So says a new report by Citizens for Tax Justice:

The report finds that:

 

• The majority of the benefits of the tax cuts for capital gains and dividend income go to the richest one percent in every state.

 

• Revenue collected by the capital gains tax was much higher during the Clinton administration, when the tax rate on capital gains was higher.

 

Karen Malcolm, executive director of Ocean State Action states, “The timing of this well-researched report is important to understanding the economic woes we face here in Rhode Island.  We see a significantly widening gap between rich and poor, a declining middle class, and a structural state budget deficit that is used as an excuse for gutting Rhode Island’s social safety net, and steep increases in property taxes.”

 

The new report shows that among Rhode Islanders more than 65% of those benefiting from the Bush tax breaks earn over $422,000 annually, with an average income of $1.2 million. The tax windfall realized by these wealthy households under the Bush tax cut averages $20,482 each. Malcolm points out, “Rhode Island’s wealthiest have hit the trifecta. When you add the federal tax windfall to the state’s cut in the tax on capital gains and the alternative minimum tax available only to the highest income households,  this group saves more than $30,000 a year for themselves. This comes at significant cost to Rhode Island’s middle, moderate and low-income families. The cost of just these two state tax cuts will be $62.4 million in 2009, at a time when there is a desperate need for revenue to close the state’s deficit.”

        

As middle, moderate and low-income Rhode Islanders continue to struggle with skyrocketing gas, housing and food prices and as the state enacts deep cuts to healthcare, education and other important social programs, Malcolm argues, “we must be ever-vigilant in ensuring that every Rhode Islander contributes their fair share in Federal and State taxes to help meet top priorities and to ensure every person has the opportunity to get ahead.”   

Hillary's role as the first truly credible female presidential candidate has offered a lot of grist for the gender mill, from her attempts, via macho swagger, to emasculate Obama, to calls that our concepts of power be separated from such reductionist terms as "pussy" and "balls."

Now, Barbara Ehrenreich has a related great read in the Nation:

In Friday's New York Times, Susan Faludi rejoiced over Hillary Clinton's destruction of the myth of female prissiness and innate moral superiority, hailing Clinton's "no-holds-barred pugnacity" and her media reputation as "nasty" and "ruthless." Future female presidential candidates will owe a lot to the race of 2008, Faludi wrote, "when Hillary Clinton broke through the glass floor and got down with the boys."

 

I share Faludi's glee -- up to a point. Surely no one will ever dare argue that women lack the temperament for political combat. But by running a racially-tinged campaign, lying about her foreign policy experience, and repeatedly seeming to favor McCain over her Democratic opponent, Clinton didn't just break through the "glass floor," she set a new low for floors in general, and would, if she could have gotten within arm's reach, have rubbed the broken glass into Obama's face.

 

A mere decade ago, Francis Fukuyama fretted in Foreign Affairs that the world was too dangerous for the West to be entrusted to graying female leaders, whose aversion to violence was, as he established with numerous examples from chimpanzee society, "rooted in biology." The counter-example of Margaret Thatcher, perhaps the first head of state to start a war for the sole purpose of pumping up her approval ratings, led him to concede that "biology is not destiny." But it was still a good reason to vote for a prehistoric-style club-wielding male.

 

Not to worry though, Francis. Far from being the stereotypical feminist-pacifist of your imagination, the woman to get closest to the Oval Office has promised to "obliterate" the toddlers of Tehran -- along, of course, with the bomb-builders and Hizbullah supporters. Earlier on, Clinton foreswore even talking to presumptive bad guys, although women are supposed to be the talk addicts of the species. Watch out! was her distinctly unladylike message to Hugo Chávez, Kim Jong-Il and the rest of them -- or I'll rip you a new one. ....

 

Whatever violent and evil things men can do, women can do too, and if the capacity for cruelty is a criterion for leadership, as Fukuyama suggested, then [Abu Ghraib's] Lynndie England should consider following up her stint in the brig with a run for the Senate.

 

It's important -- even kind of exhilarating -- for women to embrace their inner bitch, but the point should be to expand our sense of human possibility, not to enshrine aggression as a virtue. Women can behave like the warrior queen Boadicea, credited with slaughtering 70,000, many of them civilians, or like Margaret Thatcher, who attempted to dismantle the British welfare state. Men, for their part, are free to take as their role models the pacifist leaders Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Biology conditions us in all kinds of ways we might not even be aware of yet. But virtue is always a choice.

 

Hillary Clinton has smashed the myth of innate female moral superiority in the worst possible way -- by demonstrating female moral inferiority. We didn't really need her racial innuendos and free-floating bellicosity to establish that women aren't wimps. As a generation of young feminists realizes, the values once thought to be uniquely and genetically female -- such as compassion and an aversion to violence -- can be found in either sex, and sometimes it's a man who best upholds them.

