Free Republic

‘Mokita’ is a word from New Guinea that means a truth everyone knows but nobody speaks about directly. It’s like an elephant in the room. It can be applied to many issues, but one area where it can no longer be applied is in connection with the disastrous financial position public employee unions have placed the rest of us. Many cities and states are facing unprecedented budget shortfalls in the aftermath of the collapse of the housing bubble.

PROVIDENCE — A new initiative borne of a recent incident between a Providence storeowner and two Spanish-speaking customers is asking all Rhode Islanders to help stop hate speech and violence directed at “immigrants and communities of color.” The “We Can Stop the Hate” campaign was announced at the University of Rhode Island’s downtown campus, a week after published reports about a March 1 encounter between two Dominican natives who are also U.S. citizens, and David C. Richardson, owner of Rhode Island Refrigeration. The incident provoked accusations against Richardson of racial profiling and committing a hate crime. The “stop the hate”...

PROVIDENCE — With the nation’s eyes trained on former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s alleged involvement with a prostitute, Rhode Island lawmakers are considering a bill that would close the loophole in this state’s laws that makes prostitution legal if it occurs indoors. The proposed legislation has become something of a perennial bill in recent years, but has never been passed by the General Assembly. This year’s version came before the House Judiciary Committee again last night, where its sponsor, Joanne M. Giannini, D-Providence, argued that extending the state’s misdemeanor prostitution statute to cover indoor activity would make it easier...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

The corrosive effects of AFDC on America's families - especially African-American families whose incidence of unwed motherhood has tripled since President Lyndon Johnson greatly expanded welfare (the Great Society), will finally begin to end if RI Governor Carcieri's plan passes, and the idea spreads. I have long advocated that AFDC should be an emergency program, with benefits ending after six months and eligibility denied for at least two years afterwards, as the way to help out families in crisis without creating the horrible system of dependence we have now.

Didn't see one poted yet, and Early exit polling is already out. Let's all watch and enjoy as the Democrats continue to rip each others throats out!

Clinton gets 'Obama-ed' TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito Hillary Clinton did not look back in the rearview mirror tonight after getting “Obama-ed” in the "Potomac Primary." Instead, she did what she does best: move on and move forward to the next contest. Kicking off in El Paso in what has now become the most important phase of the primary campaign, she hit the border at the same time her campaign became more marginalized by stinging defeats to Barack Obama in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

PROVIDENCE - Rhode Island, facing a budget crisis that will lead to massive cutbacks, is engulfed in the most intense battle over illegal immigration in New England, with Republicans and Democrats alike calling for a crackdown on unauthorized workers. In the past few weeks, state lawmakers and the governor have proposed a battery of measures targeting unauthorized workers, from expelling undocumented children from the state's healthcare system to making English the official language to jailing business owners and landlords who harbor illegal workers. Even the father of the state's first baby born in the New Year was caught up in...

PAWTUCKET — Racism and xenophobia are contributing to a Rhode Island social climate in which immigrants are regarded as the villains, speakers at a pro-immigration rally said yesterday. “We build walls for people who have to leave their country for economic reasons,” said Gladys Gould of the Providence Presbyterian Church, one of a number of organizations that took part in “Unite for Fairness,” held at the Pawtucket Visitors Center. “You don’t see them going after the Irish. The difference is, the police will stop us because of the way we look. It is all about race,” said Gould, a native...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The father of Rhode Island's first baby of 2008 faces deportation after being arrested for violating immigration laws, while his roommate, also an illegal immigrant, was found dead of a suspected suicide hours after the arrest. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Mynor Montufar at his apartment Friday after local newspapers and television stations showed him and Carmen Marrero as parents of the first baby born in the state after the new year rolled in, officials said. ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier said the timing of Montufar's arrest was coincidental to the publicity surrounding his child. Another man...

<p>The [Rhode Island] supreme court ruled in a 3-2 decisions that the state will not recognize a Massachusetts same-sex marriage.</p>

In the latest edition of the Roger Williams University Law Review, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams defends military tribunals and the detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drawing parallels to Abraham Lincoln’s actions during the Civil War. Williams is a Lincoln expert and collector who, in 2003, was appointed by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to a military panel established to hear appeals from those detained at Guantanamo Bay. Williams and two law clerks, Nicole J. Dulude and Kimberly A. Tracey, are listed as authors of the 74-page law review article. “Criticism surrounding the Bush...

