haven’t had a Democratic governor in almost 20 years!)

But it’s also one of the reasons why our hugely-Democratic legislature generally passes some pretty conservative legislation … Just consider our landmark pension reform law that conservatives around the country are so fond of, or our new voter ID law – we’re the only blue state in the country to have one!

Speaking of State House races … only in East Greenwich (okay, and also Barrington and Greenwich, Conn.) is an upper-middle-class, fiscally-conservative/socially-liberal, white, male professional “not your typical General Assembly candidate” because he is a doctor rather than a lawyer or a businessman! EG needs to diversify like Central Falls needs tax dollars; the difference is one deficiency is debilitating and the other is easy ignore.

The reality is, because of the aforementioned attributes, Dr. Mark Schwager couldn’t be a more demographically typical state legislator. He’s also the best candidate in a three-way race to replace Bob Watson (the outgoing fiscally-conservative/socially-liberal, white, male professional from Agrestic … er, I mean East Greenwich). Schwager’s medical experience would serve the state well on Smith Hill and, even more importantly, he possesses impeccable character – an increasingly rare quality in politicians in particular but also people in general…

…And speaking of upper-middle-class, white East Greenwich professionals with impeccable character, EG owes a huge thank you to Patch Editor Elizabeth McNamara, who covers her community as well as any other reporter in Rhode Island.

Mark Binder says Gordon Fox is for sale. A serious allegation. Now that the ProJo put it on the front page, they ought to go out and ferret out the truth. Grab that list from Binder, call and ask everyone on it what their expectation was for their donation and then let us know what they say.

“Like Lazarus, Cicilline appears to have risen from the ranks of the political dead,” Cook Political Report on the Congressman’s comeback, according to Ted Nesi.

Bob Kerr on grinding: “Come on, people, June and Ward Cleaver left the building a long time ago.”

I’m with Mike Riley on this one … Jim Langevin should have done the WPRO debate with him and Abel Collins.

And here’s another instance of me agreeing with a conservative on a fiscal matter.

Employees from Illinois will rally today at Sensata headquarters in Attleboro to protest their jobs being outsourced to China. Sensata is not only partly owned, and created by, Bain but Mitt Romney owns stock in the company and he recently profited from transferring his Sensata holdings to a foundation, according to a New York Times expose on Romney and Bain’s ties to China.

“About a dozen workers from the Freeport plant and other businesses associated with Bain Capital say they will show up at the headquarters building at 11 a.m. to seek an explanation why their jobs are being sent to China,” reports Rick Foster of the Attleboro Sun Chronicle.

Tom Gaulra, one of the employees who is losing his job, recounted his experience working for a Bain-created company in the Huffington Post today.

I’ve worked at the same factory in Freeport, Ill. for thirty-three years, making sensors and controls for the auto industry. It’s tough work, but it pays a living wage with health benefits that folks can count on, and it fuels our town’s economy and tax base.

That’s been changing since Bain Capital came to town. Two years ago, our factory was sold to Sensata Technologies, a company created by Bain Capital, and they told us that by December 2012, all 170 of our jobs would be shipped to China. They even made us train our Chinese replacements.

Gaulra writes that while Romney didn’t work at Bain when they created the company that outsourced his job, he is making money off of his misfortune.

…Mitt Romney’s connection to Sensata is even more direct. He is also personally invested in Sensata Technologies, according to his 2010 and 2011 tax returns, and last year got a huge tax break by moving some of his Sensata stock to one of his foundations.

That’s right: Mitt Romney got a big tax break on his investment in his company that’s shipping my job to China. My pain is Mitt Romney’s gain.

The New York Times wrote about Mitt Romney’s ties to Sensata in an article last week titled “As Romney Repeats Trade Message, Bain Maintains China Ties.”

Mr. Romney also has millions invested in a series of Bain funds that have a controlling stake in Sensata Technologies, a manufacturer of sensors and controls for vehicles, aircraft and electric motors that employs 4,000 workers in China. Since Bain took over the operation in 2006, its investment has quadrupled in value. Bain continues to own $2.6 billion worth of Sensata’s shares.

Two years ago, Sensata bought an operation that made automobile sensors in Freeport, Ill. At the first meeting with the plant’s 170 workers, Sensata managers announced that by the end of 2012 all the equipment and jobs would be relocated, mostly to Jiangsu Province. Workers have staged demonstrations, pleading for Mr. Romney to intervene on their behalf.

