If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
Still over-tired from the General Assembly’s final night in session, Justin draws some lessons from the experience.
Justin writes live from the final day of the legislative session.
Justin sets up camp to write live from the RI House’s discussion of the budget.
Justin muses about the inappropriateness of honorifics in American politics… especially in Rhode Island.
Justin whiles away the evening writing from the State House floor (campaign finance) and House Environment and Natural Resources Committee hearing (EBEC).
Justin writes live from a joint House & Senate Committee Hearing on casino legislation.
An example of civil asset forfeiture in Northern Massachusetts adds punctuation to Justin’s concerns about the local forfeiture windfall taken from Google.
Justin writes live from the RI Senate Committee on Finance, including Central Falls retirees and a path to MERS.
Using a police windfall award to (possibly) eliminate pension problems may seem like common sense, but when the dynamics of government are considered, Justin suggests rationality goes in the other direction.
A bill by Sen. Crowley and the Dept. of Revenue would allow cities and towns to use the state oversight process to move retirees into the state-run MERS pension system.
Liveblogging from the Senate floor session and House Finance Committee.
Justin writes live from Ron Paul’s town hall event at URI.
Operating in RI government is like following directions based on where things used to be; Justin says outsiders are disadvantaged and vulnerable.
Justin writes live from Don Watkins talk to the Brown Republicans on entitlements.
Former district 1 congressman Patrick Kennedy tells the New York Times that big donations from special interests is how the business of politics works, with implications for local campaign finance initiatives.
Justin writes live and extemporaneously from the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Gov. Chafee’s municipal relief package of legislation.
Justin writes live from General Treasurer Gina Raimondo’s second comprehensive pension reform workshop for municipal leaders, Part II: Creating a Secure & Sustainable Pension Plan.
Reason’s Matt Welch measures cutting-edge media against legacy media worries about the death of their industry, and reviewing the local playing field, Justin gives an example of how public policy can give them a cudgel (even inadvertently).
Justin writes live from the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources hearing, including (for one thing) creation of a new public consortium with powers of eminent domain.
Justin writes live from the Senate Committee on Special Legislation, with particular interest in casino-related legislation submitted on behalf of the attorney general.
A bill originating in the attorney general’s office transfers all authority over casino gambling in RI to the Division of Lotteries and omits “conflict of interest” rules for its employees.
Justin writes live from a contentious Central Coventry Fire District annual meeting in Coventry.
A Superior Court Ruling in Town of North Kingstown v. North Kingstown School Committee requires the school department to live within its budget but solidifies legal precedent requiring town governments to cover losses in state aid unless the budget makes estimates “expressly contingent” on actual revenue.
Justin writes live and extemporaneously from the House Committee on Labor hearing concerning E-Verify.
The Current interviews Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence Thomas Tobin, part 3 of 3: illegal immigration; perceptions of an oppressive state.
Justin writes live from the RISC Winter Meeting at the Radisson Hotel.
Justin writes live from the RI House Labor Committee Hearing, dealing mainly with binding arbitration and perpetual contracts.
As a Ted Nesi article illustrates, the matter of legislator ethics is not a simple one. Perhaps disclosure, not investigation, is the answer.