Pawcatuck polluted by PFAS from old textile mill "hotspots"

Can these sites be cleaned up?

By Mackensie duPont Crowley

Jarod Snook collected water samples from sites that were previously
 identified as PFAS “hotspots.” (Photos courtesy of Jarod Snook)

A study led by University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography alumnus Jarod Snook, Ph.D. ’25, identified a long-term source of PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” entering the Pawcatuck River from two historically contaminated textile mill waste retention ponds located in Bradford and Westerly, Rhode Island.

Published in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology Water, the study was co-authored by members of the Lohmann Lab at the Graduate School of Oceanography, including Assistant Professor Jitka Becanova, Marine Research Associate Simon Vojta, and Professor Rainer Lohmann.

Using a combination of environmental sampling techniques and modeling, the team characterized how PFAS stored in pond sediments continue to migrate into, and be deposited within, the river decades after textile operations ceased.

In fact, one of the study’s key findings is that sediment at one of the ponds could continue releasing PFAS into the Pawcatuck River for more than 100 years, highlighting the long-term nature of the contamination and a problem that will persist unless steps are taken to remediate.

Environmental and human impacts

PFAS, a group of manufactured chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s, do not readily break down and can build up in people, animals, and the environment over time. They can persist for decades and travel long distances, moving from inland rivers like the Pawcatuck to coastal waters and the Atlantic Ocean.

When PFAS enter a river, they can contaminate water and sediments, accumulate in aquatic organisms, disrupt local ecosystems, and pose risks to humans and wildlife through drinking water and seafood consumption. The Pawcatuck River is widely used for recreation and fishing, creating potential exposure pathways for Rhode Island residents and raising concerns about long-term health impacts.

“Rhode Islanders value their aquatic environment,” said Snook. “Keeping it free from pollution is part of that value. We hope this study sheds light on the PFAS issue affecting the Pawcatuck River so that action can be taken to remediate contamination at its source.”

Rhode Island Community Food Bank's 'Status on Hunger' report finds record levels of food insecurity in the state

One-third of Rhode Island households don't have enough food

Steve Ahlquist

“I wish that I could stand here today and tell you that we are close to ending hunger, but quite the opposite is true. Hunger exists, and hunger persists,” said Melissa Sobolik, CEO of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. “And honestly, hunger has gotten worse over the last five years. In fact, according to our Status on Hunger report, one in three Rhode Island households is food insecure. That means they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”

During last fall’s federal government shutdown, the Food Bank served a record number of people through its statewide network of 137 member agencies. While the shutdown has ended, the need remains at record levels. Food Insecurity Awareness Day, held in the Rhode Island State House Library on Tuesday, was billed as a “rallying cry of support for the thousands of Rhode Islanders who struggle to put food on their tables.”

“The data is bleak,” continued Sobolik. “In November, when the federal government shut down and brought SNAP benefits to a screeching halt, the urgency of this crisis was brought into clear focus. More than 102,000 Road Islanders needed food more than ever before in the history of the Food Bank, and each one of them, each one of us, has a story. We have hopes and dreams. No one ever says, ‘I want to be hungry or food insecure when I grow up.’ Yet they are. One is one too many, let alone 102,000.

“… the community’s response during the shutdown was incredibly generous and heartwarming. First-time donors rushed to our aid, longtime donors increased their contributions, but the bottom line is that we cannot fundraise or run a food bank our way out of this. Hunger in Rhode Island is too big a problem for any one organization to solve, yet hunger is solvable. There is enough food produced in the U.S. to feed every single person - they don’t have access to it. We need meaningful policy change and robust investment to truly make progress toward ending hunger. That’s especially true today when the business of food banking has been permanently transformed.

“We used to rely primarily on donated food, and now that only makes up 29% of our inventory. Another third comes from the federal government as commodities. And the final third is purchased, allowing us to focus our dollars on safe, local, healthy, and culturally responsive food. That food no sooner fills our shelves than it is distributed to those in need across the state through our incredible network of 137 member agencies.

“We haven’t ended hunger yet, but we can. I wholeheartedly believe that if any state can end hunger, it’s Rhode Island, but it’s going to take every single one of us to do so.

“What can you do? You can donate food to your local food pantry. You can donate funds to the food bank so we can leverage our purchasing power and stretch your dollar further. You can support Governor McKee’s FY ‘27 budget that includes $2 million in funding for the Food Bank, and you can vote on behalf of Rhode Islanders who need it the most by supporting House Bill 7259 and Senate Bill 2237.”