Two more people have been arrested, and 19 others are still wanted, for allegedly getting Rhode Island driver’s licenses that were falsified by two clerks at the state Division of Motor Vehicles. The clerks had sent the licenses to dozens of illegal immigrants and suspected drug dealers who’d paid middlemen between $2,500 to $3,000 apiece to conceal their identity with a valid license, according to the state police. Some of the “customers” have since been rearrested on drug charges in various states — where their true identity was revealed by fingerprints — but others are on the run. As the...

Chafee quietly quits the GOP 01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, September 16, 2007 By Bruce Landis Journal Staff Writer PROVIDENCE — Lincoln D. Chafee, who lost his Senate seat in the wave of anti-Republican sentiment in last November’s election, said yesterday that he has left the party. Chafee said he disaffiliated with the party he had helped lead, and his father had led before him, because the national Republican Party has gone too far away from his stance on too many critical issues, from war to economics to the environment. “It’s not my party any more,” he said. Chafee’s departure...

Rush Move Sparks WPRO-A/Providence Lineup Shuffle Buddy's Back As expected and tipped yesterday on ALL ACCESS, the move of RUSH LIMBAUGH in PROVIDENCE from CITADEL Talk WPRO-A to CLEAR CHANNEL Talk WHJJ-A has opened a slot for former PROVIDENCE Mayor BUDDY CIANCI at WPRO, but it's also prompted a shuffle in assignments for a pair of existing WPRO personalities, as morning host RON ST. PIERRE joins CIANCI for 10a-2p and present middayer JOHN DEPETRO moves up to mornings 6-10a as host of the "WPRO MORNING NEWS." Afternoon host DAN YORKE moves up an hour to 2-6p. The changes take place...

Providence, RI (LifeNews.com) -- Nearly 5,000 abortions are done every year in Rhode Island and a state House panel debate a bill last night that would have had the state provide them with information about abortion's risks and alternatives. The measure, dubbed the Right to Know bill, would make sure women are fully informed beforehand. The legislation also provides women information about the development of their unborn child, and the kind of pregnancy and medical assistance they can get from various agencies. Similar bills in other states have been proven to reduce the number of abortions -- the West Virginia...

PROVIDENCE -- A female lawmaker in Rhode Island is demanding her colleagues name a bridge for an outspoken woman who helped found the state, a gesture resisted in a House chamber so dominated by men it lacked a women's bathroom until last month. Lawmakers here routinely crank out honorifics with little fanfare, let alone debate. Not this time. Critics of Representative Amy Rice have rewritten her bill and attempted to scuttle it over a plan to name a new bridge spanning the Sakonnet River for Anne Hutchinson, a religious dissident who led hundreds of followers to Rhode Island in 1638...

In a thick forest of maple, willow and oak trees where 17th century European settlers fought hundreds of American Indians, algae-covered stones are arranged in mysterious piles. Wilfred Greene, the 70-year-old chief of the Wampanoag Nation's Seaconke Indian tribe, says the stone mounds are part of a massive Indian burial ground, possibly one of the nation's largest, that went unnoticed until a few years ago... The firm has hired an archeologist who studied the stones and concluded they were likely left in piles by early European settlers who built a network of stone walls in the area, said company president...

LAS VEGAS Former Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn has thrown his support behind the presidential bid of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Romney's campaign says Guinn will lead Romney's Nevada finance steering committee along with former congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich. Romney said in a statement he's honored to have the support of some of the most influential and talented leaders in Nevada. The Massachusetts governor is scheduled to raise money at a private event in Las Vegas at the Four Seasons Hotel tomorrow. It will be his first visit to the state since Nevada Republicans moved their presidential caucus six weeks earlier...

The following is a non-paid public service announcement for my fellow CT Freepers, particularly those in and around the Hartford area.Ladies and Gents, seeing how the New Haven chapter had their get-together shortly before Christmas, and we left the Hartford chapter kinda hanging up in the air, when are we going to have our brew 'n chew? Anyone have any ideas as to where we can meet? John Harvard's in Manchester is a good spot (they make their own beer on the premises...mmmm....).Date? When is a good time for everyone (or most everyone)?Time? I would assume that some time after...

PROVIDENCE — The decline in Rhode Island’s population for the third straight year, as estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau, is being driven by the migration of young, college-educated people looking for better job opportunities in other states, according to experts. Losing these skilled people is an alarming trend, says University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro. He warns that a lack of educated people of working age makes it more difficult to attract high-tech companies, and their jobs, to Rhode Island. In a year in which the U.S. population topped 300 million for the first time, Rhode Island was...

