Rhode Island Politics
…our own Rep. Patrick Kennedy was hooked on OxyContin? (Video Here) Probably not. Wonder which doctor he had? Or was there more than one? Could he have been doctor shopping? {Oh yes, this link is intended to be “ironic”}. Will the media care? Or are we just supposed to feel bad for poor Patrick and…
I’ve taken a bit of flack, including a charge that I’ve lost credibility on economic development issues, over my last post discussing the impact of the T.F. Greene airport expansion proposals (more on it here, here). In it, I took ProJo columnist Ed Achorn to task because I thought that (to quote from a follow-up…
Mike Stanton of the Projo picks up the story of a possible non-town employee seeking to draw a town pension in West Warwick. The scope of the story is broadening to include Thomas Iannitti, the acting chairman of the State Board of Elections and the director of West Warwick’s senior center (which is not part…
In an otherwise good piece explaining the reason why Mississippi just got a new Toyota car plant and Rhode Island did not, ProJo columnist Ed Achorn writes: Its culture of NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) is so bad that the state must engage in a prolonged struggle merely to extend the main runway at the…
Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian has told the city’s crossing guards that their contract may not be renewed. Instead, the city may (finally!) put the contract out to bid. But… The nonrenewal notice does not mean the municipal crossing guards will be replaced with private ones. Rather, it opens the door for one of two outcomes:…
To no one’s surprise, the various “advocates” who have taken up permanent residence at the State House pleaded with lawmakers to accept their solution to the budget shortfall: either raise taxes or stop any scheduled tax cuts: Freeze the so-called “tax-cut-for-the- rich” in its tracks before state government loses tens of millions of dollars. Halt…
File under “Moderates on the March”: Providence Phoenix editor Ian Donnis spoke to Lincoln Chafee and got a couple interesting tidbits out of him: During one of Lincoln Chafee’s last news conferences as a US senator, he faced the inevitable questions about his political future. Noting how he had bought a home near Brown University,…
Douglas Gablinske, a Bristol Democrat, wrote a spot-on piece this weekend: As a private person, Rhode Island resident, taxpayer and small-business owner, I have wondered about something for years: How can state legislators who are full-time business agents of unions write, promote, and move legislation through the General Assembly, yet not be in violation of…
Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian has made the seemingly counter-intuitive proposal of cutting beach fees to increase city revenue. To be more succinct, the proposal is meant to save about $12,000. Now, why would cutting fees save money? The mayor said he recommended the action after department directors reviewed ways to cut expenditures and it was…
Here’s what you might think is a simple question. Should a non-town employee be eligible to receive a town pension? If the town involved is West Warwick, the answer is not comprehensible. Tracy Proulx of the Kent County Times has the whole story… On April 17, 2006, [West Warwick Resident Alan Palazzo] submitted an APRA…