Justin Katz
If the published letters in the Providence Journal are at all representative of the volume that the editors receive, regular Rhode Islanders — the true “voiceless” of the state — are beginning to speak up. Here’s Bruce Lang of Newport: … the best way to improve economic development in Rhode Island can be summed up…
It’s only because I know the dispersal of accountability to be a specialty of Rhode Island politicians that I’m suspicious, but a couple of items related to marriage have caught my attention this week. First is news of legislation to be proposed by House Minority Leader Gordon Fox (D, Providence) making same-sex divorce a reality…
Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts’s healthcare proposal (PDF) strikes me as a hodgepodge with components at odds with each other. There doesn’t appear to be a guiding principle, creating the risk that the good points of the program would put a reform-like light on the bad parts, potentially without even passing themselves. New representative Frank Ferri…
My word won’t be taken on this, but I would love to learn that impressions of Rhode Island’s public education are unjustifiably poor. The ax that I grind is with the amount that we pay for the results that we get, and mathematics proficiency of 50% or less is simply not acceptable in a state…
Amazingly, I’m still getting accused of being a Chafee supporter — this despite my having voted for Laffey in the primaries and Whitehouse in the general, just to get rid of the guy. Granted, I had my reservations about Laffey, mainly because I thought it unwise to export his proclivities and skillset to the national…
Some interesting reading from Leon Wieseltier in The New Republic: All this even before we attend to the elimination of poverty. And into this unirenic environment strides Obama, pledging to extract us promptly from Iraq and to negotiate with our enemies. What is the role of a conciliator in an unconciliating world? You might think…
John McCain just became the first candidate of the season to turn me off with an automated political telemarketing call just as we were succeeding in getting all the children to bed. Couldn’t McCain-Feingold at least have done the good deed of preventing that?
I didn’t make as directly a causal argument as Nandini Jayakrishna makes it sound in her Brown Daily Herald article as her final rendering makes it sound: Though Maselli and Ucci said the bill is consumer-friendly, others think it might end up harming shoppers. “Businesses are not just going to eat the cost of this…
I don’t support residency requirements for such public employees as teachers. It’s nice to think that your children are being taught by your neighbors (as inaccurate as that characterization of fellow townspeople may be), but schools should find the best teachers they can, and teachers should be free to decide where to live. That said,…
Dan Yorke was livid, yesterday, about attempts by General Assembly leaders to grease the legislative chute for the next budget. From the relevant Providence Journal story: Although [House Majority Leader Gordon] Fox [D, Providence] withdrew one provision, the rule changes scheduled for House Rules Committee review following this afternoon’s House session will contain several proposals…