Tear down this wall!

CRMC finally moves to enforce its own demands

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council has filed a counterclaim against Quidnessett Country Club, seeking court intervention to force the club to take down a rock wall built without permission along its property line three years ago. (Courtesy of Save the Bay)

More than 100 days after state coastal regulators verbally agreed to crack down on Quidnessett Country Club for failing to remove a rock wall from its shoreline, they’re backing up their words with legal action.

The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) filed a counterclaim against the North Kingstown country club in Providence County Superior Court Tuesday. It wants a judge to force the country club to remove the 600-foot stone wall built without permission roughly three years ago. The 17-page filing was submitted in response to one of three lawsuits the country club has filed against the coastal panel in the ongoing dispute over how to restore the shoreline of its property — and whether the wall even needs to be taken down.

The country club initially built the buffer to shield the 14th hole of its signature golf course from coastal erosion, defying state coastal rules that prohibit permanent structures in environmentally sensitive areas. After being caught by state regulators in August 2023, the country club initially sought retroactive permission by arguing for less stringent environmental regulations in the area. 

The politically appointed coastal panel denied the request in January 2024, setting off a debate over how Quidnessett should remove the wall and return the shoreline to its preexisting conditions. All seven plans submitted by Quidnessett were rejected by CRMC staff because they failed to meet coastal requirements.

During the back-and-forth with coastal regulators, Quidnessett turned to the courts, with a trio of lawsuits alleging procedural violations and challenging the legitimacy of the agency’s shoreline restoration requirements.

The country club’s most recent complaint, filed Oct. 23 in Providence County Superior Court, asked a judge to reverse the CRMC’s enforcement order, contending that the dispute should be referred to an administrative hearing officer under the agency’s own guidelines, while labeling coastal regulators’ conditions for the location and slope of a natural barrier to replace the rock wall as “arbitrary and capricious.” 

The agency in its counterclaim denied these allegations, instead pointing to Quidnessett’s defiance despite an escalating series of written and verbal warnings and threats of fines.

Nearly 70% of U.S. adults could now be classified as obese

Mass General Brigham recommends change in how we look at obesity

Mass General Brigham

A newly proposed definition of obesity could significantly increase the number of Americans considered to have the condition. According to researchers at Mass General Brigham, applying updated criteria developed earlier this year by the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Commission raises the estimated obesity rate in the United States from about 40 percent to nearly 70 percent. 

The study examined data from more than 300,000 people and found that the increase was especially pronounced among older adults. The findings also showed that many individuals newly classified under the updated definition face higher risks of serious health problems. The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

"We already thought we had an obesity epidemic, but this is astounding," said co-first author Lindsay Fourman, MD, an endocrinologist in the Metabolism Unit in the Endocrinology Division of the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine. "With potentially 70 percent of the adult population now considered to have excess fat, we need to better understand what treatment approaches to prioritize."

Why BMI Alone May Miss Health Risks

For decades, obesity has primarily been defined using body mass index (BMI), a calculation based on height and weight. While BMI offers a simple estimate, it does not capture how fat is distributed throughout the body. Other anthropomorphic measures -- including waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, and waist-to-hip ratio -- can provide additional insight by distinguishing fat mass from muscle and identifying abdominal fat linked to disease risk.

Under the updated framework, obesity is identified in two main ways. Individuals with a high BMI plus at least one elevated anthropometric measure are classified as having obesity, a category the authors call "BMI-plus-anthropometric obesity." People with a normal BMI can also be classified as having obesity if they have at least two elevated anthropometric measures, referred to as "anthropometric-only obesity." 

The guidelines further separate obesity into preclinical and clinical forms, with clinical obesity defined by obesity-related physical impairment or organ dysfunction. The new standards have already been endorsed by at least 76 organizations, including the American Heart Association and The Obesity Society.

Is New England next in Trump's escalating war on blue states?

ICE plans attack on Maine's Somali community.

