Playing Monopoly at the Beach

Short-changing Charlestown taxpayers

By Will Collette

A peculiar dispute involving beach concessions surfaced at the June and July Town Council meetings involving Council member Lisa DiBello, Town Administrator William DiLibero and Parks and Recreation Director Jay Primiano. We covered the blow-by-blow in some detail, though many of the charges and countercharges were veiled in coded language.

Since so much of the dispute seemed to really be about something deeper, I decided to look deeper into the way Charlestown handles its contracts for beach concessions.

Over the past several weeks, with help from the other members of the PC team and some outside research assistance, a picture has emerged of a monopoly in the awarding of beach concession contracts that has cost town taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. And there are questions about ethics, bid law, public safety, taxes and employment law.

This article is the first in a series of investigative reports on what we’ve found.

There’s the Pirate Way, the cowboy way and the Charlestown Way

Compared to Charlestown, Quartzsite, AZ doesn’t seem so crazy anymore

By Will Collette

Jennifer Jones arrest in Quartzsite

Last July, when I wrote an article about the City of Quartzsite, Arizona (population 3692), I thought it might help to know there is a place even crazier than Charlestown. After recent actions by the Town Council to pass the first in the nation total ban on wind energy and their attempt to ban the Charlestown Democrats from speaking before the Council, I’m not so sure

In Quartzsite, the town is divided among three main power brokers – the City Council, the Mayor and the Police Chief. Each has been hammering away at each other, sometimes literally. Quartzsite drew national attention after one local critic was arrested and busted up while trying to speak at the podium during City Council public comments and the video of this sorry event went viral. 

For the benefit of the Charlestown Town Council CCA-dominated majority, who seem to be searching for more extreme positions every passing month, here’s a Quartzsite update.

Since we can't have wind energy in Charlestown, how about this?

But is it just another form of wind power?
By Will Collette

Will another alternative energy source
be banned in Charlestown?

While we all wait with bated breath for Ruth Platner and her merry Planning Commission to come up with an ordinance to allow homeowners to have wind energy as an optional  energy source, we've started looking at other alternatives. Arrrrr!

Given that Ms. Platner has decreed that everything is prohibited unless it is expressly permitted under Charlestown's Code of Ordinances, it's hard to come up with many such options.

I found a video of one promising approach, but there are two problems with it. One is the problem of whether it is permitted under our Code of Ordinances. The other is that it involves cats. Ruth Platner hates cats.

Judge ye fer ye-selves the merits of this newly discovered option. Video after you jump the plank.

Innovative affordable housing solution

The Russians call it the sleepbox. Our less rich residents could call it home. 

Okay, there's a few minor drawbacks like the lack of plumbing or heating. Though the Japanese have already developed a solution for the plumbing issue. And for heat, why not put in a coal-burning stove? At least it's not a wind turbine {shudder}. Seems to me it'd solve all of CCA's objections to affordable housing in one fell swoop. We're not giving away brand-new houses for free to undeserving deadbeats; all we're giving 'em is a box! Heck, for the price of building one house we could probably acquire the 200-however-many sleepboxes we'd need to reach our affordable housing mandate. We could fit them all on a single acre of land without giving up any of our precious open space! Win-win-win! 

By Linda Felaco

What planet is this?

You wanna burn coal? No problemo! You wanna
power your home with wind, fuhgeddaboutit!

Wake me up when the wind ban is over. 

By Linda Felaco

More Tips for International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Will has given you an introduction to International Talk Like a Pirate Day and some video instruction on the salty language.

Now that you've mastered that I'm sure you are ready to fully release your inner pirate. The following tips, courtesy of wikiHow, will help that process along.

Week in Review, September 18

The Famous Frick and Frack

Wow, this was a busy, busy week for your servants at Progressive Charlestown!

It feels like we'll be busy with followup from Monday's Town Council meeting until the next one. But that wasn't all we covered and here's a recap plus some more tidbits for you.

Nightmare world discovered

Ruben Bolling, creator of "Tom the Dancing Bug," reveals the existence of a "Counter-Earth" which shares the same orbit as our Earth but is out of sight, directly opposite us on the other side of the sun.

On Counter-Earth, they do things very differently and it's Ruth Platner's worst nightmare.

Continue on to see the teaser or click here for the full cartoon.

The positive side of war

What future buying trends will our current wars inspire?
By Ted Rall


Sushi from Japan. Noodles from southeast Asia. Mercedes from Germany.


What will we see in the market place inspired by our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?


See the teaser below and click here for the full cartoon.

The Iraq War Isn't Over

With too many Iraqi deaths and too many tax dollars, it's still a "dumb war."

By Phyllis Bennis

No U.S. troops were killed in Iraq last month. So why aren't we celebrating? Because the war isn't over yet and it costs way too much — in Iraqi lives and our money.

With so much attention and so many billions of our tax dollars shifting from Iraq to the devastating and ever more expensive war in Afghanistan, it's too easy to forget that there are still almost 50,000 U.S. troops occupying Iraq. We're still paying almost $50 billion just this year for the Iraq War. And while we don't hear about it very often, too many Iraqis are still being killed.

400

Not the punchline

In case you haven't seen it, today's Doonesbury strip  comments on wealth in this country, with its usual irreverent style.

But the punch-line prediction rings all too true. See the entire comic here.

Short Takes

A question from Beth Richardson, an answer from Amy Rose Weinreich
By Will Collette

Ordinance 218-3 and Ruth Platner's motto

Beth Richardson asked the crack research squad at Progressive Charlestown to try to figure out what provision in the law Ruth Platner is talking about when she claims that, under Charlestown's zoning, the only uses of your property are those that are expressly permitted and "if it's not permitted, it's prohibited."


This shocking proposition led me to speculate about the dozens of things Charlestown residents might have (or want to have) on their property that are not expressly permitted (see list here).


Beth, I have asked the Town to provide the legal basis for Ms. Platner's statement which she made at the last two Town Council meetings. I also looked through the Code of Ordinances for myself. It was sort of a Charlestown snipe hunt - a search for something that I really don't think exists.


But I found one section that MIGHT be it, if you look at it from a certain angle and the lighting is just right:

Should people receiving entitlements be allowed to vote?

Depends what you mean by entitlements?

By Jen Sorenson


See the teaser after the jump or click here for the full cartoon.

Right-Wing Politicians Expose Themselves on the Radio

It's fascinating to hear what conservative lawmakers say when they think no one outside their core audience is listening.

By Jason Salzman

If you really want to understand conservatives these days, you should check out some talk radio shows.

It might not make for the most relaxing listening experience, but you'll probably learn things you never knew before.

Despite the growing popularity of progressive radio shows like those hosted by Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, and Joe Madison, conservatives still dominate the nation's talk radio airwaves. Plus, many local shows around the country are hosted by conservatives of all stripes, including tea partiers and libertarians.

Unleash the power of the marketplace

Create Jobs!
By Tim Eagan


See the opening, after the jump, or click here for the full cartoon.