Brandon Bell, chairman of the state Republican Party, challenged Carnevale’s residency following a WPRI investigation that showed Carnevale spends significant time at a home he owns in Johnston and rents out the house in Providence where he says he lives. “My basis is really the basis that channel 12 reported on in their investigation,” said Bell.

There isn’t a high bar for Carnevale to prove that he lives in Providence. According to state law, he will need only to prove that he hasn’t voted elsewhere and that his cars, credit cards, bank accounts, insurance, tax filings, any businesses he may own and any criminal record he may have coincide with the Providence address.

Carnevale, who has declined to discuss the allegation, was not at the meeting. It’s unclear if he will have to appear at the subsequent hearing on his voting and candidacy eligibility. That hearing is likely to happen in July, after the deadline to file for candidacy.

A certified letter will be sent to Carnevale alerting him of the proceedings. I asked Claudia Haugen, chairwoman of the board of canvassers, to which address for Carnevale the letter will be sent.

“It would go to, I’m sure, the Providence address,” she said, with a smile.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Allan Fung and Ken Block both support Common Core, cutting taxes, shrinking government, federal – not local – immigration reform and a women’s right to an abortion.

And despite admitting they would support the other in the general election during Tuesday night’s WPRI/Providence Journal debate, the thing they seem to agree on the most is the belief that their opponent would be a bad governor of Rhode Island.

Fung called Block a “political opportunist” and “not a real Republican.” He said he “has a difficult time reading municipal budgets” about an accounting error Block admitted to. “How can we trust him” with the state budget, he asked.

Block, on the other hand, said Fung is too familiar with local government. “If you’re happy with Rhode Island the way it is, vote for my opponent, or one of the other Democrats,” he said during his closing remarks.

At different points during the debate, they each paraphrased Ronald Reagan’s famous “there you go again” quip to Jimmy Carter. They each blamed the other for the negative tone of the campaign.

“This campaign has been full of venom, vile and half truths,” Block said. “We didn’t start the negativity. You have to respond at some point, anyone who watches politics knows it.”

Fung responded, “I think the viewers of Rhode Island see where much of the negativity and half truths have been coming from in tonight’s debate.”

They even both agreed they didn’t know yet whether they support Education Commissioner Deborah Gist’s recent decision to delay implementing a high stakes test graduation requirement. (Don’t forget, she was appointed by Republican Gov. Don Carcieri)

One rare instance of policy disagreement came on unemployment insurance.

Block says unemployment insurance in Rhode Island covers more seasonal employees than in other states. “We must fix it,” Block said. “There’s no more Republican ideal than having those who heavily use the system pay their fair share.”

But Fung counters that Block is effectively advocating for raising taxes on seasonal businesses such as those in tourism, agriculture and construction. “That is going to crush the seasonal industry,” he said. “I would not support tax raises to those seasonal industries.”

Both, however, agree that the economic burden is best dealt with at the employee level.

After a summer of spending millions to attack and fact check each other in TV commercials, the three leading Democrats running for governor took the opportunity to do so once more at their last debate before the primary.

“My campaign alone has created more jobs in Rhode Island than Narragansett Beer,” Clay Pell quipped of Gina Raimondo’s pseudo-claim in a TV ad that her venture capital investment in Narragansett Brewery helped create more than 1,000 jobs in Rhode Island.

This was the line of the night. But a close second was when moderator Tim White pushed back about Pell’s talking point about not taking any money from lobbyists or PACs. White pointed out that Pell is independently wealthy and that several high level NEARI employees are volunteering their time for him. Rarely does a debate moderator win applause, but this was a question begging to be asked that was unlikely to be addressed by any candidate.

The big lie of the evening came courtesy of Raimondo when she was accused of standing with Wall Street. She replied, “I’m from Smithfield, I’ve never worked on Wall Street.” Wall Street, of course, in this context, is not a physical address.

