Justin Katz

Raising Concerns

By Justin Katz | May 5, 2008 |

Methinks there’s a missing “my” in Karen Lee Ziner’s “Remarks raise concern” piece on the front page of yesterday’s Local News section: A nonprofit group whose board members include First Lady Sue Carcieri asserts that nearly 45 percent of all immigrants in Rhode Island — legal and illegal — lack high school diplomas and “this…

Anchor on the Air

By Justin Katz | May 5, 2008 |

We wanted to give y’all some time to rearrange your schedules, cancel plans, and disregard obligations: Starting this week, Anchor Rising will have a (roughly) ten-minute spot on the Matt Allen Show, Wednesdays at 6:50 p.m. We’ll be using the time to inform the 630AM/99.7FM WPRO listening audience about what we’re discussing, here on our…

Clarity on Profiling

By Justin Katz | May 4, 2008 |

Race’s status as an umbrella term for an amorphous category of qualities — from skin color to lifestyle choices — justify a significant degree of skepticism about claims of racial profiling. In the context of a recent University of Rhode Island investigation of state police traffic stops and searches (concerning which, I haven’t been able…

The Front-Page Fifteen Minutes

By Justin Katz | May 4, 2008 |

I’m not in the least disputing the Martins’ relevancy as a representative human interest topic (and my family would certainly not be so comfortable broadcasting personal financial information). Still, the Providence Journal’s front-page profile of the family makes me curious about the genesis of the report. Did Journal Staff Writer Lynn Arditi advertise online for…

The Con-Victim’s Choice

By Justin Katz | May 4, 2008 |

Even conservatives may have difficulty finding fault with this The Federal Reserve Board moved yesterday to place new regulations on the nation’s credit card industry that would make it more difficult for lenders to raise interest rates and give consumers more time to pay their bills. If enacted, the regulations would be the most sweeping…

Capricious Iniquity!

By Justin Katz | May 3, 2008 |

I expect it won’t be long until courts begin to realize that this capricious obstinacy has no basis in rational adjudication: Two elderly sisters who live together have lost their final appeal in a discrimination case that claimed they were victims of discrimination under Britain’s civil partner law. Joyce Burden, 90, and her 82-year-old sister…

Re: Re: Another Reason to Private School in Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | May 3, 2008 |

Actually, what struck me about Rhody’s comment was how this early sentence betrays the ridiculousness of his point: If any of us were sent back to work under a court order, our attitude might not be that great, either. Most of us, I venture to suggest, cannot envision circumstances in which a court would have…

Another Reason to Private School in Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | May 3, 2008 |

Here’s another shining example of what public sector unions — specifically teachers’ unions, specifically the NEA — have wrought: The state Department of Education does not endorse the high school’s plan for students to stand before their English classes to present their senior projects — a new graduation requirement here this year. … Most of…

A System of Scapegoats

By Justin Katz | May 3, 2008 |

Although I haven’t yet managed to get a handle on the realistic role and responsibilities of Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), I can’t help but feel that a little outrage on the part of its president, Saul Kaplan in response to legislative hammering: Lawmakers yesterday demanded answers from Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corporation about…

Engaged Citizens and In-Group Activists

By Justin Katz | May 1, 2008 |

As commenter Will noted in response to Marc’s post, Matt Jerzyk thought it worth pointing out something that surely we all noticed (indeed, on which we three mused when the photographer told us that he’d be shooting the RI Future gang the following night): that the Phoenix photos buck left/right stereotypes. In that quality, however,…