How to overcome the cheeseburga-cheeseburga mentality? Yes, by understanding that sex sells (but where's Gina Gershon?).

What: Wearing nothing but strategically placed lettuce leaves, a pair of PETA's Lettuce Ladies will hand out free Tofurky brand mock-turkey sandwiches and gift cards for 2 gallons of gas to the first 50 people at a Providence Shell gas station on Tuesday. PETA is "doing lunch" at the gas station to let drivers know that the best thing that they can do for the environment is jettison their meat-based diets. Eating meat is a more environmentally harmful habit than driving an SUV.

 

Eating just a single pound of meat is the environmental equivalent of driving more than 40 miles in an SUV. Researchers at the University of Chicago determined that switching to a vegan diet is more effective at countering global warming than switching from a standard car to a Toyota Prius.

 

"In a time of rising gas prices and rising concern for the environment, we're going the extra mile to help Americans fill up on vegan fuel for their tummies and gas for their tanks," says Lettuce Lady Colleen Higgins.

 

Where: 457 Benefit St., Providence

When: Tuesday, May 13, 2-3 p.m.

We're at a point where Governor Carcieri, legislative leaders, and A.T. Wall, director of the state Department of Corrections, basically agree on the need to expand treatment options for non-violent criminal offenders. Doing so is smart policy and more cost-effective than keeping such criminals warehoused at the ACI. Yet making progress on this front remains difficult, as Te-Ping Chen writes in this week's Phoenix:

It was after midnight, and Dawn Jacques lay sleepless in her cell at the Adult Correctional Institutions, shuddering. Bathed in sweat, she stared at the ceiling for hours until it blurred. When the occasional wave of nausea ran through her, she lurched toward the toilet, vomiting.

It could have been the first time she was incarcerated or the tenth. Jacques, a 31-year-old from Cranston, has been addicted to heroin and in and out of jail for 10 years, and the long nights of withdrawal were the same every time.

“It felt like I was going to die,” Jacques says. Jail made her feel “miserable,” she says, “like [she] had no choice but to keep using.” And upon leaving prison, that’s exactly what she would do: return to the streets and start shooting up again.

Across the state, Jacques’s story is a familiar one. America’s drug war has devolved into a domestic quagmire, costing $500 billion without discernible success. Yet while a wealth of studies indicate that treating addicts is more cost-effective than incarcerating them, access to treatment remains limited in many states, including Rhode Island. In fact, according to data from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rhode Island has the second-highest rate of addicts that need treatment but don’t receive it.

Not surprisingly, the state prison system is feeling the crush. Since 1976, the ACI’s population has exploded by 457 percent, with what Department of Corrections Director A.T. Wall calls an “ever-increasing number of offenders with substance abuse problems being swept [in]” — and with similar cost increases for the state. Today, 70 percent of ACI inmates report substance abuse problems (mostly heroin, alcohol, and cocaine). And without treatment, the majority of these offenders who are released will end up imprisoned again.

Coming your way, at the State House:

From MERI:

On Wednesday, May 7, the Rhode Island Assembly's House Judiciary Committee will hear testimony on several bills addressing marriage equality rights for all Rhode Island couples, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Supporters of marriage equality, including several members of MERI, are expected to testify.

 

WHAT: Marriage equality legislation, pro and con:

 

Bills under consideration that MERI supports include:

 

• Compassion for All Families Act – Sponsored by Rep. John McCauley of Providence, H. 7711 would give domestic partners the spousal benefits of family medical leave, nursing home visitation and funeral planning.

• Equal Divorce Act – Sponsored by Rep. Gordon Fox of Providence, H. 7939 would allow same-sex couples who married outside of Rhode Island to divorce in Rhode Island.

• Equal Marriage Act – Sponsored by Rep. Arthur Handy of Cranston, H. 7839 would allow all Rhode Island couples the equal freedom to marry.

 

Bills that MERI opposes include:

 

• Divorce legislation – Sponsored by Rep. Al Gemma of Warwick, H. 7081 would codify into law the Rhode Island does not recognize marriages between same-sex couples. Although the legislation would permit same-sex couples to divorce in RI, the bill would likely close the Massachusetts border to Rhode Island same-sex couples who wish to marry there and doesn't' address jurisdiction for same-sex couples married in Canada or overseas.

• A constitutional amendment – Sponsored by Rep. John Brien of Woonsocket, H. 8017 would define marriage as between a man and a woman and would nullify any recognition of marriages, civil unions or domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.

From FairVoteRI:

Youth Voter Pre-registration, H 7106, is out of committee and scheduled for a vote on the House floor this Wednesday. This is a big step towards turning early registration for 16 and 17 year olds into law. The push to get young Rhode Islanders excited about democracy is moving forward— please come to the State House on Wednesday afternoon at 4 PM, and, in the meantime, contact your state representative and ask them to support this common-sense, non-partisan reform.