Angel Taveras’ watershed moment may have been when he asked the TV camera “would you hire someone who has had nine jobs in eight years?” He spent much of the debate on the attack against both Pell and Raimondo, but did not  – notably – dispute Pell’s claim to be the “progressive Democrat” in the race.

The surprise of the evening, for me, was that all three pledged to support the primary winner. It may be a good exercise for all Democrats to spend a few minutes each day until the primary envisioning their preferred candidate campaigning for the others, and vice versa.

Magaziner leaped 20 points to 43 percent while his rival Frank Caprio went from 29 percent to 31 percent.

The ProJo called it a “a striking turn of events.” for Magaziner.

“The poll confirms that Rhode Islanders are excited about Seth Magaziner’s commitment to bring new energy and fresh ideas to the Treasurers office,” said Magaziner’s campaign manager Evan England, “and to make a clean break from the insider politics and mismanagement that have held Rhode Island back for too long.”

England added, “It’s time for a Treasurer who will use the office as a platform for economic growth and invest more in Rhode Island so we bring jobs back to Rhode Island.”

Since the first poll, Magaziner released a popular TV ad that warns against insider politics. Meanwhile Caprio’s younger brother resigned as chairman of the Democratic party amid a scandal about a public concession stand contract he won after a sitting legislator withdrew a winning bid.

You can watch my recent sit down interview with Magaziner here.

Monday Nov 25, 2013
North Kingstown, RI — Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

It’s Monday, November 25th, the first day of the rest of our lives with Iran … and here on the home front it’s freezing outside. In fact, the last time it was this cold for this long, it was February! And don’t expect it to get any warmer until Wednesday, when it’ll be raining cats and dogs. This will obviously stink for all the folks traveling home to see friends and family … but Thanksgiving and Buy Nothing Day will be cold and sunny so you can enjoy high school football and a post-meal walk and then on Friday, you can take in a Walmart protest and the winter coat exchange at the State House.

If you’re looking for a holiday charity to support …. the ProJo says Speaker Gordon Fox and Majority Leader Nick Mattiello are holding fundraiser on December 4 … The House Leadership PAC only has $66,000 on hand, so you can drop off second hand clothes and cans of food at Camile’s on Federal Hill after purchasing a $125 ticket. It costs less to Springsteen than Speaker Fox.

WPRI reports that 34 percent of students from the urban core – Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket aren’t graduating from high school on time. What do you want to bet this 34 percent of the population some day becomes the roughly one-third of the state on food stamps and become most of the 15 or 20 percent of the state that can’t find a job. Meanwhile … on NBC 10 Wingmen this weekend, Justin Katz, Bill Rappleye and I debate whether or not Rhode Island’s economic woes are pretty much isolated to the urban core. You can watch that video on RI Future….

It’s not true that Rhode Island only tops the charts when it comes to bad business rankings … our very own Superman building was named Gizomodo’s number 1 zombie tower in the nation. The empty icon was abandoned by Bank of America last year, and now the building owners are suing the super-sized bank for $23 million, saying it left our Industrial Trust Tower a wreck.

In all fairness, the Ocean State does well on many rankings not related to ALEC’s agenda … like recently the Providence was named the fourth best city for hipsters, behind only Portland, New Orleans and San Francisco.

Russ Moore writes in GoLocal in a column praising business owners, “Nobody can tell me that the government bureaucrat is a public servant but a private sector business owner isn’t.” Well … perhaps somebody should, because one works for the public and the other works for him or herself. This isn’t to say that business owners aren’t good people, but Moore says there would be no public sector without the private sector. Yeah, because the human race would wither and die without a seaside restaurant at which to enjoy fried seafood….

GoLocal also profiles Rebecca Fisher, a Middletown shift captain and thus the highest ranking female fire fighter in state history. “Being a female firefighter is really the same as being a firefighter,” she said, adding, “The job does not change based on your gender.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was mostly correct to classify Republicans under the age of 35 think climate change deniers are “ignorant,” “out of touch” or “crazy,” ruled Politifact. Gene Emery gives him points off for only relying one poll … anyone want to pay Joe Fleming to ask 500 young Rhode Island Republicans this question?

