Essay
Three same-sex marriage bills have been posted for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on this Tuesday, S0038 and H5015A which would authorize same sex marriage by statute, and S0708 which calls for a referendum on the issue. One or more of them could reach the Senate floor by Thursday (see item #7 from Ian Donnis).…
A press release from the Middlesex County (MA) District Attorney, via Reuters, has information on everything that’s been confirmed as of 5AM, related to last night’s murder of an MIT police officer and shootout in Watertown, very likely related to the Boston Marathon bombing… Police are investigating a fatal shooting of MIT campus police officer…
To set the stage: This Wall Street Journal summary map indicates that Rhode Island has the seventh highest per capita health-care spending. In filings Monday, Blue Cross Blue Shield of RI requested an increase in health insurance premiums – an 18% increase for individuals (note that Blue Cross is the only company in the state…
Reflections the night of the Boston Marathon explosions. And when I first learned my legs I ran to see how fast they could go And when my friends called games I ran to laugh, to win, and (yes) to grow And when my youth waned I ran to rule out paths that could not be…
With spring more or less undeniably having arrived, we’re coming up on one of my favorite weekends of the year. This year, the Portsmouth Institute‘s annual conference is June 7-9, and the topic is “Catholicism and the American Experience,” which is certainly timely, given that American bishops are actually beginning to near the short-list for…
My essay on apathy and fear in Rhode Island is in today’s Providence Journal. From the version that Anchor Rising readers may have already read on the American Spectator’s site, I’ve changed the focus a bit and added some key anecdotes with a much more local focus. To expand even more on the anecdote about…
Based on some Twitter chatter this morning, I learned that the property tax assessment letters are going out today in Providence. The citizens of our capital city are learning what value their homes and land will be taxed at. There is always some confusion as to what this means. First, the city should be using…
Senators Lou Raptakis and Nick Kettle submitted a pair of bills to the General Assembly today concerning the Central Coventry Fire District. The first bill describes new outlines for the Coventry, Western Coventry, and Hopkins Hill Road fire districts, which I assume would cover all of the town of Coventry between them; the last two…
Commenter “Mike” noted that there is more to the Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s proposed firearms permitting bill (h/t Providence Journal) than which office handles an application. Here is a basic outline of the set of overlapping provisions that form the basics of Rhode Island’s firearms law, and how the Attorney General’s bill might…
The Rhode Island House of Representatives Finance Committee has a bigger-than-usual open-government dilemma on its hands. Yesterday, the Finance Committee heard three separate bills for dealing with bond payments to 38 Studios (see bills 1A, 1B, and 1C here). There is also a fourth option available — take no further legislative action and pay off…
