Originally published by The Blaze; written by Chris Enloe ESPN anchor Sage Steele announced Tuesday that she is leaving the imperiled, Disney-owned sports network after settling a lawsuit. The motivation for leaving her place of employment for the last 16 years? According to Steele, she wants to exercise her First Amendment rights “more freely.” “Having […]
Tampa coach Todd Bowles rejects media’s racial script By JASON WHITLOCK, October 14 Mike Royko inspired my journalism career. He looked nothing like me or anyone in my family. Royko wrote a syndicated column for the Chicago Tribune. His columns badgering local politicians and ridiculing American presidents and celebrities earned him the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for […]
With the Major League Baseball All-Star Game coming up next week, I am reminded of my dad’s ignominious plight. Most baseball fans do not realize that there are 504 former players, including my dad, Cranston, Rhode Island’s Dave Stenhouse, who are being jipped out of well-deserved pensions by the league (MLB) and the players’ association […]
In December 2021 Major League Baseball owners “locked out” current players, a pre-emptive move calculated to gain negotiating advantage in the pending negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. But did you know that elderly MLB retirees have been locked out for decades?
The Democrat Congress produced a sham impeachment of President Trump the day after the “secretive court that approves sensitive surveillance issued a rare public rebuke of the FBI on Tuesday, saying the bureau misled the Justice Department and the court when it sought permission to wiretap a former Trump campaign aide.” Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had to shush her members to stop their shouts of glee at what they had done, thus cheering away any pretense that this was anything other than a political stunt.
A somber moment of answering the call of history to preserve the nation? Ha! Anybody who has watched this travesty play out over three years has known since the last election that this was coming. This is not evidence of the competence of the speaker, as some want to see it. Had she failed to answer the three-year-old calls of her rabid base for this moment, it would have been a political disaster. And having failed to use her power responsibly, it is now a moral failure.
A bad situation for her and dangerous times for all of us.
Also yesterday, the Providence Journal gave this headline to an AP article, “MMA fighter says victory over Trump supporter was for the ‘entire world’”:
Kamaru Usman sent a bloodied, bleary Colby Covington spiraling to the ground for the second time. Usman then leaped on him and went to work on Covington’s badly injured face, battering his dazed opponent with hammer fists until the referee mercifully intervened.
Although he had to wait until the final minute, Usman settled his very personal feud with his sharply divisive challenger in perhaps the most satisfying way possible.
“This one is not just for me,” Usman said. “This is for the whole entire world right now.”
The article goes on to explain that antipathy toward Covington is much more about him, personally, than about the President of the United States. That puts a spotlight on the irresponsible decision of the press to play up a political angle. They are encouraging violence.
It is unfortunate, in that context, that the last name of the “Trump supporter” is the same as the high school whose Trump-supporting students became the target of a national two minutes of hate, last year. The coincidence of these names gives the impression of a divine author who is making His connections almost too obvious. Shame on us if we can’t figure out the lesson.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for December 9, included talk about:
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for December 4, included talk about:
If URI’s anti-Brady professor were expressing the ideological opposite views, we know how the school would be reacting, so maybe it should flip the script.
The prospect of iLottery apps puts in perspective the importance of holding the constitutional line on sports betting, so Rhode Islanders can answer the question: Is this really what we want our government doing?
A run-down of items in Rhode Island political news for the week.
Time will tell, but Rhode Islanders should keep a healthy eye, over the next couple of decades, on whether we dodged a bullet when we declined to bear financial risk for the construction of a new minor league baseball stadium. Eric Boehm’s report from New Jersey gives reason to expect that it will prove to be so:
Taxpayers spent more than $18 million to build the stadium that would eventually be named Campbell’s Field, as part of a minor league ballpark-building frenzy across New Jersey that saw similar stadiums erected in Newark, Atlantic City, and Somerset—all part of redevelopment schemes that attracted independent minor league teams (that is, minor league teams not affiliated with the Major League Baseball farm system).
