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Considering how frequently I criticize professional journalists, I may too infrequently convey how powerful I think their role can (and should) be. A recent Johnson Sunrise article by Rory Schuler, about the resignation/retirement of Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) Executive Directo Joseph Reposa, is an excellent example of what we’re losing. Without making a gooey…
News that the Rhode Island Republican Party is struggling to hit the qualification requirements to place any presidential candidates on the primary ballot points to a deep problem in our state’s political landscape. This is true even if we put to the side (for now) rumors that some large number of signatures were inexplicably invalidated.…
Without naming names, I’m observing an interesting phenomenon on Twitter, recently. I’ve been saying that the Trump era led mainstream journalists to give themselves permission to ignore everybody with whom they disagree — which is to say, “conservatives.” This has a downstream consequence, though: when you determine to ignore people with whom you merely disagree, you…
The state has announced the end of the sparsely used ferry from Bristol to alleviate traffic on the Washington Bridge. Amanda Milkovits has some of the details: Since its inception on Dec. 21, when just 162 passengers boarded the ferries, ridership on the ferries between Bristol and Providence has reached 2,814, through Sunday, Dec. 31.…
The featured image is by RIDOT of a broken steel rod on the Washington Bridge Westbound, one of the critically failed components that caused the sudden closure of Interstate 195 west on December 11. How these components went critical between July, its most recent inspection (link to report) until December 8, when they were purportedly…
Politicians have forced people in the Northeast to invest heavily in wind energy by means of our electric bills and taxes, and more problems are appearing: The linked article is worth reading: Equinor, along with its joint venture partner BP, has agreed with NYSERDA to cancel the contract for the project, citing rising costs due…
Elon Musk suggests Americans aren’t sufficiently aware of the rivers of illegal immigrants continuing to flood toward the United States: Cartoonist and author Scott Adams adds: “We are literally importing poverty.” Poverty isn’t all. We’re also importing illness, social disorder, political disfunction, and more. Americans, of all people, should not be anti-immigration, and legitimate arguments…
Honestly, I expected the COVID experience to put an end to the high-school-civics-project of banning single-use plastic bags, but stores’ bag dispensers now sit empty, and Rhode Islanders have another reason to lean toward shopping in Massachusetts or online. In Rhode Island, our legislators have a chronic difficulty understanding consequences and the availability of alternatives. …
I wondered, the other day, whether young Americans are so much ignorant of history as they are indifferent to the truth. Here’s another shocking datapoint in that set: Following the trail of links suggests that the culprit is not ignorance or, for that matter, indifference. This is part of an approach. A filmmaker (presumably of…
John DePetro and I discussed this a few weeks ago, but the topic is worth a short, written note, too, because the vignette presents too perfect a lesson: While tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders were stuck in traffic for upwards of three to four hours, Governor Dan McKee was attending a political fundraiser for…