Marc Comtois
Sometimes its the sports pages that hold the important cultural news of the day. Today’s win-at-all costs sports culture provides plenty of fodder for those of us interested in supplying our youth with teaching moments. The recent admission by Alex Rodriguez that he took steroids is but one example of just one high profile and…
Nothing, in my opinion, is more deserving of our attention than the intellectual and moral associations of America…they are as necessary to the American people as [political and industrial associations], and perhaps more so. In democratic countries the science of association is the mother of science; the progress of all the rest depends upon the…
In the ProJo story about West Warwick handing out 188 layoff notices (wow!), there was this little nugget: State law requires that teachers be notified by March 1 that they will no longer have jobs the following September, and many school districts routinely send out pink slips by the deadline while acknowledging that most, if…
So says Robert Flanders,chairman of the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education. Prison guard (and union member) James Petrella essentially agrees: James Petrella, a prison guard, has a few things in common with his son’s teachers. He is in a union, and he knows what it’s like to work without a contract…
What takes up 10% of my weekly paycheck? Family health care, that’s what. And that’s just my share. My employer kicks in some, too. Like so many other employees of small businesses, my company had to health-plan shop again this year to find a way of keeping costs down. In our case, the health care…
New Hampshire Senator Jud Gregg removed himself from consideration as Commerce secretary. While his disagreement over the “stimulus” package may be the main reason–his stand on principle–the shenanigans that the Obama Administration is engaged in with the 2010 Census may have been the final straw. John Fund recently explained the danger with having the White…
Hey, looks like the average Joes and Jills are going to get a whole $13 extra a week thanks to the “stimulus” bill. So, what are YOU gonna do with all that extra coin?
Inspired by the chart unveiled by the Governor during last night’s State of the State speech, I went over to the RI Department of Labor and Training’s website last night and downloaded employment figures from 1990 to 2008 (all that was available–I used the “not seasonally adjusted” figures). I was interested in looking at the…
Good evening fellow Rhode Islanders and visitors from near and far. The Governor of Rhode Island, Donald Carcieri, will be giving the State of the State Address at 7 PM. This post is being provided as an “open forum” for people to comment upon the speech and its contents. So, if your of a mind…
A couple freshman RI legislators–one a Democrat and the other a Republican–have introduced a bill (PDF) to discontinue straight-party ticket voting in RI. From the Projo Politics blog: Freshmen Representatives Brian C. Newberry, a North Smithfield Republican and Democrat Michael J. Marcello, of Scituate, have teamed up to submit legislation that would prohibit straight-party voting:…