Thanks to Trump and Bobby Jr., US is about to lose its status as a country that has eliminated measles

US may lose measles elimination status after outbreaks spread to 45 states

By Vanessa McMains, Children's Hospital Boston

The Onion

After public health experts declared measles eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established seven indicators of measles elimination status to ensure that the country remained on track. 

Now, analyzing these same indicators, Boston Children's Hospital researchers find that the U.S. has missed four of the seven criteria, with the others at risk. These findings are published in The Lancet.

The researchers who performed the analysis included Maimuna Majumder, Ph.D., MPH, the Inaugural Peter Szolovits Distinguished Scholar in the Computational Health Informatics Program at Boston Children's, and their postdoctoral research fellow Anne Bischops, MD, a pediatrician and German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Fellow. The team evaluated the number of U.S. measles cases, outbreaks, their origination, and the levels of transmission. Their results suggest that measles is making a comeback in the U.S., spreading continuously for more than a year.

The latest string of U.S. outbreaks began in Texas in January 2025. Since then, outbreaks have spread to 45 states. When the U.S. was last recertified for measles elimination status in 2011, the country achieved all the measles elimination indicators established by the CDC's National Immunization Program. But this year, according to this new research, most of the indicators are in the red.

Who's responsible?

Why is this not surprising?

Making this even more stupid, the CDC health inspectors were funded by the cruise ship lines, not taxpayers. 

Who is responsible?

Sen. Victoria Gu sponsors bill to regulate the use of AI to make workplace decisions

Who's the boss? 

Legislation from Sen. Victoria Gu and Rep. Thomas E. Noret aims to ensure artificial technology is used responsibly in the workplace by installing common-sense guardrails governing its use.

“Businesses in Rhode Island are already using AI and electronic monitoring tools to surveil and discipline workers in a way no human supervisor could. If you’re making these consequential decisions overs workers’ lives, there needs to be disclosure, meaningful human oversight and an opportunity to make corrections, because we have seen real examples where workers are disciplined because of an algorithm error,” said Senator Gu (D-Dist. 38, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown), who chairs the Senate Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies.

The bill (2026-S 2499, 2026-H 7767) would create a regulatory framework to ensure fair and transparent use of AI tools that affect workers, including disclosure to employees about what electronic monitoring is happening and how it might be used to measure worker performance; meaningful human oversight on algorithmic decisions like employee hiring, discipline, pay and termination; requiring companies to use the least invasive means of electronic monitoring possible; and prohibiting electronic monitoring in break rooms, bathrooms and during off-duty hours.

A probe into ‘forever chemicals’ in activewear lays bare fashion’s greenwashing problem

Pay attention to what you wear

Caroline Swee Lin Tan, RMIT University and Saniyat Islam, RMIT University

Have you ever paid more for a product because a brand told you it was good for you and the planet? Many activewear shoppers do exactly this, trusting that the “healthy” image on the label matches what is actually in the fabric. That trust is now being questioned.

The Texas Attorney General’s office has launched a formal investigation into the activewear brand Lululemon. The question: does its activewear contain PFAS, a group of toxic “forever chemicals”?

This sits uncomfortably with a brand built on wellness. Lululemon has denied the claims. It says it phased out PFAS in 2023 and that these chemicals had only ever been used in a small number of water-repellent items. No wrongdoing has been found.

But the case highlights a wider problem: a gap between what fashion brands promise and what is actually in their products.

An industry-wide habit

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are synthetic chemicals used to make fabrics resistant to water, stains and sweat. They have also been used in nonstick cookware and some food packaging.

They earned the name “forever chemicals” because they do not break down easily in the environment or our bodies. Instead, they accumulate over time.

This is not a single-brand issue; it is a widespread one. Their use runs across much of the fashion industry.

The issue first came to wide attention in 2011, when Greenpeace’s “Dirty Laundry” investigation named several global giants for links to dumping perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), now broadly classified as PFAS, into Chinese waterways.

The 2026 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook: Childhood poverty has increased in Rhode Island

Not surprising to see life got tougher for children in Rhode Island

Steve Ahlquist

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT released its 2026 Factbook on Monday, “the thirty-second annual profile of the well-being of children in Rhode Island.” The Factbook was presented at Rhode Island KIDS COUNT’s annual breakfast, attended by all four members of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation and members of the Rhode Island General Assembly. 

The breakfast was emceed by Paige Parks, Ed.M., Executive Director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, and the data was presented by Stephanie Geller, Ed.M., Deputy Director.

The following is taken from the Executive Summary provided by RI KIDS COUNT:

Trump Wants to Put His War “in Perspective” by Recalling Vietnam and Iraq. Comforted?

If Trump cannot admit error, how can America be extracted from his war?

Mitchell Zimmerman

As Trump’s War shambles on with no end in sight, President Trump asks us to put his “little excursion” “in perspective.” Compared to Vietnam and Iraq, Trump says, the Iran conflict has lasted “not very long at all.”

Does anyone find comfort in comparing the Iran disaster with two of America’s previous catastrophic wars?

Once, U.S. forces had been in Vietnam for only two months. Then our involvement became unlimited and the war did not end until millions were dead, over ten years later.

