In Depth

Coming up in Committee: Forty Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, April 2 – April 4, Part 2

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 1, 2013 |

30. S0733: Places the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation in charge of funding “replacement projects” that make use of tax-credits that had been awarded to projects that were abandoned. Submitted at the request of the Governor. (S Finance; Tue, Apr 2) 29. Two agendas concerning multiple bills on insurance regulation will be heard by the…

Coming up in Committee: Forty (Count Them, Forty) Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, April 2 – April 4, Part 1

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 1, 2013 |

Local Impact: Burrillville 2, Central Falls, Coventry 2, Glocester, North Kingstown, Pawtucket, Warwick, West Warwick 2. Inobvious Priorities: H5529 >> Ice cream vendors must purchase their ice cream from a licensed ice cream wholesaler. H5544 >> Removes Portuguese people from the list of people covered by the Minority Business Enterprise section of the law. 40C.…

Journal on Master Lever and Senate Hearing

By Patrick Laverty | April 1, 2013 |

Yesterday, the Providence Journal also came out against the single party voting option, better known around here as the “master lever.” In the editorial, the Journal cites itself from another editorial written in 1948, describing the origins of the master lever. We note that the lever law passed under very dubious circumstances, after an all-night…

If Spiritual Battles Gave Off Sparks

By Justin Katz | March 31, 2013 |

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, so I had intended to watch The Passion of the Christ on Good Friday. But life’s being what it is, these days, I couldn’t manage the 126 minutes required. And by the time Saturday rolled around, it felt more appropriate to turn attention toward the Resurrection, which…

Both Sides of the Chafee Raises

By Patrick Laverty | March 29, 2013 |

I have to admit, I’m torn on this one. The headlines and many people are screaming because Gov. Chafee wants to give two 3% raises to his cabinet members, just six months apart. Yeah, he wants to give more than a 6% raise, in less than a year to directors already making well into the…

Fish on Fridays

By Carroll Andrew Morse | March 29, 2013 |

Nothing symbolizes the supposed arbitrariness of religion to those predisposed towards skepticism towards religious belief more than does the Catholic practice of eating fish on Fridays during the season of Lent. I’ll admit to having asked myself, especially on Good Friday, what connection there is between fish and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And then…

What Dan Harrop Halted

By Justin Katz | March 29, 2013 |

Following the announcement of Dan Harrop’s withdrawal as a candidate in the contentious race for Rhode Island Republican Party chairman, some question arose as to the move’s significance. The evening before, the RIGOP’s Credentials Committee had ruled to dismiss Harrop’s complaints about registration irregularities in a prior vote that he lost by one and that…

RIGOP: Knock It Off!

By Patrick Laverty | March 27, 2013 |

This story sounds way too much like the long car trips when the kids in the back seat get on each others’ nerves enough to where the parent screams “Do I have to separate you two?!?” This might be necessary with the state’s Republican party. I’m sure by now, most Anchor Rising readers are familiar…

Government Authority and Respect

By Carroll Andrew Morse | March 26, 2013 |

In case you missed it, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee had this to say, during a taped interview broadcast this past Sunday on WLNE-TV’s (ABC 6) “On the Record With Buddy [Cianci]” and linked to by Katherine Gregg of the Projo…[T]he media just gets themselves whipped up…who’s the piñata of the day, who’s the punching…

Government Nurses Joining Quarter-Million-Dollar Club

By Justin Katz | March 26, 2013 |

The Ocean State Current has an article up by Suzanne Bates (freelancing from Connecticut’s Yankee Institute) detailing the sky-high overtime that some staff at the state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital take home. These numbers come to light every now and then — usually with just a glimpse because a nurse or two makes the top however-many…