Another typical race card, pro-illegal immigration over-reaction by the ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the State Police seeking the release of a videotape that shows a traffic stop involving illegal immigrants. The videotape shows the first five minutes of a 70-minute stop on Interstate 95 in July by a trooper who pulled over a van with 14 Guatemalan immigrants after the driver failed to use a turn signal. Trooper Thomas Chabot detained the 14 people and brought them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Providence, where they now face deportation. An internal investigation reported that Chabot...

Leaders of a conservative Christian student fellowship suspended from using campus resources at Brown University are wondering whether they were singled out for their beliefs and are pressing school officials to explain the punishment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Leaders of a conservative Christian student fellowship suspended from using campus resources at Brown University are wondering whether they were singled out for their beliefs and are pressing school officials to explain the punishment. Brown University has not publicly explained why it suspended the Reformed University Fellowship, which is allied with the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, as an official student...

Holding to the Center, Losing My Seat By Lincoln D, Chafee LAST Tuesday, I was one of the many moderate Republican casualties of the anti-Bush virulence that swept the country. Despite my having voted against the Iraq war resolution, my reputation for independence, the editorial endorsement of virtually every newspaper in my state, and a job approval rating of 63 percent, I did not win. Why? Back in December 2000, after one of the closest elections in our nation’s history, Vice President-elect Dick Cheney was the guest at a weekly lunch meeting of a small group of centrist Republicans. Senators...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Two days after losing a bid for a second term, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record) said he was unsure whether he would remain a Republican. Chafee lost to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in a race seen as a referendum on President Bush and the GOP. On Thursday, he was asked whether he would stick with the Republican Party or become an independent or Democrat. "I haven't made any decisions. I just haven't even thought about where my place is," Chafee said at a news conference. When pressed on whether his comments indicated he might leave the...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Two days after losing a bid for a second term in an election seen as a referendum on President Bush and the Republican Party, Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he was unsure whether he'd remain a Republican. "I haven't made any decisions. I just haven't even thought about where my place is," Chafee said at a news conference when asked whether he would stick with the Republican Party or switch to be an independent or Democrat. When asked if his comments meant he thought he might not belong in the Republican Party, he replied: "That's fair." Chafee, 53, is...

2006 Haunted Labyrinth to Conclude Halloween Night (Cranston, R.I.)-The Diocese of Providence’s Office of Comprehensive Youth Ministry (CYO) today issued a reminder that announced the 2006 Haunted Labyrinth located at 804 Dyer Ave. in Cranston will close for the season on Halloween night. The labyrinth has been open since Friday, September 29 and runs Thursday through Sunday, 7-10:00 p.m.Office of Communications- 278-4600 (or email kdavis@dioceseofprovidence.org)10/26/06Bishop Tobin: "Halloween isn't so scary"

The man hoping to oust incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee is leading in two new polls released today. Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse has a 10-point lead in the poll conducted by the national independent pollster Rasmussen Reports. He leads Chafee 49 percent to 39 percent with 8 percent undecided and 4 percent supporting other candidates. A separate poll released by Rhode Island College's Bureau of Government Research and Services found that Whitehouse leads by 3 percentage points, 40 percent to 37 percent with 23 percent undecided. Both polls have a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. Rasmussen surveyed...

Rhode Island Senate: Lincoln Chafee (R) 42% Sheldon Whitehouse (D) 51% Undecided 7%500 Likely Voters, poll taken Oct 6http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2006/senate/ri/rhode_island_senate_race-17.html Minnesota Senate: Amy Klobuchar (DFL) 56% Mark Kennedy (R) 40% Undecided 4%500 Likely Voters, poll taken Oct 5http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2006/senate/mn/minnesota_senate_race-15.html Minnesota Governor: Mike Hatch (DFL) 50% Tim Pawlenty (R) 46% Undecided 4%500 Likely Voters, poll taken Oct 5http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2006/governor/mn/minnesota_governor_race-57.html

Democrat targets The President’s approval ratings remain low and generic polls (“which party would you be most likely to vote for?”) give an edge to the Democrats, though perhaps by less than in the summer. So the seats most likely to change hands are ones the Democrats are targeting. Montana ought to be safe for the Republicans, and with another candidate, it would be. But Conrad Burns has been linked to uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now convicted of corrupting public officials. Burns has been trailing for some time, and Montana now pips Pennsylvania as the Democrats best hope of a pick...

