Essay
There was a bit of a controversy earlier this week when a policy brief from the Republican Study Committee was released advocating for major copyright reform with regards to intellectual property–and then it was “unreleased”. The reasoning given was the the report was actually not properly vetted, whereas the belief amongst many was that lobbyists–such…
Given the contemporaneous release of Lincoln, I figured posting our 16th President’s Thanksgiving Proclamation seemed appropriate this year: October 3, 1863 By the President of the United States A Proclamation The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are…
Taft-Carter takes the Iannazzi mantle; RI back to pre-democracy; the ascendance of unaccountable bureaucracies; and America gone mad (with the Big Blue Bug) Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
“[W]e’ve got to reduce spending before we can reduce taxes. Well, if you’ve got a kid that’s extravagant, you can lecture him all you want to about his extravagance. Or you can cut his allowance and achieve the same end much quicker. But Government has never reduced. Government does not tax to get the money…
Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker is getting some attention today for taking the SNAP challenge. He’s going to live for a week on the amount of money for food that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan (SNAP) offers. The rules of the challenge are that you get $35 for the week and all food consumed must…
Rhode Island’s employment results, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), would surely surprise the tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders who are struggling to survive the state’s continuing downturn: For the second month in a row, the Ocean State led the nation in employment growth. The state still has the second…
From CNET: A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law. CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote…
Over on Anchor Rising, Marc Comtois has pulled together a handful of stories in the subcategory of “two Americas”: Hendrickson puts some stock in the so-called “Curley Effect”, named after the former Boston Mayor. Basically, it has two parts: first, that politicians provide enough incentives to their own voters to ensure continued support; second provide…
As goes California… [H]ow is California doing, now that liberals have successfully terminated the state’s remaining conservatives? For starters, it’s still in debt. Despite Brown’s historic tax hike, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office announced this week that the state still faces a $2 billion budget deficit just for the next fiscal year. California’s liberal electorate…
Readers of Philip Marcelo’s article, in today’s Providence Journal, about restoration of the historic-structure tax credit program in Rhode Island should see some warning signs indicative of a broader flaw in government economic development: … the national recession and a 2008 moratorium on the tax-credit program brought such projects to a near halt. Dozens stalled…