East Providence

A traffic camera

Here’s what I wonder about East Providence school zone ticket cameras.

By Justin Katz | January 14, 2022 |

For seven weeks, East Providence sent warnings instead of tickets to drivers who went more than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit in school zones.  The system issued 69,528 such warnings, in fact, which works out to about 1,420 per day. The cameras have only been snagging drivers for actual $50 tickets for…

For the Kids or For the Money?

By Patrick Laverty | December 16, 2012 |

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…

Big Finance Likes Totalitarianism, but Democracy Requires Hard Lessons

By Justin Katz | January 3, 2012 |

I’ll admit that I don’t have much new to say about the continuing activities of the state-appointed budget commission now ruling East Providence: The state-appointed budget commission overseeing the city’s finances convened for the first time Wednesday, chose Michael O’Keefe, a former state budget director, as its president, and established its first priority: improving the…

East Providence Headed for a Fiscal Overseer?

By Carroll Andrew Morse | November 11, 2011 |

Ted Nesi of WPRI-TV (CBS 12) is reporting that Chafee administration is close to applying the state’s municipal fiscal stabilization law to the City of East Providence. According to the WPRI report, East Providence wouldn’t go immediately into receivership, as Central Falls did, but would have a fiscal overseer appointed for them by the state.…

Can We Please Deduct $142,000 from East Providence’s State Aid for the Next Two Years?

By Monique Chartier | June 25, 2011 |

It’s already a lot that we send money for the salaries of municipal and school staffers who actually, you know, come in and work. To send money for someone to involuntarily “sit home, eating ice cream sandwiches” for absolutely no reason is a bit much. The East Providence School Committee decided to keep School Superintendent…

In E.P., New “Bosses” Start Cuttin’

By Marc Comtois | February 21, 2011 |

East Providence, you were warned. Kinda. Faced with a $6.1 million school budget deficit, the new, labor-supported East Providence school committee took action by axing School Department Chief Operating Officer Lonnie Barham and his $109,000 salary. So, they’re down to $6 million! According to the new School Committee Chair Charles Tsonos: We have more school…

A Right-Reform Fly on the Wall

By Community Crier | November 29, 2010 | Comments Off on A Right-Reform Fly on the Wall

Remember when a raucous School Committee meeting in East Providence gave reason to hope that the game might be up for the National Education Association’s unchallenged control of Rhode Island education? If so, odds are that Anchor Rising plays in that memory. We liveblogged, photographed, recorded, and analyzed. And it made a difference. Two days…

East Providence as Emblem of Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | November 26, 2010 |

Ed Achorn laments the political reality of East Providence. Noting that voters supported a local tax cap, he points out that they removed from office the very people who would strive to meet it. The unions, in short, outhustled, outspent, out-deceived and out-organized the public-spirited incumbents in East Providence, making sure that they won’t be…

Union Theory Proven

By Justin Katz | November 5, 2010 |

The best election-results quotes from Rhode Island conservatives/reformers came out of East Providence: [Soon-to-be-former School Committee Chairman Anthony] Carcieri laughed in the face of defeat and said, “The public has spoken, so get your checkbooks out. We’ll be paying a lot of taxes in the near future.” Soon-to-be-former Mayor Joseph Larisa points to the deeper…

Of Rates and Levies

By Justin Katz | July 28, 2010 |

This intra-conservative debate in East Providence points to one of those issues that tends to slide under residents’ awareness: [Mayor Joseph] Larisa is now trying to solidify tax limits by putting language into the city’s Home Rule Charter. Charter amendments have to be approved by voters in a referendum, while ordinances are approved — and…