On Saturday, September 16 at around 2 p.m. Charlestown Police arrested seven illegal Mexicans at the residence of John M. Rosa of 81 Ross Hill Road. Rosa is the chairman of the Town Democratic Committee. The story began when police answered a call from a Ross Hill Road resident that complained about extremely loud "Hispanic rap" coming from Rosa's residence. According to police reports, prior to the police arriving at Rosa's residence, the disgruntled neighbor informed police that there were illegal immigrants living next door. When police arrived to Rosa's home, loud music was coming from the garage in back...

One brother gets jail, the other probation The brothers who owned The Station nightclub, where a fast- moving fire on Feb. 20, 2003, killed 100 people, have agreed to plead no contest to involuntary manslaughter charges, effectively ending the criminal prosecution against them. In exchange for their pleas, Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. has agreed to a sentence that calls for no jail time for one of the brothers, Jeffrey A. Derderian. Michael A. Derderian, 45, is to serve four years in prison followed by three years of probation. He also will have an 11-year suspended sentence, which...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A new Brown University poll shows Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee and Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse neck-and-neck two months before an election that could help decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. If the election were held Tuesday, 40 percent of voters said they would select Whitehouse, compared to 39 percent for Chafee. That lead is negligible because the poll, conducted between Sept. 16-18, questioned 578 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

How did our country stray so far from the founding principles of limited government, states' rights, self-reliance and moral integrity? Most Americans blame it on Congress. Americans have little faith in members of Congress, but we keep re-electing our own congressman and senators, often with little or no serious thought on the matter. In 1994, after 40 years in the political wilderness, Republicans assumed control of Congress with the promise that they would get back to those founding principles. A few tried. Fewer are still trying, but we are torpedoing their efforts. Even if we are alert enough to know...

Moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, his political career at risk from a more conservative challenger, led in early returns Tuesday in a contest that could be crucial in the larger fight for control of Congress. With 3 percent of precincts reporting, Chafee had 2,735 votes, or 55 percent, to Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey's 2,241 votes, or 45 percent. The last big day of primaries before the November elections also brought intriguing Democratic contests for Senate in Maryland and a House seat in Minnesota. In all, nine states and the District of Columbia voted, with the other states...

by Mark Finkelstein September 12, 2006 - 20:16 What would you call someone who within the last six years has received a 100% rating from NARAL and Planned Parenthood and a 0% from the National Right-to-Life Committee? A 100% rating from the ACLU. A 0% rating from Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. A 100% rating from the League of Conservation Voters and a 0% rating from the conservative Family Research Council? Oh, and someone who voted against George W. Bush for president in 2004, against the confirmation of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court, and who demands the withdrawal of US...

ICE & FBI agents arrest 31Korean nationals throughout the Northeastern United States in federal human trafficking case Korean women were smuggled to U.S. work as prostitutes in brothels NEW YORK, NY -- Michael J. Garcia, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Roslynn R. Mauskopf, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Mark J. Mehrson, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, today announced that 31 individuals were arrested yesterday and charged in a wide-ranging human trafficking ring...

Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, marginally leading his Democratic opponent in previous surveys, is trailing for the second Rasmussen Reports election poll in a row. Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse now leads 44% to 38%. A month ago, Whitehouse was ahead 46% to 41%. Chafee faces a primary battle with Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey, not the GOP's best hope here. In a match-up with Laffey, Whitehouse leads 55% to 31%. Chaffee's tribulations are not unique. Our recent polling shows that Democrats are holding their own in Senate contests, including in states where it was thought the GOP had a decent chance to pick...

The campaign arm of Senate Republicans has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the Republican candidate that they don't want in Rhode Island. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is backing Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a liberal Rhode Island Republican who is being challenged by conservative Stephen Laffey, the mayor of Cranston. The complaint focuses on a letter that Mr. Laffey sent to city property owners with their tax bills last month. In the letter, Mr. Laffey said he ran for mayor to put the city back on its feet and saved it from bankruptcy by creating a...

ROCK HILL, S.C. - A research facility is planned for York County that will focus on the role of Southern states in the Revolutionary War. Historian Michael Scoggins said the Southern Revolutionary War Institute will be used to educate people about the South's contributions to the war. It's a field he says has been neglected in the past. "There's been various fields that downplay the role of the South," Scoggins said. "When you look at most history textbooks, we are generally given the short treatment." The institute will be based at the McCelvey Center in York and local officials hope...

Rhode Island Republicans have received piles of “hate mail” from supporters of U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, angry that the GOP has called for the troubled six-term congressman to step down. “This has clearly hit a raw nerve somewhere,” Rhode Island GOP spokesman Chuck Newton told the Herald.“We’ve received mountains of hate mail from all over.” Most of the letters and emails include angry and in some cases obscene tirades blasting party leaders for pushing for Kennedy’s ouster as a result of his legal troubles, Newton said. Republicans initially called for Kennedy to step down the day after he slammed...

