Justin Katz
I suppose the truth of the following depends on the measure by which one gauges “control”: “There is no plan to subcontract people out of these jobs. It hasn’t been studied. It’s just kind of like shooting from the hip to justify those cuts,” said Richard Ferruccio, president of the prison guards’ union. “It’s not…
A comment from the “stunned” Senate Majority Leader Teresa Paiva Weed in yesterday’s Projo article raises a couple of beguiling questions: As a tradeoff for the new work requirements and time limits the state adopted in 1996, she said, Rhode Island made subsidized health care and childcare available so, she told the luncheon audience, talk…
And to think — as the cost of driving my work van, carting around the tools and materials of a jobsite carpenter, resumes its upswing — Froma Harrop had the solution all along: Take oil. It’s not Bush’s fault that fast-growing China and India have fired up the global demand for oil, thus boosting its…
The following aspect of the Rhode Island Department of Education’s approach to dealing with dramatically tightening budgets is wrong-headed for two reasons: The $1.16-billion budget proposal also doubles fees for teacher certifications and permits, from $100 for a five-year professional certification to $200, for example, in an effort to generate about $400,000 in revenue. The…
I can’t help but think that New York Times movie reviewer Stephen Holden misses the significance of Bella by, well, by the distance between life and death: It is not hard to see why “Bella,” a saccharine trifle directed by Alejandro Monteverde, won the People’s Choice Award at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. This…
This is for those who think that Rudy Giuliani’s philosophy on the judiciary will compensate for his personal view on abortion: “But with Roe—a strict constructionist judge could come to either conclusion about Roe v. Wade. He could come to the conclusion that it was incorrectly decided, overturn it, or he could decide well, it’s…
It’s a curious — somewhat humorous — thing to read a well-meaning and fair-minded progressive attempting to work his way around to advising the other side. Here’s Ian Donnis: One school of thought, popular among at least a few of the posters at Anchor Rising, is that the state’s budget meltdown will cause dramatic and…
Not to pick on the Ivy model of Rhode Island’s College Republican collection, but this line from Sean Quigley, second vice chairman of the College Republican Federation of Rhode Island, treasurer of the Brown College Republicans, and Brown Daily Herald columnist, is too precious to let pass: “I don’t mean to sound elitist, but we…
The obviousness of keeping the Internet out of the hands of U.N.-approved tyrannies provides an opportunity to consider the internationalist impulse more generally: When hundreds of technology experts from around the world gather here this week to hammer out the future of the Internet, the hottest issue won’t be spam, phishing or any of the…
Unfortunately, Melissa Wicks’s letter to the Sakonnet Times does not appear to be online, but the Tiverton resident has a point of view with which many folks outside of town government and a specific neighborhood probably sympathize: Since the current Sakonnet River Bridge is so pristine, I can see why there is a $14 million…