Monique Chartier
Can’t find any web reports but I heard a news report that the House has just passed the non-economic stimulus bill and the Senate was expected to act on it later today. Do you support or oppose this bill? Let your voice be heard. Senatorial contact information below. Senator Jack Reed: (202)224-4642. Website. Senator Sheldon…
[This post should in no way be interpreted as an acceptance or approval of the “stimulus” bill furiously being worked out in Congress. The premise that massive government spending can lift or save an economy is a non-starter; most of the line-item spending in the bill qua economic stimulus is an absurdity. In short, this…
A caller to WPRO’s John Depetro today reproached the East Providence School Committee for failing to engage the teachers union in substantive negotiations and, instead, simply “dictating” terms of a contract. Anthony Carcieri, Chair of the EP School Committee and John’s guest by telephone, explained that, faced with a $3m shortfall, the School Committee had…
We can discuss the weighty obligations that fall to those who choose to serve in elected office and thereby come to possess the tax gun. Emphatically absent from that list of obligations is to cast an ever widening net – in this case, beyond the borders of our country – in search of wrongs to…
We’ve probably all heard of the coordinated sick/overtime scam. I call in sick one day this week so Joe gets to come in on overtime. Next week, Joe calls in sick and I come in on overtime. Now multiply by X. Add to that the nonsense that Justin brings to our attention of elected officials…
The extra financial burden of smoking to the health care system and, more specifically, the state has been put forward as one of the justifications for the proposed one dollar increase to the state cigarette tax being contemplated by the General Assembly even as we speak. It was interesting and a little nauseating to read…
In Saturday’s Pawtucket Times, Jim Baron, who, despite his opinion of another Rhode Island blog, is an excellent reporter that we need to clone, lists those ground-breaking (for Rhode Island) recommendations in the Governor’s supplemental budget. The changes have been touted by mayors and administration officials as “tools” that would allow cities and towns to…
Former Providence Tax Collector Robert Ceprano talks about his termination and events leading up to it in today’s front page ProJo story by Mike Stanton. And below is the text of a press release issued yesterday by Mayor David Cicilline responding to the story ahead of time. Two items stick out from Stanton’s story. One…
Under “General Treasurer Frank Caprio on E-Verify and Immigration,” commenter JoeB asks: Has Lynch taken a stand on e-verify? Good question. Where does Rhode Island’s chief law enforcement officer stand on the question of a tool to aid compliance with certain laws? My quest to answer this question actually began last July. After some research…
It appears that Senator Charles Levesque (D-Bristol, Portsmouth) is once again attempting, minus the kickback, to pick up the slack left by Dolores Rodrigues LaFlamme. Incongruently buried in Bill S0142 entitled “An Act Relating to Alcoholic Beverages — Regulation of Sales” is a substantial modification of the requirements to obtain a Rhode Island drivers license…