What's this? A Book!
Or buy here: Light Publications, Powell's, or Bn, Amazon A look at the lousy situation Rhode Island is in, how we got here, and how we might be able to get out. Featuring
Now at bookstores near you, or buy it with the button above ($14, or $18 with shipping and sales tax). Contact information below if you'd like to schedule a book-related event, like a possibly entertaining talk on the book's subjects, featuring the famous mystery graph. Join the RIPR Mailing List! For a weekly column and (a few) other items of interest, click here or send an email to ripr-list-subscribe@whatcheer.net. RIPR is a (paper) newsletter and a weekly column appearing in ten of Rhode Island's finer newspapers. The goal is to look at local, state and federal policy issues that affect life here in the Ocean State, concentrating on action, not intentions or talk. If you'd like to help, please contribute an item, suggest an issue topic, or buy a subscription. If you can, buy two or three (subscribe here). Search this siteAvailable Back Issues:
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AboutThe Rhode Island Policy Reporter is an independent news source that specializes in the technical issues of public policy that matter so much to all our lives, but that also tend not to be reported very well or even at all. The publication is owned and operated by Tom Sgouros, who has written all the text you'll find on this site, except for the articles with actual bylines. Responsibility: Tom Sgouros
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Tue, 30 Jan 2007
Hits the mailboxes.
- How much real estate speculation is there around here anyway? Some real data, from the Providence tax assessor.
- A National Popular Vote for President? Who are we kidding?
- Book review: "Blocking the Courthouse Door: How the Republican Party and Its Corporate Allies Are Taking Away Your Right to Sue" by Stephanie Mencimer.
Isn't it time to subscribe?
13:47 - 30 Jan 2007 [/y7/ja]
What he said. I'd only add that until there is something more attractive to do with that money than give it to executives, pay will continue to rise. You can see it as a power failure of workers if you like, or see it as a lack of real investment worth investing in. Either way, if companies continue to make lots of cash, and don't see anything better to do with it, they'll continue to give it to their executives, since those executives are usually the ones making those decisions.
13:43 - 30 Jan 2007 [/y7/ja]
Tue, 23 Jan 2007
For issue 23. Here's the US Department of Justice statistics page. And here's an interesting reference on it. Federal Tort Trials and Verdicts, 1994-1995. Here's the 1997 version and the 2002-2003 version.
Other data about state courts can be found at the National Center for State Courts. The data about state court tort filings is here, look for table 16, and add the numbers up vertically.
Enjoy.
14:17 - 23 Jan 2007 [/y7/ja]
Mon, 22 Jan 2007
Curious about Massachusetts' Health Care Reform?
Some details are starting to emerge about the Massachusetts Health Care plan. The plan, you'll remember, was created to have nothing in the way of cost controls. So, unsurprisingly, it will cost almost twice per month what former Governor Romney said, will have a deductible of at least $2,000/$4,000, and often much more, for a not-very plush policy. The way the Massachusetts law gets universal coverage is simply to mandate it: you have to buy it, or pay a penalty.
By choosing to court the insurance companies, Massachusetts has passed a plan palatable to the insurance lobby, and that sounds like something good, but will it actually help people who can't afford it now to get coverage for themselves?
We want universal coverage, but we want coverage that we can afford. Enacting this kind of "reform" without cost controls is a recipe for public policy disaster, which was easily foreseen by the creators of Medicaid in the 1960's. It was also easily foreseen by Nick Tsiongas, in his RIPR article about what Rhode Island can do about health care reform, in issue 18.
Here's a Boston Globe article: Sticker shock for state care plan
Robert Kuttner's Op-Ed Health insurance dilemma in the Jan. 20 Boston Globe.
10:16 - 22 Jan 2007 [/y7/ja]
Wed, 17 Jan 2007
Here we come, creeping up on another anniversary of going to war in Iraq. For old times' sake, and because people have asked about where were we anti-war types in 2002, here's something from our deep archive. And here's another.
If you visit the archive, you'll find them sandwiched between articles about my trips to DC and New York to participate in protest marches. So I guess that makes me one of the softies.
00:05 - 17 Jan 2007 [/y7/ja]
Fri, 12 Jan 2007
How is it perpetuated? Via writing by the wrong. Read about it here and here.
11:57 - 12 Jan 2007 [/y7/ja]
Tue, 09 Jan 2007
Seeking differences among oil companies
The Sierra Club has done some work so you don't have to: sought the fine distinctions between oil companies and their energy and environmental records. Look here.
18:14 - 09 Jan 2007 [/y7/ja]
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