Less than two decades later, taxpayers in New Jersey will pay another $1 million to tear down Campbell’s Field. …
Camden’s not the only city to dump a ton of money into a minor (or major) league ballpark under the guise of economic development, only to see the project become a fiscal black hole. The minor league teams that moved into Newark and Atlantic City around the same time as the Riversharks started playing in Camden have met similar fates. The Atlantic City Surf survived for 11 years before going bankrupt and the Newark Bears folded in 2014. Their riverfront stadium in downtown Newark is also set to be demolished less than 20 years after it was built.
Yes, maybe it looks bad that Rhode Island is losing its icons and blocking new development, but that negative appearance doesn’t justify making risky deals.
For my weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, this week, about the merits of a political system that lost the PawSox and the wisdom of debating chickens.
There’s another aspect of the Worcester’s PawSox gain that Rhode Islanders haven’t spent much time discussing, and it is visible in the reporting of Ethan Epstein in The Weekly Standard (emphasis added):
But the PawSox owners announced that the next two years they play at McCoy will be their last. Roughly three years ago, they announced their plans to vacate McCoy. Pawtucket, Providence, and Worcester jockeyed for position. The owners played the competitors against each other masterfully, and in the end, Worcester evidently made the team an offer it couldn’t refuse: It will build a new $90 million stadium and apartment complex. The state of Massachusetts is fronting $35 million; and “the city of Worcester is expected to borrow $100 million, some of which would be repaid by the team,” the Providence CBS affiliate reported. The deal required no input from the state legislature, and was put together in secret. The only apparent cost to the PawSox is that they will now known by the unfortunate moniker “WooSox.”
Somehow, the City of Worcester was able to pledge $100 million with no public awareness whatsoever. John DePetro and I disagreed, on WNRI earlier today, about the significance of this angle, but I don’t think it should be dismissed. I certainly want a governing system that allowed municipal leaders to do such a thing.
Yes, Massachusetts has been doing much better than Rhode Island in recent decades, with some solid reforms, and has therefore built up more trust equity with the voting public. By contrast, Rhode Island is still suffering a loss of confidence from 38 Studios which (importantly) has been further strained by Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo’s preferred economic development method of making special deals with powerful insiders and wealthy out-of-state interests.
That doesn’t mean Massachusetts’s luck will continue, or that Rhode Island won’t reevaluate its government. On the first count, I’ve long been noting that Massachusetts’s lead in education has been flagging ever since concessions to the labor unions under Deval Patrick, and we’ll have to wait a while to see whether the WooSox gamble pays off. On the second count, we can only hope that the nationally visible face plant with the erstwhile PawSox will cause insiders and the voting public alike to conclude that we just can’t continue on in the way that we’ve been governing ourselves.
Rhode Island politics have been messing things up for Rhode Islanders for decades, but by messing things up for the PawSox, they’ve finally gotten something right.
For my weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, this week, about the complaints about (a lack of) debates, a vote-buying grant scheme, and some PawSox chat.
Legislative grants have been an issue as long as I have been paying attention to Rhode Island politics. They are so obviously a vote-buying scheme that legislative leaders use to reward representatives and senators who help to keep the insider game going. They are therefore an excellent symbol for everything that is wrong with Rhode Island politics.
The Providence Journal Political Scene today emphasizes the increase in grants going to groups in the name of Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, who had a too-close-for-comfort campaign result last time around and has clearly wanted to avoid a second roll of the dice:
The Cranston Police Department ($65,000), Western Cranston Garden Club ($1,000) and Cranston Western Little League ($15,000) were among the groups on which Mattiello bestowed 32 grants under the General Assembly’s legislative grant program this year.
No state lawmaker sponsored more grants individually than Mattiello or more total cash than the $205,048 in those grants, nearly 30 percent more than the $158,500 Mattiello sponsored the previous year, according to a Political Scene review of legislative grants for the fiscal year that ended June 30.
