Piracy or Privateering?

Corporate Sponsorship of Rick Perry’s Partisan Job Piracy

By Phil Mattera in the Dirt-Diggers Digest  

“If you want to live free — free from overtaxation, free from overlitigation, free from overregulation … move to Texas.” That’s the pitch Texas Gov. Rick Perry just made to business executives in Maryland in the latest of his brazenly partisan job-poaching trips to states led by Democratic governors. 

In advance of the trip, Perry ran ads that explicitly criticized Maryland’s Martin O’Malley, claiming to business owners that “unfortunately, your governor has made Maryland the tax and fee state.”

Charlestown down in the dumps

For second year in a row, Charlestown comes in dead last for recycling

By Will Collette

At the end of every fiscal year, the RI Resource Recovery Corporation distributes the profits to the 39 RI cities and towns from its sale of recycled materials . Each town’s share is based on how much they recycled.

Predictably, the large cities received the most money, with Warwick topping the list for 2012.

But coming in at sixth place was the joint effort of Westerly-Hopkinton, proving that you don’t have to be a big city to recycle on a large scale (3,739 tons) and reap the profits.

Coming in dead last – again – was Charlestown. With only 341 tons of recycled material (3% less than the year before), Charlestown’s share of the profits was only $2,647.

Saving you from things they don't want you to have

Tea Party Freedom Fighters

By Tom Tomorrow

Click here to see their heroic exploits

Astronomy Picture of the Day

IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula 

From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars, millions of years young, radiate the nebula with invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms.

The electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible nebular glow, dominated by the red emission of hydrogen.

At an estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, the region shown is about 250 light-years across, spanning an area equivalent to four full moons on the sky.

The nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, but seafood-loving astronomers might know this cosmic cloud as The Prawn Nebula.

New funding for solar projects

Rhode Island Solar Sector Gets Lift from EDC

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News staff

PROVIDENCE — The third and final round of solar-energy grants for 48 small solar projects were recently announced by the Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

The grants fund 25 percent up to $10,000 for new residential and small-business solar installations. The latest projects are bundled by installers:

• Fifteen photovoltaic projects across the state for Newport Solar $79,228.
• Eight photovoltaic and eight solar hot water projects across the state for Island Solar, $62,181.
• Eight photovoltaic projects in Providence for Real Goods Solar, $40,312. Six of the projects are part of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association.
• Six photovoltaic projects in Jamestown and Newport for Newport Renewables $47,190.
• Three photo voltaic projects in Providence and Tiverton for Sol Power, $22,329.

It’s All Their Fault

The shutdown as well as the looming debt ceiling crisis is entirely a Republican Party production.

By Donald Kaul

Everyone pretty much agrees that what’s going on in Washington right now ranks up there with the dumbest, most destructive episodes in our history.

We are a great and powerful country, on the cusp of achieving that “Shining City upon a Hill” status that Puritan leader John Winthrop talked about nearly 400 years ago.

I mean it. We have the ability to have it all: peace, prosperity, health, happiness.

You Can Lead A Republican To Facts But You Can’t Make Him Think

New Research Confirms It

By RANDA MORRIS in Addicting Info

I’ve been saying for a long time that you can lead a Republican to facts, but you can’t make him think. 

Wouldn’t you know it, Scientific research has verified my conclusions. Up until now my opinion on this was formed strictly from personal observation, combined with a multitude of anecdotal evidence. 

But now Dan Kahan, a Yale Law School Professor, has added to a growing body of evidence, which provides verifiable evidence that leading a person to facts does very little to make them think.

Kahan’s paper titled “Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government” was published early in September, 2013. The research shows that strong ideological beliefs undermine a person’s ability to interpret data and even perform math problems. 

New housing numbers are out

Good and not so good for Charlestown

By Will Collette

HousingWorksRI just released its new 2013 Housing Fact Book. This is their ninth annual report on the state of housing in Rhode Island. 

Their research is generally acknowledged to be the most authoritative and their method of presentation makes it pretty easy to compare how Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns are doing at the important job of providing housing for their people.

As most Charlestown residents know, housing costs in town are high and the amount of affordable housing is low. 

The town’s ruling CCA Party has been at war with the state, arguing that Charlestown cannot meet the requirements of state law to have at least 10% of its housing meet state standards as affordable. Town Council Boss Tom Gentz has made it his mission to overturn the state affordable housing law, or at least get Charlestown exempted from it, without success.

The Housing Fact Book dispels some of Charlestown’s ideas about itself. For example, Charlestown is hardly among the highest-priced housing markets in the state. Or for that matter, even in South County.

