Marc Comtois

Watching the Senate: Illegal Immigration Relief Act

By Marc Comtois | February 11, 2007 |

S 0271, proposed by Senators Maselli, Cote, Raptakis, and Felag, seeks to establish the Illegal Immigration Relief Act: It is hereby found and declared as follows: (a) That state and federal law require that certain conditions be met before a person may be authorized to work or reside in this country. (b) The unlawful workers…

Watching the Senate: Charter Schools

By Marc Comtois | February 11, 2007 |

It looks like the Senate is where momentum is building towards a decision on whether or not to allow more charter schools in the state. Right now, there are three bills on the table (that I’ve found, anyway). S 0238 was proposed by Senator Leo R. Blais (Deputy Senate Pro-Tempore) and simply seeks to revoke…

Watching the House: Statewide Teacher’s Contract

By Marc Comtois | February 9, 2007 |

The Governor mentioned it in his State of the State and Rep. Paul Crowley (D) seemed to support looking into it and now a group of GOP legislators have introduced a bill that calls for a statewide teacher’s contract. H 5397 (sponsored by Representatives Loughlin, Gorham, Mumford, Moffitt, and Singleton) states: (a) Effective July 1,…

Watching the House: Dogging the Privatization of State Services

By Marc Comtois | February 8, 2007 |

H 5307, sponsored by Representatives Dennigan, Crowley, Rose, Naughton, and Church seeks to create more oversight when it comes to state spending on non-state employee services. (a) All state expenditures by any state department for non-state employee contracts, legal services, consultant fees, business services, fees paid to temporary workers or individuals who are not employees…

Watching the House: “Fair Share Health Care Report”

By Marc Comtois | February 8, 2007 |

I honestly don’t know what to make of H 5331–proposed by Representatives Amy Rice, Eileen Naughton, Peter Lewiss, Donna Walsh, and Edith Ajello (Deputy Majority Leader)–which seeks to require that all businesses that employ more than 1,000 people create and submit a “Fair Share Health Care Report.” On March 30, 2007, and annually thereafter, an…

Watching the House: Adjusting the Political System

By Marc Comtois | February 8, 2007 |

As if the whole Rhode Island system of disaffiliating and re-affiliating doesn’t allow for enough shenanigans, H 5320, proposed by Representatives John DeSimone (Chair of the House Separation of Powers Committee–sheesh) and Peter Wasylyk want to make it even easier. Howe? By reducing the time between disaffiliating and re-affiliating from 90 to 29 days: Here’s…

Watching the House: Different Perspectives on Illegal Immigration

By Marc Comtois | February 8, 2007 |

Then there is H 5367 (Proposed by Representatives Peter Palumbo–Deputy Majority Leader, Stephen Ucci, Joe Trillo, Raymond Church, and Arthur Corvese) which seeks to create “THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION RELIEF ACT”. The purpose of which is: This chapter seeks to secure to those lawfully present in the United States and this state, whether or not they…

Watching the House: Civil Unions

By Marc Comtois | February 8, 2007 |

Representatives Paul Crowley, Elaine Coderre (Deputy Majority Whip), John Patrick Shanley, Donald Lally, and J. Russell Jackson have proposed H 5356, which seeks to establish legal Civil Unions in Rhode Island. 15-3.1-2. Requirements. – For a civil union to be established it shall be necessary that the parties to a civil union satisfy all of…

Watching the House: Stop State Employee Insurance Buyouts

By Marc Comtois | February 8, 2007 |

While some are privileged enough to get regular emailings from the General Assembly, the rest of us can still keep an eye on the Bills being proposed in either the Senate’s or the House’s daily proceedings. Now, even if most of the legislation proposed by the the Republican delegation stand about as much chance of…

DePetro and Yorke: Can they be Happy Together?

By Marc Comtois | February 7, 2007 |

When I read that WPRO had dropped morning host Dave Barber, my first thought was that they must have hired someone new. The only question was: who? Too early for Buddy…Arlene? Now we know, as reported by both the ProJo and Phoenix, former WRKO and WHJJ host John DePetro has joined the WPRO fold. The…