Patrick Kennedy, fresh from his second stint in drug rehab, yesterday said he's building recovery support networks .....and will continue to undergo treatment for his addiction to painkillers. ........ the younger son of Sen. Ted Kennedy - entered the drug and alcohol treatment at the Mayo Clinic May 5, a day after he slammed his Mustang into a security barrier near the U.S. Capitol. An admitted binge drinker and pain-pill abuser, Kennedy, 38, had been treated at the clinic over the Christmas holidays.........Kennedy told reporters, "I know that I am doing everything I need to do to succeed."

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A former rock-band manager whose pyrotechnics caused a nightclub fire that killed 100 people was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison. Daniel Biechele, 29, could have gotten as much as 10 years behind bars under a deal he struck with prosecutors in February, when he pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter. excerptLink

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Prosecutors urged a judge Wednesday to send a former rock-band manager to prison for 10 years for setting off the pyrotechnics that caused a nightclub fire that killed 100 people. "The devastation wrought by the conduct of the defendant is unparalleled in our state's history," prosecutor Randall White said, choking up at times. He added: "The suffering is endless, and the extent and depth of the pain is bottomless." Daniel Biechele's attorney, Thomas Briody, argued that his client deserves mercy — in the form of community service, with no prison time — and feels immense sorrow for...

WASHINGTON - Detectives probing U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s early-morning car wreck interviewed workers at the Hawk ’n’ Dove bar yesterday while rank-and-file Capitol police are pushing prosecutors to throw the book at the well-connected pol. “Mr. Kennedy, by his own admission, was operating under the influence of narcotics, which is a violation,” said Lou Cannon, president of the Capitol police union. Cannon said detectives probing the Rhode Island Democrat’s 2:45 a.m. wreck visited several watering holes along Pennsylvania Avenue yesterday, asking bartenders and waitstaff if they saw Kennedy in the hours before the congressman crashed his Mustang convertible into a...

Bad news for Patches Kennedy, good news for Cynthia McKinney. At the risk of sounding like Jesse Jackson, do you think there’s a bit of a racial double standard at work here? White congressman swerving around Capitol Hill at 2:45 a.m., with no lights on, smashes up his car, staggers around outside, claims he’s on his way to a “vote,” inquires if the cops know who he is, and . . . is given a lift home. That’s how Patches Kennedy got treated. Then there’s Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, a black congresswoman who strides through a security gate, is chased...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nine states have sued the administration of President George W. Bush for lenient automotive fuel economy standards that they say worsen an energy crunch and contribute to air pollution and climate change. The lawsuit says that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has failed to meet federal laws requiring government to determine the impact of regulation on fuel conservation and the environment. "At a time when consumers are struggling to pay surging gas prices and the challenge of global climate change has become even more clear, it is unconscionable that the Bush Administration is not...

Almost 240 years ago William Read donated a small triangular plot of land at Thames and Farewell streets to William Ellery and other Sons of Liberty, shortly after the successful struggle to force the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. The donation was welcomed not for the land, but for the tall buttonwood tree, known as "The Liberty Tree," that stood on the property. The Newport Historical Society put the famous tree's history in the spotlight Friday as a way to celebrate Arbor Day. Edward Andrews, a historian now completing his doctoral dissertation at the University of New Hampshire,...

A male member of the Kennedy family has been involved in an automobile accident that was totally his fault. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Fortunately, this time no one suffocated in a ’67 Oldsmobile Delmont at the bottom of a tidal pond. Come on down, Patches Kennedy, Boy Congressman from Rhode Island. And what’s up with Patches this spring? First he takes a hammer to the mouth in Pawtucket, and now he’s driving around Rhode Island like an idiot, or should I say, a Kennedy? Does Patches have some issues - I mean, other than the ones...

WOONSOCKET -- Pssst. Don’t tell anyone, but historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist David McCullough’s next book may focus on the life and times of American Revolutionary War general and Rhode Island native son Nathanael Greene. That little tidbit of insider information was provided by Norman Desmarais, professor and acquisitions librarian at Providence College, who presented his "Redcoats and Rebels" program at the Museum of Work and Culture Sunday. Desmarais recently met McCullough, who apparently became interested in Greene’s story while researching his most recent best seller, "1776." Greene, second only to George Washington among military leaders in the Revolutionary War,...