Chinese engineers, flown to Freeport for training on the equipment, described their salaries as a pittance compared with Freeport wages. Tom Gaulrapp, who has operated machines at the factory for 33 years, said he fears he will go bankrupt after he loses his job on Nov. 5.

“This goes to show the unbelievable hypocrisy of this man,” he said of Mr. Romney. “He talks about how we need to get tough on China and stop China from taking our jobs, and then he is making money off shipping our jobs there.”

It is often difficult to determine precisely how much Mr. Romney benefits from specific investments by Bain funds, since his money goes into a pool used to buy stakes in companies. In the case of Sensata, however, it is clearer because he reported a charitable donation of $405,000 in Sensata stock that he received as “partnership distributions” in 2010 and 2011, according to his tax returns.

Jiangsu Province, where most of the Freeport jobs are moving, is one of China’s designated “export bases” for auto parts. Asimco, the other auto parts manufacturer in Bain’s portfolio, also has factories in Jiangsu Province and three other regions designated as export bases.

The Chinese government incentives offered to companies in those “bases” set off a complaint from the United States to the World Trade Organization last month. The United States asserted that in 2011, China spent $1 billion on grants, tax preferences, lowered interest rates and other subsidies to increase exports of auto parts in violation of fair trade rules.

Mr. Romney has been critical of these types of Chinese incentives to bolster exports.

It’s well established that things are looking pretty good for David Cicilline, and now Cicilline is predicting good things for Democrats prospects of retaking control of the House of Representatives. The incumbent congressman told RIPR’s Ian Donnis, “The reality is we need 24 seats to take control away from the Republican Tea Party caucus that is now leading the House . I think it’s absolutely possible for Democrats to take back the House.”

Cicilline might be right. Mitt Romney’s 47 percent comments have completely rejiggered congressional contests all over the country, and strategists think it could cost the GOP the Senate.

Speaking of the 47 percent, here’s how the 53 percent benefit from government subsidies.

Dan Yorke had a great and informative conversation with Dem spokesman Bill Fischer yesterday afternoon about polls … if you want to know more about the difference between polls and push polls, listen to the segment. There’s been a lot of misinformation going around about the difference.

This should be a huge concern for Rhode Island: “More than a fifth of children in Rhode Island are living in poverty, and over 10 percent are in extreme poverty.”

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera had a great piece on the Chicago teachers’ strike and the so-called education reform movement. He writes, “teachers are fighting for the things industrial unions have always fought for: seniority, favorable work rules and fierce resistance to performance measures. City Hall is fighting to institute reforms no top-performing country has ever seen fit to use, and which probably won’t make much difference if they are instituted.”

Aaron Regunberg also wrote about the Chicago teachers’ strike for GoLocal.

Bob Kerr on the father-daughter dance controversy in Cranston: “This is nonsense. There is legal cover for it, but it is nonsense. It sounds like a spoof on political correctness, but it is far too real.”

Rest in peace, Mary Carpenter … Rhode Island owes the entire Carpenter family a debt of gratitude for helping to make Matunuck the community it is today.

Today in 1938, a hurricane hits Rhode Island.

So bad have things gotten in Rhode Island that the state’s largest homeless shelter has failed a building inspection. Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, told the Providence Journal, “It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that the shelter would not pass inspection. Harrington Hall is clearly not an acceptable place to house people.”

Unrelated, Dan Lawlor reports that homelessness has increased by about 10 percent over the last five years.

And here’s a headline that shows another sign that things are getting tougher for the poor here in Rhode Island: Food-stamp rolls jump 136% in RI, double US increase.

Meanwhile, the state is spending almost $10 million to buy land in nearby Warwick for a public park.

When taken all together, it’s little surprise Mitt Romney’s 47 percent comment didn’t make a bigger splash here in the Ocean State. . Speaking of which, here’s President Obama talking about it with David Letterman last night.

Even Paul Ryan criticized Romney’s take on the 47 percent. The Republicans running for office here in Rhode Island had no comment. I’m a little surprised the local mainstream media didn’t press them more for a comment on the matter.

New York Times numbers-cruncher Nate Silver thinks popular progressive incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse might not have his re-election campaign completely locked down. He calls Barry Hinckley an “interesting and unorthodox candidate.” Indeed, he is. He’s already on record as saying he’ll represent out-of-state interests in exchange for campaign donations. That isn’t being “libertarian-leaning” as Silver describes him, that’s called being for sale to the highest bidder.

