Government
Public services and government action
House Bill 5540 got the attention it deserved
Like many bills that are introduced into the Rhode Island House and Senate, House bill 5540 and others get little public attention. There is little space in a news feed to highlight all that comes before Representatives and Senators duri...
Young Voices RI produces report addressing racial disparities in Providence Public Schools
Providence Public School students engaged with Young Voices RI issued a report on Tuesday showing that 49 percent of Providence Public School students, "disagree that teachers handle discipline issues fairly" and 69 percent of students a...
Massive Pentagon accounting fraud raises questions about Senator Reed's credibility
On March 18, 2019, United States Senator Reed, ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, confronted the Trump Administration by drawing attention to a list of military construction projects supposedly at risk of being "cancelled, r...
March for Our Lives RI: "We are the revolutionaries. We rise up..."
Nearly 200 people, mostly students, gathered on the southern steps of the Rhode Island State House to once again demand changes to state and federal laws surrounding guns. The event was planned for the anniversary of last year's March fo...
Wyatt facility to once again house ICE immigration detainees
ACLU raises specter of the death of Jason Ng The ACLU of RI has learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun moving some detainees from facilities near the southern border of the United States to the Wyatt Detention C...
Rhode Island's parentage law hurts some families, the Uniform Parentage Act will remedy that
Rhode Island’s parentage laws are woefully out of date. The statutes were enacted in 1979, and have not been revised or updated much since that time. Some parts of Rhode Island’s parentage laws are archaic and perhaps unconstitutional, s...
Providence City Council and Mayor Elorza propose ordinance to prevent source of income housing discrimination
The ordinance aims to ban housing discrimination faced by prospective renters who rely on a lawful alternative source of income such as a housing voucher, child support, Social Security, Supplemental Security income (SSI), veterans benef...
Senator Donna Nesselbush: This is not the way to run a democracy
Last week, the Rhode Island Senate adopted its rules, a bi-annual debate that determines the way in which the Senate operates. I hoped to move the Senate to a more democratic process but was utterly thwarted in my efforts. In a stunning...
Las Vegas shooting survivor Erica Keuter: You do not want the next mass shooting to take place here in Rhode Island
The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a series of bills concerning guns Tuesday evening. Gun safety advocacy groups Moms Demand Action and the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence (RICAGV) are particularly interested in...
Is licensing and regulating hairdressing worth the cost?
Representative Williams has long advocated for carving out an exception for hair braiding in the onerous licensing and regulation scheme for those who work with hair. But now a new bill seeks to radically alter the way hair dressers and...