Rhode Island Politics
Those like myself who are obsessed with politics to the exclusion of almost everything else can be excused for passing lightly over Bob Kerr’s column yesterday; the headline The blind date doesn’t seem to be working out gave the impression that the topic of the column was lifestyle or culture. Not so. It’s like a…
Remember that DOT staffer busted by WPRI for sleeping, eating and reading for half the work day? Well, he’s back on the job – but during a different shift. The Department of Transportation worker caught in a Target 12 Investigation spending hours on the clock sleeping, eating and reading novels over several weeks, is back…
One larger observation before jumping in. You know, here we are, at the point that we can see the day, in the near future, when public pension checks will bounce. Yet rather than focus on what is the state’s biggest crisis in many decades (arguably of the last century or more), Senate Majority Leader Dominick…
Governor Donald Carcieri was limited in what he could accomplish, given the degree to which the Rhode Island Constitution favors the legislature, but at least he offered a different view. This tidbit, from the end of the article to which I linked earlier, is apt to give a taxpayer the hopeless sense that there’s nobody…
First, former Providence Mayor David Cicilline spent seven years carrying out the charade that he was being tough on the contract demands of the Providence firefighters so that he could falsely claim the title of Champion of the Taxpayer. Then, as the end of his second term approached and it became clear that the lack…
That’s what Ian Donnis is hearing. If these murmurings are true (and I wouldn’t bother to post if someone of less than Ian’s credibility had reported it), no one should be more relieved than the Truth Commissioner himself because the former governor’s considerable campaign strengths, pointed out by Ian, Carcieri has some key assets that…
Ed Achorn’s most recent column highlights how little has changed in the public discussion of pension reform. This snippet, from a 2005 column of his, caught my eye in particular: “Robert Walsh, executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, responded to last week’s cries for pension reform by dismissing it all as a…
The conversation was of the likely accountability that RI politicians will face for a vote on raising sales taxes and on perspectives on accountability in education during Andrew’s call in to Matt Allen Show, last night. Stream by clicking here, or download it.
The Providence Journal editorial board highlights a piece of legislation that, while unlikely to become law, illustrates the potential consequences of consolidation for the sake of efficiency and ease: … Sen. John Tassoni (D.-Smithfield) — a member of the state’s AFL-CIO executive board, former business agent for the state’s largest public-employees union, AFSCME Council 94,…
The responses have begun to trickle in to my inquiry about the support that Sen. Louis DiPalma (D, Little Compton, Tiverton, Portsmouth, Middletown, Newport) has expressed for Senate Majority Leader Dominique Ruggerio’s hiring of a union pal’s son at a very high salary. So far, I’ve sent (or attempted to send) variations of the following…