From the RI Patient Advocacy Coalition:

On Thursday, May 8, 2008, at 4:00pm, the Senate will vote on S2693 in the Senate chamber at the State House. This bill would allow the Department of Health to license a non-profit organization to serve as a Compassion Center, to grow and distribute medical marijuana for registered patients. THIS WILL BE THIS BILL'S FIRST FLOOR VOTE.

[Note: I regret my earlier slapdash description of RI Monthly, which didn't do it justice, and which, as someone affiliated with the magazine points out, is similar to how some might draw a simplistic description of other publications, including the one for which I write.]

The ProJo reports today on the unusually sharp reaction to a Rhode Island Monthly story about teen drinking in Barrington, including an explicit threat to the author of the piece, Massachusetts-based contributor Gretchen Voss.

The article, with a cover headline “Fatal Attraction: How kids, cars and drinking are tearing Barrington apart,” has sparked hundreds of reactions on the Internet, many from a new Facebook group called Boycott Rhode Island Monthly and many more on the Web site of the magazine itself, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Providence Journal.

Editor Sarah Francis said she wrote Police Chief John LaCross last week after one writer on the Facebook site suggested that the author of the story, freelance writer Gretchen Voss, should be sexually mutilated and then forced to watch her family being slowly killed. The individual suggested how to keep a body from being discovered, adding in a second post: “Remember, if there is no body there is crime.”

Missing from Gene Emery's article is any irony about how a story rather typical of its genre -- in a magazine which mixes serious reporting and lifestyle features from which readers usually seek tips on a plastic surgeon or a trendy restaurant -- has inspired unusually tough tactics from the denizens of an affluent suburban enclave.

At least on the surface, the situation is vaguely reminsicent of how Adrian Nicole LeBlanc encountered a harsh case of blame-the-messenger when she wrote, for the now-defunct New England Monthly, about a wave of teen suicide cases in her native Leominster, Massachusetts. 

Former banker Neil Steinberg gets the nod at the helm of the Rhode Island Foundation, one of Dan Yorke's favorite organizations:

Steinberg, who will take up his duties at the Foundation in August, said, “I am honored to accept this position and look forward to working with the board and staff, as well as our generous donors and the Foundation’s many partners in Rhode Island. There is no question that at this time in the state’s history, philanthropy is key to building stronger communities.

 

The Foundation is poised to build on its history, mission and leadership to increase its impact in Rhode Island, to address critical challenges in areas including affordable housing, public education, and healthcare.”

 

Steinberg, who has been vice president of development and campaign director at Brown since 2004, was formerly chairman and CEO of Fleet Bank-Rhode Island. A civic leader with a long record of community involvement, he is on the advisory board of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and is a director of the Business Development Company of Rhode Island and the Urban League. He also serves on the community advisory board of United Way of Rhode Island. Steinberg was a member of the transition teams for Governor Carcieri and Mayor Cicilline, and chaired the group that reviewed the Providence Public Library’s fiscal situation in 2006. His recommendations for restructuring were subsequently accepted by the Library’s board of trustees. Steinberg is a former director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, the Providence Performing Arts Center, and the Providence Foundation. He was named Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce Corporate Leader of the Year in 2004, and inducted into the Brown University Hall of Fame in 2007.

 

During the past three years Steinberg has successfully led Boldly Brown, the university’s campaign for academic enrichment. The campaign has raised almost $1.2 billion toward its $1.4 billion goal. Steinberg is credited with many important gifts, including a $100 million contribution by Warren Alpert to the Medical School, now known as the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Yesterday, on the same day when a Providence streetworker was seriously injured during an assault, the New York Times Magazine carried a compelling story about the evolution of efforts to treat urban violence like a disease.

This is basically what the streetworkers based at the Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence do locally, as I wrote about in 2003.

And while the injuries suffered by Sareth "Tony" Kim point to the risks of the work, there is little doubt that the streetworkers and their counterparts in Chicago and other American cities are making a difference. This is particularly important since, as Alex Kotlowitz noted in his NYTM article, gunplay continues to plague poor communities, even with significant decreases in homicides in some communities.

The traditional response has been more focused policing and longer prison sentences, but law enforcement does little to disrupt a street code that allows, if not encourages, the settling of squabbles with deadly force. Zale Hoddenbach, who works for an organization called CeaseFire, is part of an unusual effort to apply the principles of public health to the brutality of the streets. CeaseFire tries to deal with these quarrels on the front end. Hoddenbach’s job is to suss out smoldering disputes and to intervene before matters get out of hand. His job title is violence interrupter, a term that while not artful seems bluntly self-explanatory. Newspaper accounts usually refer to the organization as a gang-intervention program, and Hoddenbach and most of his colleagues are indeed former gang leaders. But CeaseFire doesn’t necessarily aim to get people out of gangs — nor interrupt the drug trade. It’s almost blindly focused on one thing: preventing shootings.

