Justin Katz
Two bits of testimony from Tuesday’s opinion pages are worth reading if you missed them. The firstL comes via Ed Achorn: MIKE HAMEL grew up in Providence. He went to work at the age of 16 at Regal Plating on South Street, drying the jewelry produced at the plant. He has been working ever since.…
This passage from the latest Rhode Island Catholic column from the consistently insightful Fr. John A. Kiley is worth sharing: Somewhere towards the end of the last century, Fear of God yielded to fear of alienation. Not a few prelates, priests and parents have been profoundly afraid to speak up lest they lose their audiences.…
Latino Public Radio Chairman Pablo Rodriguez offers his own version of “un pueblo unido no mas sera vencido” (emphasis added): I want to believe the governor when he says he is not anti-immigrant. However, his concept of the immigrant community stands in stark contrast to the realities of families and relationships. Thousands of small businesses…
Credit is due to the editorial writers of the Rhode Island Catholic for the following: Unfortunately, many groups and individuals have failed to grasp the call for calm and constructive dialogue on this serious issue. Last week at the Rhode Island State House, while an immigrant group loudly protested Governor Carcieri’s actions, they also stormed…
Not only are disposable diapers not taxable, not only do diaper services generate individual income, not only are they taxed via that income and other methods, but apparently diaper services are less expensive in the first place: For Representative Handy, who apparently has trouble with numbers, that means on average that it costs a mother…
So flawed is the construction of the ballyhooed income gap finding that one hardly knows where to begin. How about with a statement of principle on page 17 of the source report (PDF)? The United States was built on the ideal that hard work should pay off, that individuals who contribute to the nation’s economic…
This is odd. My morning blogging session was disrupted by the discovery that the story at the very top of the Providence Journal’s front page, today, “Study finds gaps growing in R.I. between haves and have-nots,” doesn’t appear to be available online. Well, I’ve got to go to work, but if experience is any guide,…
Governor Carcieri’s executive order is already proving to be a success: Rhode Island’s decision to order State Police and other state agencies to help enforce federal immigration law is jarring border cities in Massachusetts, where illegal immigrants say they are now afraid to enter the Ocean State. If they’re that reluctant to cross a state…
Commenter JP has it right: The Providence Phoenix profile of the Providence diocese’s immigration point-woman Stella Carrera is yet another litmus test on the issue. Consider one of several stories from her clients: One of the faces Carrera knows is that of Carla Rodriguez (not her real name), a 42-year-old Guatemalan native who has been…
I’d been meaning to note financial planner George Wright’s thoughts on demographic trends in Rhode Island: Financial advisers are seeing a noticeable increase in affluent retirees moving out of the state, especially to Florida, which has no state income, inheritance or personal-property taxes, and is about three hours away on Southwest Airlines. Here’s a plan:…