Single-family home sales in Rhode Island continued to edge toward equilibrium, in November, meaning that the number of sales increased at an accelerated rate, while the inventory of houses on the market continued to go down. The median sales price continued to go down, too, but its rate of decrease remained steady.
Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
Dee DeQuattro has a post up on the WPRO (630AM) blog, reporting that John Robitaille, the 2010 Republican candidate for Governor of Rhode Island, has announced that he will not run again in 2014.
The article also sets out an initial pool of candidates who might be interested in a 2014 run…
Other Republicans who are speculated as possibilities to mount a run for Governor are Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, VIBCO CEO Karl Wadensten, and former state police superintendent Brendan Doherty.[Open full post]
… that, slightly rephrased, was the reaction via Twitter last night of John Ward to the news that
Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter on Tuesday ordered the state and the coalition of public employee unions challenging the General Assembly’s overhaul of their retirement system to meet with federal mediators and see if a settlement can be reached before the case moves to trial.
In the above ProJo article, reporter Tom Mooney also alludes to Ward’s important point, albeit in a somewhat understated manner.
What’s in dispute is the constitutionality of a law, a question usually left to a judge to decide.
Also on Twitter:
> Anchor Rising’s Andrew Morse spotted the larger, potential silver lining of such an approach.
If I don’t like how a law impacts me, can I also get a judge to order Federal mediators to negotiate changing it?
> Justin Katz points to what is undoubtedly a complete side issue to the ruling.
So an RI judge w/ 3 living family generations in the state pension system gave unions another bite at the apple to undo reform? Surprising!
> And Jason Becker goes to the root of the lawsuit, if not the ruling.
I’m just, surprised no one seems to talk about the fact that this isn’t about process as much as increasing benefits again.
Indeed – increasing the benefits from pension reform that was wholly inadequate to begin with, in large part because the original pensions were exceedingly, patently unaffordable to begin with.
[Open full post]Explaining Rhode Island’s decline in four brief sections: legal process, the economy, the media, and fashionable graft.
Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
When I was in graduate school, I had my first experience with a “closed shop”. I had borrowed enough money to pay for my tuition but didn’t do the usual thing that students do, and borrow enough for things like rent and food. So I had to find a job, and one that was fairly flexible as I was in a program that often included weird hours and schedules. I applied to the local grocery store to bag groceries. I got the job and that’s when the store manager told me about the fact that the employees are unionized, that there’s a joining fee and there’d be weekly dues taken out. I immediately had the realization that this job was not for me. I’m working to support me, not someone else. I didn’t need the benefits that a union negotiates, so I want nothing to do with the union. I declined the job and went to work at a non-union pizza shop. Rent money problem solved, food problem solved. Every penny I earned went to either me or the government, not a third-party.
I often remember my experience when I see people complaining about the “free rider” problem, as described in the Providence Journal where Bloomberg’s Michael Kinsley tells us his view of Labor Law 101.
Without a rule like [Taft-Hartley], unions faced a “free-rider” problem: People could enjoy the benefits of union membership, including negotiation of wages, without sharing in the cost. Not only was this unfair to those who did pay their share, but it made organizing a union significantly harder. Why should I pay union dues if my fellow workers don’t?
Ok, I have the solution to this free rider problem and it’s not new. Let me negotiate my own deal, as I do in my non-union job. If I could have done that at the grocery store, I would have stayed. Let me decide whether I want to be in the union, pay their dues and receive the benefits that they have negotiated. Or maybe I don’t want to be in the union, pay their dues and I’ll work out my working arrangements with the employer. That seems to be an easy solution. I’m not calling for outlawing unions, people can still have those and be able to collectively bargain, just allow for a choice. If you choose to not pay the dues, you’re on your own. You don’t get the benefits of the union. If the employer chooses to pay non-union employees much less or offer lesser benefits, I’m ok with that. That is the deal new hires can agree to. Or, they can simply join the union and get the benefits. I don’t see the problem there.
Kinsley also asks:
For principled conservatives, there is another question: Why should there be laws that limit the freedom of individual employers to negotiate any deal they want with their employees? Or at least that ought to be a question for conservatives, though I’ve never seen any of them struggling with it.
Excellent question and one I completely agree with. There should be no laws that prevent me from negotiating any deal with my employer. Exactly! Leave me alone and let me negotiate it. I don’t want someone else doing that for me, and most of all, I don’t want to be forced to pay someone else to do that for me. So no, there should not be any laws that limit the freedom of individual employers to negotiate any deal they want with me.
The other problem that I see with the way unions work in Rhode Island is that the employer needs to collect the employees’ union dues for the union. This is idiotic. Union loyalists will extol the virtues of their union and all the great things they’ve done. Outstanding. I’m happy for them. They see and approve of the benefits they get for membership in the union. If that’s the case, then they should be able to set up and automatic payment from their bank or simply send a check every month.
