Patrick Laverty

Should Rep. Dan Gordon Be Forced Out?

By Patrick Laverty | September 20, 2011 |

Dan Gordon is the embattled RI State Representative from District 71, representing Portsmouth, Tiverton and Little Compton now facing calls for his resignation. According to the Providence Journal, he will “absolutely not” step down. That would seem there are only a couple other options to forcibly remove him from office. There was previously some mention…

In State Tuition for Non-Citizens Again

By Patrick Laverty | September 19, 2011 |

A panel of the Governor’s Board of Higher Education has recommended that Rhode Island offer in-state tuition to non-residents of Rhode Island. If you’re not a US resident or citizen, is it possible to be a Rhode Island resident, by the legal definition? I guess according to the Board of Governors, you can. Even more…

Teachers Bucking Their Union

By Patrick Laverty | September 18, 2011 |

Out in Chicago, Democrat Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel campaigned on a promise of longer school days. Now that he’s actually following through with this, the teacher’s union is balking. But the part of this that is most surprising is the teachers are knowingly and voluntarily contradicting their own union.…

Oh Froma

By Patrick Laverty | September 15, 2011 |

I never really paid much attention previously to people’s opinions of Froma Harrop and her columns. That is in part because I’ve seen her criticized from both sides of the political spectrum, so how bad can she really be? Well, her column on Wednesday in the Providence Journal sure seemed to make her biases evident.…

Two Republican Victories in Congress

By Patrick Laverty | September 14, 2011 |

The Republicans won two US House seats by special election yesterday, in Nevada and New York. In Nevada, Republican Mark Amodel won the seat replacing Dean Heller who was appointed to replace John Ensign. The Nevada win wasn’t unexpected as that district has never elected a Democrat in its history, but a 22-point victory was…

HIV Being Used to Cure Cancer

By Patrick Laverty | September 14, 2011 |

I first heard of this through the comic strip XKCD and thought that it was the author exaggerating a research trial a little. Turns out, he was spot on. The New York Times wrote about a recent study where doctors are able to used an attenuated HIV-1 to infiltrate and destroy cancer cells. The nutshell…

Victory for the Unions?

By Patrick Laverty | September 13, 2011 |

This morning, Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter ruled against a summary judgement for the state and said there is an implied contract between the state and the unions with regard to their pensions. It seems the state was seeking to get a Council 94 lawsuit thrown out, via summary judgement, saying that because the pensions…

Hey Iraq, Be Careful of What You Wish For

By Patrick Laverty | September 11, 2011 |

Let’s try to hold off the trolling comments from the start. I believe in hindsight, the US never should have gone into Iraq the second time, we went there with faulty information. Now, to the point of the post. According to the NY Times, many Iraqis are a bit nervous about the recent information that…

NYC Responders Not Invited

By Patrick Laverty | September 10, 2011 |

Ten years ago, hundreds of first responders, firefighters, police officers, and port authority officials weren’t invited to the World Trade Center towers. They weren’t invited to run up dozens of flights of stairs with their gear, with firefighting equipment. They weren’t invited to give up their lives on that day. But they went anyway. They…

Teaching September 11th

By Patrick Laverty | September 8, 2011 |

In the Valley Breeze today, I was happy to read that the Lincoln Middle and High Schools will be teaching the events of September 11, 2001 to the students. The part that disappointed me a bit was that they will be talking about it with the students, for the first time. “[LHS Principal Kevin] McNamara…