If you plan to go to the No Kings! rally in Westerly, here are some important logistics

Be loud but non-violent

South County Rising Leadership Team

Here are some final reminders and details for the NO KINGS protest on Saturday, Oct. 18, 12 Noon - 2PM.  We hope to see you there!

We will be posted up along both sides of Rt 1/Franklin St in Westerly - a high traffic area.  Please spread out up and down Franklin Street.

 Be Safe!

Stay on the sidewalks and do not block driveways to businesses.  Wear yellow if you can, or bright colors.  Safety is #1!

There may be counter protesters emboldened by recent rhetoric from the administration, although we have had no direct threats. or indications.  It is important to remain calm and DO NOT ENGAGE.

Remember that they are expressing their freedom of speech, as are we.  However, if you witness someone being hassled or singled out, please find one of us in an orange vest or a police officer to assist. Take video and protect your own safety.

Look for Food Donation Signs

A member of our leadership team will be collecting nonperishable food items at the entrance to the Franklin Shopping Plaza (Aldi Store) and at the entrance to Mill Pond Plaza (McQuade’s Ace Hardware), where most of you will park. Food will be donated to the local food banks that are struggling under the weight of demand of increased food insecurity from federal cuts and the government shutdown.

Record History  

If you are able to take video and photos, please use the HASHTAG #NOKINGSWESTERLY when you post.  If you aren't on social media, you can send photos and video to SouthCountyRising@gmail.com We will compile all the photos and footage after the event! We will also take a headcount and report our numbers to a nationwide database.

Please patronize businesses and restaurants at Mill Pond Plaza and Franklin Shopping Plaza on Saturday and in the future as a thank you for free parking!

Together we will stand up and resist autocracy and reform democracy! NO KINGS IN AMERICA!

In solidarity,

24 Waterways to be Stocked with Trout

Go Fish!

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is stocking brook and rainbow trout in selected areas throughout RI starting Friday, Oct. 17, through Thursday, Oct. 23. Some previously stocked ponds and lakes cannot be stocked due to cyanobacteria alerts.

The following areas will be stocked:

• Alton Pond, Richmond
• Barber Pond, South Kingstown
• Blackstone River, Lincoln
• Bradford Fishing Area, Westerly
• Browning Mill Pond, Exeter
• Carbuncle Pond, Coventry
• Carolina Trout Pond, Richmond
• Cronan Landing, Richmond
• Eight Rod Farm Pond, Tiverton
• Grantville to Rt. 95, Hopkinton
• Hope Valley Fishing Area, Hopkinton
• Kings Factory Bridge, Charlestown
• Lower Shannock, Charlestown
• Meadow Brook Pond, Richmond
• Wood River from Rt. 165 to Barberville, Exeter, Hopkinton
• Round Top Ponds, Burrillville
• Shippee Sawmill Pond, Foster
• Silver Spring Lake, North Kingstown
• Spring Grove Pond, Glocester
• Stafford Pond, Tiverton
• Upper Pawtuxet, (Hope), Scituate
• Upper Melville (Thurston Gray Pond)
• Willet Pond, East Providence
• Woodville, Richmond, Hopkinton

As Trump blows off green energy, some states are leading the way

But will Trump get out of the way?

By Aidan Hughes

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

This hasn’t been a kind year for developers looking to break ground on renewable energy projects.

On Donald Trump’s first day in office, he issued a memorandum halting approvals, permits, leases and loans for both offshore and onshore wind projects.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed in July with exclusively Republican support, accelerated the phaseout of tax credits promised under the Inflation Reduction Act for wind and solar projects. Subsequent guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department further constrained eligibility rules.

And as bipartisan permitting reform takes center stage in Congress, critics have expressed doubt over whether a technology-neutral bill would still benefit renewable energy development under the current administration.

During a House committee hearing for the SPEED Act on Sept. 10, multiple Democrats expressed concern about their ability to engage in good-faith negotiations with Republicans to accelerate permitting amid the GOP’s attacks on wind and solar. Environmental groups, too, have cautioned that federal efforts to reform permitting could offer little benefit for renewables.

According to a report from the think tank Clean Tomorrow, the battle over renewable development has spread beyond Congress and the Trump administration—with siting policy at the state level now serving as one of the primary battlegrounds for those seeking to curtail the deployment of new clean energy projects.

“It’s clear that states are taking some of their cues from the federal government,” said Nelson Falkenburg, siting policy manager at Clean Tomorrow and one of the report’s authors.