I personally value the benefit I get from my local YMCA. I like being a member. I set up a bank transfer to automatically pay the YMCA each month so I can continue receiving the benefits of the YMCA. No one requires my employer to withhold my membership dues and send those along to the YMCA, so why is it any different for a union? Could it possible be that the union’s members don’t actually see the benefit and wouldn’t pay it?
I believe we should live in a state where I am not required to pay someone as a condition of my employment. Period. Let me work out the compensation package with my employer. That’s my business. If I can’t have that then let’s at least have the first step where the employer is not burdened with needing to collect a third-party’s dues and send them along. If the third-party wants that money, they can collect it from their members themselves. Anything else just doesn’t make sense.
in the wake of the Newtown, CT massacre, URI History Professor Erik Loomis is getting national attention (h/t) for his tweets calling the National Rifle Association terrorists and other rational, academic thoughts (your tax dollars at work, Rhode Island!). As reported at Campus Reform:
“[I] want Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick,” Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island (URI), tweeted.
It “looks like the National Rifle Association has murdered some more children,” he added.”
Can [we] define NRA membership as dues contributing to a terrorist organization?” he asked in a separate tweet.
Loomis’ comments come on the heels of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 young children and six faculty members dead.
The professor contended Democratic lawmakers should exploit the tragedy to force more restrictive gun control measures into law.
“You are goddamn right we should politicize this tragedy,” Loomis tweeted. “[F]uck the NRA.”
“Dear Republicans, do you know the definition of family values?” he continued. “It’s not having our kids FUCKING SHOT AT SCHOOL! Fuck the NRA.”
The professor could not be reached for comment at the time of publication and URI was did not provide a spokesperson for comment to Campus Reform in time for publication.
According to the school website, all members of the URI community pledge to help foster an “inclusive environment recognizing and respecting diversity.”
According to his resume, Loomis, who got his PhD from the University of New Mexico in 2008, has research interests in Environmental History, Labor History, Late 19th-Early 20th Century U.S. History and the U.S. West. He has 2 papers pending publication: “Lives Under the Canopy: Spotted Owls and Loggers in Western Forests,” to be published in Natural Resources, Law Journal, Summer 2012 and “Preserving Nature to Preserve the Republic: Laurens Bolles, New Mexico’s Cold War Conservatonist,” to be published in New Mexico Historical Review, 2013.” He is also working on a book, “Empire of Timber: Work and Nature in the Pacific Northwest Forests”. Based on these articles and his interests, it looks like Loomis would really prefer to be working out West. Wonder why he ended up at URI?
Meanwhile, instead of responding directly to the Campus Reform interview request, Loomis has decided to continue to wage his battle in the comfort of the Twittersphere. Oh, and he would really like someone to pay him to write a book for all of the attacks he’s enduring because he so bravely spoke out…on Twitter….from a college campus. As a few of his tweets explained:
The right-wing intimidation campaign against me for saying the NRA was a terrorist organization continues. Will not succeed….In fact, I’d like to write up my story of right-wing intimidation for a magazine….I feel a reasonably major publication should be interested in this. Could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
Rahm Emmanuel was quoted as saying something along the lines of never letting a crisis go to political waste and signs are pointing to that happening. Professor Loomis obviously embraces this mindset. But he’s taken it all one, self-interested step further. Professor Loomis craves attention, you see. And wouldn’t an article detailing his struggle as a brave, academic tweeter against the forces of the NRA and the right-wing blogosphere just look excellent on his Curriculum Vitae?
UPDATE: Brave, Brave sir Robin ran away. Prof. Loomis has deleted his Twitter account…too bad for him it’s been captured for posterity. He was also visited by the RI State Police. Angry man.
UPDATE 2: URI has issued a statement (via their Facebook page):
[Open full post]URI President David Dooley responded today by saying, “The University of Rhode Island does not condone acts or threats of violence. These remarks do not reflect the views of the institution and Erik Loomis does not speak on behalf of the University. The University is committed to fostering a safe, inclusive and equitable culture that aspires to promote positive change.”
The lesson of current events and history; what the 2nd Amendment means; what that means for change; government control and healthcare insecurity; government control and economic stagnation; a couple positive notes.
Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
First of all, if you do a job for an agreed-upon price, you should get paid for doing the job. However, I think the coaches at East Providence High School are handling this the wrong way.
In Saturday’s Providence Journal was a story about the EP varsity sports coaches walking out on the kids due to non-payment, plus a game got postponed because the coach refused to attend.
Unpaid the $2,800 he earned for coaching the East Providence girls to the Division I volleyball final last month and expected to take a 60-percent cut in the $3,800 he is supposed to earn for coaching Townies boys basketball this winter, Alex Butler on Friday said enough is enough.
Butler initiated a walkout by coaches of winter sports teams after he and the other coaches of fall sports did not receive checks on Friday, as they were promised.
As a result, Friday night’s EP-Bishop Hendricken basketball game was postponed.
