Writing
New Boston Post Essay
[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1467494314862{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] ‘Cooler and Warmer’ sets the tone for economic development in Rhode Island The administration of Rhode Island’s Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo was in for a shock on Thursday, March 28, when it unveiled a new logo and slogan for the Ocean State. The state’s quasi-public…
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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1454887622623{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] Finding Purpose Through the Zombie Apocalypse AMC’s hit television series, The Walking Dead, is probably not a go-to resource for many Rhode Island Catholic readers in search of spiritual insights. The show, as its title hints, takes place in a world in which some sort…
Read MoreProvidence Journal Commentary
[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453513323810{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] Shipping R.I. decisions to D.C. The language of Brookings Institution scholar Bruce Katz (no relation), whom Gov. Gina Raimondo and the Rhode Island Foundation have invited into the state to offer consultation on economic development, might seem so close to some on the political right…
Read MoreSakonnet Times Commentary
[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1452826983019{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] What Tiverton’s credit rating really means I wrote in a letter last month that moving forward as a community means being able to discuss differences of opinion in the way that a community should. At its bottom, that means we must treat the challenges that…
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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1451870476602{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] Calling R.I. Treasurer’s Pension Bluff Rhode Island’s pension fund (mainly covering state employees and teachers) hasn’t been doing very well at the investment market’s poker table. According to a Dec. 16 article by Katherine Gregg (“R.I. pension fund sharply lags expectations again”), the $7.63 billion…
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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1451872830179{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] Accountability is what works in education With the release of Rhode Island’s abysmal results on its first round of Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests, the adults who ought to be held accountable for the travesty are out in force…
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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1451959612946{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] Big issues loom — let’s face them as community Maybe something arrived in the local air, with the summer months. Or maybe we were all exhausted by the constant roll of local issues about which we had to care, from major development proposals to all-day…
Read MoreWatchdog Arena Commentary
[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1452045180749{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Throughout 2015, the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity experimented with publishing state-level and even local content on an Arena section of its Watchdog.org news and commentary site and published Justin’s work on an almost weekly basis. Cycle through the tabs below to access the…
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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1452131937087{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] State government makes Rhode Islanders’ lives less fulfilling Rhode Island is stealing our opportunity to fulfill our potential and be self-sufficient. We’re becoming increasingly dependent on subsidies from government, jobs remain scarce, and the state’s latest programs are designed to make things worse. Here’s one…
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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1452132464989{background-color: #ffffff !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] What is the ideal relationship between men and women? When I used to serve as a lector during Sunday Mass in Fall River, Mass., that reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was like pulling the short straw. You know the one: “Wives should…
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