Written

Tiverton Town Hall

A local charter can never be clear enough to thwart local officials with no respect for their community.

By Justin Katz | July 22, 2021 |

On Tiverton Fact Check, I’ve posted an update on efforts to block residents from putting budget proposals on the ballot of our financial town referendum.  The upshot is that it’s not good. In the course of declining to intervene and force the Board of Canvassers to reverse its refusal to allow voters to consider other options…

South Kingstown schools logo

Advocacy Solutions took one for the insider team in South Kingstown.

By Justin Katz | July 21, 2021 |

The South Kingstown school department has provided Anchor Rising with a little bit more detail on the hiring of a PR firm to handle the matter of local mom Nicole Solas (and to criticize her): Then Chair and School Committee member Emily Cummiskey reached out to the District’s legal counsel, wanting to quickly respond to a…

Lincoln Memorial

When CRT advocates say they want to teach “the good and the bad,” we should ask if they’re even teaching “the good.”

By Justin Katz | July 21, 2021 |

I’ve got an article on the site of Accuracy in Media noting that the providers of mainstream news seem more interested in making sure that schools teach what’s negative in U.S. history than in ensuring a balanced education: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten insists that teachers in her union will and must “teach…

Buildings in Providence

Free gifts for tourists doesn’t seem like the best use of federal COVID money but might make hotel lobbyists happy.

By Justin Katz | July 21, 2021 |

When Governor Dan McKee floated the idea of using “leftover federal stimulus funds” to hand out up to 100,000 gift cards to Rhode Islanders back in May, I made note to follow the story because I wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea or a meh idea.  If this just-announced program is the same…

Support Your Local Planet Protest Sign

Why is public education one industry progressives won’t destroy in the name of justice?

By Justin Katz | July 20, 2021 |

With the various economic and education-related stories that have tumbled through my awareness lately, I had a somewhat random thought. We all know from the news that progressives will destroy entire industries — driving up costs for everybody in a regressive way, ruining their fellow Americans’ productive investments, telling workers to find other jobs —…

A fisherman with his net

Fishing boats are another example of government bragging about easing problems it caused.

By Justin Katz | July 20, 2021 |

Liberty Rhode Island caught the RI House of Representatives bragging about softening its grip around the Ocean State’s economic neck.  The example comes from the House’s Facebook page, which appears to be a partisan outlet to promote newspaper clippings that say nice things about House Democrats.  The page quotes an article by Ryan Blessing in The…

Solar farm in North Smithfield

One bill’s $55 million price tag is a small sample of the increased cost of mandated “renewables.”

By Justin Katz | July 19, 2021 |

Exactly this dynamic, which Alex Kuffner reports in the Providence Journal, apply (with exponents) to the entire push for “green energy” more broadly: How much money could Rhode Islanders have been on the hook for if Gov. Dan McKee had not vetoed a bill that shifted some of the costs of solar and wind projects from…

Robert Chiaradio testifies

Demise of “Divisive Concept” Ban in Westerly Schools Outs Radical Activism

By Justin Katz | July 19, 2021 |

By creating incentives for activism, providing manufactured materials, and ignoring the substance of legislation, progressive advocates are providing cover for radicals to transform the teaching of civics and history into indoctrination into a divisive ideology that is tearing communities apart.

Nicholas Poissin, The Judgment of Solomon

Everything we’re seeing in “our democracy” comes down to the reemergence of an entitled class.

By Justin Katz | July 19, 2021 |

Angelo Codevilla’s essay in American Greatness on May 17 is worth catching if (like me) you missed it.  In the various tumultuous issues the United States as been facing in recent years, he sees an emerging insistence by a governing elite that we are not, in fact, equal, but that their superiority is so manifest that…

Students graduating from college.

College students shouldn’t expect others to pick up the costs for their investments.

By Justin Katz | July 16, 2021 |

Somehow or other, a tweet by RI League of Cities and Towns Policy Director Jordan Day found its way into my stream, yesterday, lamenting the cost of her student loans. Day appears to have graduated from Rhode Island College in 2013.  She worked on Jorge Elorza’s campaign for mayor through all of 2014, which rolled…