Coastal relocation gives nature room to breathe and protect

This Retreat Isn’t a Sign of Weakness

By Frank Carini / ecoRI News staff

When it comes to climate change and southern New England’s eroding coastline, managed retreat is an unpopular choice. But there likely will come a time, perhaps sooner than we think, when it becomes the only option.

The climate crisis is altering human reality and the world in which we live. Many coastal policy experts in the region believe managed retreat needs to be part of this new reality.

Emma Gildesgame, climate adaptation scientist for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Massachusetts, believes honest conversations about managed retreat, also known as coastal relocation, are a must. She said the goal is to “work with nature to keep people safer from climate change.”

“This is the home that you bought, that you plan to live in for the rest of your life,” Gildesgame said, “but it’s going to be underwater more often than is sustainable for you to live in … that’s at the heart of the conversation.”

Managed retreat is about giving the shore room to breathe. Measures include voluntary buyouts, razing of buildings, easements, zoning changes, and moving structures.

Here's a shock: Bobby Junior is wrong about seed oils

Scientists Uncover Surprising Benefits of Omega-6

By Fatty Acid Research Institute

A recent study published in the journal Nutrients sheds new light on the ongoing debate surrounding omega-6 fatty acids and their potential role in inflammation.

Public concern over seed oils has been growing, largely because many of these oils are rich in linoleic acid (LA), an essential omega-6 fatty acid. Critics argue that Western diets are overloaded with LA, suggesting this shift is a key contributor to many modern health issues.

According to this view, elevated levels of LA are believed to drive chronic inflammation. But is there solid evidence that consuming more LA — and having higher levels of it in the bloodstream — actually leads to increased inflammation?

Investigators relied on data from the Framingham Offspring Study, a well-known research cohort from the Boston area. The Framingham Offspring Study is a landmark longitudinal research initiative that follows the children of participants in the original Framingham Heart Study to investigate genetic and lifestyle factors influencing cardiovascular and metabolic health. 

Launched in 1971, it has provided decades of valuable insights into chronic disease risk and prevention. The cohort’s rigor and continuity make it one of the most trusted sources for understanding long-term health trajectories.

Budget Bill Massively Increases Funding for Immigration Detention

Congress funds Trump concentration camps

Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Brennan Center for Justice

Donald Trump’s budget bill will codify much of Trump’s immigration agenda, drastically changing the landscape of immigration enforcement and detention. 

Significantly, the bill funds a giant immigration detention apparatus that would likely be difficult to dismantle under future presidents. 

This new money comes as the administration is thwarting attempts at congressional oversight of detention conditions — and alongside new levels of cruelty directed at undocumented immigrants.

The legislation makes U.S Customs and Immigration Enforcement the largest federal law enforcement agency, giving it $45 billion for building new detention centers in addition to $14 billion for deportation operations. It also includes $3.5 billion for reimbursements to state and local governments for costs related to immigration-related enforcement and detention.

The bill funds an expansion to approximately double immigrant detention capacity, from about 56,000 to potentially more than 100,000 detention beds. Private prison firms — many of which were significant financial supporters of GOP candidates for Congress as well as the president’s campaign — will reap major financial benefits from this spending, as nearly 90 percent of people in ICE custody are currently held in facilities run by for-profit firms.

What Trump’s budget says about his environmental values

That he doesn't have any?

Stan Meiburg, Wake Forest University and Janet McCabe, Indiana University

To understand the federal government’s true priorities, follow the money.

After months of saying his administration is committed to clean air and water for Americans, Donald Trump has proposed a detailed budget for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for fiscal year 2026. The proposal is more consistent with his administration’s numerous recent actions and announcements that reduce protection for public health and the environment.

To us, former EPA leaders – one a longtime career employee and the other a political appointee – the budget proposal reveals a lot about what Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin want to accomplish.

According to the administration’s Budget in Brief document, total EPA funding for the fiscal year beginning October 2025 would drop from US$9.14 billion to $4.16 billion – a 54% decrease from the budget enacted by Congress for fiscal 2025 and less than half of EPA’s budget in any year of the first Trump administration.