Julia Conley for Common Dreams

US Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino

Maine Gov. Janet Mills was among the leaders in the state who addressed reports late Wednesday that the Trump administration plans to send federal agents including those with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cities such as Portland and Lewiston, and said unequivocally that the violence masked officers have unleashed on Minneapolis in recent days would not be welcome by residents and officials.

Mills said ICE had refused to confirm the reports that its agents would be in the state and what the basis for the operations would be, but MS Now reported Wednesday that the administration is considering sending federal officers to Maine.

Donald Trump mentioned Maine’s Somali community in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club; Somali people in Minnesota have been a top target of ICE’s activities there.

Maine’s Democratic governor said her administration was “taking proactive steps to prepare.”

While Trump claims Big Pharma is paying YOU for your prescriptions, drug prices continue to climb

Sick of lies about health care costs?

Brad Reed for Common Dreams

Donald Trump in recent months has made ludicrously false claims about his administration slashing prescription drug prices in the US by as much as 600%, which would entail pharmaceutical companies paying people to use their products.

In reality, reported Reuters on Wednesday, drugmakers are planning to raise prices on hundreds of drugs in 2026.

Citing data from healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors, Reuters wrote that at least 350 branded medications are set for price hikes next year, including “vaccines against COVID, RSV, and shingles,” as well as the “blockbuster cancer treatment Ibrance.”

The total projected number of drugs seeing price increases next year is significantly higher than in 2025, when 3 Axis Advisors estimated that pharmaceutical companies raised prices on 250 medications.

The median price increase for drugs next year is projected at 4%, roughly the same as in 2025.

Reuters also found that some of the companies raising prices on their drugs are the same ones who struck deals with Trump to lower the costs of a limited number of prescriptions earlier this year, including Novartis, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and GSK.

In announcing the deals with the pharmaceutical companies, Trump declared that “starting next year, American drug prices will come down fast and furious and will soon be the lowest in the developed world.”

But Dr. Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told Reuters that the projected savings for Americans under the Trump deals are a drop in the bucket compared with the continued price hikes on other drugs.

“These deals are being announced as transformative when, in fact, they really just nibble around the margins in terms of what is really driving high prices for prescription drugs in the US,” Rome explained.

Today, you need a second mortgage to buy
insulin

Merith Basey, CEO of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, a patient advocacy organization focused exclusively on lowering the cost of medications, also said she was unimpressed by Trump’s deals with drugmakers.

“Voluntary agreements with drug companies—especially when key details remain undisclosed—are no substitute for durable, system-wide reforms,” she said earlier this month. “Patients are overwhelmingly calling on Congress to do more to lower prescription drug prices by holding Big Pharma accountable and addressing the root causes of high drug prices, because drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them.”

"They really like me."

Where are you, MAGA?

 

Profiting from autism

Private equity firms acquired more than 500 autism centers in past decade, study shows

By Juan Siliezar, Associate Director of Media Relations and Leadership Communications, School of Public Health, Brown University

Private equity firms acquired more than 500 autism therapy centers across the U.S. over the past decade, with nearly 80% of acquisitions occurring over a four-year span.

That’s according to a new study from researchers at Brown University’s Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research.

Study author Yashaswini Singh, a health economist at Brown’s School of Public Health, said the work highlights how financial firms are rapidly moving into a sensitive area of health care with little public scrutiny or data on where this is happening or why.

“The big takeaway is that there is yet another segment of health care that has emerged as potentially profitable to private equity investors, and it is very distinct from where we have traditionally known investors to go, so the potential for harm can be a lot more serious,” Singh said. “We're also dealing with children who are largely insured by Medicaid programs, so if private equity increases the intensity of care, what we're looking at are impacts to state Medicaid budgets down the road.”

The Trump Administration’s $3 Meal: ‘A Piece of Chicken, a Piece of Broccoli, Corn Tortilla, and One Other Thing’

Maybe they expect you to add roadkill and lard

Jessica Corbett

The Trump administration was again blasted for grocery prices this week after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins discussed the new federal dietary guidelines during a NewsNation appearance.

“We’ve run over 1,000 simulations,” Rollins said in a clip shared on social media by journalist Aaron Rupar on Wednesday. “It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing.”