Central Falls is again making national news. And unlike last year, both the city and the state are winning praise from the press for their ability to quickly bandage the struggling city’s fiscal woes in bankruptcy court. But the national media is focusing on an aspect of Central Falls’ restructuring that local reporters here in Rhode Island don’t like to talk about.

According to the New York Times: “The plan, which is expected to become effective in mid-October, will ensure that the city repays its bondholders, largely by raising taxes and making deep cuts in pensions and other employee benefits.” And according to Reuters: “The case has garnered attention for its treatment of the city’s bondholders, who remain unscathed while pensioners took a huge hit, in contrast with some other recent U.S. municipal bankruptcies.”

The Providence Journal story, on the other hand, contains no such reference to the preference given to out-of-state investors over in-state economic participants.

Did you miss President Obama’s acceptance speech at the DNC last night? If so, here it is. He made the case that he can better grow the economy, protect the middle class and handle foreign policy. Some reactions here.

One of the most hotly contested State House primary races is Laura Pisaturo’s challenge to Michael McCaffrey, and it’s now making national news with a story with a story in the Washington Blade (Hat tip to Ian Donnis). McCaffrey is a staunch opponent of marriage equality but enjoys the backing of organized labor because he supports binding arbitration. Pisaturo, on the other hand, is a lesbian and a lawyer who enjoys the support of the rest of the progressive community. Our prediction: it will be close.

Verizon can keep them, but it seems that a judge has ruled that text messages are protected by the Fourth Amendment.

Here in the DINO capital of the Northeast, we like to pretend that teachers’ unions are to blame for our poor public education system. More likely, though, poverty is the real problem.

One way to make Anthony Gemma look sane is to stand him next to Chris Young.

It turns out we are better off than we were four years ago.

Ever wonder how the U.S. got the nickname Uncle Sam?

Today in 1933, Cape Cod cranberry bog workers go on strike.

Three years later Buddy Holly is born.

Joe Nocera’s piece on ALEC in Woonsocket wasn’t about direct links, it was about what ALEC’s ideas on municipal government look like when applied to a financially struggling city. “It’s not pretty,” he concluded.

Besides, model legislation may be useful but in a way ALEC’s ideology has already gone viral.

This is how the New York Times reported on this pretty recent phenomenon in April:

“Most of the attention has focused on ALEC’s role in creating model bills, drafted by lobbyists and lawmakers, that broadly advance a pro-business, socially conservative agenda. But a review of internal ALEC documents shows that this is only one facet of a sophisticated operation for shaping public policy at a state-by-state level. The records offer a glimpse of how special interests effectively turn ALEC’s lawmaker members into stealth lobbyists, providing them with talking points, signaling how they should vote and collaborating on bills affecting hundreds of issues like school vouchers and tobacco taxes.”

Of course, ALEC has no blueprint on what to do when a city goes through what Woonsocket is going through. No city has ever gone through what Woonsocket is going through: the General Assembly, specifically the House, prevented the elected city council and mayor from raising revenue enough to avoid insolvency at the behest of three local legislators because they preferred receivership to taxes. There’s no model legislation for that.

But make no mistake about it, Brien’s policy positions for his hometown are tailored perfectly to how his fellow ALEC board members would want him to handle the situation. His stock in the far-right, anti-government group will surely skyrocket if the Woonsocket budget crisis is balanced on the backs of public sector retirees rather than private property owners. He’ll be the star of the conference in Salt Lake City this summer. Maybe Baldelli-Hunt will go too, she’s also an ALEC member.

Brien said he hasn’t been in touch with anyone from the organization since he attended a conference in May. He didn’t need to be. He implemented perfectly the broad brush ALEC game plan: fight taxes, shrink government and bust unions.

That may be why Times columnist Joe Nocera talks about the “ALEC philosophy” rather than the ALEC smoking gun. Nocera certainly didn’t blame ALEC for Woonsocket’s woes, as Ted Nesi reported. And while playing the ALEC card might sound unseemly when one words it as such, it is altogether fair in this instance. There is, as I wrote in my piece, “enough circumstantial evidence to at least raise the question.”

Ian Donnis makes an important point here: “Brien makes no bones about identifying with ALEC’s ‘free markets, low taxes’ philosophy; he says his constituents support the same values.”

