Rhode Island Politics
A good letter from L. Chappell of Saunderstown: With the state and local budgets running deficits, the teachers’ unions wish to add insult to injury with a bill that would force municipalities to keep the expired contract in force while they negotiate a new one. This bill is clearly a reaction to the events in…
A heads up to our elected officials as public sector contracts come up for renewal or must be reopened: twenty percent no longer cuts it. A new national report shows U.S. residents enrolled in employer-sponsored health plans will cover an average of 41 percent of their families’ health care costs this year, the largest share…
I’m hearing that the Moderate Party had a mixed victory in district court today. The petition minimum of 5% of the previous election’s winning vote total (for governor or president) still stands, but the late start date is unconstitutional. So, the Moderate Party (for case in point) will still have to collect some tens of…
… lacks a high powered lobbyist spouse. From the ProJo’s 7 to 7 News Blog. Governor Carcieri nominated Supreme Court Justice Paul A. Suttell Thursday to be the next chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The nomination requires the confirmation of the state House of Representatives and the state Senate. If confirmed, Justice…
If you aggregate the elected official job-performance results from Brown University’s May 18-20 Survey of registered Rhode Island voters into “favorable” categories of excellent and good, and “unfavorable” categories of fair and poor, a few interesting trends emerge… Governor Donald Carcieri would have a hard time getting elected to a third term (if he were…
Russell J. Moore at the Warwick Beacon reports: A Beacon survey of the Rhode Island Government Owner’s Manual found that 30 of the legislature’s 113 members are either employed or retired from one of the state’s municipalities, or serve as business agents for a union that represents those employees. That means 26.5 percent of the…
Such outrages are so common as to lose their status as such, in this state, but more interesting than the General Assembly leadership’s decision to compensate a former colleague for eight-year-old legal fees is the point of view that House Speaker Bill Murphy betrays in defending the action: “No, it doesn’t set a precedent,” echoed…
… can be found at Donnis’ blog on WRNI. It sounds like the current AG read a recent comment here by Joe Bernstein – something about the inadviseability of two Lynchs running for two out of five General Offices in 2010 – and has taken it to heart. During a taping this morning of WPRI/WNAC-TV’s…
In the second paragraph of the following quotation we see why Rhode Island will find another bottom to hit as the rest of the country recovers economically (hopefully): “With the exception of the tax proposals, I’m not sure what else has been put on the table,” [Department of Administration Director Gary Sasse] said. “If you…
In 2007, Attorney General Patrick Lynch charged Ryan Greenberg with Second Degree Murder; Operating a boat to Endanger, Death Resulting; Refusal of a Chemical Test for Intoxication; and Minor Possessing Alcohol – charges related to the death of Patrick Murphy on the Barrington River. Yesterday, Ryan Greenberg pled no contest to being involved in a…