Marc Comtois
ProJo reports: A Superior Court judge ruled today that the East Providence School Committee “acted lawfully” when it unilaterally cut teachers’ salaries and forced a 20 percent contribution to their health insurance costs last year. Facing a deficit of more than $4 million, the board made the reductions in January 2009, saying it had to…
Erstwhile Democratic presidential pollsters Pat Caddell (Carter) and Doug Schoen (Clinton) have penned a piece about the political prospects facing their party amidst the health-care drama. Yet, what caught my attention was their concise summary of the things upon which most everyone agrees: There are enough Republican and Democratic proposals — such as purchasing insurance…
In a column devoted to a preemptive strike against the guidelines being floated by the impending Common Core State Standard Initiative, Cato’s Andrew Coulson points in a different direction. The whole idea of imposing a single set of age-based standards on all students rests on a false premise: that children are identical widgets capable of…
With their recommendations to President Obama to nominate local Democrat Party mega-donor lawyer Jack McConnell to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, we learn that Senators Reed and Whitehouse are proving to be unique evaluators of judicial talent. Apparently, McConnell has joined previous nominee O. Rogeriee Thompson as being one of the 4 nominees (out…
Yesterday I mentioned the report that federal employees make more than private employees in most occupations. Now we learn that 6 out of the 10 wealthiest counties ( and 11 of the top 25!) are suburbs of Washington, D.C. Rank County Population Median household income 1 Loudoun County 277,433 $110,643 2 Fairfax County 1,005,980 $106,785…
ProJo has the story: Acting Auditor General Dennis E. Hoyle said…cities and towns need to look at their sometimes generous retirement plans, determine whether they are “sustainable or not” and make changes. He said cities and towns could improve the situation by making full contributions each year, raising employee contributions and transitioning out of defined-benefit…
USA Today recently published a story regarding their analysis (utilizing Bureau of Labor Statistics data) of the pay differential between similar jobs in the public and private sector. According to their study: Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according…
ProJo scribe Ed Achorn just released a new book, Fifty-nine in ’84, which tells the story of Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn’s 1884 season with the Providence Grays when he won 59 consecutive games. Old Hoss was indeed a character, something that can be seen even in the stills captured in this video: But there’s more…
It’s been a few days since the main players were divulged, so–based on information gathered in various stories–here is an attempt to show the links between the known players in the Providence PD drug ring and others. These links aren’t to be inferred as an accusation against those not charged, but they are interesting in…
In a press conference yesterday, Providence Mayor David Cicilline announced the implementation of a random drug-testing policy for the Providence police department. How does a random drug test policy help find drug-dealing cops? While one member of the PPD was a user, the rest weren’t (as far as I know, based on what’s been reported).…