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More on Chariho car crash, RI census numbers and President Obama's "tax on Christmas"
By Will Collette

Chariho student still critical, and, was there a second car? A.J. Algier has an excellent story in today's Westerly Sun (she has done some outstanding coverage of this story) on the Charlestown car crash that injured four Chariho students and put now former Chariho School Committee member Terri Serra in serious trouble.




John LaMotte, 16, remains in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital. The other three boys suffered varying degrees of injury are now all at home.

Ms. Algier's story also reports that Charlestown Police may be looking for a second vehicle involved in the incident, perhaps as part of a drag race down Route 112. However, Charlestown Police would not confirm this aspect of the story for Ms. Algier's article.

Terri Serra's resignation from the Chariho School Committee was accepted by the Richmond Town Council. She faced Richmond criminal charges under the state's social host law and Charlestown criminal charges for failing to render assistance, based on a witness account that Serra went to the accident scene, cursed at the boys, and left without calling 911 or helping.

People move to Rhode Island from other states. Contrary to Cassandra claims by the RI Statewide Coalition and the now-defunct Ocean State Policy Research Institute that people are fleeing RI, the 2010 census showed that 17,000 people moved to Rhode Island, compared to 10,000 who left - a new gain of 7,000 people.

In an article available only through their new subscription service, The Providence Journal listed New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and California, in that order, as the top states of origin for new Rhode Island residents.

The top destinations for the 10,000 Rhode Islanders who left are, in order, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

Wingnut Conservatives Save Christmas. Every year, radical Christians and wingnut conservatives scour the news for evidence that liberals and Democrats in general, and President Obama in particular, are trying to kill Christmas. This year, they latched on to a plan by an association of Christmas Tree growers to have the US Department of Agriculture collect a 15 cent per tree fee which would be used to advertise the merits of fresh-cut trees over cheap plastic, Wal-Mart-type trees. "OMG," they screamed, "Obama wants to tax Christmas!!!" Well, today, the Hill reports that the USDA has posted notice in the Federal Register that the proposal is shelved, indefinitely.


I'm sure radical conservatives will continue to talk about Obama's Tax on Christmas that almost happened, if not for the brave and timely uproar from the looney right. More likely, they will find some other story - real or imagined, to support their theory that our Muslim President from Kenya wants to replace their Christian Traditions with Shariah. And people still ask me why I hate the Christmas season.