Quick Read

Old painting of fighting puppets

After Russia’s attack, we can only hope the people running things are more competent than they appear.

By Justin Katz | February 25, 2022 |

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — being a strategic attack disrupting a general atmosphere of peaceful exhaustion among European countries — has a cautionary component for analysts.  While one can reasonably suggest that this or that factor is playing a role, strong assertions about the motivations and plans of the people involved are best avoided.  That’s…

Zakary Pereira

Should we question whether Zakary Pereira can tolerate students and constituents?

By Justin Katz | February 24, 2022 |

Imagine a young Christian Rhode Islander running for office with a team of Republican candidates of the Make America Great Again mold taking to Twitter to say: The LGBTQs are coming for the Christian community. Who will look out for our best interests, if not ourselves? Run for office.  Support local Christian candidates.  Fight back.…

Solar farm in North Smithfield

Let’s start making the obvious connections between environmentalist news stories.

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2022 |

Whether I’ve been failing or succeeding, all these years, I’ll leave to others to judge, but one of my core objectives has always been to foster the habit of making the sorts of connections that are too often covered over for political reasons.  Let’s look at a big one. Perhaps with the mixed motivation of…

Piggybank with mask

Keep an eye on progressives’ intentions when it comes to banking.

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2022 |

Author and former Providence Journal opinion page editor Ed Achorn has been tweeting about the Canadian government’s move on banking, and the topic is one that ought to be of much more concern to all of us.  Note this tweet, from Peter Sweden, which Achorn passes along with the comment, “If true, this is terrifying”: In Canada…

Ocean State 131 with Anticommunist/Anticapitalist flag

Was the Providence Nazi protest a false flag or inconsequential opponents’ feeding off each other?

By Justin Katz | February 22, 2022 |

Convenient, isn’t it, that a small group of people making noise and waving a Nazi flag can turn an inconsequential Communist reading by an unknown socialist organization into the hot story of the day in Rhode Island, providing massive advertisement for their little left-wing library? Attempting to make the event seem significant, the Boston Globe tacked…

Two seniors on a bench with a view

The cost of assisted living was up 38% in RI last year.

By Justin Katz | February 22, 2022 |

According to a comprehensive national survey by Genworth Financial, long-term care costs were up in most out-of-the-home settings and are uniformly well above national levels: Keep in mind that these were the increases and costs before the state began enforcing legislation making Rhode Island’s minimum staffing mandates for nursing homes perhaps the most extreme on…

An empty classroom

Yes, we have a near-monopoly in education.

By Justin Katz | February 21, 2022 |

The following sentence, concerning the attorney general’s scuttling of a hospital merger deal, from Ted Nesi’s weekend roundup column brought to mind a different industry: Yet in the end, their plans were derailed by a concern raised on day one: how could a hospital group with roughly 80% market share be stopped from abusing its…

Man reading newspaper

Local journalism must see past the mists of its romantic self-vision.

By Justin Katz | February 19, 2022 |

The Valley Breeze is a notable standout in local journalism, with observable quality and dedication.  Indeed, the fact that its chief editor, Ethan Shorey, spends hours each week actually delivering the paper has a back-to-our-roots feel that one can’t help but admire and encourage for the paper’s peers. But zooming out to the whole industry, rather than…

Construction workers reviewing a site

“Wage theft” legislation is a good illustration of unions’ destructive activism.

By Justin Katz | February 18, 2022 |

If you’re only a casual observer of legislation and/or labor law, you might find news coverage of Rhode Island labor unions’ study on “wage theft” confusing.  The study is about misclassification of workers as independent contractors, yet the rhetoric is about “wage theft.” Are those the same thing?  It’s an important question, because the push…

Hospital beds

The hospital merger controversy is our second warning.

By Justin Katz | February 18, 2022 |

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha isn’t wrong to be concerned about a lack of competition in healthcare in our state, but our selective acceptance of market forces is going to start killing Rhode Islanders: Attorney General Peter Neronha on Thursday rejected the proposed merger of Rhode Island’s two largest hospital groups and joined a…