The brilliant Scott MacKay of Rhode Island Public Radio has a , the possible progressive choice for governor in 2014. Comparing him to Angel Taveras, MacKay says, “Pell had a different head start. He’s a son of wealth, WASP privilege and summers in Newport.”

Reverend T. J. Jemison, who in Baton Rogue, Louisiana in 1953 organized one of the first bus boycotts, died last week. He co-founded with Martin Luther King and others the Southern Christian Leadership Council.

Today in…

1911, Emiliano Zapata, Mecixan revolutionary, first proclaims the Plan de Ayala, which demanded elections and land be returned from big hacendados to villagers. In short, “Tierra y Libertad!”

1963, Young JFK Jr. bravely salutes his fallen father.

1968, Revolutionary and Pulitzer-winning writer/reporter/yellow journalist-turned upstart socialist politician Upton Sinclair dies in Jersey.

1986, Attorney General Edwin Meese admits that money from selling arms to Iran was used to fund rebels trying to overthrow a democratically-elected government in Nicaragua.

1970, Sax player Albert Ayler is found floating in the East River … here he is performing Swing Low Sweet Chariot recorded in New York City six years earlier…

“That,” the TV news station reports, “was the message U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha sent Thursday when he announced that nine people are facing criminal charges for allegedly defrauding the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program out of more than $3 million.”

As a point of fact, that wasn’t the message of the U.S. Attorney yesterday. The actual message was that nine people had scammed the system. Here’s how the Providence Journal began its story on the same exact event:

“A two-year federal investigation into food-stamp fraud has resulted in nine merchants involved with five convenience stores in the city being charged in connection with the theft of more than $3 million from the program designed to provide food to many of the state’s neediest residents.”

Less sensationalized, but more accurate.

Food stamp fraud is far more of a political tool of conservatives to smear social services than it is a legitimate social problem. Here in Rhode Island, a recent analysis by right-leaning gubernatorial candidate Ken Block indicated that the actual rate of fraud was less than the national average.

As , “Providence Rep. Maria Cimini, who coordinates the SNAP outreach program at URI, said the national fraud rate for the program known as food stamps is between 1 and 3 percent. Block’s report indicates the fraud rate in Rhode Island is ‘one half of 1 percent,’ she said.”

That’s far below the national average. For more on how the right wing overstates food stamp fraud, Chris Hayes of MSNBC filed this recent report.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here’s how the “food stamp fraud” fraud works:

A news organization finds an outlier abusing the system. The most popular example this summer was when FOX News interviewed this southern California surfer that uses food stamps. The FOX segment indicated that the man drives a Cadillac SUV and surfs everyday, but the San Diego Union Tribune learned that neither was true.

Then, you simply met the right wing outrage machine take over. I’d be real surprised if John DePetro doesn’t think food stamp fraud is most pressing issue in Rhode Island this morning. On the web, Ken Block, pounced on the opportunity yesterday, posting to his Facebook page, “If those who defraud spending programs get nothing more than a slap on the wrist, there is no deterrent value and the frauds will not only continue – but they will grow.” And, “This sort of vigilance is required for every spending program.”

Here’s a handy primer for dealing with those who traffic in the food stamp fraud talking point.

Fraud, of any kind, is not good. But neither is being penny wise and pound foolish. A better strategy for Rhode Island would be to identify how many people are eligible for the SNAP program but don’t utilize it.

And here’s another thing that makes Arlene Violet pretty typical of the Ocean State: she doesn’t seem to have a strong understanding about the underlying issues causing the political problems in public education.

Here’s what she wrote about Deborah Gist in last week’s Valley Breeze: “Disingenuous arguments about how she ‘disses’ educators and only has a one trick pony for evaluation of students’ achievements and teacher competencies failed to derail her.”

