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Rhode Island Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2010 4 Comments

A bill introduced by Democratic Deputy Majority Leader Peter Palumbo in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, similar to the Arizona immigration law, will not be permitted to go to a committee hearing, much less a vote:House Speaker Gordon D. Fox decided Monday that Rep....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 21, 2010 4 Comments

There is a legal and political drama unfolding in Central Falls, Rhode Island, which has national implications for municipalities suffocating under union contracts and pension obligations, but which has received little attention outside Rhode Island.As I posted two days ago, the City of Central Falls...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2010 3 Comments

Central Falls, a Rhode Island city which gained fame when it fired its entire High School teaching staff after unions refused concessions (the unions later agreed), now has filed for receivership, the state equivalent of bankruptcy: A Rhode Island city facing a severe financial crisis...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2010 3 Comments

A Democratic state legislator in Rhode Island has filed a bill similar to the immigration law recently enacted in Arizona. As reported by The Providence Journal:State Rep. Peter Palumbo, D-District 16, Cranston, has filed a bill that largely copies a controversial Arizona law considered the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 15, 2010 11 Comments

The fiscal equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome:A term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein government officials express adulation and have positive feelings toward unsustainable union contracts that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk posed by such contracts to the government.Our politicians...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 13, 2010 1 Comment

Just ask Jack McConnell, who appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee today.McConnell has been nominated by Rhode Island Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (for whom McConnell used to work) and Jack Reed for an open seat on the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.McConnell made a fortune...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2010 2 Comments

Steve Malanga wrote an excellent article for City Journal about how public sector unions have controlled, and ruined, California, The Beholden State:How public employees became members of the elite class in a declining California offers a cautionary tale to the rest of the country, where...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 16, 2010 9 Comments

Underfunded state retirement systems are one of the greatest problems facing states. There does not seem to be a way out, as municipal and teachers' unions are loathe to negotiate substantial reforms and state governments simply do not have the money to meet unsustainable promises.An...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 12, 2010 8 Comments

Someone, somewhere is stoking the notion of Sheldon Whitehouse for the Supreme Court spot being vacated by John Paul Stevens. From the Providence Journal:Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island Democrat, has appeared on some early lists of prospects whom President Obama may consider - or...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 11, 2010 8 Comments

In early March I wrote how the Southern Poverty Law Center had exaggerated regarding the alleged presence of the Ku Klux Klan in Rhode Island as part of SPLC's report on a "surge" of hate groups.Specifically, I pointed out that SPLC claimed the Ku Klux...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 11, 2010 3 Comments

Rhode Island is the poster child for how municipal employee and teachers unions have devastated state and local budgets through unsustainable contracts obtained through political contributions.Rhode Island is drowning in pension promises it cannot meet and benefits it cannot pay. Yet the municipal employee unions...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 05, 2010 4 Comments

Wait for it. The next bailout will be for hospitals devastated by cut-backs as a result of Obamacare. In Rhode Island, the prognosis already is not good for the survival of hospitals already struggling financially, which may be pushed over the brink. As...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2010 11 Comments

Barack Obama backed the decision of the Central Falls School District in Rhode Island to fire all teachers at its underperforming high school, much to the anger of teachers' unions.Now a teacher at the school has hung Obama in effigy:Responding to a rumor that one...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 14, 2010 3 Comments

William Lynch, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Rhode Island for the past decade, has thrown his hat into the ring to run to replace Patrick Kennedy.Please, please let Lynch get the Democratic nomination. Lynch is so deeply part of the problem, has opposed almost...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 12, 2010 8 Comments

The bowing out of Patrick Kennedy is a plus, on many different levels. But this positive should not be construed as a guarantee that the seat will leave the Democratic Party.Rhode Island is one of the bluest states. The Democrats control the legislature and most...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 06, 2010 34 Comments

As readers of this blog already know, I am cursed with two of the looniest Congressmen in existence, Patrick Kennedy in my home state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and Maurice Hinchey in Ithaca, NY, where I live during the academic year.In the wake...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 21, 2009 20 Comments

Sheldon Whitehouse, my Democratic Senator from Rhode Island, has joined the Alan Grayson wing of the Democratic party with a speech so over the top that it is an infuriating embarrassment. I wasn't going to post on this. But then I listened to the speech, in...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 20, 2009 3 Comments

Here is a photo of our patio taken a little before 8 a.m. this morning. Looks like we have almost a foot of snow. We are expecting snow for about 5 more hours.--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...

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