Monique Chartier
With apologies to Andrew for breaking in here. Just returned from the State House. The House had broken for dinner when I arrived shortly before 8 pm. So, in lieu of watching the budget action on the floor, I had the pleasure of conversing at length with a gaggle of good government types – with…
… ’cause that’s what Governor Chafee has done today. Governor Chafee declined on Thursday the U.S. Government’s request for temporary federal custody of Jason W. Pleau, charged with murder in the case of a Woonsocket gas-station owner killed on the steps of a bank. Here is the statement from the governor’s office: Mr. Pleau is…
The RI Tea Party sent out the following alert yesterday. Union leaders are behind the scenes looking for their quid pro quo as a result of the budget freeze on longevity payments. They are lobbying the Senate Labor Committee and all members of the Senate for the passage of binding arbitration on fiscal matters in…
Heh. Someone posted an advertisement on the free classifieds website Craigslist this month seeking to enlist Democratic challengers to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, a Newport Democrat up for reelection in 2012. The person who posted the ad was identified only by the e-mail address automatically generated by the website: comm-rmdy8-2436493850@craigslist.org But the person…
On Thursday, for a third day in a row, the day’s on-line newspaper had not appeared until 8:00 am (versus midnight or earlier, which had been the norm). In response to my inquiry, the ProJo sent me the following. Newspaper content is now available on projo.com at 8:00 am each day of publication. To read…
For the seventh year in a row, Representative Grace Diaz (D-Providence) has submitted a bill that would, as the bill language euphemistically phrases it, “exempt” illegal immigrant students “from paying nonresident tuition at Rhode Island public universities, 8 colleges or community colleges”. In other words, illegal immigrant students would be permitted to attend Rhode Island…
Responding via e-mail and under comments to my question, Tim Duffy, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, kindly explains the preamble to and basis of the Portsmouth School Committee’ lawsuit against the NEA-Portsmouth. The Portsmouth school committee implemented a new personnel policy that based teacher assignments on qualifications as opposed to…
Certain members of the msm, demonstrating an interest and a level of energy that they never remotely approached when it came to candidate and then President Barack Obama, have recruited a volunteer army of readers and are currently snuffling through Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial e-mails looking for material with which to embarass and/or ridicule her. The…
Those like myself who are obsessed with politics to the exclusion of almost everything else can be excused for passing lightly over Bob Kerr’s column yesterday; the headline The blind date doesn’t seem to be working out gave the impression that the topic of the column was lifestyle or culture. Not so. It’s like a…
I don’t fully understand the basis of the lawsuit; explications welcome. But this is a refreshing turnabout in a state where public labor lawsuits against elected bodies are filed, seemingly, as easily as shop grievances. Portsmouth officials have filed suit against the town’s teacher’s union seeking to eliminate seniority as a factor in personnel decisions,…