Negotiating with Terrorists, Part 4

State labor board wants its order obeyed

Stern to hear SLRB Petition, NKFFA cases consolidated

North Kingstown Firefighters reported to work
on Sunday morning only to be told the 3-platoon
structure would remain in place.

By Tracey C. O’Neill

Providence – The Rhode Island Superior Court today filed an Administrative Order consolidating 7 labor cases involving the North Kingstown Fire Department, all actions to be heard before Judge Brian J. Stern. 

The order signed by Presiding Justice Alice Gibney, assigns all matters in the ongoing dispute between Town and Union to Stern who is familiar with the underlying matters.

“We are due in Kent County Superior Court at 3:30 pm today,” said Raymond Furtado, President NKFFA IAFF Local 1651. “Judge Stern will be hearing the cases. That is the information I have.”

The Rhode Island State Labor Board (SLRB) on Monday, filed a petition in Washington County Superior Court against the Town of North Kingstown seeking enforcement of the board’s recent decision in favor of the town’s firefighters union.

MUSIC REVIEW: Mazurka Madness South of the Tower

The pros play at Lily Pads 

By Regina DeAngelo

EDITOR’S NOTE: Music at Lily Pads has been presenting fine musical performances in Peace Dale, Rhode Island since 2009 in the sanctuary of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of South County. For ticket information and the full schedule, go to their website musicatlilypads.org.

Last Sunday, a group of handsome Polish guys came to town with flutes, shawms, clarinets and violins, and charmed our women.

They assembled on a stage at Lily Pads and perfomed the kind of rock 'n roll your ancestors danced to about 300 years ago. 

The group, called the Janusz Prusinowski Trio, is more than just three guys (there were five, actually), playing more than just Polish traditional village music; but five masters banging out wild mazurkas that cross time and ethicity to rock houses across the planet.

Beetle, beetle, spare that tree

Tree-Killing Beetles at R.I.'s Doorstep

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News staff

Where are the Asian long-horned beetles? They aren't in Rhode Island yet, but officials are prepared for their eventual arrival, perhaps from Worcester, Mass., where they were discovered in a woodpile in 2008. It’s suspected they traveled to the United States aboard wooden pallets from China as far back as 15 years ago.

New Jersey, Manhattan and Staten Island have eradicated the tree-killing beetle. The Worcester area and Clermont County, Ohio, are running quarantine eradication programs. The Worcester infestation covers 110 square miles, and so far, 33,636 trees have been cleared, mostly maples, which the beetles prefer. In all, 13 tree varieties are at-risk.

Eradication involves cutting, chipping or burning infected trees as well as those within a half-mile radius of an infestation. High-risk trees that are spared the saw receive injections of the insecticide imidacloprid, a pesticide associated with bee colony collapses. The pesticide has not been used during the last two years in Worcester County. New infestations are still being found in the region.

First overt effect of shut-down on Charlestown

Closed, Closed and More Closed as Shutdown Takes Hold

By Tracey C. O'Neill

Charlestown - The morning commute in Charlestown was riddled with orange as the government shutdown wielded its crimson sword across the state signaling National park and wildlife refuge closures.

Federal workers reported to work at the Kettle Pond Visitor Center this morning to receive their official furlough notice from superiors.

"I am really uncomfortable right now," said one worker who did not want to go on record as she drove past the notices and signs posted along the way.

"Due to a lapse in appropriations, all U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Lands (FWS), including the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, are closed for the duration of the federal government shutdown," said the written notice posted at the gate. "All programs and activities are cancelled."

The closure prohibits all public access to FWS lands and immediately closes all visitor centers and buildings.

Hunting and fishing activities on federal lands is also prohibited during shutdown. Permitting and consultations are cancelled.

Get your flu shots!

What “Obamacare” means to Charlestown

Health exchanges will help uninsured, self-insured and small businesses find affordable coverage

I plugged the average private sector salary for Charlestown into the
new RI Health Exchange website to figure out how much health
insurance would cost for a family of four.

By Will Collette

If you already have health insurance (Medicare or Medicaid, through your employer or union, or as a retiree), the October 1 start-up of the new health care exchanges under “Obamacare,” more correctly called the Affordable Care Act, will not directly affect you.

However, if you are uninsured or if you are paying for your own coverage, this latest phase of the law can mean big changes for you. Positive changes.

According to Lieutenant Governor Liz Roberts, roughly one out of every nine Rhode Islanders - 110,000 people - are currently uninsured.

Even when the federal government shuts down on October 1, you will still be able to start to pick an insurance plan that fits your needs. 

HealthSourceRI, Rhode Island’s state-run “health exchange,” will be up and running. The health exchange is basically an on-line shopping service that will allow you to pick a plan that meets your needs and then find out what it will cost you.