CeaseFire’s founder, Gary Slutkin, is an epidemiologist and a physician who for 10 years battled infectious diseases in Africa. He says that violence directly mimics infections like tuberculosis and AIDS, and so, he suggests, the treatment ought to mimic the regimen applied to these diseases: go after the most infected, and stop the infection at its source. “For violence, we’re trying to interrupt the next event, the next transmission, the next violent activity,” Slutkin told me recently. “And the violent activity predicts the next violent activity like H.I.V. predicts the next H.I.V. and TB predicts the next TB.” Slutkin wants to shift how we think about violence from a moral issue (good and bad people) to a public health one (healthful and unhealthful behavior).

As this article makes clear, street workers and violence interrrupters can't singlehandedly resolve the problems in communities gripped by poverty and joblessness. Yet they play a vital role -- and one worthy of broader support.

In a story about how one person can make a big difference, the Phoenix reported last year on how Caitie Whelan, a senior at Brown, has been aiding the Merasi, a community of lower-caste musicians in India.

Under the Hindu caste system, the 15,000 Merasi in Jaisalmer District, Rajasthan, are members of the lowest strata within the untouchable caste, “the lowest of the low,” according to Whelan. In Rajasthan, one of India’s most conservative states, this means that they have little access to education, political representation, and steady employment.
 
These problems are compounded by India’s rapid modernization, which is stripping the Merasi of their sole means of income and social value: music. “They are the gatekeepers of a 37-generation musical legacy,” says Whelan, with traditions that describe “local folk history and the genealogy of the region.” As modern capitalism replaces traditional forms of exchange, the Merasi can no longer support themselves through their music. Children go to work instead of learning the musical traditions of their elders, Whelan says; as a result, those traditions are “on the brink of eradication.”
 
In 2006, Whelan traveled to Jaisalmer with Folk Arts Rajasthan to record Merasi music and create an archive of their folk legacy. But the community indicated that it needs more to preserve their singular cultural identity — its members need the opportunity to improve their lot through education.

Now, as Whelan writes to tell N4N, a group of the Merasi are set to perform tomorrow at Brown:

The Merasi, a community of marginalized Untouchable musicians from the deserts of northwestern India, will be performing an explosive medley of haunting music and intoxicating dance from their 800 year old artistic legacy right here at Brown University!

 

The Finer Points:

When: Friday, May 2nd, 6-8pm

Where: Salomon 101, Brown University

Tickets: Free! Reservations highly recommended; RSVP to this email or pamela@brown.edu

Suggested Donation: $5, all proceeds benefit Folk Arts Rajasthan (www.folkartsrajasthan.org, FAR) and FAR's educational programming, The Merasi School (http://merasischool.org), launched by Brown Grad Caitie Whelan.

 

Hear the songs, see the dances, and contribute to the creation of a more equitable Merasi future!

 

. . .  Also, feel free to check us out on Facebook and invite ALL your friends!

To the surprise of no one, the release this week of Grand Theft Auto IV has inspired much media hand-wringing.

Yesterday, AG Patrick Lynch put out the obligatory "consumer advisory" about the pending sale of GTA IV:

“As video games become more realistic and in many cases, more violent, parents must become more vigilant before buying them or letting their children use them,” said Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch. “Also, retailers and salespeople have a responsibility to better inform parents how violent these games actually are. Grand Theft Auto IV is obviously rated M for a reason, and parents need to keep a game like this away from their kids.”

Lynch is advising adults purchasing video games to check the rating symbols on the front of virtually every game package sold at retail. Each package bears one of the following age recommendations, which have been developed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB): EC (Early Childhood 3+), E (Everyone 6+), E10+ (Everyone 10 and up), T (Teen 13+), and M (Mature 17+). The rating also is printed on the back of each package, along with content descriptors providing information about content that may have triggered the rating or that may be of interest or concern to parents.

Not unreasonable, eh? Yet this became the basis for a prominent story on Channel 10's 11 pm newscast last night, faintly suggesting that this video game is a serious menace to all that is well and good, the denials of the one young person interviewed notwithstanding.

Such coverage hardly hurts Lynch's gubernatorial aspirations, since it caters to the fears of the state's suburban demographic. Yet Lynch, in his mild approach, compares favorably with the most zealous self-styled video watchdogs, as Mitch Krpata wrote in last week's Phoenix:

Florida attorney Jack Thompson, one of the most strident anti-games voices around, described the newest GTA installment as “a murder simulator for violence against women, cops, and innocent bystanders” and promised to bring legal action against the game’s publisher, Rockstar Games, and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, if any copies of the game were sold to minors.

