Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Rhode Island Democrats seek to remove details about voters’ birthdays

Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea wants to protect voters' identities by removing birthdays from the state's voter rolls. But critics say this could lead to a pileup of redundant registrations.

This week, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would codify a decision Gorbea, a Democrat, made a few years ago. In summer 2016, she quietly changed what information is publicly available in the state's Central Voter Registration System by removing the day and month from the list of voter birth dates, The Providence Journal reported.


The bill, which so far is only supported by Democrats, would put that change into writing. While Gorbea says this will help prevent voter identity theft, the Journal reports that no such incidences of theft have been cited.

Opponents argue that keeping full birth dates on voter rolls helps parse out any repeat registrations or enrollments from people who are deceased. Rhode Island has roughly 790,000 registered voters, but past investigations by the Journal revealed there could be thousands of duplicates.

Read More

A person in a military uniform holding a gavel.

As the Trump administration redefines “Warrior Ethos,” U.S. military leaders face a crucial test: defend democracy or follow unlawful orders.

Getty Images, Liudmila Chernetska

Warrior Ethos or Rule of Law? The Military’s Defining Moment

Does Secretary Hegseth’s extraordinary summoning of hundreds of U.S. command generals and admirals to a Sept. 30 meeting and the repugnant reinstatement of Medals of Honor to 20 participants in the infamous 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre—in which 300 Lakota Sioux men, women, and children were killed—foreshadow the imposition of a twisted approach to U.S. “Warrior Ethos”? Should military leaders accept an ethos that ignores the rule of law?

Active duty and retired officers must trumpet a resounding: NO, that is not acceptable. And, we civilians must realize the stakes and join them.

Keep ReadingShow less
Yes, They Are Trying To Kill Us
Provided

Yes, They Are Trying To Kill Us

In the rush to “dismantle the administrative state,” some insist that freeing people from “burdensome bureaucracy” will unleash thriving. Will it? Let’s look together.

A century ago, bureaucracy was minimal. The 1920s followed a worldwide pandemic that killed an estimated 17.4–50 million people. While the virus spread, the Great War raged; we can still picture the dehumanizing use of mustard gas and trench warfare. When the war ended, the Roaring Twenties erupted as an antidote to grief. Despite Prohibition, life was a party—until the crash of 1929. The 1930s opened with a global depression, record joblessness, homelessness, and hunger. Despair spread faster than the pandemic had.

Keep ReadingShow less