Key findings of the Status on Hunger report:

• Demand for emergency food assistance reached historic highs in 2025, with more than 102,000 Rhode Islanders seeking help during the fall federal government shutdown alone, which paused SNAP benefits.
• Food insecurity affects one in three Rhode Island households, remaining significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels and disproportionately impacting Hispanic/Latino and Black households.
• Federal nutrition program disruptions directly increased reliance on the charitable food network, forcing the Food Bank, pantries, and meal sites to serve as the federal safety net’s safety net.
• The charitable food system has undergone a structural shift, with purchased food now the largest source of inventory, reflecting sustained demand and the limits of donated supply.
• Upcoming SNAP policy changes threaten to increase hunger and further demand, shifting costs to states and reducing benefits for thousands of households beginning in 2025 and continuing into 2026.

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ICE recruitment uses taxpayer money to target low intellect racists

The search for useful idiots

Sabrina Haake 

Before Renee Good’s body was cold, Trump, Noem, and Vance grabbed the national spotlight to defame her (terrorist mows down federal agents!) while defending the goon who murdered her.

The masked ICE agent who shot Good at close range held his cellphone in one hand while firing his gun with the other, showing more interest in spectacle than fear. 

His video will be added to the DHS library of recordings to generate bloodlust among the type of recruits ICE seeks: Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, pardoned J-6ers, and basement-dwelling incels craving skin on skin action of any kind.

Under Noem’s guidance, and on the American taxpayers’ considerable dime, DHS records high resolution, highly-edited, “cinematic” style videos of their own brutality for recruitment propaganda. Like the midnight raid of a Chicago apartment building when DHS filmed a Black Hawk helicopter swooping in to terrify sleeping people with flash-bang grenades, most violence is staged, performative horror.

With the Supreme Court temporarily blocking Trump’s deployment of military forces into U.S. cities, ICE is stepping up, morphing into Trump’s Praetorian guard. A look at DHS’ recruitment materials makes clear that ICE isn’t targeting intelligent, law-respecting recruits, but a rabid ethnic cleansing force to serve Steve Miller’s white nationalist agenda.

ICE recruitment materials: emotional appeals to unthinking racists

In ICE’s August recruitment push, DHS posted on X, “Which way, American man?” with signs on a deserted road pointing Uncle Sam to “Cultural Decline” and other destinations. ‘Which way, American man’ is a call for white nationalism, and was the title of William Gayley Simpson’s 1978 white nationalist, neo-Nazi book.

An online review shows DHS similarly misusing American iconography, manipulating emotions with depictions of a fictitious, ‘happier’ (ie, segregated) time in America by turning homey Norman Rockwell style graphics into sinister appeals for violence. 

In September, DHS started using Rockwell’s images on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, starting with the 1946 Working on the Statue of Liberty. 

The image appears with ICE slogans, “Protect Your Homeland. Defend Your Culture,” and adds: “Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America,” along with a URL where people can join ICE.

Rockwell’s family has asked federal agencies to stop using his work because of DHS’ “increasingly brutal and often illegal enforcement methods.” In early November, Rockwell’s family wrote an op-ed in USA Today complaining that the Trump messages behind the posts run so contrary to the artist’s personal beliefs that he would be “devastated” to see his art “marshalled for the cause of persecution toward immigrant communities and people of color.”

ICE is using us vs. them propaganda, video-game styled recruitment tools

ICE.gov features job postings, where a Civil War era Uncle Sam points and intones, “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out.” Then, in smaller print, “You do not need an undergraduate degree.

ICE’s You Tube website features video after video of Fox News “interviews”—propaganda— alongside professionally filmed fast-action shorts. One video, “Veterans Day Message” conflates ICE agents with the military. Spliced with war-time footage, it shows fast action war scenes, paratroopers dropping from planes, armed troops descending from helicopters, and a war-gaming situation room.

Another, “Florida 287(g) with Collier County Sheriff Rambosk,” is set in Florida. Accompanied by video game music, it features an “Alligator Alcatraz” sign above swampland complete with live alligators waiting for their prey. 

Another, “Break the law. We regulate” appeals to directly to thugs. It opens showing six masked ICE officers pulling one man out of his car and shoving him to the ground, then segues to other arrests as a narrator says, “Regulators. We regulate the stealing of property. We damn good too. But you can’t be any geek off the street. You gotta be good with the steal, you know what I mean, to earn your keep.”

