TONIGHT: CCA Surprise!

Promises of consultation broken

Planning Commission and Town Council pop short-notice workshop

By Will Collette

You just can’t beat the CCA-controlled Town Council and Planning Commission for their “open, transparent, professional and civil” approach to town government.

With the barest, minimum legal notice, no fanfare and no supporting documents posted on Clerkbase, the Town Council and Planning Commission have sprung a special “workshop” to discuss forming a “Historic District Committee” on Monday night. There’s not even a CCA e-bleat.

The last time this issue was discussed was at the July 9 Town Council meeting, raised by Marge Frank as an issue that should be considered. Planning Commissar Ruth Platner immediately stepped up to the podium to argue against having a Historic District Commission because, she said, it could apply very strict rules to historic areas. Click here to listen to the discussion.

Ode to an Autumn Olive

My favorite invasive species

Autumn Olives, nice and ripe

By Will Collette

With the coming of fall, I look forward to harvesting the last edible wild berry of the year, the Autumn Olive. 

My brother-in-law Mike O’Reilly and I have had a running battle over Autumn Olives for several years. Mike is the environmental officer for the town of Dartmouth, MA, and, as such, he made it plain to me that Autumn Olives are a very bad invasive species.

Whose interest does the CCA serve?

In 2010, the CCA promised to “create a government that serves the people’s interest.” But which people are they serving?

 

Part 1: Actions speak louder than platforms
Part 2: “We have met the enemy and he is us”
Part 3: CCA family values

By Linda Felaco

It’s not always easy for public officials to divine the will of the people, and elections can serve as a wake-up call in this regard. Sure, some folks write or call their legislators to let them know where they stand on specific issues, but they are a tiny minority within the electorate. And government would come to a standstill if a public hearing or a referendum had to be held on every single issue that came up.

Though if you’re proposing sweeping changes that would affect key areas of town, calling a public hearing with the barest legal minimum amount of advance notice is not a good way to take an accurate reading of the will of the people either.

And if you campaign for office on a specific issue and are then elected, seems a pretty safe bet that the will of the people is that you keep your promise.

Time for Answers from DiBello, Part 4

Oops, she did it again

By Will Collette

For Part 1, click here
For Part 2, click here
For Part 3, click here

Continuing my series of articles in response to Charlestown Town Council member Lisa DiBello’s June 25 public attack on me from the Council dais for being a “liar,” I am reviewing the volumes of material I’ve presented here in Progressive Charlestown and the questions that DiBello has never answered.

DiBello’s track record shows a persistent disdain for accountability. In Part 2, I reviewed her refusal to provide copies of her IRS-990 reports for her home-based “charity,” A Ray of Hope, as she is required to do by federal law. These reports, filed annually with the Internal Revenue Service, are supposed to detail a charity’s income and expenses. The IRS-990 reports are the single most important accountability tool available to the public on the behavior of nonprofit charities.

DiBello has also never filed the simple, two-page annual report with the RI Secretary of State by the June 30 deadline. Ever. For the entire 12 years since A Ray of Hope was incorporated. The main information in this report is a listing of the officers and board members who, by law, have a fiduciary responsibility to properly manage the nonprofit.

DiBello just filed her latest state report, late, as usual, on August 17, more than a month and a half overdue.

Which way do we go?

How about forward?

Ryan runs into the truth

Whether you run a marathon or run for office, facts and integrity matter.

By Jim Hightower

To borrow from President Lyndon Johnson's colorful analysis of a Nixon speech, "I may not know much, but I know chicken [poop] from chicken salad."

Paul Ryan, the GOP's current vice-presidential nominee, has spent his career in government trying to blur the boundary between the two. Over the years, the ambitious right-wing politico has carefully assembled a stinking salad of positive adjectives to create his public persona: an earnest, straight-shooting, big thinker with integrity and deeply held conservative convictions.

The Latest Battle in the War on Voting

The kind of big government the Right likes is the kind that keeps certain people from voting.