If I was a player on the team, I’d be absolutely irate. The coaches deciding they’re not going to show up to work anymore? Postponing or canceling games? I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Hendricken coach and athletic director were to demand that the game be declared a forfeit. It was a scheduled game, weather wasn’t a factor, it was simply that the EP team refused to show up. That’s a slam-dunk forfeit.
This isn’t the East Providence school administration who hasn’t paid the coaches, it is the state-appointed Budget Commission.
[T]he checks for the fall coaches had been withdrawn by the Budget Commission, Butler said. He added that Val Lawson, head of the East Providence teachers’ union, received word from the city finance director — Malcolm Moore holds that title, according the city website — and passed it on to Paul Amaral, the athletics director. In addition to not paying the fall coaches, Butler said the Budget Commission wants coaches of winter sports to take a 60 percent pay cut.
Ok, that is just wrong. If you’re going to do something like this, let the coaches know so they can decide what to do.
However, this statement troubles me as well:
“If they take 60-percent from my boys basketball salary, I figured I would get paid $4.50 an hour,” Butler said.
That sounds like he’s doing this for the money. No coach is paid any amount that realistically compensates them for the amount of time they spend with their players. The payment is often not much more than a sign of appreciation. The coach was slated to earn $3,800 for the season, clearly not that much money, but again, no one should be doing this job for the money.
I coached a high school hockey team and though I knew I was getting paid, I sure wasn’t doing it for the money. When the check arrived, it was nice to get, but it sure wasn’t what drove me. Plus, I made less than half what Coach Butler was supposed to earn this season.
Bottom line, I agree with the coaches’ frustration. However, I just wish they could find another way to show that frustration. To take this out on the kids is just the wrong answer. Canceling games on the kids is the wrong solution. Hopefully the coaches will be back for their teams’ next game.
Usually, I look through news sites (a couple of times per day) for the latest developments in politics and, especially, for news on Rhode Island politics and gov’t. For the last couple of days, however, it’s been stories about the horrendous Connecticut shooting that I’ve been compelled to click on.
Some information is now coming out about the twenty year old shooter – not from the police, who are still very much conducting their investigation, but from the people who interacted with him first hand and who are, naturally, communicating some of their experiences with the press.
Well into the second page of a CBS News report this morning, we learn about one such piece of new information – a chilling one.
Richard Novia, the school district’s head of security until 2008, who also served as adviser for the school technology club, of which Lanza was a member, said he clearly “had some disabilities.”
“If that boy would’ve burned himself, he would not have known it or felt it physically,” Novia said in a phone interview. “It was my job to pay close attention to that.”
A Telegraph (UK) article also references this condition (?).
“A few years ago when he was on the baseball team, everyone had to be careful that he didn’t fall because he could get hurt and not feel it,” said the friend.
Don’t misunderstand me. Nothing that comes out, confirmation of no mental handicap or physical condition, will change my view that the shooter was and acted out of pure evil when he entered that school. If true, however, the revelation that, for whatever physical or psychological reason, the shooter did not notice physical pain when he himself experienced it is a scary and disturbing piece of information to emerge.
ADDENDUM
Joe Bernstein, whom I’m going to make my unofficial spokesperson (only half kidding), says that I am way off base.
[Open full post]Monique-the condition you describe is dysautonomia and is very dangerous because people who have it cannot recognize symptoms accompanied by pain and they can be unaware of a serious injury. It doesn’t correlate with violent behavior in any way.
Under Justin’s post about the unspeakable attack in a Connecticut elementary school, Joe Bernstein makes the following comment.
[Open full post]How about this Adam Lanza was an evil little f**ker?Maybe he was mentally ill also, but the overwhelming majority of mentally ill people aren’t a danger to anyone except for themselves.
Connecticut has very stringent gun laws including some kind of assault weapons ban which obviously didn’t prevent this.
I really resent foreign nationals like Piers Morgan and Martin Bashir ranting at us on OUR national networks about banning guns. They are resident aliens-guests-and yet feel comfortable lecturing us. Maybe they’d like a lecture on their ridiculous system of royalty and House of Lords and titled inbreds. I’ve been in the UK and saw some good things and some really bad things, but I wouldn’t presume to dress them down in their own country.
I can’t imagine the grief of the families of these children and school personnel murdered senselessly or the horrible effects on the first responders.
Maybe the major media that vomits out nonstop gratuitous violence on tv, film and above all, video games, for profit ought to do some soul searching, but they lack any soul. And the disgusting reality shows that dehumanize people and exploit human failings for fun and profit.
Depicting violence and human weakness certainly has a place in art and literature and in film, too-but we are subjected to way too much over the line cr*p.
In real war, there is no “start over” button. People that get f**ked up stay that way.
What a miserable situation this is-and we hate feeling helpless, but there isn’t much that can be done – maybe armed security in schools. Hell, we guard armored cars full of money with firearms – our children are far more precious.
