RI Political Corruption
Or how about this one: It turns out libraries across the state got framed photos of their local legislators during the Celebrating Local Libraries Week that ran from Feb. 7-14. … [State Rep.and Barrington High School Library Assistant Joy Hearn [D, Barrington] Hearn said no thought was given to how the public display of lawmakers’…
Let’s stipulate that Rep. John Savage (R. East Providence) was only on this list as a procedural matter: In the first step in what promises to be a long and tortuous legal path, at least 18 former officers, directors and employees of the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation have received letters seeking the recovery of…
I had to switch to music halfway through my commute home, on Friday, because Dan Yorke had Rep. Tim Williamson (D, Coventry, West Warwick) on his show, and my feet were beginning to stick to the pedals from the slime that was seeping from the speakers. A woman called in to challenge Williamson’s assertion that…
Giving the increasingly leftward shift of the editorials and Rhode Island’s slow grind to a halt, Ed Achorn must find his role on the Providence Journal editorial board frustrating. It makes for some good truth speaking, though: The voters share the blame, of course. They have rewarded this behavior, blindly returning the same people to…
Who would have thought of gigs teaching college courses as political patronage? Yet, it’s surprising to see such second incomes so prominent among the special interest salaries drawn by state legislators: Some — but not all — of this information is available in the disclosure reports filed in recent weeks with the secretary of state’s…
Judging from a note in my email box, one of Rhode Island’s procedural travesties almost went the way of double-Democrat Senators in Massachusetts: Something unusual happened in the R.I. House of Representatives this week. A proposed critical rule change failed by the thin margin of 30 to 33 despite opposition by the House leaders. The…
Turning on my home computer after a weekend on the road, I was relieved and concerned to see the legislative bomb that Andrew has spotted. Relieved that we’ve come across this in time to shine some light. Concerned because I recall glancing at these bills back when they were on the agenda and making the…
Larry Valencia and John Marion (of Operation Clean Government and Common Cause Rhode Island, respectively) are exactly right about union members’ being “business associates” who should be barred from self-dealing (or associate-dealing) as public officials: First, [the RI Ethics Commission] is not making a change to the code itself, but rather in a “General Commission…
Anybody who missed my appearance on WRNI’s Political Roundtable on Friday can find the audio here. There were two points that I didn’t manage to work into the extremely rapid format: In response to Scott MacKay’s suggestion that the Roman Catholic Church would find its pews empty were it to be as intransigent on every…
WPRI’s been promoting its newest Target 12 investigation as “The Biggest Yet”; reporter Tim White sends along some specifics in advance of the official revelation: CRANSTON – The Rhode Island State Police have opened a criminal investigation following a Target 12 Investigation into government waste. The investigation, which airs tonight at 11 p.m., reveals four…