If legislative grants stand as an archetype of Rhode Island corruption, the Little League grants are especially revealing about the unfairness of the granting system. Twenty-eight grants totaling $84,000 went to organizations with “Little League” in their names this legislative session. Mattiello’s gift was the biggest, but that wasn’t it. Cranston, as a municipality, received by far the most Little League grants in Rhode Island: $32,500. The second-place municipality was Warwick, receiving only $11,500.
Those grants go to 19 Little League organizations in 14 cities and towns (out of 39) and are the work of 25 legislators (out of 113). Democrat Senator Felag managed to spread his wealth to all three towns that he represents: Bristol, Warren, and Tiverton. A few more legislators requested Little League donations in their names that don’t appear to have been granted.
There is no justification for a government program that picks and chooses which children’s baseball clubs deserve taxpayer dollars based on the political fidelity of their representatives and senators. But the clear purpose is to keep our elected officials in line and to send a message to voters that the price of replacing their representation at the State House could be access to millions of dollars in cash for their kids and their pet projects.
For my weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, this week, about the governor’s race, political poll results, and Rhode Islanders’ (lack of concern) for the PawSox Worcester overtures.
Appearing on Rhode Island Public Radio’s “Political Roundtable” show, recently, Rhode Island House Minority Leader Patricia Morgan, who is running for governor as a Republican, had an exchange with political analyst Scott MacKay:
MacKay: It sounds, in a way, like you don’t really care whether the PawSox go or not. Do you realize this is a part of Rhode Island culture and family entertainment that hundreds of thousands of people go to every year?
Morgan: I do understand, and I have taken my children, as well, to the PawSox stadium, but I still believe it’s a private company at this point. We can’t build a facility for every private company. I mean, why don’t we build bowling allies; a lot of families like to go bowling. Why don’t we build miniature golf entertainment areas? At some point, we really have to keep taxpayer monies for the things that actually are economic development, will actually build good jobs in Rhode Island.
Morgan should have concluded that thought by saying we have to keep taxpayer monies for things that are actually government responsibilities, but her point is otherwise right on. The problem, however, is that conservatives can’t win this sort of reductio ad absurdum argument with progressives, because the latter will happily say, “Go ahead.”
Perhaps progressives won’t generally have the personal affection for bowling or mini-golf that they have for baseball, but nobody should doubt that they’d be happy to use government resources for family entertainment if somebody were to credibly propose doing so. After all, family time is very important. Why shouldn’t government build facilities to foster it? Isn’t government supposed to do everything important for us?
Of course, the conservative reply might be that the lack of a private market for a bolling alley in a particular area is simply evidence that people aren’t interested in that activity in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile. But however inexpensive the activity is, there might be some families that would jump at the chance if the price came down a little and who, without that opportunity, instead spend their time doing unhealthy things isolated from each other. And hundreds of thousands of Rhode Islanders have fond memories of bowling with their families.
Senator Ciccone and FOP-13 NPPD [Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 13, North Providence Police Department] earned a share of the North Providence West Little League’s Major Division regular-season championship by capturing their respective finales at Romano Field and concluding their schedules with 14-2 records.
On Monday night, Senator Ciccone posted a 9-0 triumph over Christiansen’s Fine Milk that was the ballclub’s fourth straight victory. Nathan Bautista pitched a superb one-hit shutout that saw him strike out 13 batters and Mazeo DiScullio led the offense with three hits and as many runs scored.
FOP-13, meanwhile, will head into the postseason with an eight-game win streak, thanks to its 12-5 victory over Mayor Lombardi last Wednesday night. Ethan Leveillee delivered the game’s biggest hit, a grand slam home run over the left-field fence.
It’s possible I just don’t remember something, but I can’t recall any labor unions sponsoring teams when I played Little League years ago in New Jersey and definitely not any politicians. The latter seems flatly inappropriate. Politicians aren’t promoting a product in the same way private businesses are, and to politicize children’s athletics in this way is wrong.
That said, it is inarguably appropriate, symbolically, for Rhode Island teams named after politicians and labor unions to be “triumphing” over those sponsored by the private businesses that move our economy forward.
