Streetlights, Dancing a
jig in Michigan, End of criminal case in Chariho crash, drink more beer, drive less and burn less.
And get help.
“Let there be dark”
It was a close
call, but in the final hours of this General Assembly session, legislators
passed, and sent to the Governor, legislation sought by South County
municipalities. Under S836, cities
and towns
can buy their towns’ streetlights from National Grid, potentially saving lots of money on maintenance contracts,
plus now having the ability to install energy-saving lights. Charlestown’s
Planning Commission was enthusiastic about the idea, but their idea was for the
town to simply turn off all the lights. I’m not
making this up.
Michigan: Center of government
innovation
 |
| DiBello: uses the Michigan system |
Recently, I noted that Town Council member Lisa
DiBello probably learned that it’s better to abstain than actually take a position from the abstemious City
County members of Ypsilanti, MI who have
made abstaining on votes a high art form.
How can they top that, you might be thinking? Well, the
Michigan State Senate just did by formally
recognizing every September 19 as “International Talk Like a Pirate Day.” Arrrrrr! Me maties, ye all know that this be the grandest
holiday ever conceived, the day when we can all allow our inner pirate to
emerge. Thank you, Michigan, for being the first state to honor this day. Let’s
hope Rhode Island will be next. Here’s the Michigan
resolution.
No jail time for
Serra
We all closely
followed the horrific October 2011 crash in Charlestown that gravely injured four Chariho High School students
coming from a drug-and-alcohol party. That party was at the home of Chariho
School Committee member Terry Serra.
Serra was arrested and charged after the crash with failure
to render assistance by Charlestown Police after witnesses reported that she
showed up at the crash scene, yelled at the four injured kids and took off
without calling 911 or giving any sort of aid. Serra was also arrested by
Richmond Police and then tried, and convicted, under Rhode Island’s social host
law that made her responsible for allowing the kids to get intoxicated on her
property. After her conviction, she appealed, arguing the state law was
unconstitutional.
While that challenge failed, Serra
ended up avoiding jail time by pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge which will only cost her a $500 fine and 150 hours of
community service. The case has been “filed” meaning that if she stays out of
trouble for one year, the record will be expunged.
Serra still faces civil lawsuits from the injured students,
other students present at the party and their parents.
Another low finish for RI in national ranking
Yeah, we’re used to it. Last place in this poll,
next to last in this other survey, such is the lot of the Rhode Island public.
But I never would have thought that we’d show so low – only 39th
place – in the Beer Institute’s annual ranking of the
states for beer consumption at only 26.3 gallons per legal aged adult. North
Dakota came in first (45.8 gallons per adult). I think we would have done a lot
better if they factored in underage drinking.
And another one
This time, Rhode Island came in next to the bottom
in a national
ranking of state highway systems. I was a little thrown by this survey
though because it comes from the Reason Institute, an unabashedly libertarian
organization that believes government has no business providing any public
services other than national defense. So does a low rating by the libertarians
mean we have a good highway system or
a bad one?
According to the Reason Institute, RI is dead last
for bad bridges, #49 for poorly maintained rural roads and #42 for urban
congestion.
I found it interesting that libertarians are
bothered by bad roads, too. I looked, but didn’t find any concrete proposals
for addressing our decaying infrastructure. On the left, we want to see more
public money invested in fixing our roads and bridges (and creating lots of
jobs). On the right, there’s the option of pretending our bad roads are all the
fault of Obamacare and Benghazi.
From the libertarians, I had expected a call for
privatizing all of our public roads and bridges. I guess that will have to come
from the Cato Institute.
It’s only going to get worse
As President Obama finally unveiled his
comprehensive plan for dealing with climate change, the White House also
released state-by-state
impact reports.
The report notes that Rhode Island is already paying the
price in increased asthma-related deaths and in more frequent and severe
storms.
We also face a profound change to our shoreline as ocean levels rise as
the polar ice caps melt. It says we have already seen our ocean level increase
by 10 inches since 1930.
We release 4 million metric tons of carbon
pollution every year, the equivalent of 840,000 cars. I think that number
actually comes pretty close to the number of actual cars we have.
The report notes that there are “tens of thousands
of renewable energy projects throughout the country.” However, in Rhode Island,
there are only 40 that are “generating enough energy to power more than 300
homes.” BFD.
If only we could capture and reuse all the energy
that has been wasted on the Whalerock project – pro and con – we’d be a lot
further down the road in breaking our dependence on fossil fuels.
Here’s a ranking that’s REALLY bad
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that Rhode
Island has suffered the third-worst spike in suicide rates in the country
among the generation (aged 34-64) hit hardest by the recession and housing
market collapse.
The rate jumped by 69% between 1999 and 2010. The
only two states showing highest rates of increase are Wyoming and North Dakota.