I’m not making this up
It’s a little before 8PM with an occasional flash and rumble. I was doing visits and listening to the radio all day. NPR was saying in their measured tones that we might just want to kiss our roofs goodbye. So far on the East Side it’s a solid but ordinary thunderstorm, and the air is [...]
Do We Value Experience in Teaching? and Other Big, Hairy Questions
I try not to think too much about the Providence teacher terminations (my inner therapist says I should be exercising instead) but I can’t help but ask a couple of questions. Here’s my first big, hairy question about the teacher terminations: if Providence gets away with it, how long will it be before they try [...]
Bob Walsh Responds to Mayor Taveras on Teacher Terminations
Mayor Taveras asked on Facebook for people to respond to his decision to send out the termination notices to Providence teachers, and NEA Executive Director Bob Walsh replied: Since you asked: I think the terminating rather than laying off teachers is not only a violation of the law, it is a violation of the trust [...]
All You Need is Love….And Unions
Just read this long piece by Kevin Drum about why unions improve life not just for union members, but for the entire middle class. The ultimate fact, as research in Drum’s article shows, is that politicians don’t do things for the middle class or the working class. We like to think Senators Whitehouse and Reed [...]
Testimony at the State House
We waited in room 313 for about seven hours to testify, but we were grateful to have chairs. I give credit for everyone who stuck it out, regardless of their point of view. Even Chris Young waited until after he had testified to start with the cops and get thrown out. This is my written [...]
Donate to RICLAPP’s End-of-Year Fundraising Drive
I just donated to the Rhode Island Center for Law and Public Policy. I am the treasurer of this organization and I challenge all of my friends to make a donation, because I know for a fact that RICLAPP is doing great work and contributing to a better community. Donate at http://riclapp.org/. If you enjoy [...]
Stephanie Chafee, RN
This looks good for Rhode Island. Our new first lady, Stephanie Chafee, has been involved in public health for her whole career… PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Stephanie Chafee was Rhode Island’s first AIDS research nurse and co-founded the state’s only clinic providing free health services to the needy. Now, the multimillionaire wife of former U.S. [...]
Steve Stycos with News Cranstonians Can Use
COMING AND GOING The faces at the Pawtuxet Village Farmers Market are shifting in the last few weeks of the season, but we will have plenty of fall vegetables like winter squash, carrots, apples and honey. After a week off, Zephyr Farm will be back on Saturday, but Pak Express will be absent as Chang [...]
Halloween at the Armory
Perfect day for West Broadway Neighborhood Association Goblins and Gremlins Party and Parade. There were some scary costumes, There was a giant catapult that was shooting pumpkins the length of a football field. There was the Really, Really Free Market where everything was free. Unused stuff was re-incarnated as someone else’s must-have, and brisk trading [...]
A Scene
You know how you might go out to hear some music, not expecting much out of the ordinary, and realize you have walked into something that gives the universe a little shake? That was how I felt at the first Florentine Faire on Thayer St. in ancient times. And that was the vibe again at [...]
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