For my weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, this week, about the start of truck tolls, the prospects of a ballpark deal, and the state of play in the governor’s race.
New home for PawSox perhaps? Baghdad Sox has a nice ring? Clears the way for Loughlin Marina! #theideamanoftalkradiohttps://t.co/sL6edG81JZ
— LoughlinRI1 (@LoughlinRI1) March 10, 2018
Why not support taxpayer money (and free Rocky Point land) for Loughlin Marina instead? 1 million six-figure jobs and it doesn't pay for itself, it pays for everyone! https://t.co/EMf19Vd4Md
— LoughlinRI1 (@LoughlinRI1) February 27, 2018
Other members of the Pawtucket delegation fire back: "Mr. Coughlin paints an erroneous picture regarding the proposed new Ballpark at Slater Mill and in doing so, does a grave disservice to his city, his constituents and the people of Rhode Island" https://t.co/u2aB8GETbp
— Ian Donnis (@IanDon) February 14, 2018
Balderdash. That urban legend has absolutely no factual basis 1: Govt has no place subsidizing private business. None. 2:No one wants to see the @PawSox leave-But they must pay their own bills 3:If they leave, the $ will be spent elsewhere, less the burden of a stadium @MoniqAR
— PO Taxpayer (@potaxpayer) January 29, 2018
For my weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, this week, the topics were the governor’s budget proposal, the March for Women, and the politics of PawSox subsidies.
Because if the revenue projections don't work out, he's the one who has to tell the public that they still have to pay the bondholders, no matter what the "boilerplate" in the law says about the bonds not being state debt, or else the state's bond rating will be ruined forever.
— Andrew Morse (@CAndrewMorse) January 22, 2018
As Rhode Islanders contemplate the significance of the AFL-CIO’s apparently getting its way and killing a public referendum on public financing of the proposed PawSox stadium, and as we consider the possibility of pouring hundreds of millions of dollars of debt into building and fixing schools that local governments failed to maintain, and as House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello collects around $90,000 at a single fundraising event, Megan McArdle’s musings on government unions and might-as-well-be-government unions are worth a read:
… as the Times notes, both the cost of labor and the amount of labor that’s used contribute a great deal to those bloated bottom lines. Why does Paris, with its feisty unions, manage to use fewer workers than New York City, and get jobs done for a fraction of the cost?
Because New York unions are politically connected, and for various reasons, the American government is particularly vulnerable to capture by these sorts of interests, especially as regional partisanship hardens. New York City is a one-party town in a very blue state; while New Yorkers may occasionally vote for a Republican mayor or a Republican governor, the down-ticket offices are filled in the Democratic primary. Those politicians have no interest in angering a large segment of their base that has a lot of cash for campaign contributions, and is well organized to turn out and influence elections. And the finance industry throws off such a vast river of cash that they can get away with bloated construction budgets. So no one has any incentive to crack down on wages or featherbedding.
Unionization and the sheer size of government have combined to create a political system that is in large part dominated by people voting to give themselves other people’s money.
In a free market, somebody selling something (including his or her labor) is constrained by the possibility that the customer will simply go elsewhere or forgo the purchase. As insiders endeavor to make sure that Rhode Island taxpayers do not have the choice to forgo the purchase of a new PawSox stadium, we can see how the constraint on labor unions in modern Rhode Island is not far short of the possibility of actual revolution.
NEW on @wpro Arlene Violet says "it's a lie" when #Pawsox pushers say RI won't be on the hook for $40 million if attendance falls off; team owners refuse to make a personal guarantee = no deal.
— Tara Granahan (@TaraGranahan) January 17, 2018
The @RISenate is committed to open deliberative process. Interesting. Than why are nonsensical pro @Pawsox talking points, generated by taxpayer paid govt employees, being circulated by Leadership? @LPofRI @RIProgDems @JournalKate @MoniqAR @Vegemini @steveahlquist @KobeEnglish pic.twitter.com/fetAH5oEcv
— The Coalition (@Coalition_Radio) January 12, 2018