In Depth

A Literal Notebook Dump

By Carroll Andrew Morse | March 6, 2013 |

To fill in some of the unplanned posting slack in these very interesting times we’re living through, I present to you an actual notebook dump (with annotations). The underlined phrases are entries from my Anchor Rising dead-tree notebook, followed by a brief description of the posts they were (and still might) supposed to become. Meanwhile,…

Coming up in Committee: Nineteen Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, March 5 – March 7, Part 2

By Carroll Andrew Morse | March 4, 2013 |

10B. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees will hear large rafts of bills on motor vehicle law on Tuesday, March 5 and Thursday, March 7, respectively. {H5505, S0470, S0564} and S0355 toughen penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, H5779 for driving to endanger, and {H5379, S0565} for both; H5666, submitted at…

Coming up in Committee: Nineteen Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, March 5 – March 7, Part 1

By Carroll Andrew Morse | March 4, 2013 |

Local Impact: Coventry Inobvious Priorities: H5101 >> no driving with a dog in your lap; S0008 >> warning labels that say cell-phones may cause brain cancer (for the record, the American Cancer Society’s position is here); S0171 >> laundries must post prices of each garment cleaned. 19. One inobvious priority slides its way into the…

One of the Few Manufacturing Jobs that We Don’t Need: Gov Chafee Manufactures Out of Thin Air a Brand New Business Climate Factor

By Monique Chartier | March 3, 2013 |

The headline of Governor Chafee’s OpEd in today’s Providence Journal summarizes his premise: Gay marriage key to flourishing R.I. economy But is it? Several analyses have placed Rhode Island at or near the bottom for business-unfriendliness. What criteria did they use to rank the states? Helpfully, in their December, 2012 report [PDF] “A Review of…

The Mysteries of Employment Statistics

By Justin Katz | March 1, 2013 |

According to a news release from the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT), there are actually 800 fewer people employed in Rhode Island than previously thought. But that’s a good thing… because even more people gave up looking for work than we thought. Recovery! Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…

Budgeting for a Sequester

By Carroll Andrew Morse | February 28, 2013 |

Numbers between $17M and $25M are being reported as the cost of the sequester to Rhode Island state government spending. However, if a few state departments did nothing more than stay within their original FY2013 budgets, and the funding tentatively intended for their overruns could be intelligently redirected, the impact would only be about half…

Late Addition: Bills on Requiring Armed Guards at Schools to be Heard Today

By Carroll Andrew Morse | February 28, 2013 |

A bill (H5068) requiring cities and towns to post an armed guard at every school in Rhode Island was posted Tuesday for a House Municipal Government hearing today. Here’s the complete text: The school committees of various cities, towns, and school districts, shall appoint a guard to each school building within their jurisdiction. The guard…

Apathy and Fear in Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | February 27, 2013 |

Most Americans probably know very little about Rhode Island beyond the fact that it is at the wrong end of an awful lot of national economic and civic rankings. Residents of the state who’ve sought some explanation for its willful decline inevitably come across the concept of “Rhode-apathy.” Under the thralls of what force would…

02/26/13 – A Conversation with Bruce Katz

By Justin Katz | February 26, 2013 |

Justin liveblogs from Brookings Institution VP Bruce Katz event with the RI Foundation.

Things We Read Today (49), Weekend

By Justin Katz | February 25, 2013 |

An article not about what it’s about; sequester demagoguery; softening kids for “effort shock”; and the rise of grassroots fascism. Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…