On Politics

Welcome back to my weekly column. Spring is starting to pop, and there's never a shortage of news hereabouts, so let's get to it. As always, your thoughts and tips are welcome at idonnis (at) ripr (dot) org.

After a long winter, spring officially returns to these parts this afternoon. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay takes  a break from State House debate  to bring us baeball's return.

In New England, everything old really is new again on the Opening Day of the baseball season. Shortly after one this afternoon, the oldest and most spirited rivalry in all of  American sports begins anew as our Boston Red Sox travel to the Bronx to play the New York Yankees, a club also known in our sliver of New England as The Evil Empire.

Of all the tax subsidies states had out, the film tax credits seem among the most frivolous. Sure, politicians love rubbing elbows with Hollywood luminaries, but what about the taxpayers?

Now comes this report from Massachusetts: The Bay State’s film subsidy program cost taxpayers an estimated $44 million in 2011, though it created the equivalent of just about 1,200 full-time jobs.

State Senator Stephen Archambault (D-Smithfield) believes the "marriage equality" bill backed by same-sex marriage proponents will emerge from the Senate Judiciary Committee and receive overwhelming support in the full Senate.

"I expect it will go to a [committee] vote, and I'm confident it will pass," Archambault says of the same-sex marriage bill introduced by state Senator Donna Nesselbush (D-Pawtucket).