Rhode Island Politics
The Providence Journal’s Steve Peoples provides another scrapbook entry for the file illustrating how average folk around her develop such a skewed understanding of the state’s operation: Governor Carcieri has asked the state’s highest court to strike down a law passed last year that he says threatens to paralyze Rhode Island government by blocking his…
Allow me to propose an alternate headline for Mark Arsenault‘s Monday Projo story on the state of the RI Republican Party’s finances…RI GOP Has Less Cash On Hand than Norman Hsu Has Given to the RI Democrats All By Himself (Well, Sort of By Himself, As Best as We Can Tell).Or maybe that’s too long…
If you haven’t already read it, the final installment of Kenneth Payne’s review of how Rhode Island reached its current state of political mire. One key thing to remember, as wrangling over budgets and state government action continues: The General Assembly’s powers are plenary and unlimited, except as those powers are restricted by the U.S.…
Disappointingly, Julia Steiny’s column yesterday takes a two-dimensional view of poverty programs: … it’s nothing short of glorious that Rhode Island has managed, over the course of three years and with a few strategic investments, to reduce the number of families in poverty by 6 percent. That’s huge. Six percent of Rhode Island’s population of…
Reading news of Providence Mayor Cicilline’s intention to borrow money from the federal government to deal with foreclosed neighborhoods brings to mind, once again, the fact that debt is excluded from municipalities’ spending increase maximums. Standing on a sidewalk lined with boarded-up houses in the city’s West End, Mayor David N. Cicilline yesterday announced plans…
Actually, lots of junk – in this case, operation of the Central Landfill – has turned into real, if unauthorized, treasure for a few public officials. Susan A. Baird covers this investigation in yesterday’s Providence Business News: Preliminary results from the state’s ongoing examination of the R.I. Resource Recovery Corporation raise “serious concerns about how…
See, this sort of thing ought to be a state government’s first priority: After reexamining the condition of Rhode Island’s bridges, the state Department of Transportation has identified the need for “approximately $600 million in bridge repair and replacement projects” over the next five years, Governor Carcieri told a press conference today. But the money…
It was a welcome observation, during my short lunch break, that Bob Owens of Smithfield has my back: Does Mr. Crowley expect everyone to live in a liberal-socialist utopia where everyone gets paid the same no matter what his or her job is — as, say, in Cuba, with all the benefits one gets in…
Having recently stood, almost alone, against fascist attempts to mandate no-fee gift certificates, I couldn’t help but chuckle — or, more accurately, to “pffft!” — as I filled out my car registration renewal today: Since when, I guess, has a meddling oligarchy thought it worth the time to meddle with itself? (Dirty-minded readers need not…
There’s surely an explanation for this that would have merit in less strapped times, but as far as I can see, it’s difficult to justify given current circumstances: Steve Kass, a former radio talk-show host and governor’s director of communications, is now the spokesman for the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency. At $126,541, Kass will…