A Call to Arms About the Threat of Anti-Science

Anti-science kills

By Dan Falk

BOOK REVIEW — “Science Under Siege: How to Fight
the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World,’’
by Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez
(PublicAffairs, 368 pages).

In the 1995 book "The Demon Haunted World," the astronomer Carl Sagan warned that the United States was turning its back on science, and that the consequences would be dire. 

Near the start of their new book, “Science Under Siege: How To Fight The Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World,” Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez cite Sagan’s vision of science as a “candle in the dark,” and argue that what the astronomer feared is now coming to pass. In fact, readers may get the impression that the situation is already much worse than what Sagan envisioned.

While Sagan was primarily concerned with the rise of pseudoscience, Mann and Hotez fear that we’re now in the midst of an anti-science boom, led by people, corporations, and governments who intentionally spread false or misleading information. 

“Anti-science has already caused serious illness and mass casualties in the near term,” they write. “Unmitigated, it will in the long term take millions more lives, produce misguided national policies, and have long-lasting catastrophic consequences, including potentially, the destabilization of our civilization.”

Mann and Hotez are not merely observers, but scientists who have found themselves on the front lines of the ongoing attacks on science. Mann is a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media. Hotez is a pediatrician and vaccine scientist at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development. In 2022, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on a patent-free Covid-19 vaccine.

While attacks on science have taken many forms, the authors highlight the current pushback against vaccines and skepticism over climate science as two of the most urgent issues. Mann and Hotez describe the resistance to climate science and vaccines as a one-two punch, but add that there is a third punch as well, in the form of mis- and disinformation. 

The authors point to the devastating consequences of resistance to public health measures, especially vaccines, which came to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic, the death toll from which currently stands at 1.2 million Americans, according to the World Health Organization.

Many of those deaths, they suggest, could have been prevented had people been vaccinated and followed social distancing and mask guidelines. And they’re not shy about saying who’s to blame: “The deaths occurred mostly along a political partisan divide,” they write, “with those living in Republican-majority (‘red’) states disproportionately suffering most of the deaths and disabilities as a consequence of being targeted by propaganda and misinformation from elected leaders, extremist media, and the modern political Right.”

Tough it out, says Donny Bonespurs

Fight the King

October 18 No Kings protests in Westerly, North Kingstown and Providence

You may have seen a notice that this event was cancelled.  It is NOT!  
NO KINGS PROTEST in Westerly is on!   REGISTER HERE.

There is also a NO KINGS PROTEST in Providence. South County Resistance in Wakefield is organizing a bus to Providence. 
BUY A TICKET HERE. 

Jane Fonda Leads Reboot of Father’s McCarthy-Era Free Speech Initiative

Hollywood reactivates 1950s coalition originally formed to fight McCarthyism - Trumpism is the challenge 

Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams

As the US descends into authoritarianism under Donald Trump and Republicans, hundreds of celebrities led by actor and progressive activist Jane Fonda revived a free speech initiative originally launched by Hollywood stars including her father during the right-wing repression of the post-World War II McCarthy era.

Fonda and over 550 celebrities rebooted the Committee for the First Amendment, which was first formed in 1947 by a bevy of actors including Henry Fonda in response to hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and blacklisting of actual and suspected communists throughout US society, including Hollywood.

Some of the original committee members - Humphrey Bogart,
Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye, Paul Henried

“The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry,” the renewed committee said in a statement. “We refuse to stand by and let that happen.”

According to NPR:

Other members of the newly re-formed committee include filmmakers Spike Lee, Barry Jenkins, J.J. Abrams, Patty Jenkins, Aaron Sorkin, and Judd Apatow; TV show creator Quinta Brunson; musicians Barbra Streisand, John Legend, Janelle Monáe, Gracie Abrams, and Billie Eilish; comedians Tiffany Haddish and Nikki Glaser; as well as actors Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Kerry Washington, Pedro Pascal, Natalie Portman, Viola Davis, and Ben Stiller. Another signatory is actor Fran Drescher, who last month ended a term as the president of the SAG-AFTRA union.

Cancer breakthrough: UMass-Amherst researchers develop vaccine against multiple cancers

UMass Amherst researchers create nanoparticle vaccine that prevents cancer in mice

The vaccine also proves highly effective at preventing cancer’s deadly spread

Julia Westbrook

A study led by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers demonstrates that their nanoparticle-based vaccine can effectively prevent melanoma, pancreatic and triple-negative breast cancer in mice. 

Not only did up to 88% of the vaccinated mice remain tumor-free (depending on the cancer), but the vaccine reduced—and in some cases completely prevented—the cancer’s spread.

