Teacher: RI biz community is ‘below proficient’
This was one of the more interesting statements made at the teacher rally last night – and not because it shows why Deborah Gist isn’t an effective education leader. Rather, because it shows the inherent hypocrisy in our political debate and how varying interests can employ widely divergent logic depending on the situation and where [...]
RI should be like Paradox Studios, not 38 Studios
You’ve probably never heard of Fredrik Wester or the studio he’s CEO of, Paradox Interactive. It operates mainly out of Sweden, a country slowly starting to exert more and more influence in pop culture. And, as Wester points out in this 26 minute talk entitled Using an Axe to Carve a Niche, Paradox Interactive makes [...]
End the era of Citizens United in Rhode Island
Tonight, I will deliver this testimony to the House Judiciary Committee: . . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members [...]
House Finance will hear tax equity bills today
The powerful House Finance Committee will hear two bills on income tax equity today. One sponsored by Rep. Maria Cimini of Providence would raise income taxes on the richest Rhode Islanders by 2 percent and would mean $60 million for the state. The other, sponsored by Rep. Larry Valencia, who represents Exeter, Hopkinton and Richmond, [...]
What do Seattle, RI pension plans have in common?
Seattle, like Rhode Island, sunk a healthy chunk of its pension investment into hedge funds. And here’s hoping the Ocean State’s 14 percent foray into these riskier alternative investments works out better than the 8 percent gamble did for the Emerald City. From Sunday’s Seattle Times: Shorn of its complexity, the story reads like a [...]
Poll: Local teachers don’t like Deborah Gist
Deborah Gist isn’t very popular with the educators she is supposed to be the leading, a new poll by Fleming and Associates indicates. Almost 90 percent of teachers asked for the poll felt that moral in Rhode Island public schools is not good. More than 80 percent of the local teachers polled said they feel [...]
Remember Seth Luther
UPDATE April 29, 2013: Today is the 150th anniversary of Seth Luther’s death. Since last year’s post, records have been found locating Luther possible final resting place in Brattleboro, Vermont. A WIKI page is in formation, and other plans to follow. Here is a great link to a 1974 essay by on Luther by Carl [...]
For MetLife and Rhode Island, size matters
In the brouhaha about MetLife leaving, I did see and hear people try to blame this on the too-high RI taxes. Of course; it’s always about the taxes, isn’t it? I would like to make one point about that. For 2012, MetLife reported $1.4 Bn of operating earnings. In comparison, the $80-90 Mn of tax [...]
Save Ruggles: Iconic Surf Break Is Known Worldwide
The national media has again picked up on the concerns of a vocal minority here in the Ocean State. No, I’m not talking about small government libertarians, this one is a constituency that actually exists in Rhode Island outside of politics. Surfers. Environmentalists, beach bums, wave junkies and the tourist industry have joined forces recently [...]
Gist Offers Logical Fallacies On NECAP Value
I was on the radio ever so briefly this afternoon, on Buddy Cianci’s show with Deborah Gist. Unfortunately, the show’s producer hadn’t actually invited me so I had no idea until it had been underway for an hour. I gather they had a lively conversation that involved belittling the concerns about the NECAP test that [...]
Don’t Mourn The Elm, Organize For Them
The 108-year-old American elm that was felled this week at the John Brown House was one of the oldest residents of Benefit Street. It was as old as the State House, and it predated and outlived many of the iconic factories of the jewelry district. Marsden J. Perry, who had bought the old Brown place [...]
Tax Equity Bill Would Mean $66 Million For State
The state could collect a much-needed $66 million in additional revenue by raising the income tax rate the richest 2 percent of residents pay by 2 percent. That’s the message tax equity advocates will announce at a press conference at the State House this afternoon. “We can’t keep going down this failed path,” said Kristina [...]
EDC: Play Small Ball Rather Than Swinging For Fence
Memo to the brave souls willing to join (or stay with!) the EDC Board: please consider playing some small ball before you start swinging for the fences. There’s no way you could have stopped MetLife from moving 243 jobs out of Warwick short of repeating what your boss just called a “historically poor decision.” North [...]
RI Legislature Should Ignore NRA Lobbyist
In May 1998, I was driving through east Texas. I pulled off at a restaurant to grab a bite to eat. I grabbed a newspaper to catch the headlines. I turned the folded paper over and received perhaps the biggest shock of my life. Mrs. Kinkel, my high school Spanish teacher in Springfield, Oregon, where [...]
New Open Records Law Needs Enforcement
Between 1999 and June 2012, the Attorney General’s office filed lawsuits against public bodies for violating the state’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA) on only six occasions, less than 4% of the time after finding that violations of the law had been committed. That is one of the findings of a report issued today [...]
Business Community Gets Behind Marriage Equality
From big city chief executives to small town chambers of commerce, the Rhode Island business community supports marriage equality, too. “This is about competitiveness and creating an economic climate that allows Rhode Island to attract the best and brightest talent and employers,” said Alan Hassenfeld, former CEO of Pawtucket-based Hasbro, in a statement released today. [...]
Blizzard Mentality vs. the Fetishism of Competition
“Competition” is the word on seemingly every policy-maker’s lips. The Governor tells us that we must improve it. Our Senate Policy Office and the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council have suggestions for how to do that. “Competition” is the stated reason for doing away with programs such as temporary disability insurance, the worker-funded program that [...]
State To Hold Arts Economy Forum Today At Fidelity
Note to State House leaders who organized a forum on building a better arts economy today: maybe a mutual fund and retirement investment corporation located in the suburbs isn’t the best place to have this conversation. How about a downtown museum, library or art gallery? Or maybe even the Columbus Theater on Broadway, the poster [...]
RI’s Charter First To Codify Religious Freedom
A “lively experiment” indeed. Rhode Island’s colonial charter, which celebrates its 350 anniversary this June, “holds a unique place in the evolution of human rights in the modern world,” says Rhode Island College emeritus professor Dr. Stanley Lemons. “When King Charles II approved the Charter in July 1663,” Lemons writes, “it marked the first time [...]
RI: Not As ‘Blue State’ As It Is ‘Not A Red State’
House Minority Leader Brian Newberry had some simple wisdom when the Providence Journal asked him why Democrats do better than Republicans in Rhode Island. “The answer to that is easy: there’s a lot more Democrats than Republicans,” he was quoted as saying. Of course this is true. The Journal then went on to surmise that [...]
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