Justin Katz

Tough Decisions for the Tiverton School Committee

By Justin Katz | February 12, 2008 |

Superintendent William Rearick of the Tiverton school district just announced that federal grant funding is being reduced $200,000. He’s gone back through the budget and found $27,513 in reductions (e.g., $4,000 from high school textbooks). Another $77,464 can be saved by reducing a middle school Math Literacy position by 4/5. Now begin the pleas for…

Destination, Heaven

By Justin Katz | February 12, 2008 |

Apparently, it presents a particularly acute public safety hazard to cause discomfort among those walking by abortion clinics, per these “legislative findings” (PDF): Preservation of public safety is a fundamental obligation of state government. Pedestrians have a right to travel peacefully on Rhode Island streets and sidewalks. Clearly defined boundaries around reproductive health care facilities…

Taking Care of Rhode Island (In the Hit Man Sense)

By Justin Katz | February 11, 2008 |

The business section of the Providence Journal was full of discouraging words, yesterday. Consider this from the dangerously clueless Senate Finance Committee Chairman Stephen Alves (D., West Warwick): When I asked him afterward about his remarks, Alves said that state tax collections were down last month, compared not only with January 2007, but also with…

The Final Day

By Justin Katz | February 11, 2008 |

Today is the final day to get in on our order of Anchor Rising sport shirts. (Although we’ll welcome donations at any time throughout the year.) As I’ve said, we’ll keep Anchor Rising going as long as we’re able, simply out of passion and interest, but having greater resources at our disposal would dramatically broaden…

If There’s No Free Ride, then Ride Away

By Justin Katz | February 10, 2008 |

Maybe it’s my irredeemable conservatism, but something about the news that the Providence-Newport ferry will be giving its swansong rides this year doesn’t quite make sense to me: The state’s popular high-speed ferry from Providence to Newport, a breezy way to see the Bay from one end to the other, will end this fall, Rhode…

Which Way the Population Blows

By Justin Katz | February 10, 2008 |

With the numbers debate becoming increasingly involved, and now that it is clear that we RI bloggers are no longer merely talking among ourselves, I thought to expand my examination of population and wealth trends in Rhode Island. The most straightforward method is to start where I began with my proclamations of middle-to-upper-class flight from…

The Percent of the Percent, or the Additional Percentage?

By Justin Katz | February 9, 2008 |

It’s good to see that the gatekeepers over at RI Future have allowed somebody actually to address the points that I’m making (as opposed to making distinct points and scoffing at whatever it was that some right-winger was saying elsewhere). That somebody turned out to be sometime Anchor Rising commenter Thomas Schmeling, and his argument…

A Surcharge of Dictatorship

By Justin Katz | February 9, 2008 |

Last year, I referred to legislation to ban surcharges on gift certificates as going “the extra totalitarian mile,” and the intrepid Senator Chris Maselli (D, Johnston) has put on his cross-country jackboots again this year: When Rhode Island enacted legislation a few years ago prohibiting all gift cards and certificates sold in the state from…

Environmentalists Mugged by Reality

By Justin Katz | February 9, 2008 |

This article would have been noteworthy based simply on pure irony: The rush to grow biofuel crops — widely embraced as part of the solution to global warming — is actually increasing greenhouse gas emissions rather than reducing them, according to two studies published Thursday in the journal Science. One analysis found that clearing forests…

Four Reasons to Stick to Coursework

By Justin Katz | February 9, 2008 |

Sadly, it seems unlikely that Brown philosophy professor Felicia Nimue Ackerman’s attitude is the majority one on American (at least New England) campuses. Here are four reasons that she didn’t “devote a portion of class time” on a particular week “to teach about climate change”: Reason 1: Climate change is not what students signed up…