Essay
For the first time, the list goes to three parts… Local Impact: Central Falls 2, One or a Few Big Employers. Inobvious priorities: S0498 > Adds the executive director of the Economic Development Corporation to the Interagency Council for the Homeless; S0353 > Sets weekend fees for justices of the peace; H5395 > Golf carts…
In George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonist, Winston, begins to notice the import of the revisions that he makes to news and history as an employee of the Ministry of Truth. No fact is so set in stone that it can’t be made to look better through revisions of the past. In the real world, nationally,…
The weekly legislative review will start a little early this weekend. On Wednesday, March 13, the House Judiciary Committee will hear several bills on removing the master lever (i.e., the straight-party option) from Rhode Island election ballots. For various reasons, the most important of these bills is H5778, submitted at the request of the Secretary…
The campaign flyer at the center of this allegedly campaign law violation, and its dissemination at the last minute of the 2012 campaign, was such a nasty maneuver that part of me cheered when I heard that it has resulted in an arrest. (Jim Archer, candidate for the General Assembly, was the target of the…
My, how quickly Governor Chafee can change his opinion on things. First, on January 10th of this year, his office issued a press release that began: Governor Lincoln D. Chafee Announces New Transparency and Accountability Initiative, Signs Supporting Executive Order Providence, RI – In his continuing efforts to promote open and honest government in the…
1. The idea of the executive branch of the United States government creating a kill list, or a capture or kill list, is not a question of whether the President can order the Armed Forces to respond to organized threats that cross into the United States. Targeting a foreign facility or foreign forces operationally engaged…
To fill in some of the unplanned posting slack in these very interesting times we’re living through, I present to you an actual notebook dump (with annotations). The underlined phrases are entries from my Anchor Rising dead-tree notebook, followed by a brief description of the posts they were (and still might) supposed to become. Meanwhile,…
10B. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees will hear large rafts of bills on motor vehicle law on Tuesday, March 5 and Thursday, March 7, respectively. {H5505, S0470, S0564} and S0355 toughen penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, H5779 for driving to endanger, and {H5379, S0565} for both; H5666, submitted at…
Local Impact: Coventry Inobvious Priorities: H5101 >> no driving with a dog in your lap; S0008 >> warning labels that say cell-phones may cause brain cancer (for the record, the American Cancer Society’s position is here); S0171 >> laundries must post prices of each garment cleaned. 19. One inobvious priority slides its way into the…
The headline of Governor Chafee’s OpEd in today’s Providence Journal summarizes his premise: Gay marriage key to flourishing R.I. economy But is it? Several analyses have placed Rhode Island at or near the bottom for business-unfriendliness. What criteria did they use to rank the states? Helpfully, in their December, 2012 report [PDF] “A Review of…