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Rhode Island Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 06, 2012 39 Comments

and it is Ithaca, in about two weeks after a summer in Rhode Island. This is Rhode Island, at the beach near my house a few days ago at dusk: This is Ithaca, on a street near my house a few weeks ago during a short return...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2012 32 Comments

Rhode Island is being crushed by pension debt, our cities are suffocating, we're driving businesses away with regulatory minutiae, and we're hemorrhaging young people.  Oh, and we just threw away up to $75 million on a video game company run by a former baseball player. So...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 04, 2012 13 Comments

We really needed this. No, we really needed this.  We don't have a lot going for us right now. It's a small state. Everyone knows someone or at least knows someone who knows someone. Here was my reaction at the time: Rhode Island wins #MissUSA! Only 1 way...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 31, 2012 7 Comments

I've written numerous times over the past two years about the horrible fiscal mess David Cicilline (D-RI01) left behind in Providence when he was Mayor, and how he concealed the problem from voters during his 2010 congressional race. The city has been teetering on the verge...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 17, 2012 18 Comments

I haven't had much time to focus on the debacle unfolding in my home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations over loan guarantees to a company owned by former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. This Bloomberg story has the latest: Curt Schilling, pitching ace on the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 30, 2012 9 Comments

Rhode Island Guardsman died saving Afghan girl: According to the Rhode Island National Guard and the U.S. Army, [Spc. Dennis] Weichel was in a convoy a week ago with his unit in Laghman Province, in northeast Afghanistan. Some children were in the road in front of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 29, 2012 3 Comments

Long-time Rhode Island blogger Justin Katz, formerly of Anchor Rising, is heading up a new blog, The Ocean State Current: Managing Editor Justin Katz attracted national attention when he joined an early wave of bloggers with his site DustintheLight.com in 2002 — back when one frequently...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 23, 2012 12 Comments

Republicans can learn something from Rhode Island about standing up for taxpayers as a winning political strategy. I have written many time before about the efforts of Democratic Mayor of Providence Angel Taveras, who has taken on school teacher unions and other public sector employees in...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 22, 2012 15 Comments

The long suffering people of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations elected Linc Chafee Governor in 2010, on the Independent line. When Chafee was a Republican Senator, he was ranked as the No. 1 RINO by Human Events.  Chafee lost his reelection bid in 2006 to Sheldon Whitehouse. In 2010, Chafee...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 14, 2012 19 Comments

The City of Providence, in my home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is in dire financial trouble, as I have posted here many times before. The City, with its large tax-exempt university base and decades-long history of lush public sector benefits, has struggled under...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2011 3 Comments

I have posted many times before about David Cicilline, former Mayor of Providence who hid the city's financial problems during the 2010 election, and ran a scare grandma campaign, allowing him a relatively (for Rhode Island) narrow win over John Loughlin in my home RI-01...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 23, 2011 11 Comments

You know about the RI pension mess, because I've been pounding that issue pretty much since the founding of this blog three years ago. The New York Times takes a devastating look at Rhode Island, The Little State With a Big Mess (h/t @amandacarpenter): ON the night of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 18, 2011 6 Comments

I was surprised to go to The Providence Journal website today and to see an announcement that ProJo had built a new website with a new url. (no longer projo.com but providencejournal.com) and a paywall: The Providence Journal news organization is moving to the paid eEdition to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 14, 2011 7 Comments

Back in June I posted about how RI Gov. Linc Chafee was refusing to turn Jason Wayne Pleau over to the feds because Pleau potentially was subject to the death penalty in connection with a murder committed on the steps of a federal bank.  The feds never indicated...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 11, 2011 6 Comments

is pretty well set out in this article in The Providence Journal about intimidation of legislators who are considering reforms needed to save Rhode Island from fiscal collapse (see my post yesterday for background): Philip Keefe, the president of the second-largest state employees union, the R.I....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 10, 2011 9 Comments

I know you know about Rhode Island's public sector employee pension problem, because I've posted about it so many times. But take a look at this chart which shows how household contributions to public sector pensions (state employees and teachers) is expected to climb to just over...

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