The Iraq war was just a few days shy of two months old when Bush proclaimed: “Mission Accomplished!” Years of chaos, mass death and wasted trillions of dollars followed.

But neither the Vietnam war nor the Iraq war revealed its calamitous stupidity as swiftly as Trump’s war. Two months in, the American people and our standard of living, along with the entire world economy, have taken body blows.

Gasoline costs half again as much. Diesel has risen even more. Aviation gas has doubled. Food prices will soon follow because of shortages of key fertilizer ingredients – on top of Trump’s tariffs and the shortage of farm workers because of deportations.

Trump insists, however, that all will soon be well. Gas prices will “drop like a rock” after the war ends, says the president.

Can there be anyone left in America who believes Donald Trump’s promises on prices? This is the man who vowed in 2024 that if he were elected, “prices will come down and they’ll come down fast, with everything.” “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down.”

The same man who last year kept saying prices were down when everyone knew from their own experience that prices were up.

Two problems with his latest promise: First, Trump has no plan to end the war other than demanding Iran “cry uncle” and “give up.” But the Iranians are not convinced they lost, and few owners of $100 million dollar oil tankers, carrying up to $200 million worth of petroleum, are prepared to rely on Trump’s assurances of safety.

Second, the previous level of oil exports from the Persian Gulf will not resume when hostilities do end, and prices will not promptly drop. As economists say, oil prices “go up like a rocket and fall like a feather.”

Lessons learned

Charlestown Democrats announce two events on Saturday

 

C-Town Dems News May 2026 Saturday Events Saturday, May 9th Meet and Greet with Helena Foulkes   1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Celebrated Bakery 5 Stilson Road, Richmond As part of our ongoing efforts to bring statewide candidates to South County, we'll be co-hosting this event with the Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond and Westerly DTCs.   Stay tuned for a visit from Governor McKee in the next month. Saturday, May 9th Thanks to everyone who came out for April's Tea with Tina.   Join Tina this Saturday, from 10 AM – 12 noon at Caf Bar.   Tina will be giving updates from the State House. All are welcome, no RSVP necessary. Call for Volunteers Your Charlestown Democratic Town Committee needs you! We are looking for active participants who want to help support Democratic candidates and causes. If interested, send us a note. to info@charlestowndemocrats.org. Please consider joining us! Get our latest updates Add your email... Subscribe The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee manages the affairs of the Democratic Party in the town of Charlestown, RI subject to RI Election Law, State Party rules and its own bylaws. We meet the first Wednesday of every month at 6:00 PM at the Charlestown Police Station. Any Charlestown registered Democrat is welcome to attend. P.O. Box 1088, Charlestown RI 02813 Visit our social accounts charlestowndemocrats.org

Defending Rhode Island children from Trump's anti-trans witch hunt

Child Advocate seeks to block federal government subpoena for private medical records of minors

SteveAhlquist.news

Attorneys for the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island (LCRI) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island (ACLU) have today filed an emergency motion to quash a subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking the sensitive private medical records of minor patients who have received medical treatment for gender dysphoria at Rhode Island Hospital. [See: DOJ Files In Texas To Force RI Hospital To Hand Over Trans Patient Lists In Judge Shopping Move 1,800 Miles Away] 

Amazingly, the DOJ’s request to enforce the subpoena for these records was both filed and approved on Thursday – on the same day, without an opportunity for response – by a judge in Texas, not Rhode Island. The motion filed this morning argues that court intervention is “immediately necessary . . . to protect the constitutional privacy rights of Rhode Island’s children.”

Today’s motion was filed in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on behalf of the state’s Child Advocate. The motion calls the subpoena an “unprecedented intrusion into the private medical information of children, many of whom are among the most vulnerable in our state’s care,” that “cannot be justified by any legitimate law enforcement purpose.”

Pollen allergies are brutal this year

Why you are sneezing and wheezing more this spring

Levi Keller, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Pollen.com can give you specific daily and weekly information on pollen levels and types via a daily email if you register.

Spring means beautiful flowers, fragrant lilacs – and lots of tree pollen coating cars and setting off sneezing, wheezing and headaches.

As an allergist and immunologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, I help patients with seasonal allergies and associated allergic diseases manage their conditions, and one question comes up year in and out: Will this season be worse than last year?

With a record warm start to spring 2026 in much of the U.S., the answer is a teary-eyed “yes.”

What are allergies?

More than 1 in 4 U.S. adults suffer from seasonal allergies. That number is expected to increase as climate change results in longer and more intense pollen seasons.

When someone talks about having allergies, they are referring to a condition called allergic rhinitis or allergic conjunctivitis – inflammation of the nose or eyes related to allergen exposure. This results in itchy, watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, congestion and nasal passage itching. They show up when allergens are in the air, during spring, summer and fall.

The big driver of seasonal allergies is a protein in pollen. Pollen is the male reproductive material that plants release to spread their species.

Those pollen proteins become problems when the immune system develops an allergic antibody known as IgE to these proteins. When several IgE molecules bind to the allergen when it lands on the tissues of the eye or nasal passages, the cells release molecules such as histamine, prostaglandins and leukotrienes. These molecules interact with blood vessels and nerves to trigger the symptoms that allergy sufferers know all too well.