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Bailey's Beach Club The latest controversy over U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s association with the elite, WASPy Bailey’s Beach Club, in Newport, has gone viral after being launched by GoLocal. (I prefer the silly-sounding real name of the club – the Spouting Rock Beach Association.)  His wife is a member.   I don’t care much about politicians’ associations in their private life; it’s their public-policy positions that primarily interest me. But I suppose that any story about Newport’s  summer creatures, blue-blooded or otherwise, has its allure. Many folks consider Newport a...

Robert Whitcomb's weekly examination of everything that is important. Only Whitcomb offers such a collection of insights on the global and local issues that matter.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza PHOTO: GoLocal Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s plan for a $704 million bond issue to use to bring the city’s pension system to 65 percent funded from its current scary level of about 25 percent makes a lot of sense in today’s low-interest-rate environment. The plan would include the option to refinance the loan if circumstances warrant.   But the Rhode Island General Assembly needs to act fast in the waning days of this session to approve it. Interest rates will rise.   This might be a way to avoid municipal bankruptcy, though some would argue that such a...

Robert Whitcomb's weekly examination of everything that is important. Only Whitcomb offers such a collection of insights on the global and local issues that matter.

Hackerspaid $5M The Colonial Pipeline crisis is, of course, a reminder of the vulnerability of our aging physical infrastructures to cyberattacks, some of them by such governmental enemies as Putin’s Russia, others by criminal gangs working with the knowledge and cooperation of such dictatorships, be they Russia, China, North Korea or Iran (all of whom work in varying degrees to weaken the West.)   The Colonial mess, exacerbated by panic buying in some places, which has caused gas stations in some areas to go dry, reminds me of why I like living in cities, where you can walk to most servic...