The advent of citizen journalists documenting news as it happens was supposed to usher in a new era of transparency and truth. Aliens land in Roswell? Somebody whips out a cell phone, and cover-up becomes an undoable thing. Yay, score one for our little green friends (who are, in fact, still being illegally detained somewhere […]
An Eye on I-195 Phillipe and Jorge were astounded last week by a call for political transparency by none other than Senate President Rubbers Ruggerio. Based on his past behavior at Halitosis Hall, we figured Rubbers would need the equivalent of an ethics NarCan shot if he ever stumbled across good government practices. The senate […]
Complaint Bureau Through our 38 years of writing the Cool, Cool World, people have chided Phillipe and Jorge for having the easiest job in the world, given the constant fodder being presented to us by the gaggle of imbeciles and well-dressed crooks at the General Assembly, the Crimetown-worthy operations of local city and town councils, […]
, Crimetown, The Sequel? The very good and highly recommended podcast series, “Crimetown,” about Rogue Island’s “Mobsters and Lobsters” past, may want to unpack their microphones and head down to the Providence City Council meetings. There are more than enough hacks and thugs in action to fill at least a couple broadcasts. The city council […]
Wait a minute, should this even be a thing? Those born from 1946 to 1964, now aged 53 to 71, are the “Baby Boomer” generation. Weren’t we the ones who turned the establishment upside down in the Sixties and Seventies with “the Pill,” with “free love,” with protesting (sometimes violently) about the Vietnam War, with […]
Wind energy is all it’s blown up to be. States like Texas and Oklahoma know wind to be a viable and powerful source of renewable energy, and have been tapping into it on their plains and prairies for decades. Rhode Island, being a bit short on plains and prairies inventory, took the best route […]
Simply reading the 77-page decision by the Rhode Island Supreme Court provides a thorough and authoritative tutorial to the exercise in backroom politics that lies behind the approval of the Deepwater Wind “demonstration project” off Block Island. It’s all there: how the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) initially found that the agreement to sell wind power […]
Huge Blunder at Urinal? Phillipe and Jorge fear that GateHouse Media, absentee owners of the Biggest Little’s organ of record, The Urinal, may have made a colossal mistake – not the first since the carpetbaggers have taken over from their kindred much-removed spirit, the A.H. Belo Corp. of nearby Texas. We note that Alan Rosenberg […]
For the seventh straight year, Rhode Island legislators have presented a bill to tax and regulate cannabis, much like the alcohol and tobacco industries are regulated. According to Regulate Rhode Island, the Adult Use of Cannabis Act (2017 H-5555) would replace Rhode Island’s existing policy of cannabis prohibition and permit adults over the age of […]
Rhode Island is unusual among the states for a tax policy that treats rolling papers as equivalent to cigarettes, such that a package of 20 sheets of rolling paper is taxed as if it was a pack of 20 ready-made cigarettes, the current excise tax for which is $3.75. Sales tax of 7% is then […]