Another features an Ohio sheriff in a ten gallon cowboy hat bragging about how many illegal aliens are in his jail, proclaiming, “Thank God that we have an administration, that we have ICE and President Trump actually doing what people want.” Using taxpayers’ money to film racist, political propaganda aimed at low intellect applicants is patently illegal.

Minnesota fights back

Immediately after Good’s murder, the Trump regime doubled down, and sent 1000 more ICE agents into Minnesota, on top of an already unwanted 2,100 DHS and Border Patrol agents.

Trump officials know that increased ICE forces, now expanding without legal authority into civilian traffic stops, elevate the threat to civilians. Since increased violence and civic unrest will hasten the day Trump declares martial law, escalation appears to be his goal.

St. Paul, Minneapolis, and the State of Minnesota are fighting back. On Monday, they filed suit, alleging that:

Thousands of armed and masked DHS agents have stormed the Twin Cities to conduct militarized raids and carry out dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests in sensitive public places, including schools and hospitals—all under the guise of lawful immigration enforcement.

This operation is driven by nothing more than the Trump Administration’s desire to punish political opponents and score partisan points—at the direct expense of Plaintiffs’ residents. Defendants’ actions appear designed to provoke community outrage, sow fear, and inflict emotional distress, and they are interfering with the ability of state and local officials to protect and care for their residents….

Minnesota notes that ICE agents’ “inflammatory and unlawful policing tactics provoke the protests the federal government seeks to suppress.”

Kristi Noem’s DHS podium says it all, inscribed with “One of ours, all of yours,” the Nazi philosophy of collective punishment. By lore or fact, when one SS officer was killed in a Czech Village, the Nazis killed everyone in the village as retribution. Wildly disproportionate, lawless, ignorant, and brutal, the slogan complements ICE recruitment materials perfectly, and draws a map of where Trump’s ICE is heading.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1^st and 14^th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

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ICE is no more a law enforcement agency than was Hitler’s Gestapo

We are all Minnesotans now

Mitchell Zimmerman

Do Americans who engage in lawful and peaceful protest enjoy the protection of the United States Constitution? Not anymore, the Trump regime says in authorizing the shameless misconduct and lethal violence ICE agents are perpetrating against citizens in Minnesota.

ICE has invaded the state of Minnesota to show America that nothing can restrain Trump’s army of thugs. Not the Constitution. Not the laws which make it a crime to commit assault and murder. Not public opinion. And not thousands of citizens exercising their rights.

Although far from the first instance of ICE brutality, the slaying of Renee Nicole Good shocked the nation as a clear case of murder in cold blood.

The killing was not in “self-defense” – if a car is really hurtling toward you, you don’t pause to take out your gun, aim and shoot, because you know shooting won’t stop the car. You run. Ms. Good’s autopsy confirms that it was murder: the fatal bullet was the one fired into the victim’s left temple, when the ICE agent shot through the driver’s side window from alongside the car.

In response to the homicide, Trump false asserted the agent had been run over, and charged the victim with the “crime” of having been “very, very disrespectful to law enforcement”; the chief of Homeland Security called Ms. Good a “domestic terrorist,” supposedly “stalking” ICE (meaning she followed them to observe their conduct); and the Department of Justice launched an investigation, not of the killing, but of the victim’s widow.

Meanwhile, the Vice President proclaimed ICE impunity. Speaking of Renee Good’s killer, Vance stated, “That guy’s protected by absolute immunity.”

The claim is legally baseless, but ICE agents got the message they can brutalize and even summarily execute at will, without consequences. And now, within weeks, ICE agents have committed another murder, this time of Alex Pretti, a citizen who was an I.C.U. nurse, with a burst of bullets in the victim’s back while he lay defenseless on the ground.

Pretti on his knees surrounded by ICE agents, one about to shoot him in the back.

Since the Supreme Court approved of ICE stopping individuals based on racial profiling, ICE agents have seized and frequently assaulted individuals simply because they appeared to be Hispanic – or Hmong or Somali. They are freely employing the same tactics in Minnesota.

Do you carry proof of citizenship with you? Neither do I. But in an echo of Nazi Germany, ICE agents demand to “see your papers,” particularly if you are non-white.

Targeting journalists and citizen observers. An official policy of breaking into homes without a judicial warrant. Detaining children. Handcuffing individuals until they come up with proof of identity. Dragging people out of their cars without probable cause to think they committed a crime. Assault on suspected “illegals.” Attacking nonviolent, peaceful demonstrators with pepper balls, tear gas, rubber bullets. Threatening with guns, shooting at cars, and now, actual murders.

These are the abuses of a conquering army, inflicted upon an occupied nation.