“By engineering these nanoparticles to activate the immune system via multi-pathway activation that combines with cancer-specific antigens, we can prevent tumor growth with remarkable survival rates,” says Prabhani Atukorale, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Riccio College of Engineering at UMass Amherst and corresponding author on the paper.

New ways crooks use to steal your money

Here are the tactics criminals use on you in the age of AI and cryptocurrencies

Rahul Telang, Carnegie Mellon University

Scams are nothing new – fraud has existed as long as human greed. What changes are the tools.

Scammers thrive on exploiting vulnerable, uninformed users, and they adapt to whatever technologies or trends dominate the moment. In 2025, that means AI, cryptocurrencies and stolen personal data are their weapons of choice.

And, as always, the duty, fear and hope of their targets provide openings. Today, duty often means following instructions from bosses or co-workers, who scammers can impersonate. Fear is that a loved one, who scammers also can impersonate, is in danger. And hope is often for an investment scheme or job opportunity to pay off.

Do we really need teeth?

Bobby Jr. turns anti-fluoride conspiracy theories into mainstream policy

By Anna Clark For ProPublica

Don't want no stinkin' fluoride

Reporting Highlights

• Momentum for Skeptics: Fluoridation has long been heralded as a public health triumph, but skeptics increasingly hold sway in government.
• Public Left in the Dark: Customer notice requirements are patchy, so people may not know about it when their fluoridation stops.
• Mixed Feelings in Michigan: Fluoridation was pioneered in Grand Rapids, but other Michigan communities are either dropping it or debating it.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

Just 15 months after receiving an award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for excellence in community water fluoridation, the city of Grayling, Michigan, changed course.

With little notice or fanfare, council members voted unanimously in May to end Grayling’s decadeslong treatment program. The city shut down the equipment used to deliver the drinking water additive less than two weeks later.

Although it already paid for them, the town returned six unopened barrels of the fluoride treatment to the supplier.

Personal choice was the issue, said City Manager Erich Podjaske. “Why are we forcing something on residents and business owners, some of which don’t want fluoride in their water?” he said. He saw arguments for and against treatment in his research, he said, and figured that those who want fluoride can still get it at the dentist or in their toothpaste.

Drinking water fluoridation is widely heralded as a public health triumph, but it’s had critics since it was pioneered 80 years ago in Grand Rapids, about 150 miles southwest of Grayling. While once largely on the fringes, fluoridation skeptics now hold sway in federal, state and local government, and their arguments have seeped into the mainstream.

Even in the state where the treatment began, communities are backpedaling. And because customer notice requirements are patchy, people may not even know about it when their fluoridation stops.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has called fluoride “industrial waste” and supports an end to community water fluoridation. The head of the Food and Drug Administration said on a newscast that the CDC’s online description of water fluoridation as one of the greatest public health achievements is “misinformation.”

The CDC, which is in the midst of a leadership exodus and staff revolt, and the Environmental Protection Agency are reviewing their respective approaches to fluoride in drinking water. At the same time, Donald Trump’s administration dismantled the CDC’s Division of Oral Health, which, among other initiatives, provided research and technical assistance on fluoridation. That’s the office that helped present awards for well-run programs like the one in Grayling.

Definitely Joe's fault

Priorities again

Trump gets REALLY irritated about unflattering photos

This week, Trump had a tantrum over Time Magazine's cover shot:

Obviously, he prefers this, his official White House photo:

But there have been so many other photos that just don't live up to Trump's image of himself. Here are some samples.

This one led to speculation that Trump has been suffering mini-strokes

Golfing, first term

Also first term

Clean up in aisle five!

Second term

He's also very touchy about his hair and his trademark orange make-up

Candid photos of Trump show a lot about his character

This photo speaks volumes about his character. Release the Epstein files!

Are your pets trying to kill you?

Two investigations reveal how resistant bacteria may have spread from pets to people

Chris Dall, MA

Investigations into human and animal infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria in Massachusetts reveal genetic links that hint at potential transmission between pets and their owners, researchers reported last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The paper describes two separate investigations that were ultimately linked through epidemiologic and molecular detective work. One investigation began at a veterinary teaching hospital in Worcester County, Massachusetts, where a cluster of carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli infections were detected in cats and dogs in late 2022, a first for the practice. The other involved a cluster of human infections that occurred months later in the same county, caused by the same bacteria.

For months, there were no known links between the two investigations. But molecular analysis of bacteria samples from the two investigations eventually uncovered links that would reveal a hidden One Health connection.

"Once we put the isolates into the same database, that's when we discovered that they all clustered together," coauthor Stephen Cole, DVM, an assistant professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, told CIDRAP News.