Former President Bill Clinton recently compared voter identification laws to Jim Crow-era statutes that suppressed the black vote after the Civil War. “There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today,” Clinton told liberal activists in July. Not so, says John Fund, author of “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy.” Speaking at Heritage this week, Fund said voter ID laws have won the …
A lifetime appointment to the federal bench is now selling for $700,000. At least that was the cost for Rhode Island judicial nominee Jack McConnell, who has donated that sum of money to Democrats in the two decades before President Obama tapped him for federal district court. McConnell faces a Senate confirmation vote as early as today, setting the stage for a high-stakes showdown that could open the floodgates for a series of other controversial nominees such as Goodwin Liu, Edward Chen and Louis B. Butler Jr. Obama’s selection of …
School districts and legislatures in Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Virginia are demonstrating a commitment to greater educational opportunities for students and families by challenging the status quo of mediocre and failing public schools. While many East Coast states spent the weekend focused on snow removal, the town of Central Falls, Rhode Island focused on the removal of almost 100 teachers from one of the state’s worst performing schools. Superintendent Frances Gallo will fire all Central Falls High School teachers after union leaders refused proposed reforms that included increasing the …
Over the weekend, Senators from both sides of the aisle debated the merits of Obamacare with a level of emotion rarely seen in the halls of the U.S. Senate. But one senator took home the prize for the most outrageous comments unbecoming of an elected representative. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) began a floor speech citing a liberal op-ed that referred to the “lunatic fringe,” which appears to lump all sorts of groups in with conservatives. He used this as a catalyst to make floor remarks (seen in the video above) about Obamacare’s …
The budget shortfalls, plunging revenue, and economic woes plaguing near-broke California could foretell the future of other cash-strapped states. A new study by The Pew Center on the States found that the economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of a total economic meltdown are also found in nine other states across the country, all of which could face a financial disaster just like the one in the Golden State. Those states with economic conditions most like California’s include Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey and …
Welcome to a new feature of the Foundry, Outside the Beltway, where we will semi-regularly post state and local stories of either conservatism at its best, or liberalism at its worst. Today, we start off with liberalism at its worst. Providence, Rhode Island Mayor David Cicilline wants to tax college students $150 every semester to have the privilege of studying in his city. Because the mismanaged city is running a $17 million deficit, they need to find new money, rather than new savings. And the best new money is to …