ICE, the entity inflicting these wounds on our democracy, is no more a law enforcement agency than was Hitler’s Gestapo. ICE is an unrestrained, racist, violence-craving gang, trying to impose Trump’s will on a state. It should be disbanded.

Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans have taken to the streets to bravely defy ICE’s intimidation and violence, to insist on their rights under law, and to express solidarity with their neighbors who are ICE victims. And across the nation, many thousands came out in support.

In other places where liberty has been challenged, Americans and our leaders identified with a threatened people. “I am a Berliner,” President Kennedy affirmed at the Berlin Wall in 1963. “I am a Greenlander,” some now say in response to President Trump’s threats to invade an ally’s territory.

The threats and the invasion have come home. If our constitutional rights are not to be erased, we must act with the courage displayed by Minnesotans. “I am a Minnesotan.” So are we all.

"In small bills. No cops"

January 31 Charlestown Historical Society features talk by Narragansett wampum artist Allen Hazard

 

Charlestown Historical Society Winter 2026 Happy New Year, may it be a healthy and productive one for you and your family! As we rang out 2025 in December, we shared a wonderful evening at the CHS Museum with visitors from around South County during Charlestown's Holiday Ramble. As we ring in the new year, please join us for an unforgettable presentation followed by some light refreshment and a brief annual meeting for all who wish to join in afterwards. Narragansett Allen Hazard Shares the Art of Keeping a 4,500 Year Old Tradition Alive January 31, 2026 - 1:00 PM Cross Mills Public Library  Most of you may have heard of the Purple Shell located at the Fantastic Umbrella Factory in Charlestown where owner Allen Hazard can be found crafting beautiful wampum jewelry. But how many of us know the true history and meaning of this ancient art? The Narragansett, along with many Indigenous people living along the New England coast, had robust wampum traditions. "The Narragansett were the best" says Allen. Featured in a recent RI PBS documentary, Allen is widely regarded as an expert in this ancient craft. Please join us for this remarkable presentation on January 31st.  An Ancestral Visitor Comes Back to Charlestown Imagine coming back to a land where your 8th great grandfather was born here 285 years ago, only three years after the founding of Charlesown. He built his home, farmed his land, became active in the local government and then became a captain of the local militia and fought alongside his men in state-wide battles during the Revolutionary War. Then imagine standing inside that home and feeling the presence of your ancestor, his family and their daily lives. That's exactly what Alan Greene and his wife Jeanie did this past September here in Charlestown. The Greenes traveled from their home in Roseville, California to seek out Alan's roots. CHS was grateful to share their experience as well as records of Capt. Amos Greene's life and history. Coming in March 2026, there will be more about the Captain in the CHS annual newsletter and his contribution to our country's infancy. Below, Alan stands beneath the Amos Greene plaque on the corner of his original family homestead. The home and property are owned by the Ricci family, members of the CHS. This historic property is now protected under a conservation easement with the Charlestown Land Trust. Charlestown's 250th Committee has a host of special events planned for the 2026 year ahead. Included in the festivities is a special appearance by General George Washington on Flag Day, June 14th, at the Gen. Stanton Inn with Revolutionary War demonstrations, children's activities and an inspiring fife and drum corps presentation. There will be Memorial Day Parade festivities, a time capsule dedication, Fourth of July fireworks, a local historical bike tour, children's theater presentations, a town-wide historical scavenger hunt and a sunset cemetery tour in the Cross Mills Common Burying Ground planned for all to participate in. Stay tuned to the Charlestown town website and local announcements so you don't miss out on the celebrations! We hope to see you there!  Visit our website Email Us

Charlestown Historical Society | P.O. Box 100 | Charlestown, RI 02813 US

State legislation introduced to protect your Constitutional rights

Blue states must act on Trump attacks now more than ever

"This bill creates protection where it does not now exist, and is critical to keep our constitutional rights meaningful and alive for people in Rhode Island," said Attorney Miriam Weizenbaum. 

From a press release:

State Representative Brandon Potter (Democrat, District 16, Cranston) has introduced legislation to protect the constitutional rights of Rhode Islanders from federal officials by creating a right to sue in state court.

“Under the Trump Administration, federal officials have invaded our states and blatantly disregarded the constitutional rights of the citizens whose communities they have occupied,” said Representative Potter. 

“These abuses are only growing more brazen. This federal government will not police itself, so individual Rhode Islanders need a defense in state courts to protect their constitutional rights, which is exactly what this legislation provides. For too long, federal officials have enjoyed broad immunity against lawsuits in federal court, a deficiency in our legal system that this lawless administration has made heartbreakingly clear. It’s time for states to step up to their residents’ defense, starting with Rhode Island.”

