Under the Government’s Wing
The Providence Business News tipped me off to this story. The mayors of the region’s two leading fishing ports Wednesday said a special master’s report on miscarriages of justice by federal fisheries law enforcers described an “un-American” system that presumed guilt, and seemed consistent with a disrespectful view of fishermen they said permeates high levels…
We can’t all game the system to retire at any age with a public-sector disability pension, but the Social Security Administration does offer some benefits, and the number of Rhode Islanders receiving them has been growing enormously: In 2001, there were about 25,000 Rhode Islanders receiving benefits from Social Security Disability Insurance, known as SSDI.…
A weekend PolitiFact giving Colleen Conley “half true” for a statement regarding the generosity of Rhode Island’s welfare system illustrates the flaw in the media enterprise’s entire methodology: Do welfare recipients really have it that good in Rhode Island? We decided to check. The simple answer: When it comes to how folks commonly define welfare…
Prepare to have your worldview shattered: Tasers. Brand-new SUVs. A top-of-the-line iPad. A fully loaded laptop. In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets and other gear — much of which had little to…
It’s possible that all of the corporate executives on the Economic Development Corporation’s board wouldn’t dream of allowing their own companies’ interests affect their prescriptions for the state’s economy. It’s even more possible that state government will treat the board’s activities as a nice show to prove that everybody’s really, really interested in turning Rhode…
Rhode Island’s aristocracy chose to believe in their own power to impose taxes rather than the power of economic incentives, and some don’t like the result: State Rep. Raymond Gallison, D-Bristol, says local businesses are losing revenue that could help the state’s financial situation, while the state itself has not generated any new revenue from…
Some folks have been astonished that I could be ambivalent about the movement to legalize marijuana. A large item on the negative side of the ledger is my suspicion of the manner in which it’s being approached, particularly the necessary involvement of the government. On that note, and without striking for highfalutin waters on a…
I’ve admitted before that I’m more or less ambivalent about the legality of marijuana, but as usual, Rhode Island’s method of operations layers in an unseemly and suspicious twist to the process: All told, that’s $3.5 million in new tax revenue over two years. The Health Department is expected to announce on Tuesday the names…
One of the biggest flaws of the federal government’s healthcare take-over reform law is its usurpation of the authority and power of the states via a serious overreach of the Commerce Clause. Possibly in anticipation of a Supreme overturning of the law on this particular basis, the Obama administration has now issued guidelines for states…
After taking Providence firefighters to task for the remarkable number of them who seem to be retiring on disability, I’d like to turn attention to a Warwick firefighter who did good by the City of Warwick and ended up suffering for it: Fire Lt. Henrik Dunlaevy, who in 2004 sold his software to a private…