Similarly, in a move reminsicent of how she tried to stoke fears about school violence here in RI, there's this:

In 2005, Democratic New York Senator Hillary Clinton, along with co-sponsors Independent Connecticut senator Joseph Lieberman, Democratic Indiana senator Evan Bayh, and Democratic South Dakota senator Tim Johnson, introduced a bill to the United States Senate that would have made the sale of M-rated (Mature) games to minors a federal offense. Although the proposed Family Entertainment Protection Act died in committee, it’s telling that the legislation contained no similar provision for R-rated movies. There seemed to be no doubt in the senators’ minds that games didn’t fall under the aegis of the First Amendment — that it wasn’t up to retailers to decide what they wanted to sell.

Krpata knows about what he speaks in his thoughtful essay on video games, which treats the subject with the complexity that it deserves, as with this:

The government shouldn’t impose limits on what software parents can buy for their kids. But just because they’re wrong doesn’t mean that anything we do in response is right.

Violence is overblown in some games. Non-whites are underrepresented among video-game heroes. Ironically, Grand Theft Auto is on surer footing than most games in both these regards. It’s true that GTA empowers players to commit violent crimes, but doing so attracts the attention of the police, which in turn makes the game world more perilous for the player. It’s an elegant risk-versus-reward mechanic that makes it much more than a brainless crime simulator. And GTA protagonists since the Vice City installment have been, serially, an Italian-American, an African-American, and now an immigrant from an unspecified Eastern European country. Far from trying to gloss over the diversity issue, Rockstar has embraced it. More developers should be taking this approach.

Speaking of Local 121, the Providence restaurant continues to offer some informative events, such as this one on Thursday:

On Thursday, May 1st from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., Local 121 presents Real Meals from Local Fields. Local 121 brings you into the food security movement, a movement that shows how our food system is connected, how our food grows, how it’s processed, who grows it, what we eat, where it comes from, who goes hungry and why. Participants include Carpenter’s Grist Mill, Farm Fresh Rhode Island, Narragansett Creamery, Olga’s Cup and Saucer, Matonuck Oyster Farm, Red Planet Vegetables, Sosnowski Farms, Southside Community Land Trust, Urban Greens Food Coop, and Whole Foods Market. 

 

The event is free and open to the public. Guests will have the opportunity to sample locally raised food, sign up for a CSA and learn more about the food security. Whole Foods has donated a basket of local products that will be raffled off that evening. Local 121 is providing free appetizers as well as cash bar.

Here's an upcoming event worth putting on your calendar:

Malian guitarist Habib Koité and his band Bamada return to North America this spring with an 11-city tour, marking the first opportunity for this legendary African music figure to perform songs from his most recent and critically acclaimed album Afriki. On Wednesday, May 7th Habib Koité and Bamada perform in Providence, RI in a special concert to benefit the GAIA Vaccine Foundation at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel.  GAIA Vaccine Foundation is a Providence-based 501c3 that is promoting the development of a globally relevant HIV vaccine and global access to HIV care. GAIA supports a state-of the art HIV care program in Bamako, Mali, Habib Koite's home town. All proceeds from this concert will go to stopping AIDS in Africa. See http://www.GAIAVaccine.org

for more information.

 

Afriki was released by Cumbancha last fall and features an alluring set of songs that reflect Habib’s unique and innovative approach to the diverse styles of Malian music. Years in the making and recorded on three continents, Afriki finds Habib exploring some new musical directions. The overarching theme of Afriki, which means “Africa” in the Malian Bambara language, is about the strengths and challenges of the African continent. For example, James Brown veteran Pee Wee Ellis arranged horns on the song “Africa,” which calls upon Africans to take responsibility for their own future and not depend on the outside world.

 

Habib’s artistry draws on styles from the different regions of Mali, rather than solely on the music of his particular area as most Malian musicians do. He has gained a strong fan base by integrating the rock and folk sounds of the Western world, without watering down his cherished Malian roots. Habib descends from a line of griots, traditional troubadors who provide wit, wisdom and entertainment to the pubic. Taking this role to the world at large, his charisma and magnetism translates easily across cultural divides.

Consumers are squeezed.

More retailers are facing bankruptcy.

And big tax breaks are being included in a bill meant to alleviate the foreclosure crisis.

From the NYT:

The Senate proclaimed a fierce bipartisan resolve two weeks ago to help American homeowners in danger of foreclosure. But while a bill that senators approved last week would take modest steps toward that goal, it would also provide billions of dollars in tax breaks — for automakers, airlines, alternative energy producers and other struggling industries, as well as home builders.