On Newsmakers she followed this up by adding:

“It’s just a systemic resistance, for example for teacher evaluations. After I wrote a column in supporting of your reappointment I got my usual feedback when I support you, and they talked about the Rhode Island model teacher evaluation and support system addition 2 is 100 pages written by someone who has never spent a day in the classroom…”

However, there are actual issues with the new evaluation system that incentivize, rather than discourages, the dreaded status quo (that Violet herself rails against). Specifically, that the system being used to evaluate teachers inspires mediocrity. Here’s how an actual educator at the now-famous teacher rally in Cranston very succinctly summed up the real problem with the new teacher evaluation system:

“Less rigor of task or target set to low teacher becomes highly effective; rigorous task and target and the teacher is scored effective and developing. The rating has little to do with the quality of the teaching and everything to do with the subjective development and rating of the task.”

This is why holding someone accountable is only as good as the metric being used. But this didn’t stop Arlene from pretty much ignoring any criticism at all and skipping right over to educators being lazy. “First of all I’d like you to respond to that criticism, but putting that aside,” she asked Gist, “do you feel that anyone will ever accept teacher evaluations or is this just ‘don’t bother me?'”

She may as well have asked if teachers beat their spouses (the most famous example of a hard-to-answer leading question in journalism)! WPRI had no counterbalance to Violet’s support for Gist; the panel consisted of two impartial reporters and Violet, who says on the show that she often supports Gist.

But Gist, to her credit, didn’t take the bait: “They [teachers] want to make sure the process is fair, that the process is high quality and they want to be held accountable in a way that is appropriate and fair, not that they don’t want it to happen at all, that they want to make sure the process is done well.”

First up is Trinity College’s Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture‘s five year old study that showed those identifying as Catholic in our state dropping from 62% in 1990 to 46% in 2008 and those identifying as having no religion rising from 6% to 19% over the same period.  The other study is the 2010 census by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies which declared Massachusetts the most Catholic state, pulling slightly ahead of Rhode Island.

Nesi’s main point, that the Catholic Church continues to be dominant “throughout the Northeast” and that Rhode Island will likely remain one of the most heavily Catholic states “if a new generation of baptized babies stay among the faithful when they grow up” is true, but his analysis ignores important facts about the sociology of religion.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports that 28% of American adults “have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all.”  Furthermore, according to the Pew Forum, “While nearly one-in-three Americans (31%) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24%) describe themselves as Catholic. These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration.”

The CARA blog that Nesi links to in his piece  points to trends that are shrinking the Catholic Church in the United States. Trends are pointing away from Nesi’s rosy conjecture that baptized babies might “stay among the faithful.”

The CARA blog continues, “…in the 1973 General Social Survey (GSS) it is estimated that 88% of Americans raised Catholic remained as such as adults. In 2007, a major study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated that this had fallen to 68%.” If these trends continue, “retention could fall to about 55% when those born in 2011 come of age in 2029.”

Though the polls arrive at various figures about Rhode islanders who identify as Catholics, these polls say little about how Catholic these respondents are. What I mean is that though the Catholic Church and Catholic hierarchy dictate religious and political beliefs to its adherents, especially about social issues like marriage equality and reproductive rights including abortion, actual Catholics have very different takes on these issues.

A 2013 Quinnipiac University Poll showed that 54% of Catholics support marriage equality.  “Catholic voters are leading American voters toward support for same-sex marriage,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. Rhode Islanders United for Marriage recently announced that their coalition now includes a contingent of supporters who identify as Catholic.

On the reproductive freedom front we find Catholics for Choice.  The lobbyist for the Providence Diocese, Bernard Healy, might not allow that members of this organization are Catholics in good standing, but members of this group certainly identify as Catholics when asked by pollsters, and the views of this organization seem more typical of Catholics than those held by the Bishops. A 2011 Guttmacher Institute report found that 98% of American women use birth control that is outlawed under Catholic doctrine.

