Unions
One problem pushing back on pervasive corruption in government is that the connections can be difficult to follow, and they aren’t always obviously wrong on their face. As I explored last week, when legality and morality become conflated, people can find it difficult to recognize that something’s wrong unless people behave as if it’s illegal. …
I find almost inexplicable Dan McGowan’s preface to comments about the then-forthcoming decision of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education about a proposed New England Tech charter school: Governor Dan McKee has deftly navigated education politics in Rhode Island for nearly 20 years, backing reform efforts opposed by teachers unions but still winning a…
John DePetro and Justin Katz start off the year with the first Politics This Week of 2026.
John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss the aftermath of the Brown shooting investigation.
When it comes to the National Education Association of Rhode Island’s lawsuit against Nicole Solas, the whole issue is astonishing. Maybe that’s why local journalists don’t want to dip into it. To them, teachers are near-sainted bedrocks of civic community, and the union is their voice — their only tool to stand against the forces…
It might be a good idea, but it has to be done intelligently and with input from people from outside Rhode Island’s ruling class. I bring the subject up in response to an article by Colin Howarth for the Call & Times: “This is eye-opening for a lot of people,” said Mario Carreño, RIDE’s chief…
On episode 11 of the Cumberland Unfiltered podcast, the cohosts spoke with New Hampshire parental rights advocate Ann Marie Banfield. During the course of the discussion, cohost Andrew Bacon made a comment about his experience as a current member of the Cumberland School Committee that seems significant beyond its primary subject. One of Banfield’s contentions is…
Long-time education writer and advocate Julia Steiny is asking Rhode Island’s Democrat leaders to ignore the fact that an important policy opportunity is (1) a provision of the Republican Big Beautiful Bill and (2) involves school choice: Buried inside the deeply troublesome federal law called the “Big Beautiful Bill Act” is an opportunity called the…
How close court reporters may be to union lawyers is hard to know, but by way of tracing the bouncing ball of the truly bizarre behavior Nicole Solas experienced during a deposition, here’s an anecdote she posted the day before: Nicole goes on in the post to note that Iafrate has applied to become a…
Second only to the mystery of why the local news media simply won’t cover her involvement in Rhode Island political culture is they mystery of what Nicole Solas does to the state’s insiders that drives them so crazy. It’s as if they can’t help but respond to her exposure of their systemic abuse except by…