The tax provisions of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which consumer groups and labor leaders say amount to government handouts to big business, show how the credit crisis, while rattling the housing and financial markets, has created beneficiaries in the power corridors of Washington.

It also shows how legislation with a populist imperative offers a chance for lobbyists to press their clients’ interests.

This has proved especially true on the housing legislation, which many lawmakers and lobbyists view as one of the last opportunities before Congress grinds to a halt amid election-year politics.

In the Senate bill, the nation’s biggest home builders, some now on the verge of bankruptcy, won a provision that would let them claim millions in tax refunds by charging their current losses against the huge profits they made three or four years ago. Other struggling industries would benefit from this provision.

As the price of gas hits a local high, a coalition of groups plans to make a point tomorrow -- April 15, of course -- about the high cost of the war in Iraq. We at the Phoenix have previously written about that subject here.

Activists from American Friends Service Committee, the Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities, Declaration of Peace Campaign RI, and Ocean State Action will speak out on the high cost of war to Rhode Island taxpayers. The groups will kick off a day of collective action with a brief press conference scheduled for 11:30 am at the state's main post office on Corliss Street, Providence. 

 

Throughout the day, activists, advocates and local taxpayers will organize late tax filers at post offices throughout the state, inviting them to take action by calling on lawmakers to fix the upside-down priorities of both the Bush & Carcieri administrations. 

 

Martha Yager, of American Friends Service Committee states, "Rhode Islanders have spent $4.3 billion on the war in Iraq.  With that money, we could have avoided the state's deficit; funded Head Start, health care and education, and have been ready to help families hit hard by the state's recession. Instead, the death-toll in Iraq continues to rise and we face even worsening human cost at home as our human needs programs get slashed." 

 

WHAT:            Post office action to call for end of war in Iraq and expensive tax breaks for the wealthy in order to re-invest in Rhode Island's future

WHO:              Martha Yager, American Friends Service Committee; Representative Art Handy; Senator Josh Miller; Andrew Saud, Declaration of Peace RI; Jac Amoureux, Military Families Speak Out; and John Glasheen, Unitarians for Social Justice and member of the Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities   

WHEN:            April 15, 2009, 11:30 am

WHERE:         Corliss Street Post Office, Providence

As critics and advocates continue to debate the economic effect of illegal immigration, Matt points to this data:

Now, the Immigration Policy Center - in light of the upcoming Tax Day - are issuing a forthcoming reportby Stephen Moore, Senior Economics Writer at the Wall Street Journal and former director of Fiscal Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, and Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2005 Current Population Survey and other sources.

Moore and Vedder find that immigrants not only pay their own way in taxes, but play a hefty role in shoring up the teetering Social Security system, and provide a fiscal windfall to U.S. taxpayers by tending to come to the United States during their prime working years after the costs of their education and upbringing have been borne by their home countries.

Among the report's findings:

• Immigrant Households and Businesses Generate Billions: In 2005, immigrant households and businesses paid approximately $300 billion in federal, state, and local taxes: $165 billion in federal income taxes, $85 billion in state and local income taxes, and $50 billion in business taxes.
  
• Immigrants Pay More in Taxes Than They Use in Services Over Their Lifetimes: Depending on skills and level of education, each immigrant pays, on average, between $20,000 and $80,000 more in taxes than he or she consumes in public benefits.
  
• Immigrants' Relative Youth Contributes To Social Security's Health: Current levels of immigration will provide a net benefit to the Social Security system of nearly $450 billion in taxes paid over benefits received during the 2006-2030 period-and almost $4.4 trillion during the 2006-2080 period. This is because 75 percent of immigrants arrive in the United States when they are in their prime working years (age 18 to 65). But the share of native-born citizens in their prime working years now stands at only 60 percent, and will decline rapidly over the coming decades as the Baby Boomers retire.
  
• Immigrants Educated on Home Country's Tab: The roughly 26 million immigrants now in the United States who arrived when they were over the age of 18-after their upbringing and basic education were paid for in their home countries-represent a windfall to American taxpayers of roughly $2.8 trillion. The United States receives all of the tax payments made by these immigrants, while bearing almost none of the costs of raising and educating them.

Is "illegal immigrant" or "undocumented immigrant" the best way to describe the folks getting so much attention these days in Rhode Island?

Representative Peter Palumbo (D-Cranston) and Fred Ordonez of Progreso Latino, not surprisingly, offered different views on that and other facets of the immigration debate during a taping this morning of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers. The show will be broadcast on Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64.

Also appearing is Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count.

This is tonight:

We invite you to join with Ocean State Action Fund as we celebrate 20 years of coalition building, organizing and leading for change!

