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Silhouette over digital background

The American Federation of Teachers is abusing its access to children for politics.

By Justin Katz | January 28, 2022 |

Parents and other Americans have plenty of reasons to oppose the activities of teachers unions, but Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is adding one more, and it’s a doozy of abuse of access: In a partnership announced this week, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) said it will purchase licensed copies…

North Kingstown's redacted equity audit

Why are North Kingstown schools afraid to share their anti-racist plans?

By Justin Katz | January 27, 2022 |

Secrecy and radicalism in North Kingstown’s equity agenda suggests that parents are being deceived and their children’s education is being undermined for an ideological goal.

A water drop and ripples

What does the BBB Act stand for, anyway?

By Justin Katz | January 27, 2022 |

From Preston Brashers’s report, the three Bs appear to stand for “Build Bureaucracy Bigger”: The Build Back Better Act has several provisions that make Congress less accountable for U.S. tax policy and give unaccountable bureaucrats more control. The act would (1) give the IRS more regulatory authority, (2) task IRS agents with finding new revenues,…

Maybe more attention is justified when even government contractors label what they’re doing as treason.

By Justin Katz | January 27, 2022 |

Miranda Devine, in the New York Post, describes a body camera video that has emerged from a police officer who was checking up on a strange, low-security middle-of-the-night flight into a small New York airport carrying young men, apparently illegal immigrants, before loading them on buses and sending them into communities around the East Coast a…

A water drop and ripples

Property taxes shouldn’t interfere in the price mechanism for real estate.

By Justin Katz | January 27, 2022 |

As I’ve written before, when considering a state’s mix of all the different taxes, I’m not as bothered by high property taxes as other folks on the hawk side of the taxation spectrum.  That said, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) makes a good point that differentiations between different types of property should be…

A water drop and ripples

Helena’s not one of your average Foulkes.

By Justin Katz | January 27, 2022 |

To be sure, Governor McKee’s rescission of his School Choice Week proclamation was a worrisome move independently of the underlying issue, so we can’t really fault Helena Foulkes, who’s campaigning for his job, for jumping on it. That said, because the underlying issue is school choice, which seeks to expand the educational opportunities for all…

Facebook spying through computer

Is Meta moving in on blogs?

By Justin Katz | January 27, 2022 |

A few weeks ago, I received a disconcerting email from the team at Facebook/Meta requesting detailed instructions and credentials to access areas in which a Facebook-related app is functioning.  I’ve written about my concerns on Accuracy in Media: Where this request might fit in Meta’s schemes is impossible to say. Maybe it is as innocent as…

Piles of paperwork

Biden’s giving proof there’s more than one way to raise taxes.

By Justin Katz | January 26, 2022 |

The American Action Forum draws our attention to the massive increase in the cost of regulations Americans have experienced over the past year, mostly going into effect this month: With more than $201 billion in costs, the Biden era to-date far outpaces its predecessors, with more than three times the costs of Obama’s first year and…

A water drop and ripples

Rep. Corvese seems to dismiss the whole point of primaries.

By Justin Katz | January 26, 2022 |

His legislation would essentially make every general election a two-stage affair, with the primary being more like what we think of as the general and the general becoming something more like a runoff. The idea of primaries is to help voters organized into parties find the best candidate within the scope of their party’s definition. …

RI State House over caution tape

Take note of the socialist assumptions of AutoZone criticisms in Cranston.

By Justin Katz | January 26, 2022 |

Buzzwords flow through political and ideological debates — at the state level even more so than the federal — to the extent that one has to wonder whether the people using them really subscribe to the ideas that they represent. Consider Democrat Representative from Cranston Brandon Potter, tweeting about the city’s decision to permit construction…