Without taking inflation into account, this would be the smallest EPA budget since 1986. Adjusted for inflation, it would be the smallest budget since the Ford administration, even though Congress has for decades given EPA more responsibility to clean up and protect the nation’s air and water; handle hazardous chemicals and waste; protect drinking water; clean up environmental contamination; and evaluate the safety of a wide range of chemicals used in commerce and industry. These expansions reflected a bipartisan consensus that protecting public health and the environment is a national priority.

Evolution in action

There's a certain symmetry to this

Why smarter people make better decisions

Higher IQ linked to more accurate probability forecasting and effective decision-making.

University of Bath

A new study from the University of Bath's School of Management has found that individuals with a higher IQ make more realistic predictions, which supports better decision-making and can lead to improved life outcomes.

The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, shows that people with a low IQ (the lowest 2.5% of the population) make forecasting errors that are more than twice as inaccurate as those made by people with a high IQ (the top 2.5% of the population).

The research used data from a nationally representative sample of people over 50 in England (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing ELSA), assessing their ability to predict their own life expectancy.

Individuals were asked to predict their probability of living to certain ages, and these estimates were compared with the probabilities taken from Office for National Statistics life tables (a demographic tool used to analyze death rates and calculate life expectancies at various ages). The study controlled for differences in lifestyle, health, and genetic longevity.

Scientists reveal your morning coffee flips an ancient longevity switch

Researchers figure out how this works

Queen Mary University of London

A new study from the Cellular Ageing and Senescence laboratory at Queen Mary University of London's Cenfre for Molecular Cell Biology, reveals how caffeine -- the world's most popular neuroactive compound -- might do more than just wake you up. The study in the journal Microbial Cell shows how caffeine could play a role in slowing down the aging process at a cellular level.

Caffeine has long been linked to potential health benefits, including reduced risk of age-related diseases. But how it works inside our cells, and what exactly are its connections with nutrient and stress responsive gene and protein networks has remained a mystery -- until now.

In new research published by scientists studying fission yeast -- a single-celled organism surprisingly similar to human cells -- researchers found that caffeine affects ageing by tapping into an ancient cellular energy system.

The Texas Flash Flood Is a Preview of the Chaos to Come

Trump approach to emergency preparedness is a disaster

By Abrahm Lustgarten for ProPublica

On July 4, the broken remnants of a powerful tropical storm spun off the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico so heavy with moisture that it seemed to stagger under its load. 

Then, colliding with another soggy system sliding north off the Pacific, the storm wobbled and its clouds tipped, waterboarding south central Texas with an extraordinary 20 inches of rain. 

In the predawn blackness, the Guadalupe River, which drains from the Hill Country, rose by more than 26 vertical feet in just 45 minutes, jumping its banks and hurtling downstream, killing 109 people, including at least 27 children at a summer camp located inside a federally designated floodway.

Over the days and weeks to come there will be tireless — and warranted — analysis of who is to blame for this heart-wrenching loss. Should Kerr County, where most of the deaths occurred, have installed warning sirens along that stretch of the waterway, and why were children allowed to sleep in an area prone to high-velocity flash flooding? 

Why were urgent updates apparently only conveyed by cellphone and online in a rural area with limited connectivity? Did the National Weather Service, enduring steep budget cuts under the current administration, adequately forecast this storm?

Those questions are critical. But so is a far larger concern: The rapid onset of disruptive climate change — driven by the burning of oil, gasoline and coal — is making disasters like this one more common, more deadly and far more costly to Americans, even as the federal government is running away from the policies and research that might begin to address it.

Why does Trump and MAGA hate education?

Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny

Robert Reich 

Friends,

Under pressure from the Trump administration, the University of Virginia’s president of nearly seven years, James Ryan, stepped down, declaring that while he was committed to the university and inclined to fight, he could not in good conscience push back just to save his job.

The Department of Justice demanded that Ryan resign in order to resolve an investigation into whether UVA sufficiently complied with Trump’s orders banning diversity, equity, and inclusion.

UVA dissolved its DEI office in March, though Trump’s lackeys claim the university didn’t go far enough in rooting out DEI.

This is the first time the Trump regime has explicitly tied grant dollars to the resignation of a university official. It’s unlikely to be the last.

On June 30, the Trump regime said Harvard University violated federal civil rights law by failing to address the harassment of Jewish students on campus.