 

6:00 - 8:00 pm at Local 121

Washington Street Providence

 

Keynote by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

 

and honoring

 

founding board members

 

Roberta Hazen-Aaronson

Executive Director, Childhood Lead Action Project

 

Stan Israel

Executive Vice President,

NEHCEU, District 1199 SEIU

 

long-term & new allies

 

RI Foster Parents Association

community ally

 

RI Jobs with Justice

labor ally

 

George Zainyeh

For leadership in health care & consumer advocacy as District Director for Congressman Kennedy & as former member of the RI House of Representatives

 

with special recognition of

graduates & facilitators of the New Voices Leadership Institute

Governor Carcieri entered a long-running debate about the value of the early-education program Head Start this week. Here's what he said in a story yesterday by the ProJo's Steve Peoples:

“Show me empirical evidence that Head Start has done anything,” he said. “I think it’s been the biggest waste of money, frankly.”

I took a quick look via Google to seek indications of Head Start's impact. There are a lot of positive reviews, but also some more critical ones. At minimum, considering the research, the governor engaged in a rhetorical over-reach. (The US Department of Health and Human Services has a detailed look at the research here.)

Here's one of the positive reviews that I found:

The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) is a longitudinal study, meaning the same group of children (cohort) is folowed over several years. FACES provides key findings related to children’s outcomes and program quality. FACES proves Head Start’s ability to help narrow the gap between disadvantaged children and other children in the areas of education and social behavior. According to the survey, most children entering Head Start had early academic skills that were below national norms. However, by the end of the program, Head Start children showed gains in vocabulary, early math, writing skills, and other literacy-related areas. Head Start children also showed growth in their social skills which better prepares them for cooperative classroom learning.

Not only has Head Start proven to help children early in their schooling, it also has an effect on their later schooling as well. According to an issue brief (pdf) drafted by the National Head Start Association, “Reliable studies have found that Head Start children have increased achievement test scores and that they experience favorable long-term effects on grade repetition, special education, and graduation rates.”

Here's another:

A recent rigorous national evaluation of the impact of Head Start on three- and four-year-olds, the Head Start Impact Study, found gains for Head Start children in pre-reading, pre-writing, vocabulary and literacy skills.¹ Children assigned to participate in Head Start also had fewer behavior problems, better overall physical health, less hyperactivity, and more access to dental care. More positive effects were found for children who entered the program as three-year olds than as four-year olds.² Another study found that four-year olds participating in Head Start did better in receptive language and phonemic awareness than four-year olds of similar backgrounds who were wait-listed for the Head Start program.³ Other studies find that children who attended Head Start are more likely to stay in school, and have lower rates of grade retention in early elementary school.⁴ Head Start participants were also more likely to have been fully immunized⁵ and to have better access to health care.⁶

Head Start programs may also have benefits for the parents of the children attending. In comparison to a group of families with similar backgrounds, parents of children attending such programs are more likely to report good health and safety practices than are parents of children not attending.⁷ First-year findings from the National Head Start Impact study also found that parents of children attending Head Start were more likely to read to their children frequently, less likely to use physical punishment, and more likely to engage in educational activities with their children. However, in this study, parents were not significantly more likely to use better safety practices.⁸

The Heritage Foundation says this:

Since its inception, there has been controversy over Head Start's effectiveness. Early research from the Westinghouse Learning Corporation in 1969 showed cognitive gains of the program's participants faded away within a few grades, at which point the cognitive abilities of Head Start participants are indistinguishable from their nonparticipating peers.

In 1985, the Head Start Synthesis Project, a meta-analysis of over 210 studies and reports, found:

Children enrolled in Head Start enjoy significant, immediate gains in cognitive test scores, socioemotional test scores, and health status. In the long run, cognitive and socio-emotional test scores of former Head Start students do not remain superior to those of disadvantaged children who did not attend Head Start.

A few studies indicated that Head Start participants were less likely to be enrolled in special education or to be held back a grade. Head Start students also received more dental and health screenings.

The Goldwater Institute says:

[T]he Head Start Impact Study—in which children who attended the program are being compared with those who did not—began in 2002 and is continuing. Its control group is made up of children who could not get into the program because all the slots were filled after a lottery, explained Nicholas Zill, the director of the Child and Family Study Area at Westat, a Rockville, Md.-based research organization.

Initial results released in 2005 showed “modest” gains for the Head Start children in pre-reading, pre-writing, and vocabulary skills. But improvements were not found in oral-comprehension or math skills. Results after the children’s kindergarten year are being analyzed and will be released later this year.

Officials with the Bush administration noted that the preliminary findings showed that children in the program still lag behind their peers, while Head Start advocates used the results to boast that the children are making progress.

Matt takes a look at the front of today's ProJo's State House tax-issue coverage and sees a not-so-subtle division:

Anyone notice the stark contrast on the front page of today's BeloJo? 

