Justin Katz
Yes, the governor has been too quick to allow the budgetary games to continue, and before that he was too eager to present an optimistic picture. Most definitely, furthermore, public department heads should have been loud and visible declaring the unrealistic nature of the requirements and budgets that they were given. But as long as…
I highlight this only because I think Crowley, in his ineptitude, stumbles into an error of reason that others exhibit more subtly. Pointing to the expressed concern of Howard Weizmann, deputy director of the U.S. Office Of Personnel Management, that expanded domestic partner benefits would increase incidents of the sorts of fraud depicted in I…
Hoping that repetition will get the message across, Ed Achorn tells Rhode Islanders that happy thoughts will not turn the beast around: These pages have spelled out for years what must be done: Cut spending to what Rhode Island can afford. Make taxes competitive with (at least) those in neighboring states. Attack the public-employee-pension nightmare,…
The Bush administration is entirely right to permit healthcare providers to refuse tasks that they find objectionable: The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new “right of conscience” rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion…
Russ Harding is skeptical of the persistent claims about “green jobs” being an economic stimulus: Economic prosperity requires that we have access to both reliable and affordable energy to heat our homes and power our factories and vehicles. A steep run up in energy costs coincided with an economic recession in the 1970s and is…
How’s this for a study in contrasts: OF ALL THE COMMUNITIES EXAMINED BY CHANNEL 12, THE STATE POLICE HAD THE LOWEST RATE OF ACCIDENTAL DISABILITY PENSIONS. MOST CITIES AND TOWNS WERE UP AROUND 40, 30 PERCENT, SOME IN THE 20S. YOU GUYS WERE AT EIGHT PERCENT. I THINK IT WAS OF 230 RETIREES, ONLY 19…
It’s strange that this, from Rod Dreher’s argument for the centrality of religious social conservatives to the Republican Party, should have the air of something controversial: Times change. Today, the greatest threats to conservative interests come not from the Soviet Union or high taxes, but from too much individual freedom. Look around you: Americans have…
Once you get over the fact that they make a living doing for the left what we on the right must do as a hobby, a messaging guy like me really has to sympathize with the plight of those charged with maintaining the components of the status quo that have done so poorly for Rhode…
Yeah, I get that the top-of-page story on today’s Rhode Island section is more of a departing profile than report on the state’s conservation efforts — even if the title is “Federal conservationist gives Rhode Island Top Marks” — but a word about the costs of some of what Roylene Rides at the Door applauds…
Yet another task force, this time addressing education in Rhode Island, has convened and tossed some suggestions out into the public breeze: Expand the school day. Offer preschool to all students. Allow students to earn a high school diploma by taking night classes or enrolling online. … The task force also recognized that the state,…
