Basic Government Functions

Policeman

Consider it good news when the police are doing satisfying work.

By Justin Katz | December 29, 2021 |

A while back, I saw a short article about an incident in which the Providence police saved a woman from suicide. Police went to the scene at 9:26 a.m. Some officers tried to calm her down and coax her off the ledge, Verdi said. But at one point the woman became despondent and a crisis negotiator thought…

A skull screams amidst hands

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Shouting into the Echo Chamber

By Justin Katz | December 20, 2021 |

John and Justin marvel at the inability of RI insiders to address the obvious problems facing the people they say they represent.

A hooded man in shadows

Providence murder mysteries can be solved if you use the word, “gangs.”

By Justin Katz | December 13, 2021 |

Nobody should feel encouraged by statements from Democrat Mayor Jorge Elorza or the other Democrats who run the city after another shooting in Providence on Saturday night.  Elorza may claim to “understand that our community needs and deserves to feel safe,” but that isn’t possible when authorities refuse to be clear about what’s going on.…

Casual office planning meeting

Politics This Week with John DePetro: PR Bumbling All Around

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2021 |

John and Justin discuss local, state, and national stories with which the messaging is going all wrong.

A water drop and ripples

Here’s the detail that shows how badly Providence government is managed.

By Justin Katz | November 29, 2021 |

Businesses on Hope Street in Providence were all prepared for one of their biggest days for sales: small business Saturday.  Oops: Providence Water crews closed a portion of the street early Saturday morning and part of the afternoon for utility work. The construction has been happening for some time, but business owners, like Asher Schofield…

Cash, cuffs, and the American flag

The COPS Hiring Program is yet another way government spends tax dollars to force the spending of more tax dollars.

By Justin Katz | November 20, 2021 |

It adds up, of course, but when government is trillions of dollars in debt, a hundred million here and there seems hardly to count.  That may be part of the reason that news of grants like the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program doesn’t typically question where the…

Map of Providence from City Hall to PC

Something is strange about the latest Providence College attack news.

By Justin Katz | November 13, 2021 |

Unfortunately, the unusual thing about the latest off-campus attack of a Providence College student is not the attack itself.  Here’s what happened, as reported by Sarah Doiron and Matt Paddock for WPRI: The Minnesota native’s father, Anthony, who asked that his daughter not be identified out of concern for her safety, said she was walking…

Joseph Paolino tweets in support of Superman

“Iconic” landmarks can’t be decorations on a stultified state.

By Justin Katz | November 3, 2021 |

One of my children is learning the standard single-axis political spectrum (no doubt in preparation for the AP test down the road), and the fortunate child enjoyed a free lesson on how inaccurate that is all the way home.  I’ll spare you, dear reader, that experience, simply pointing you to the circular political spectrum I…

A water drop and ripples

Doesn’t RI have more fundamental financial needs than high-speed rail and an aquarium?

By Justin Katz | November 1, 2021 |

Sometimes RI’s most essential problem (the failure of its insider class to recognize reality) comes at us from all directions.  One example is the call from Joseph Paolino to use the feds COVID gift to Rhode Island government  “to change our economy.”  How? Let’s look at what our state really needs and invest in them…

A water drop and ripples

Officials should factor in their own incompetence before imposing things like vaccine mandates.

By Justin Katz | October 28, 2021 |

Katherine Gregg frames her story about state health facilities’ challenges getting by without unvaccinated employees for the Providence Journal in terms of the government’s incompetence at replacing them: Despite promises made to the state Department of Health to bring in replacements for unvaccinated staff, neither the state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital nor the Veterans Home has…