So though the Catholic Church may well be a major presence in Rhode Island for the foreseeable future, it seems that its future is one of ever diminishing influence and importance

More recently, Nesi put out another piece highlighting data found in the recent Gallup Poll that shows Providence being one of the least religious cities in the United States. This data is in line with the general polling trends I explored above, and should not be seen as contradictory. What we are seeing, I believe, is strong evidence of a kind of “Cultural Catholicism” divorced from the strong stances taken by the leadership of the Catholic hierarchy. A piece by Gary Gutting in the New York Times reflects thinking typical of American Catholics, I believe.

Speaking of his position as a Catholic who holds liberal and non-Catholic views on issues like marriage equality and reproductive rights, but still considers himself a practicing Catholic in good standing, Gutting says, “…the liberal drive for reform is the best hope of saving the Church.  Its greatest present danger is precisely the loss of the members whom the hierarchy and the rest of the conservative core want to marginalize.  I’m not willing to abandon the Church to them.”

That, and the simple desire to continue the life transition marking ceremonies and traditions of the family- events like baptism, first communion, confirmation and marriage- are the factors that allow for people to identify as what basically amounts to being Catholic-in-name-only.

As Mssrs. White and McGowan show, approximately $10,000 out of the $3.1 million spent in Rhode Island EBT benefits are being taken out at ATMs in places where you can buy alcohol and tobacco; and $106 at a place where you can gamble. That amounts to 0.32% of all EBT funds. That’s a miniscule amount. And let’s be clear, these are completely legal ATMs that Rhode Islanders can use under Rhode Island and federal law. By 2014, those locations won’t be legal places and then we can say that 0.32% of EBT benefits are being withdrawn in illegal places. That hasn’t happened yet, and despite the area, there are still plenty of good reasons someone might take money out of an ATM at these places; such as convenience. Even the Twin River location could be explained as an employee using their card.

WPRI called these “questionable” places. Yes they are. But if we’re going to question this, we’ve got to hold up the mirror to ourselves. Has anyone ever charged their business for a “questionable” expense? To align with government assistance, what about that mortgage credit you received for buying a house? Have you bought any alcohol or tobacco since receiving it? Then you’ve used taxpayer dollars to pay for “questionable” expenses. That’s government money you got. What about that Social Security check your grandmother receives? She smoke or drink or gamble? Yes? All three, when she’s at Twin River? Turn her in to the Target 12 Investigators!

The difference between EBT and the mortgage credit and Social Security is that EBT goes to those who need it most. As Mssrs. White and McGowan point out, the maximum a family of four can earn is $1,438 a month and have less than $1000 in assets, not including a house or car. Left out of that is that the family of four is also living in Rhode Island. According the National Low Income Housing Coalition, to afford the “fair market rent” on a two bedroom apartment in Rhode Island and to spend no more than 30% of your income on it (thus making it “affordable”), you’d have to earn $3,081 a month.

There’s a word for stories headlined like the WPRI one. It’s “outrage porn” (the commenters on the story clearly were). And not even good outrage porn, since it found exactly zero cases of fraud. I understand the straits WPRI finds itself in. It needs to get those ratings up, and John DePetro seems to get a lot of mileage of SNAP… but come on, the “Heavy Hitter” getting disability from bankrupt Central Falls this is not.

If you want to be outraged, let’s talk about the butchery that was done to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children to turn it into TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) by the then-Republican Congress and then-President Bill Clinton. TANF doesn’t care about what the circumstances might be, you get a maximum of 60 months (5 years). So if you’ve say, been living in Rhode Island, attempting to make due since the recession started in Rhode Island (which was in 2006 for us, if you’ll remember) you ran out of TANF in 2008, because you didn’t find a job as the national economy worsened, and TANF requires that you find a job in 24 months (2 years) or your benefits are cut off (though states get the option to make the rules worse). Luckily though, TANF is only the callous part of the two programs that use EBT.

