RI Political Corruption
By now you should have read yesterday’s front-page advertisement for the Gaspee Tea Party rally in the Providence Journal. I’m referring to the article on big-money state pensions that Monique mentioned last night. Most of the article is a series of revelations that make one wish for something symbolic (but not harmful) to tip over…
I’ll add a couple of pictures to Jim Baron‘s Woonsocket Call article on yesterday’s oral arguments inside and protest outside of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, concerning the appeal of the State Ethics Commission’s case against former Senate President William Irons. Last year, the State’s Superior court threw out the Commission’s conviction of Irons on…
The story itself is egregious enough, but of particular interest in Mike Stanton’s excellent coverage of the potential that Maureen McKenna Goldberg, the wife of a top lobbyist and former legislator Robert Golberg, might become Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court is the peek into the mechanics of our state’s endemic corruption: THE…
Just to keep track of these things, although that’s a herculean task in Rhode Island: The brother of the state Senate Judiciary Committee chairman has been named associate jury commissioner for the Rhode Island court system. Eugene J. McCaffrey III began his new post overseeing jury operations for the Kent, Washington, and Newport county courthouses…
For those inclined to throw their hands up in the air and say “dat’s the way da game is played” in response to the appointment of Jack McConnell to a Federal District Court judgeship, take a moment to remember that before he was a Senator with direct influence on judicial appointments, Sheldon Whitehouse joined an…
At some point it just becomes clear that our rulers have so little concern for the rest of us that even considerations of appearances go out the custom-trimmed window: Frank J. Williams stepped down as chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court in December, but he continues to work as a judge and recently…
Unfortunately, the “corruption tax,” as described here, is not a tax on corruption, but a tax to support corruption: As taxpayers look down the barrel of a major income tax increase, another tax already is draining their wallets. But this one isn’t found anywhere in the tax code. It’s the “corruption tax” — the extra…
This observation doesn’t necessarily have any implications for Brian Stern, Governor Carcieri’s chief of staff, but this strikes me as a peculiar anti-corruption strategy: In a March 9 letter and subsequent conversations with [ethics] commission staff, he acknowledged having applied for openings as a Superior Court judge and chief judge of the District Court and…
The dispute between the East Providence School Committee and the East Providence Teachers’ Union has focused attention of the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board (SLRB), a largely obscure administrative body that referees disputes between management and labor. What little public information is available regarding the Board and its operations has caused taxpayers to be…
I intend to spend a little more time perusing the report titled Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom (PDF), put out by the George Mason University Mercatus Center, but Rhode Island’s predictable rankings, among the 50 states, are notable without extensive commentary: Fiscal policy: 41 Regulatory policy: 48 Economic…
