Essay
A new ProJo editorial comments on the plan to unionize babysitters in Rhode Island: …the Rhode Island General Assembly is roaring ahead with a very bad plan to unionize babysitters — and send the gigantic bill to the taxpayers… …The bill would create a new and very powerful special interest added to the one that…
One can just about picture the commercial that RI Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams would release to correspond with his recent presentation to the RI Bar Association, “Killing Justice: The Judiciary Under Siege.” It would begin in black and white, with dark footage and creepy music: “Political pressure and agenda-driven criticism also fray the…
One offshoot of returning to school is that it has brought me into contact with several teachers from Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Nearly all of them agree that it is in middle school that a child’s educational future, and by extension post-educational future, is largely determined. If parents and teachers don’t reach them then, very…
After the twelfth of the twenty-four episodes of Lost’s first season, religious viewers thought they’d taken another step toward inclusion in mainstream culture, as represented by television and film. (Or at least one religious viewer did.) Lost treated religion seriously — acknowledging it as part of the society in which we live. Without a tone…
Milton Friedman has written a new editorial entitled “Free to Choose: After 50 years, education vouchers are beginning to catch on” Little did I know when I published an article in 1955 on “The Role of Government in Education” that it would lead to my becoming an activist for a major reform in the organization…
Tom Coyne of RI Policy Analysis offers this ProJo editorial on whether teachers are fairly compensated: A growing number of Rhode Island communities are experiencing acrimonious contract negotiations with their teachers’ unions. At the heart of these discussions lies the question of whether teachers are adequately compensated for their work and the results they produce.…
Greg Wallace at What Attitude Problem? highlights this week’s news on General Motors, building on the news previously highlighted here on this blogsite. First, a Washington Post article states: General Motors Corp., the world’s biggest automaker, has offered buyout and early retirement packages to some of its nonunion, salaried workforce in North America as the…
Read this posting for a very detailed and informative writeup on the Islamic jihadists arrested in Lodi, California. Lots of links to follow in the posting. The posting begins: As put by Rusty at Jawa Report, “Four men have been arrested in Lodi California, two on suspicion of aiding al Qaeda and two on immigration…
This would certainly be good news: In recent months, a number of researchers have begun to assemble intriguing evidence that it is possible to generate embryonic stem cells without having to create or destroy new human embryos. The research is still young and largely unpublished, and in some cases it is limited to animal cells.…
A June 5 posting on RI Policy Analysis links to a new Business Week article on the financially insolvent public pensions. …the cost of retirement has continued its steady climb. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, major public pension plans paid out $78.5 billion in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2000. By the comparable…