The other is SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). SNAP beats every other program the government runs. Hands down, it is the best function of government we have. First, it feeds the hungry. Second, it never runs out because Sens. George McGovern and Bob Dole made damn sure America would not be a country that allowed its people to starve to death. That’s the fundamental vision there: no one should starve to death in the land of the free and the home of the brave. But there’s other reasons to love SNAP.

SNAP is also an economic bellwether. If you’d been paying attention to enrollment in SNAP over the last 10 years (funny story, you probably weren’t), you would’ve seen immediately when Rhode Island entered the recession. It was in 2006 when suddenly SNAP enrollment leapt up incredibly. At the time, administrators believed it was because of the robust outreach program they had. Even if that is true, it should have been a warning that economic circumstances were far more dire then we acknowledged or realized. The state should’ve gone into full recession-fighting mode. But hindsight is 20/20.

SNAP is also an amazing program because it automatically scales back as people don’t need it anymore. Like a good budget, it spends during lean years and then saves during the fat years. But since the American budgeting process it back asswards (spend wildly during fat years and cut back during lean ones), what you saw was Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan pointing to the massive increase in the cost of SNAP and saying “we need to cut this, it’s expensive.” Yes, feeding hungry people can be a bit pricey. But you know what’s even more expensive? Burying people and their children. It costs a hell of a lot more than the average of $1,611.48 per year that we were spending on each of the 47.7 million Americans enrolled in SNAP in September 2012. That’s 15.2% of all Americans in 2012 in case you were wondering.

Likewise, we will waste more more in court proceedings and imprisonment then we will save by attempting to go after the potential of $120,000 in savings. We will destroy families, causing instability and poverty. And Rhode Island will bear the costs, for policing a federal program with overly zealous laws. To save the Feds money, cash-strapped Rhode Island will take on the costs, costs that will undoubtedly exceed $120,000. That’s practically state-sponsored masochism.

We punish the poor so that the well-off can point to their government budget and say “look, we’re cutting back, we’re tightening our belts.” Then they’ll buy some expensive clothes, get drunk at an expensive restaurant, hire a family member or buddy for a $40,000+ yearly salary and blow $75 million on a video game company run by a retired baseball player. But you know what, instead of dealing with that, let’s keep passing laws to make life harder for the working impoverished, homeless, and destitute. After all, they’re just trying to survive in the greatest country on the face of the Earth.

“Cash assistance programs are wonderful for the people that are really in need of it, but for people who want a gallon of ice cream and a filet mignon every night, that‘s not right,” he told WPRI.

Bates is right on both points. Cash assistance programs are great for the people who need them. And nobody should use a government subsidy to engage in extravagance – not EBT cards and not tax credits either.

He’s backing a bill that would make it harder for recipients to use their EBT cards for booze, lottery tickets and tobacco. Steak and ice cream, for the record, would still be allowed.

In theory it’s a great idea; I don’t know anyone who thinks government subsidies should be used for these items. As a practical matter, WPRI points out that it might cost more to enforce than it will save.

Public policy experts say they’re not convinced that regulating the use of EBT cards is necessary. Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a policy coordinator at the Washington D.C.-based Center for Law and Social Policy, said that depending on how states implement the federal restrictions, they may end up spending more on enforcement than the cash assistance recipients spend at questionable retailers.

“Sure, do low-income people buy some things that aren’t ideal? Yes, so do the rest of us,” Lower-Basch told WPRI.com. “It’s how much money do you want to spend on these intrusions? You want to make sure you’re not spending dollars to catch dimes.”

Lower-Basch noted that California is one of the states that already has a monitoring system in place, but said she isn’t sure hiring a company to review every transaction and flag those considered ineligible is the best use of taxpayer money either.

In other words, Rhode Island will have to determine if punishing the poor is more important than small government.

My guess is many legislators, regardless of what legislation they might propose, actually want Rhode Islanders to buy alcohol, cigarettes and lottery tickets. Rhode Island would go broke if they don’t.