“So there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money,” Rollins continued, pushing back against host Connell McShane’s inquiry about whether the new guidelines expect people to spend more money on food.

The Guardian noted that “data from the consumer price index, as referenced by McShane, showed that food prices kept rising in December, increasing by 0.7%, the biggest month-to-month jump since October 2022. Prices for produce rose 0.5%, coffee increased by 1.9%, and beef went up 1% over the month and 16.4% compared with a year earlier.”

Responding to the clip, Chasten Glezman Buttigieg, an author and teacher married to former Democratic Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, said, “Private jets and tax breaks for them and their rich friends, and one piece of broccoli *AND* a tortilla for you!”

Fact check: Here’s what’s really happening with child care fraud in Minnesota

Another MAGA distraction

This story was originally reported by Chabeli Carrazana of The 19th. Meet Chabeli and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

Are you concerned about child abuse? Start here.
Release the Epstein files. All of them.

A viral video posted just after Christmas spurred an avalanche of news coverage, changes from the Trump administration, and congressional hearings that appeared to indicate that a massive trove of child care fraud was just uncovered in Minnesota. 

Much of it has been misleading. 

The video by right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley posted on December 26 purports to show that various Minneapolis day cares run by Somali Americans are not providing services to children despite receiving public funding. 

Although the video has already been debunked by investigators, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have seized on it. Vice President JD Vance said Shirley “has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 [Pulitzer Prizes].”

The fallout has been massive. In the past week, the Trump administration has frozen child care payments to five Democratic-run states and ramped up reporting requirements for all states receiving child care funds to cover services for the lowest-income kids. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, has suspended his reelection campaign over it. 

But the real story behind child care fraud in Minnesota is far less nefarious. 

Here’s what we actually know about child care fraud in Minnesota and elsewhere, and how day cares and families may be impacted by the new changes.

What does Nick Shirley uncover in his video? 

Nothing conclusive. The video shows Shirley visiting day cares run by Somali Americans, sometimes under the false pretense of trying to enroll a child. In a couple of instances, workers do open the door but seem immediately suspicious when it’s clear Shirley is recording them and refuse to let him in or give him more information. 

Because some of the sites appear closed and Shirley doesn’t see any children, he declares this as proof of fraud at these facilities. 

Most child care centers are locked and have obscured doors or windows for children’s safety. Children are also kept in classrooms and would not likely be visible from a reception area. One of the day cares in the video told several news outlets that it did not grant Shirley entrance because he showed up with a handful of masked men, which raised suspicions that the men were agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least one of the centers was closed at the time Shirley arrived because it opens later in the day to serve the children of second-shift workers.

When an ICE Agent Shot Two Bullets Into Renee Good Through the Driver’s Side Window, He Was Not Engaged in Self-Defense

Kristi Noel’s Preposterous Lies About the Killing Confirm That ICE Encourages Agent Violence

Mitchell Zimmerman

Three images taken from videos of the slaying of Renee Nicole Good make it clear that she was not trying to run down an ICE agent when he shot her three times and killed her.

Videos taken by different people from various angles (see CNN, ABC and the New York Times) show what happened, including one in slow motion.

We see ICE agents apparently attempting to force Good out of her vehicle, Good backing up, then Good trying escape by turning the wheels to the right and driving forward. And we see ICE agent Jonathan Ross firing a first shot at Good from near the front of the car, then firing two more shots from alongside the car.

Common sense tells us that ICE shooter Ross never considered himself in danger of being run over, since he deliberately stepped in front of the car.

Consider these two screen captures from seconds 9 and 10 of the video.

 

In the first, Ross appears to be in front of the vehicle and he is drawing his gun.

The vehicle had been moving backward just one second earlier, so the vehicle’s forward movement was still slow. If Ross thought the car might hit him, he had only to step to his right (our left) to get out of the car’s path. Instead he draws his gun, aims and fires.

In the second photo we see the puff of vapor that accompanies the first shot. We also see that both of Ross’s feet are to the left of the car. Ross is not in the path of the car when he takes his first shot. He is not saving himself from being run down.

