Free Republic

At least 28 Senate Democrats plan to spend hours Monday night and early Tuesday speaking on the Senate floor in a push for congressional action on climate change. It's a strategy that's been in the works for several months, organized by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who've been seeking to raise awareness about their concerns on and off the Senate floor. Adopting a strategy used in the past year by some Senate Republicans, the Democrats will begin speaking Monday night after a series of votes and continue until about 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to...

Gun-grabbing Democrat Representative Joseph S. Almeida introduced deceptively titled “Safe Firearms Act” (H 7583) yesterday to the Rhode Island General Assembly yesterday. The citizen control law (PDF) is more restrictive than controversial laws in New York and Connecticut in some respects. It bans the purchase of so-defined “assault weapons” immediately upon enactment, and requires registration of all firearms that meet the definition. The bill, referred to the House Judiciary Committee, targets selective-fire and semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and pistols, both rimfire and centerfire, and adds a constructive possession clause that would deem any otherwise compliant firearm an “assault weapon” if the...

As a hard-partying teenager, Patrick Kennedy met President Reagan at a fundraiser for the JFK Library, a meeting captured in a photograph that the former Rhode Island congressman now hangs in his home office. He used to think of it as a funny episode, a collision of Camelot’s cocaine kid and America’s foremost opponent of illegal drug use. But Kennedy took his last hit of anything in 2009, and he’s since honed an anti-drug message that sounds a bit like Reagan with a Boston brogue. Kennedy believes there is "an epidemic in this country of epic dimensions when it comes...

A month and a half after the unsuccessful effort to oust four Exeter Town Council members, financial reports filed by both sides show that in the weeks leading up to the recall vote, the firearms-rights supporters who mounted the effort were badly outgunned in terms of campaign cash. According to contribution and spending reports filed by We The People/Rhode Island Firearms League, the Exeter Democratic Town Committee and Save Exeter, the council members’ own political action committee, the anti-recall forces were able to outspend We the People by a better than 2-to-1 ratio in the 10 weeks leading up to...

PROVIDENCE - Some Rhode Island lawmakers said Tuesday they want to legalize and tax marijuana. NBC News reported that marijuana brought in more than $1 million in tax revenue for Colorado in the first 27 days it was legal. "Rhode Island faces a pretty serious deficit. The sooner we pass this legislation, the sooner we can start to realize the necessary tax revenue off these sales," state Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, said. Supporters of the bill said they believe legalizing marijuana could bring $26 million in tax revenue to Rhode Island annually. Ajello and state Sen. Josh Miller, D-Cranston, have...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Immigrants living in Rhode Island illegally would be able to apply for driver’s licenses and permits, under legislation recently introduced into the General Assembly on behalf of Governor Chafee. The proposed “driving privilege licenses” and “driving privilege permits” would be a separate category from regular driver’s licenses and driver’s permits, according to the proposal, which has been introduced by state Rep. Anastasia Williams, D-Providence, and state Sen. Frank Ciccone, D-Providence. They would also not be a valid form of identification for federal or state purposes (such as voting) and would be a different design or color from...

The Navy Is Already Working On A Submarine That Won't Be Ready Until 2030 Kris Osborn, Military.com Feb. 4, 2014, 8:54 PM QUONSET POINT, R.I. -- Over the next several years, General Dynamics Electric Boat plans to add several new buildings to its facility here, double its workforce, and invest about $150 million -- all as preparation for the construction of the Navy's next-generation nuclear-armed submarine. Early prototyping is already under way at Electric Boat for the Ohio Replacement Program (ORP), a high-tech, 560-foot long, nuclear-powered submarine. Navy leaders have announced plans to build 12 ORPs, with the first one...

The facts 1. There are 21 US Senate seats held by Democrats in the 2014 election. 2. There are nine US Senate seats held by Democrats in the 2016 election. This is likely to be 10 due to a special election in HI in 2014. 3. Republicans need to pick up six senate seats to have a majority. The Analysis The failures of ObamaCare and broken promises by Democrat senators create a target rich environment in 2014. This is a year Republicans have to do well. Winning a majority in the senate by only one seat or maintaining the status...

The Obama administration is focused on paring greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants, and at least one senator wants refiners to be in the crosshairs too. During a Thursday hearing on President Barack Obama’s climate action plan, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., pressed Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy to begin zeroing in on carbon dioxide emissions from refiners, industrial ovens and commercial boilers. The EPA has been obligated to tackle carbon pollution from power plants and refineries since a December 2010 settlement with conservationists. Obama directed his EPA to focus on new and existing power plants first, however,...

With months of cold weather ahead, many Rhode Islanders have already drained their oil tanks and found that they simply lack the necessary resources to keep their families warm over the course of a frigid New England winter. Demand for heating aid is surging in the midst of this latest cold snap, say administrators at various entities that offer winter heating assistance, from community action agencies to the Diocese of Providence. […] Much of the surge has come in recent days. In the Diocese of Providence, between 250 and 275 people requested assistance Tuesday through “Keep the Heat On,” the...

A Rhode Island man was arrested this afternoon in connection with the death of a 26-year-old Fall River man early this morning, according to the Bristol district attorney’s office. William Tate, 34, of East Providence, R.I., was charged in the killing of David Rodriguez, 26, who was found near a loading dock outside the Ship’s Cove Apartment complex at 130 Canal St., where he lived, around 1 a.m., according to a statement from the district attorney’s office. Tate was taken to St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, where he was pronounced dead. The medical examiner will perform an autopsy to...

 “I didn’t realize that so many people here in our corner of Rhode Island were so passionate about guns,” a nonplussed Calvin Ellis told the Wall Street Journal. Bless his heart. It’s safe to say, though, that he his three fellow Exeter town council members have now been thoroughly educated on that matter. That’s because, as RF relayed, 80% of the town council – Ellis included – stand to lose their jobs in a recall election today because they voted to transfer their shall-issue concealed carry licensing authority to the state’s may-issue attorney general. As resident Letitia Davis told wsj.com, ”Our rights are...

Alexis Madrigal, a blogger for The Atlantic, asked yesterday if anyone had noticed the massive energy transformation that took place in New York City about a month ago? The transformation that Madrigal is alluding to is a clutch of natural gas pipeline expansion projects that came online in and around New York City in early November. These projects and several more like them in the previous three years have expanded the total deliverability of natural gas into New York by about one third. The cumulative impact is that natural gas future prices for January and February of 2014 are lower...

The Maryland Republican Party took no action Saturday on the idea of opening its primaries to independent voters but left open the possibility of doing so after next year’s elections. A report on the controversial issue was delivered to party leaders Friday but did not come up for discussion during the general session of the Maryland GOP’s fall convention in Annapolis, the last opportunity to change the rules before the June 2014 primaries. “With it just being presented last night, people were a little uncomfortable,” said Joe Cluster, the party’s executive director. “It would be a big change.” Some Republican...

Rhode Island has rejected President Obama’s proposal to allow people to keep health insurance plans that were canceled because of the Affordable Care Act. Kathleen C. Hittner, the state’s health insurance commissioner, and Christine C. Ferguson, director of the state’s health benefits exchange, ruled Friday that Rhode Island would stay the course and opt out of Mr. Obama’s “fix” for those upset that their policies had been discontinued. The president announced on Thursday that people should be allowed to renew those policies for a year. But his decision does not require insurers to do so, and state insurance commissioners were...

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander (R) Montana Senator Max Baucus (D) Alaska Senator Mark Begich (D) Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran (R) Maine Senator Susan Collins (R) Texas Senator John Cornyn (R) Massachusetts Senator William "Mo" Cowan (D) Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D) Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi (R) Minnesota Senator Al Franken (DFL) South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (R) North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan (D) Iowa Senator Tom Harkin (D) Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe (R) Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns (R) South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson (D) Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) Michigan Senator Carl Levin (D) Kentucky...

PROVIDENCE — Supporters of immigration reform turned their attention to the governor, state lawmakers and Congress Thursday, saying driver’s licenses, relaxed deportation policies and comprehensive national reform are needed if America is serious about helping millions of undocumented people who have come here for a better life. The group of about 15 gathered at the State House rotunda, calling themselves the local chapter of the national “We Are All Arizona” Coalition and drawing attention to a weeklong drive to seek “dignity and respect” for “all immigrants.” One by one, they came to the podium. The Rev. Raymond Tetrault, retired pastor...

"We do not want to have any more press conferences announcing arrests of people accused of murder. I've done too many of those as mayor," Taveras said Thursday. That's why local leaders secured a $150,000 grant to help curb gang violence in the city of Providence as part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods program. Federal funding will go toward targeting "impact players" on the streets. The city will hire so-called street workers who will spend time getting to know crime-prone areas and work on preventing gang members from turning to violence. Providence has received the grant in years past. Taveras...

Bristol, Rhode Island (CNN) -- The Willcox family has long been accustomed to prolonged absences from their seafaring patriarch. In fact, run-ins with the law were not unusual, given the fact that Peter Willcox had spent decades working for the environmental activist group Greenpeace, which is well-known for its provocative, headline-grabbing protests. But no one expected the 60-year-old mariner to end up languishing in a Russian jail in the Arctic, facing up to 15 years in prison on charges of piracy. "The situation he's in now is just way too extreme," said his wife, Maggy. She and other members of...

A former Social Security official has pleaded guilty to identity theft on accusations he used information from the federal agency's database and took more than $160,000 of a Coventry man's stock investments. ... Hurst, who was assistant district manager for the Social Security Administration in Warwick, used a Social Security database to find personal information such as a Social Security number and date of birth.