Monique Chartier

One Legislator’s Pay Raise = A Mini Legislative Grant Program?

By Monique Chartier | July 22, 2012 |

For those possibly unfamiliar with it, the Legislative Grant program is a tax dollar slush fund controlled by General Assembly leadership from which tax dollars are distributed solely by and at the discretion of leadership to benefit those legislators who have been, in the eyes of leadership, good legislative Do-Bees. We need to clarify that…

Iowahawk: “DNC Scientists Disprove Existence of Roberts’ Taxon”

By Monique Chartier | July 21, 2012 |

Abject apologies for utilizing whole cloth Iowahawk’s own title for the title of this post. But it perfectly conveys the substance of his brilliant … er, “announcement” of a couple of weeks ago. (“Brilliant” in part because, like the mechanics of the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson, I don’t fully understand it.) WASHINGTON DC…

Mass Residents Now Visit and Spend More at RI Slot Parlors Than Rhode Islanders

By Monique Chartier | July 20, 2012 |

From GoLocalWorcester. Mass. residents spent close to $1 billion last year at New England casinos, continuing in a trend of increased spending over the past several years that beat out every other state in the area. This year was the first time that the Bay State outspent its neighbors, totaling a cool $909 million on…

Rhode Island To Offer Tax Amnesty

By Monique Chartier | July 19, 2012 |

Governor Chafee’s spokeswoman, Christine Hunsinger, confirmed this morning that one of the items in the FY2013 budget was a tax amnesty program. It will run from September 2 to November 15, 2012 and will apply to state taxes including income, sales, use, and unemployment insurance. Note that while monetary penalties and prosecution will be waived…

Haldeman for House 35: “allow me to represent the entire spectrum of our citizenry”

By Monique Chartier | July 17, 2012 |

Below are the first three paragraphs of the column by Jim Haldeman, candidate for RI House District 35, that I tried to poach for Anchor Rising. Haldeman, being a man of honor, tactfully declined my request because he had already committed to another outlet. So you’ll just have to finish reading it on GoLocalProv. (In…

RIGOP About To Disburse $30,000-ish to Republican State Candidates

By Monique Chartier | July 17, 2012 |

Mark Zaccaria, Chair of the RIGOP, was kind enough to spend some time on the phone with me explaining how extensively (not his phrasing) GoLocalProv erred in their story as to the purportedly penurious state of the RIGOP. Hint for GoLocal: you only looked at one account; the party has four. Out of that conversation…

Deepwater Wind: Federal Hearing Monday Night

By Monique Chartier | July 15, 2012 |

Tomorrow (July 16) at 7:00 pm on the URI Bay Campus in Narragansett (215 South Ferry Road; Coastal Institute Building, Hazard’s Room), the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will be holding a “public information session”. Below is a description of the scope of the hearing. BOEM leadership is hosting the following public information sessions…

Obama Administration Weakens Welfare Reform

By Monique Chartier | July 14, 2012 |

From the Daily Caller; thanks to commenter ANTHONY for the link. The Department and Health and Human Services announced the agency will issue waivers for the federal work requirement of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — considered a central facet of welfare reform in 1996 — Thursday. … “Thus, HHS has authority…

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: “I don’t know a single small business in Rhode Island that is going to be made or broken by tax rates”

By Monique Chartier | July 12, 2012 |

How’d I miss this gem? Spoken by the junior senator from Rhode Island during a panel of Van Jones’ “2012 Take Back the American Dream” conference last month. Reported by The Blaze. Democratic Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island chimed in, adding that he did not know a “single small business” that would be effected by…

At What Point Can We Start Reading Into the Unemployment Numbers?

By Monique Chartier | July 7, 2012 |

As Marc notes, the Obama administration’s reaction to an unemployment number that remained unchanged at 8.2% is that it is “a step in the right direction”, as opposed to a Bush era unemployment rate of 5.6% which, according to candidate Barack Obama, was “too early to celebrate”. Further to this month’s unemployment figure, the Obama…