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Imagine a school administrator telling a high school political science teacher that a whole range of timely topics – for example, medical marijuana, terrorism in the Middle East, gun control, or even politics in general – was off-limits for class discussion. The pedagogical absurdity of it – not to mention the upending of academic freedom it embodies – would seem obvious to most. In school districts across the country, however, a similar type of censorship takes place in the classroom every day, with little dissent.

Although the Foxy Lady has been providing adult entertainment in Providence for decades, it had never been called before the Providence Board of Licenses until this month, after a police sting there resulted in three women being charged with the misdemeanor offense of soliciting for prostitution. The Board, rather than commend the club for its longstanding record of compliance with the licensing laws, instead took the extraordinary step of permanently revoking the Foxy Lady’s entertainment and liquor licenses, throwing more than 200 people out of work just a week before Christmas.

Here are a few absurd facts about RI criminal justice:

This year, the General Assembly considered yet another exemption to the confidentiality of the state prescription drug monitoring database in the form of legislation allowing health insurers, workers’ compensation insurers and HMOs, among others, to access private prescription information.

Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of calls about both red light cameras and speed cameras.*  One thing is clear: drivers are pretty angry. If you aren’t mad about them, you probably should be: