I Learned It By Watching You, Jon!
State Rep. Jon Brien blames his recent defeat on “outside influences” – my union among them – who were “spending a lot of money” against him. Here’s why he is partly right, partly wrong, and partly to...
View ArticleRI Small Businesses: Beware of ALEC’s Minions
Jon Brien recently announced that he would be running a write-in campaign to retain his seat in Rhode Island’s House of Representatives. At a press conference to announce the egotistical continuation...
View ArticleHuge Night for Rhode Island Progressives
Photo by Scout Tufankjian, Obama for America (Story about this picture here.) Brendan Doherty, Mark Binder and even, to some extent, Mitt Romney, all made Rhode Island progressives nervous throughout...
View ArticleProgress Report: 38 Studios Scoop; Localvore Recipes; Banksters vs. Liz...
Greenwich Cove (Photo by Bob Plain) It’s amazing some of the things we’re willing to believe … Jesus was born to a virgin, Thomas Jefferson thought all men were created equal, Reaganomics works and,...
View ArticleALEC Membership in RI Reduced by a Third
Is the era of ALEC in the Ocean State coming to an end? It certainly looks like it. It may have seemed for a short while that 2012 was going to be a banner year for American Legislative Exchange...
View ArticleALEC: Bad for the Economy
Last year, there was a lot of talk here about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. This corporate-backed “research” group produces model legislation for the states and recruits and...
View ArticleWashington Post: Deborah Gist, Jeb Bush and ALEC
Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist has sought several reform-oriented grants through a group closely connected with ALEC, according to the Washington Post. The Post reported Wednesday on...
View ArticleFontaine On Fox News: Blames SNAP Not CVS
“Is this America the one we want? One and a quarter million immigrants getting food stamps, one-third of the people in your town.” – Fox “News” to Woonsocket Mayor Leo Fontaine about the Washington...
View ArticleA closer look at the Center for Freedom and Prosperity
The debate continues here in Rhode Island. How do we repair our sluggish economy and begin the process of putting our citizens back to work? How do we collectively regain the vibrant economy which at...
View ArticleWith Gist, it’s public sector enemies against the rest of RI
There’s something – if not good, at the very least honest – in getting to see the politics of public education play out publicly this week. As educators, activists and parents across the state are...
View ArticleThus far but no further on voter ID law
George Nee and Gordon Fox get reacquainted with each other on election night. (Photo by Bob Plain) It was never fully implemented, and it won’t be fully repealed either. Instead Rhode Island will keep...
View ArticleALEC loves Raimondo
The pro-big business bill mill known as ALEC released a report this week that not only praises Gina Raimondo and local legislators for what they did to retirees in 2011, but also uses Raimondo’s Rhode...
View ArticleSix legislators still ALEC members
ALEC is still alive in the Ocean State. According to legislative records, there are five members of the House and one senator. Similarly, there are five Democrats and one Republican. Reps Sam Azzinaro...
View ArticleJohn Galt vs. ALEC in East Bay toll debate
There’s an ideological battle going on in the Ocean State concerning the new toll bridge connecting Tiverton to Aquidneck Island. But it isn’t between the left and the right. It’s between the right and...
View ArticleALEC, SPN are batting .600 in Rhode Island
Rhode Island may be down to just five card-carrying ALEC members left in the legislature, but the Ocean State is still doing an exemplary job of implementing ALEC’s agenda. A new report that links the...
View ArticleRI’s ‘stink tank’: the Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Something stinks in Rhode Island, and according to StinkTanks.org, that smell is the Ocean State Center for Freedom and Prosperity. A new report which follows Koch brother and other corporate spending...
View ArticleRhode Island is ALEC-free
Sen William Walaska Rhode Island is now an ALEC-free zone. When the year 2014 expired on December 31, so did Warwick Senator William Walaska’s membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a...
View ArticleSchool voucher bill wording lifted from ALEC model legislation
Before the ink was dry on the highlights of the conference Transforming and Democratizing Public Education: An Activist Summit, Rhode Islanders concerned about the survival of public education were...
View ArticleThe Estate Tax is a solution, not a problem
At the 2016 Rhode Island Small Business Economic Summit (Summit), Grafton H. “Cap” Wiley IV told Governor Gina Raimondo, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and a room full of government officials and...
View ArticleCNBC’s state rankings flawed and anti-middle class
From the headlines, you would think that CNBC is the gold standard economic authority. After the cable news network released its 10th annual “America’s Top States for Business 2016” listing, in which...
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