Quick Read

A traffic camera

Here’s what I wonder about East Providence school zone ticket cameras.

By Justin Katz | January 14, 2022 |

For seven weeks, East Providence sent warnings instead of tickets to drivers who went more than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit in school zones.  The system issued 69,528 such warnings, in fact, which works out to about 1,420 per day. The cameras have only been snagging drivers for actual $50 tickets for…

People at picnic tables

According to the mainstream narrative, who is actually responsible?

By Justin Katz | January 14, 2022 |

In order to improve them, we have to understand how our institutions work, but we’re not very good at assessing them anymore. Maybe the problem is the mix of self-esteem culture with identity politics and progressive domination of our cultural institutions.  Saturated in that social brew, our governing class has become something like a giant…

Two different scales

The conclusion is simple: what they expected was different from what happened.

By Justin Katz | January 13, 2022 |

Kevin Roche doesn’t mince words, and readers who generally agree with the point of view expressed hereabouts will enjoy his essay. but this paragraph is a good springboard for something I’ve found pretty obvious, lately: Nothing is going to stop the butt-kicking coming in November, but it will be magnitudes worse if we aren’t out…

Old painting of fighting puppets

Even honest leftists see what a problem CRT and modern progressivism is.

By Justin Katz | January 13, 2022 |

I’m not sure why so many people miss this. It is in the nature of “progressivism” to “progress,” according to the lights of the ideology.  By definition, there is no destination short of perfection.  Moreover, there can’t even be a pause for evaluation as “progress” is made.  Wherever a new generation finds itself as a…

RIDOH Director Nicole Alexander-Scott

Dr. Alexander-Scott is out in the Department of Health.

By Justin Katz | January 13, 2022 |

Not a lot of details have been provided, but Department of Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott has given her two-week notice to leave her job: Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, will stay on for two weeks during the search for new leadership, McKee said. She will then act as a…

Reporters taking notes

At the intersection of COVID and politics, omissions proliferate.

By Justin Katz | January 13, 2022 |

How does a news organization publish an entire article, by WPRI’s Steph Machado, with associated television news clip, about a tug-of-war between the mayor of Providence and the city council over vaccine mandates for police and not mention crime in the city? The deadline is Friday for all city workers to get at least one…

"Your Vote Is Your Voice" sign

Black Rhode Islanders should recognize how much Harrison Tuttle’s ideology hurts them.

By Justin Katz | January 12, 2022 |

Harrison Tuttle is not merely another run-of-the-mill progressive with all of the approved leftist views.  He’s also the director of the Black Lives Matter Political Action Committee in Rhode Island.  So, when he takes a position on an issue, one would expect him to do so in light of the interests of black people. His…

RI's "extreme" sea level map.

Aren’t there any standards for checking a politician’s environmental claims?

By Justin Katz | January 12, 2022 |

As a follow-up to Tolly Taylor’s sea-level scare addressed in this space yesterday, WPRI handed editorial control over Democrat Senator from Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse, whom the reporter permits to claim without context that Rhode Island will see nine to 12 feet of sea level rise by the end of this century. Seriously, don’t the…

Racial conflict fist as a green light

The First Circuit rejected students’ claim of a Constitutional right to civics education.

By Justin Katz | January 12, 2022 |

Judge Denise Casper of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals made an important point while dismissing an appeal by Providence students seeking to assert a right to more-extensive civics education in public schools: Citing earlier cases, the First Circuit said no other court suggested teaching a specific subject was required by the constitution, save,…

U.S. Capitol Building

Accusations that the media was like Pravda were once exaggerations; no longer.

By Justin Katz | January 11, 2022 |

Jill Colvin’s Associated Press “article” about the hiccup Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas had with the Republican base over a comment related to January 6 may be the single best example I’ve seen of the mainstream media’s new approach.  It’s truly “the party line.”  For decades, conservatives have been bashing establishment news organizations by…