By Marge Baker

The Republican Party claims to be the party of small government — with the obvious exceptions of denying marriage equality and reproductive rights. But there's another kind of big government that the party has overwhelmingly and enthusiastically gotten behind: expensive and intrusive attempts to make it harder for Americans to vote.

A recent trio of federal court decisions in Florida, Ohio, and Texas have ripped the lid off the increasingly successful right-wing campaign to limit opportunities for low-income people, minorities, and students to vote — especially, and not coincidentally, in swing states. 

Record Poverty Persists While Gap Between Rich and Rest of Us Increases

Sadly, those who "occupied" Wall Street and city squares across the country in 2011, were right: All of the income gains have concentrated at the top, while the rest of us saw a deterioration or stagnation in our wages and income.

By Karen Dolan September 12, 2012

We can’t seem to stop having record numbers of people living in poverty in the United States. The richest continue to get richer and the rest of us continue to see our incomes get lower and lower.

New Census Bureau figures released only days ago, show that 15 percent of the U.S. population lived in poverty in 2011. Over 46 million Americans lived at or below the poverty threshold of a household income of $23,201 per year for a family of four. One in five of our children live in poverty and over one-third of black and Latino children are struggling through impoverishment.

Charlestown has some skin in the game in House District 32

It’s Craven v. Ehrhardt

Charlestown Asst. Solicitor Bob Craven (D) faces incumbent state Rep.
Laurence Ehrhardt in November for House District 32

By Will Collette

After a recount Tuesday, Republican incumbent State Representative Laurence Ehrhardt was certified the winner in his rough primary battle with his former would-be successor Sharon Gamba by only 16 votes.

Gamba claimed that Ehrhardt had told her he planned to retire from the General Assembly and promised her his support as his successor, only to renege on that promise. So Gamba then launched a strong primary challenge to take what she claimed was promised to her.

Though Ehrhardt squeaked by, he now will face Democratic challenger Bob Craven, who is well known here in Charlestown as one of the town’s long-time members of its legal team. Bob is currently Assistant Solicitor, Probate Judge, town prosecutor and counsel to the Zoning Board.

Do Parties Matter? (continued)

All the President's Men

By Jen Sorenson

For the full cartoon, click here.

Rhode Island right attacks the right to vote

Tea Party Uses True the Vote Tactics to Stifle Votes

By Bob Plain in RIFuture.org

It turns out Anthony Gemma isn’t the only one using allegations of voter fraud to prop up his political agenda. The local Tea Party is doing so too, using both his tactics and his allegations, under the auspices of True the Vote.

“True the Vote’s plan is to scrutinize the validity of voter registration rolls and voters who appear at the polls,” according to an article in today’s New York Times. “Among those in their cross hairs: noncitizens who are registered to vote, those without proper identification, others who may be registered twice, and dead people.”

Economics and politics set the limits on wind energy

Global Wind Energy could meet global demand

From: Andy Soos, ENN.com

There is enough theoretical energy available in the wind to meet all of the world’s energy demand. Airborne wind turbines that convert steadier and faster high-altitude winds into energy could generate even more power than ground- and ocean-based turbine units.

New research from Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira examines the limits of the amount of power that could be harvested from winds, as well as the effects high-altitude wind power could have on the climate as a whole. Their work is published September 9 by Nature Climate Change.

TONIGHT - Great Meatballs!

Richmond Dems Spaghetti & Meatballs Dinner - always tasty, come early

OMG-PD

Wedding Crashers: Block Party Edition

By Samantha Turner in the Narragansett-South Kingstown Patch

A North Kingstown man gave two unwelcome guests to his block party an unwelcome surprise this past weekend.

According to reports, a pair of intoxicated Kent County residents crashed a block party in North Kingstown while visiting a friend down the road. The pair, along with some friends, sat by the fire as the homeowner was trying to clean up the yard. 

Come out today to support the Community Garden

TODAY:Harvest Festival at Ninigret Park