In one corner we have MEN IN SUITS who are longtime advocates for lowering taxes on the richest millionaires and corporate tycoons at the expense of health care and child care!

In the other corner we have WOMEN & CHILDREN who desperately want to save a program that helps poor kids have equal opportunities for early childhood development.

Who will win this historic battle? 

Analysts say that even though the WOMEN & CHILDREN turned out many more supporters, the MEN IN SUITS have connections where it counts: at the top (and they're not afraid of paying off the refs!).

Stay tuned!

The street workers associated with the Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence in Providence have been doing important work in reducing violence since they emerged on the scene in 2003, so it was good to hear about their receipt earlier this week of $352,000 in federal money. As those in the field know, making the case for prevention-based programs is always difficult, because it's hard to document those shootings and murders that don't happen.

I wrote about the street workers program in 2003:

IN SOME WAYS, the street workers seem to face daunting odds. Guns are easy to find in Providence, shots are fired virtually on a nightly basis (even if no one is hurt), and the conditions that influence violent crime — include poverty and longstanding beefs — aren’t easily remedied. Still, after shadowing the street workers in their rounds on two recent nights, it’s hard not to have a sense that they’ve accomplished a lot in a short period of time. Everywhere they go, it seems, they know the players, the terrain, the history, and what’s at stake.

As noted in the ProJo's coverage, the situation is complicated by the foreclosure crisis and by cuts in state-funded social programs.

Teny Gross, the institute’s executive director, said that the Streetworkers Program is the only one in the country that does not receive state or city funding. Instead, it is dependent on grants and private donations.

Gross said that the federal grant money couldn’t come soon enough. He said that the poor economy, foreclosures on homes and budget cuts have created “the perfect storm” for a violent summer.

“The poor need us most when the times are tough,” he said. “The poor need us now.”

A few months ago, Gross and two of the streetworkers traveled to Northern Ireland to work with youths in Belfast. Streetworkers also have testified before Congress about gang violence and two weeks ago the city of Los Angeles called the institute seeking advice for its outreach workers.

Music Friday
5:30-8:30pm
Join us for the hip-shaking sounds of Santa Mamba, a mix of salsa, merengue, and funk. Attendees must be 21 years or older. Members: $5, nonmembers: $8. Music Fridays are supported by the Providence Tourism Council. Media sponsor: The Providence Phoenix

The Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless this afternoon, at 3, plans to mark the one-year anniversary of the closing of the Welcome Arnold shelter.

At the time of the closing of Welcome Arnold, Governor Carcieri made a pledge to accommodate everyone using Welcome Arnold. He also stated that a plan would be developed to ensure all the facility’s residents were housed.

 

A year later there is still NO PLAN and on any given night there are over 60 individuals sleeping on the streets, the emergency shelters are reduced to having people sleep on cots in the hallways and the Governor’s current proposed Supplemental Budget and FY09 budget will only make the current crisis worse by cutting the programs funded by Rhode Island Housing and the Neighborhood Opportunity Program.

 

We are marking the anniversary by delivering over 100 pairs of shoes to the Governor this Thursday – the shoes represent the unserved homeless population and also a play on the concept of "walk a mile in my shoes."

Kim has the details on an upcoming conference on this subject:

While other states in the country are passing Constitutional Amendments to ban same sex marriages, civil unions and even as far as contracts between same sex couples - New England has turned into a bastion of equality and rights.  From Massachusetts’s landmark decision in Goodridge to Connecticut currently taking up the case if there is a legal difference between civil unions and marriage - why has New England (with the notable exception of Rhode Island) been such a unique place for LGBT equality?

Come learn more at Roger Williams School of Law, in what is bound to be a provocative discussion involving a fantastic panel and keynote:

What: The Culture of Same Sex Marriage Symposium

Where: Roger Williams School of Law (Bristol, RI)

When: Friday, March 28 from Noon - 4:45PM.

Panel 1: The Same-Sex Marriage Debate in the State of Rhode Island

Panel 2: Civil Unions v. Marriage in New England

Cost: Free! Includes lunch and wine and cheese reception following the panels.  However - if you are an attorney and would like to receive the 5 CLE credits available, the cost for that is $25.

Click HERE to register and to read more about the Keynote Address [David Wilson - original plaintiff in Goodridge and Board Member of both HRC and Mass Equality] and each of the panelists!

From City Hall:

PROVIDENCE – In an ongoing effort to protect Providence neighborhoods from the national foreclosure crisis, Mayor David N. Cicilline will announce an aggressive proposal that will bring millions of federal dollars to Providence to address the issue.  Nationwide, home foreclosures rose 79% in 2007 having a significant negative impact on residential neighborhoods across America.