How does bad legislation pass the General Assembly?
With laughter.
“I’m not going to say it’s a good bill, but I move passage,” said Representative Joseph Shekarchi about the Plumber’s Continuing Education Bill. The bill, which mandates continuing education for plumbers unless the plumber’s age and experience add up to 80 or more, went on to pass the House 59-10. On July 15 the bill became law without Governor Gina Raimondo‘s signature. She didn’t veto the legislation, but she wasn’t about to add her name to it.
Representative Jared Nunes rose to oppose the bill, calling it, “really poor public policy,” before adding, “you almost have to be a mathematician to figure out if you can be a plumber or not.”
Featuring Representatives Nicholas Mattiello, Joseph Shekarchi, Jared Nunes, Joseph Trillo and Stephen Ucci.
Here it is, no editing required:
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Featuring reps Arthur Handy, Joseph Trillo, Michael Marcello, James McLaughlin, John DeSimone, Thomas Pelangio, Dennis Canario and Arthur Corvese.
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Now, I’m not a seasoned law enforcement professional, but given a lot of ink has been spilled over the ability of government to monitor Internet activity without much oversight, it seemed suspicious that the FBI would notify someone if they were hacking a computer. It seems to me that if you’re looking for documentation of wrongdoing, you’d get a warrant or request it from a possibly cooperative source like MacBeth. And if you didn’t want MacBeth or anyone to know, you’d get permission to do it secretly.
So I did what I usually do in cases like this, I searched “the FBI has taken over my computer” online. And I found this little piece of malware (more specifically, ransomware) known as “Reveton” or “the Moneypak Virus” from a number of articles from one to two years ago. Basically, it’s something you accidentally download from either a bad website or email and then locks your computer until you pay. The ransomware poses as the FBI, or if you’re in another country, that nation’s police or cybersecurity force. The genuine FBI has been warning people about this virus for a while.
Now, the details of Rep. MacBeth’s encounter with someone claiming to be the FBI hacking her computer doesn’t quite match up with what’s described in the above links, and from her summation of the events, we don’t get a detailed picture of what happened. Perhaps it really was the FBI. Or perhaps, (and in my view, more likely) this was an iteration of the older piece of malware; since it’s shown to be pretty adaptable.
If it’s the latter, I hope the Speaker asks himself why he made her House Oversight Chair. Frankly, I’d look for a healthy level of skepticism on the part of the Oversight Committee Chair.
P.S. A number of articles note that this virus could be stopped by having up-to-date antivirus software. If you’re a cheapskate like me, there are plenty of free alternatives. And yes, Mac users, that means you too! You get viruses as well, so protect yourself before you wreck yourself.
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