The Rhode Island Federal Constitution Defense Act (2026-H 7202) would create a state law cause of action against federal officials who, through actions in Rhode Island, violate a person’s rights under the United States Constitution.

Rhode Island currently has no state cause of action to sue a federal official in a Rhode Island state court for violating the federal Constitution, meaning that Rhode Islanders whose constitutional rights have been violated have to sue federal officials in federal courts, where judges have ruled that officials have broad immunity from these lawsuits.

Charlestown issues official fraud warning about scam e-mails

Fraud Alert: Scam Emails Impersonating Town Boards and Officials

Town of Charlestown

The Town of Charlestown has been made aware of fraudulent emails currently being sent to residents that falsely appear to come from Town boards, officials, or departments — including the Zoning Board of Review. These messages are part of a widespread scam affecting municipalities across Rhode Island.

These scam emails are designed to look official and may reference zoning applications, permits, invoices, or approvals. 

In many cases, they attempt to pressure recipients into sending payment, providing sensitive information, or replying urgently in order to “complete” a Town process.

These messages are not legitimate and are not sent by the Town of Charlestown.

How to recognize these scams

Scam messages often include:

• Requests for payment by wire transfer, or electronic invoice
• A request to reply directly to the email for payment instructions
• Language that creates urgency or pressure to act quickly

The Town does not request payments, banking information, or signatures through unsolicited emails.

Trump's long-awaited healthcare "plan" is a joke

He can barely bring himself to pretend he cares.

Paul Waldman

“In two weeks” finally arrived.

That’s the usual time period in which Donald Trump has, for the last 10 years, promised the arrival of a spectacular plan to reform the healthcare system, one that would solve every problem anyone could identify, whether individual or systemic. 

Just you wait, he’d say — the plan is coming in two weeks, and you’re gonna love it.

Well now the White House has indeed released what it calls “The Great Healthcare Plan.” Is it great? No. Is it a plan? Not really. It is, however, in its combination of stupidity, ideological derangement, and unseriousness, a near-perfect expression of everything Trump and his party believe about a policy challenge that has bedeviled the United States for decades.

If the White House wanted to enact some kind of healthcare reform, it would put out a document explaining a series of changes it would like to make to the system, then work with Republicans on Capitol Hill to turn those ideas into legislation. That is not happening. There are a few Republican bills rolling around Congress, but no one takes them seriously.

What we have, then, is a bunch of vague statements of principle, some outright nonsense, and a few absolutely terrible ideas.

Donald Trump Hates America

Trump's contempt for Americans includes even his most MAGA supporters.

Steven Beschloss

Some moments are so on-the-nose they make you stop, smacked by the insanity of our political reality. Donald Trump giving the middle finger to an American expressing his First Amendment right is one of those moments.

Several days ago, Trump was visiting a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan that makes Ford F-150 trucks. As he walked past the factory floor, a worker yelled up to him: “Pedophile protector.” 

Trump heard the comment and responded with the elegance and grace we’ve come to expect from him. Twice he mouthed “f**k you,” then gave the guy the finger. (You can watch the episode here.)

Let’s break it down for a second. This man, occupying the highest office in our land, could not control himself when an auto worker said something he didn’t like. 

He was incapable of grasping anything beyond the insult, such as the right of an American to say what he or she thinks, nor did he feel in any way constrained by decorum.

He heard something he didn’t like, which—as we watch the Justice Department’s contemptuous refusal to comply with the law and release the Epstein files in full— suggests that he remains threatened by any assertion that he was involved with Jeffrey Epstein’s monstrous pedophilia and sex trafficking. Would an innocent man be so quick to flaunt his hostilities, his hatred, his violence?

But he could count on his enabling team to defend his fragile psyche. One of his particularly nasty rapid-response handlers, Steven Cheung, had a quick counterpunch. Trump “gave an appropriate and unambiguous response,” he said in a statement, because a “lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage.”

You get the idea. If Trump does it, it’s just fine, indeed evidence of his impressive authenticity. If he’s in any way criticized, that person must be a rage-filled lunatic and slapped down.

This is no way to run a country, surely not one based on encouraging a diversity of viewpoints—so necessary for creativity and innovation, so fundamental for a society dedicated to personal freedom. But then, we are being held hostage by a deeply broken man whose increasing need to silence dissent is a feature of his malignant narcissism and his cognitive decline.

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