Providence
The mainstream media — represented for this post by Brian Amaral of the Boston Globe — may not know what is to blame for the increase in violent crime across the country, but they sure know who: In 2019, a Rhode Island man released from a life crack-dealing sentence under the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform…
Providence middle school teacher Ramona Bessinger shared on her Facebook page a Planned Parenthood poster that she was “encouraged to post” in her classroom last school year. Here’s the main body of the text: Beyond the Birds and the Bees is a sexuality education program for high schoolers that is science-based, sex-positive, and affirming to…
Thus, John DePetro is keeping an eye on the folks at the heart of the scandal with the Sayles Street police response: One of the main players in the Providence Sayles street melee was arrested in Cranston for dealing drugs with children in the house. Alynezea Quaranta was one of the main contributors to the…
John DePetro and Justin Katz review multiple ways state and local government seem not to be acting as one would expect competent professionals to act.
My latest article for Accuracy in Media does some digging into what’s going on with critical race theory (CRT)–style curricula and teacher training in Providence schools: Congressional Republicans scored a victory for racial harmony in the American classroom with the passage of Senator Tom Cotton’s “Stop CRT Act“. Whether the legislation will actually halt the promotion of critical race theory…
John DePetro and Justin Katz take on unprecedented developments in RI government and politics.
It’s a positive thing that state law requires municipalities and school districts to provide cost estimates for the contracts they’re about to approve (even if they tend to issue them when it’s pretty much a done deal), and it’s good that the state hasn’t tried to slip through a transparency loophole in negotiating its contract…
John and Justin talk about several ways in which Rhode Island’s political elite is trying to control how things appear (and what sort of politics the people are permitted to have).
John DePetro has some details about the Providence police’s car chase of a BMW with three teens shooting BB guns out the windows: Following this incident, the Providence Police began reviewing the circumstances of the arrest of one of the vehicle’s occupants, including any injuries sustained and the use of force involved. Late last week,…
John DePetro and Justin Katz talk about the politics of the day, with things that should be easy proving difficult and things that would have to be difficult being passed off as easy.