Shots two and three are even more obviously not in “self-defense.” As shown in the slow motion video and the screen shot below, the car has moved forward and the ICE agent is alongside the vehicle when he stretches out his arm and shoots Renee Good in the head. He fires at point-blank range, through the driver’s side window.

What you see is not a man being run down. What you see is not self-defense. It’s an execution.

Neither President Trump nor Homeland Security head Kristi Noem have acknowledged that agent Jonathan Ross should not have taken out his gun and killed a law-abiding citizen who only sought to escape from aggressive ICE agents. Neither even said a terrible mistake had been made. They endorsed and excused the killing.

The execution of Renee Nicole Good was part of a practice of unnecessary and excessive force which Trump and Noem approve of and support. ICE agents have fired their guns at people in cars at least ten times, and short of murder, ICE agents routinely attack and brutalize those they seize. Violence against observers and reporters is an attempt to conceal such lawless ICE conduct.

The contention that an ICE shooting victim tried to run them over has become the ICE equivalent of the German Nazi claim that slain opponents were shot while attempting to escape.

No evidence supports any terrorism claim, but Noem asserted that Good had been “stalking” ICE. President Trump pointed to a further “wrong”: “At a very minimum,” said Trump, “that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement.”

Citizens of a democracy are entitled to observe ICE agents, to deter them from lawless activity, and citizens of a democracy are not required to be respectful of law enforcement.

If the Department of Homeland Security can with impunity kill citizens for exercising those rights, America will not long remain a free nation.

Subscribe to Reasoning Together with Mitchell Zimmerman. Launched 2 years ago. Engaging, evidence-based arguments on democracy, racism and justice. From a 1960s civil rights veteran, an opponent of two lies-based wars, and and a long time social justice attorney and author. Since 1964.

Vandal in Chief

Getting ready to fight invaders

ICE says hello to my little friend

$270K Available for Local Farms & Food Organizations

Grant application deadline is February 28

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) announced that $270,000 in Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) funds are available for projects that enhance the competitiveness of local specialty crops that are vital to Rhode Islanders’ health and well-being. Specialty crops are fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, horticulture, and nursery crops, including floriculture.

“When I’m at the grocery store or walking through my local farmers’ market, I’m drawn to fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, and nuts, the kinds of foods I rely on to eat healthy,” said DEM Director Terry Gray. 

“I know many Rhode Islanders are looking for those same options, along with local flowers. That’s why DEM is committed to promoting RI Grown crops by helping local farmers and businesses become more competitive.”

Rhode Island’s USDA-funded SCBGP supports local crops by increasing consumer awareness and demand for RI Grown produce and plants. Since 2016, DEM has awarded more than $1 million through the program. There is no maximum grant award or matching requirement. 

Applications are due Feb. 28, 2026. Learn more and apply at https://dem.ri.gov/agriculture/grants/specialty-crop. Questions should be directed to DEM.SpecialtyCrop@dem.ri.gov or (401) 222-2781.

Home care providers call out McKee Administration for cutting care hours to pay for state minimum wage increase

Workers charge McKee gives with one hand, takes with the other

Steve Ahlquist

Noris Fernandez, Liliana McPherson, and Ercilia De Leon

On January 1, 2026, Rhode Island increased its state minimum wage to $16 per hour, up from $15 in 2025. But for hundreds of consumer-directed home healthcare providers across the state, this wage increase comes at the expense of fewer care hours for the vulnerable individuals they serve. With little to no notice, home care workers are seeing the number of approved care hours slashed alongside the wage increase, resulting in less overall income.

On Tuesday, before Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee began his 2026 State of the State Address, home care workers gathered at the State House to call on his Administration to fulfill its promise to raise incomes and improve healthcare outcomes for every Rhode Islander by not balancing the budget on their backs. At the same time, they are demanding EOHHS (Executive Office of Health and Human Services) resume bargaining a new contract after a five-month hiatus with home care providers who recently joined SEIU 1199NE.