Rhode Island Politics
On Thursday, Governor Carcieri’s office released the two page letter in which he declines a request by former Senator Chafee’s to meet with the EDC board to express his objection to the process by which a $75 million state loan guarantee was given to 38 Studios. In response to your request to meet with the…
Good job, Operation Clean Government. Operation Clean Government (OCG) has posted a video on YouTube of the June 1st Senate session when Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed and Majority Leader Daniel Connors used “bully tactics” to squash a floor vote on a controversial bill sponsored by Senator Marc Cote, (D), Woonsocket and cosponsored by 18 members…
The new promotional link in the AR Headlines section will bring you to the Web site of the RIGOP’s Clean Slate initiative, which seeks to support Republican and independent candidates for public office, specifically the General Assembly, in Rhode Island. The pictures that cycle on the screen include many regular Anchor Rising readers, so we…
Kudos to Katherine Gregg at the Providence Journal for uncovering this, which she broke a couple of hours ago. Former Senate President William V. Irons took $25,385 out of his long-running campaign account to pay legal bills he amassed while fighting ethics charges that resulted in the Rhode Island Supreme Court decision last year that…
In the latest Brown U. Poll, Frank Caprio has, for the first time, taken a small lead over Lincoln Chafee in the race for governor (though it’s a statistical dead heat). If the general election for governor were held today, 27.9 percent of people would vote for Caprio, and 26.5 percent would support Chafee. These…
Amid examples of failed loan guarantees, Providence Journal reporter Bruce Landis interviews Gary Sasse about the 38 Studios deal, in which a videogame company has $75 million in backing from the state of Rhode Island: If the company doesn’t pay, Sasse pointed out, “The taxpayers of the state would be on the hook.” “You’re playing…
I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that somebody is willing to cheerlead Rhode Island’s governing class. Here’s Donna Cupelo, admiral of the Rhode Island Commodores, a group of “top business and civic leaders”: There was something different about this year’s legislative session, several Rhode Island Commodores said after attending an upbeat bill-signing ceremony with speeches…
Faced with an insurmountable $13 million cut in state and local funding, the Warwick School Committee voted to freeze pay and impose a 20% health care co-pay for all of its employees last night. Before the vote, School Committee Chairman Chris Friel stressed that these are not actions the district wants to take but it…
Bruce Lang makes an excellent point: Now something unexpected has happened that can help us greatly: Almost every state in the country now is having big financial problems! So if Rhode Island has the courage and discipline, we can legitimately catapult our great little state into the upper ranks of states’ standings. Because of our…
If there are going to be public-sector pensions, then judges should receive reasonable ones, and somebody being paid to turn around a failing municipality should be compensated well for undertaking the responsibility, but state Senator William Walaska (D, Warwick) has a point about the amounts involved in Central Falls: I was outraged when I read…