Justin Katz
To begin with, let’s focus on the word that caught Republicans’ eye and drew out the label, “woke”: Last month, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) sat down on his office couch and recorded a video explaining that he’d be voting against a $1.5-trillion government spending bill that included $13.5 billion in aid for Ukraine. “There are…
John DePetro and Justin Katz talk about Rhode Island politicians’ battle against the need for change in what they do and how they run.
Something about creating an acronym out of technical jargon for life experiences gives it a dangerously dehumanizing feel. I have in mind this pair of tweets from Democrat state representative Marcia Ranglin: What are Adverse Childhood Experiences? CDC indicates that ACEs can have Traumatic experiences in childhood and the teenage years may put children at…
The Annenberg Center on the Study of Educators at Brown University took a look at employee retention in the Providence school district and concluded that there has not been an “exodus of teachers”: Using data up and including the start of the 2021-22 school year, we show that, while retention did fall in Providence more…
Sometimes when you’re busy and check in on the news, it seems nothing makes sense, so let me make sure I’ve got a complete picture, here. Immediately upon entering office, Joe Biden took deliberate steps that were certain to drive up the cost of fuel (restricting drilling, canceling a North American fuel pipeline, etc.), and…
John DePetro and Justin Katz take on the recent craziness of RI politics.
The recently released video promoting Republican Ashley Kalus’s campaign for governor provides reason to think she’s got some real opportunities and exposes some of the risks her campaign faces: On the risk side, her references to bringing policies from specific other states is the sort of thing that rubs provincial Rhode Islanders the wrong…
Legislation from socialist state Representative David Morales should be a warning to institutions (whether non-profit organizations or for-profit businesses) about furthering the power of progressives: Industry leaders and university officials in Rhode Island were outraged after a bipartisan slate of lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would allow host cities to impose taxes on endowments…
Somehow, I’d hoped that a silver lining of the pandemic would be a little more wariness among lawmakers about tripping over unforeseen circumstances. But we’re back to normal, now, in ways good and bad, so the state Senate has returned to the pressing business of forbidding Rhode Island stores from offering customers the option of plastic…
The inaccuracy of Steve Ahlquist’s tweet is worth noting, but it should be a springboard, not a stopping point: 86% of Johnston voters voted to approve a $215 million proposal to finance the largest modernization of education facilities in Johnston’s history. The results table he appends does indeed show that 1,100 people voted to approve…