Justin Katz
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
The RI Senate has approved the supplemental budget, largely in the form that the governor proposed. I haven’t had the time to figure out this, though: The plan restores $5 million of the $7 million the governor had proposed to eliminate for the Neighborhood Opportunities Program, which supports affordable housing initiatives. That funding will go…
Times are so dark — and the general thrust of the solution so obvious — that special interests and other general-revenue soakers can’t even escape to the Lifebeat section for relief. Credit goes to Rita Lussier for using her influence for the cause of sanity: Not to alarm you, but this situation is a ticking…