On July 1, the regime released $175 million in previously frozen federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania, but only after the school agreed to block transgender women athletes from female sports teams and erase the records set by swimmer Lia Thomas.

Let’s be clear: DEI, antisemitism, and transgender athletics are not the real reasons for these attacks on higher education. They’re excuses to give the Trump regime power over America’s colleges and universities.

Why do Trump and his lackeys want this power?

They’re following Hungarian President Viktor Orban’s playbook for creating an “illiberal democracy” — an authoritarian state masquerading as a democracy. The playbook goes like this:

First, take over military and intelligence operations by purging career officers and substituting ones personally loyal to you. Check.

Next, intimidate legislators by warning that if they don’t bend to your wishes, you’ll run loyalists against them. (Make sure they also worry about what your violent supporters could do to them and their families.) Check.

Next, subdue the courts by ignoring or threatening to ignore court rulings you disagree with. Check or in process.

Then focus on independent sources of information. Sue media that publish critical stories and block their access to news conferences and interviews. Check.

Then go after the universities.

Trump's retail justice

Know the difference

CRMC reform - always a good policy

CRMC reform didn't happen this year, but it will eventually

Deborah Ruggiero, president, DR Communications Group 

Photo by Will Collette

Back in 2021 and 2022 when I was a member of the House of Representatives, I chaired a study commission that explored and recommended ways to reform the Coastal Resources Management Council. 

The council has long been criticized for both its decisions and its composition as a panel of political appointees without any marine, coastal, or environmental expertise. The members continue to serve long after their terms expire and have often delayed important decisions for lack of a quorum at meetings.

On this one issue, Bobby Junior is right

Nearly 20% of US packaged foods contain synthetic dyes, study finds

Brian Bienkowski

Nearly 20% of packaged foods and drinks in the US have synthetic dyes, with most marketed to children and loaded with sugar, according to a new study that examined nearly 40,000 items from popular food brands. 

The study, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, comes amid a federal push to rid the US food supply of synthetic dyes and follows recent commitments by food giants Kraft Heinz and General Mills to remove such dyes from their products. 

It also adds to evidence  — often cited by those opposing synthetic dyes in foods — that the chemicals disproportionately end up in sugary foods aimed at kids. Research has linked the chemicals to children’s behavioral issues, including increased risk for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). 

Lead author Elizabeth Dunford, a professor and researcher at both the University of North Carolina and the University of New South Wales, said she approached the research as a curious mom.

“I have two young kids and definitely notice behavior changes after certain foods. I got really interested in the synthetic dyes in particular and thought ‘well let’s take a look,’” Dunford said. 

New Pell Center poll shows little overlap between RI Republicans and Democrats on the health of U.S. democracy, the economy, and immigration policy.

Dan McKee's approval rating continues to tank

Pell Center, Salve Regina University 

Download full report here. 

Well over half of registered voters in Rhode Island believe the United States democracy is not healthy, though the level of concern varies by political party, according to a new survey from Salve Regina University’s Pell Center. 

The survey was directed by Pell Center Associate Director and Fellow Katie Sonder and fielded by Embold Research between June 16-22, 2025.  It gathered responses from 804 registered voters in Rhode Island, with a modeled margin of error of 3.6 percent. 

Survey respondents are those registered to vote in Rhode Island who voted in the 2024 presidential election. The survey results show large divides between the major political parties, highlighting two very different lived realties between Democrats and Republicans.

Over half of registered Democrats agree that the United States is operating as a democracy, but 80% say it is not healthy and 94% believe we are facing a constitutional crisis. Democrats perceive a decline in the strength of the checks and balance system, which likely bolsters their sense of democratic backsliding. Only one-third (32%) agree the system is strong while 64% agree that country has fallen into dictatorship. 

Republicans, on the other hand, are seven times more likely to agree that our democracy is healthy than they were in the June 2024 Voices of Value survey. Well over three-quarters of Republicans (83%) say policies from the Trump administration have helped them personally and the percent who agree that polarization has increased dropped by 15 percentage points between June 2024 (86%) and June 2025 (71%).

While all respondents tapped disinformation and fake news as a leading contributor to political polarization, just as they did in the June 2024 survey, the percent who believe political leaders add to the schism has increased.