There is no doubt Woonsocket is an ALEC-friendly place. There is a local small government group that’s been active the past several years called the Woonsocket Taxpayer Coalition, that adheres to the same low tax/small government values as does ALEC.  And, indeed, ALEC has long had ties to the community. CVS is the only Rhode Island company that is a member of ALEC. And Brien said he got involved with ALEC through former Woonsocket legislative leader Jerry Martineau, who used to be the state ALEC chair in the 1990’s.

“Jerry and I have always been friends,” Brien told me in April. “I wanted to pick up that mantle.”

Brien now owns the ALEC mantle. He should do so for better or worse.

ALEC, reports Times columnist and native Rhode Islander Joe Nocera, “has a very clear agenda for dealing with state budgets. It wants to shrink them. Although Brien has denied that he is applying the ALEC philosophy to his small city, it looks, in fact, as if that’s exactly what he is doing. It’s not pretty.”

Nocera says the Woonsocket House delegation is using the fiscal crisis as an opportunity to shrink government. He even calls it the “ALEC philosophy.”

Brien denies the charge, of course. It’s a point he is incredibly sensitive about.

When I recently wrote that the “General Assembly ought to save Woonsocket from its elected officials” prior to its last chance of the year to approve the supplemental tax bill, he laughed it off. But when I tweeted this that night, he took great offense, immediately leaving his seat on the House floor and coming up to literally yell at me while I sat at the press booth.

@sandyphaneuf @CAndrewMorse Seems more about hurting organized labor than saving Woonsocket.

— Bob Plain (@bobplain) June 13, 2012

Similarly, a week earlier, when I tweeted this and this, Brien demanded a retraction:

#ALEC is getting into the corporate ed. deform effort. Here in #RI, this is a big issue for @RepJonDBrien50, an ALEC board member. #NN12

— Bob Plain (@bobplain) June 7, 2012

#ALEC is also getting into pension slashing efforts. @RepJonDBrien50 wants to fix Woonsocket deficit by taking from city pension fund. #NN12

— Bob Plain (@bobplain)

While many have speculated that the Woonsocket House delegation’s decision not to support the supplemental tax bill had to do with Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt coveting the mayor’s office, it could have more to do with Brien’s idealogical adherence to the ALEC game plan.

He’s brand new to the once-shadowy, ultra-conservative organization’s board of directors (RI Future broke this story) and had just recently come home from his first ALEC meeting as a member of leadership when the Woonsocket House delegation launched its effort to sink the supplemental tax. If Brien and the rest of the Woonsocket House delegation didn’t see the crisis in Woonsocket as an opportunity to implement the ALEC agenda locally, I’m sure his colleagues on the board of directors wish that he had.

There’s certainly enough circumstantial evidence to at least raise the question.

Initially, Brien suggested borrowing from the city pension fund to close the budget gap – a move that certainly would have created a pension crisis where none exists today. On one hand this may seem like robbing Peter to pay Paul, but it’s not. Every Rhode Islander understands that if the problem lies with pensions, we can simply slash those pensions, though we would never treat taxpayers this way. If it hurts organized labor, and you’re an anti-union ALEC conservative, all the better.

Also, the Woonsocket delegation did little to advocate for more education funding money for their struggling city, even though the school department is currently suing the state saying they aren’t paying up quick enough. But instead Brien lobbied hard for Gov. Chafee’s municipal aid package, which would have helped cities like Woonsocket in that it would have eroded collective bargaining rights.

The now-infamous Woonsocket trio of Brien, Baldelli-Hunt and Phillips also tried to kill a federally-mandated sewage treatment plant when they were negotiating with the governor’s office about the supplemental tax. Not only would it have shrunk government, but it would have done so in a way that would have relegated a pesky environment-protecting project mandated by the EPA and the Clean Water Act to the back burner – talk about an ALEC home run!

ALEC experts from Washington DC have cautioned me against looking for fingerprints left by the far-right organization. Since garnering so much bad press recently, they said, ALEC has adapted and learned to operate without leaving a trail. To that end, it’s at the very least worth exploring.

If Nocera is correct, and the Woonsocket House delegation didn’t support the supplemental tax as a way to implement ALEC’s dreams of a smaller government, then this picture I took of Baldelli-Hunt talking to the media as Brien looks on during the last night of session certainly captures that story: