Why fall yard care could start with doing less – but not nothing

Rites, and wrongs, of fall

Manjot Kaur Sidhu, University of Maine

Every autumn, homeowners and gardeners tend to engage in a familiar ritual. As trees shed their leaves, people drag out rakes, leaf blowers and lawn bags to strip their yards bare before winter arrives.

It is a tidy habit rooted in aesthetics, but ecologically, clearing away fallen leaves strips the very foundation of local ecosystems. Far from dead debris requiring disposal, this fallen foliage forms a dynamic layer and a biological interface that drives nutrient cycling and is essential for soil health and the environment, including biodiversity.

As a researcher of plant growth in yards and gardens, I would recommend leaving leaves on the ground. There, they can provide essential winter habitat for native pollinators – even in places that don’t have freezing temperatures. And they act as a nutrient-dense, natural mulch for the soil.

Here is the science behind why the first step of fall yard care could simply be doing less – along with practical ways to keep your yard looking neat while nourishing the ecosystem underneath.

A winter sanctuary for native pollinators

To understand why leaf litter matters, it helps to look closely at what happens beneath the surface as temperatures drop. While honeybees pass the winter in sheltered hives, the vast majority of North America’s native pollinators do not.

Leaves on the ground are part of the natural cycle
of nutrients. Manjot Sidhu, CC BY-SA

Up to 70% of native bee species, including many insects’ cocoons and larvae, nest in the ground. Fertilized queen bumblebees burrow just a few inches into the soil or hide under dense leaf mulch to survive the freezing months ahead, to lay eggs in the following spring.

Raking, bagging and blowing leaves away destroys this crucial winter nursery.

Many other insects depend on the shelter of fallen foliage:

Scientist Reveals 7 of the Strangest Things Coffee Does to Your Body

What do you get from coffee?

By Emma Beckett, Australian Catholic University

Some of coffee’s most unusual effects have little to do with caffeine. Its other bioactive compounds can interact with the gut, medications, and nutrients in ways researchers are still trying to understand.

Coffee is best known, and perhaps most valued, for its caffeine and its ability to make us feel more awake and alert.

But coffee is much more than caffeine dissolved in hot water.

Coffee is a chemically complicated plant extract containing hundreds of bioactive compounds. These can have all kinds of weird and wonderful effects in your body, even when you’re drinking decaf.

Here are seven of the strangest.

1. Coffee can make you poo

One study shows about three in ten people say they get the urge to poo shortly after drinking coffee.

This happens quickly, and with both regular and decaf. So it’s down to more than just the caffeine. But it’s not clear exactly which coffee compounds cause this.

Your colon can also be more active in the morning, and this is when most people drink their first coffee.

What you add to your coffee can also affect your bowels. The lactose in milk or some sugar-free sweeteners can also get the bowels moving, particularly if you consume a lot.

2. Coffee can affect your reflux, eyes and ears

Coffee can worsen reflux symptoms for some people. Reflux, when your stomach acid flows back up into your food pipe, isn’t always just felt as heartburn. It can contribute to coughing, wheezing, and other respiratory symptoms when reflux affects the throat and airways.

Caffeine can temporarily increase pressure inside the eye in some people with glaucoma or ocular hypertension, where pressure in the eye can already be high. Controlling this pressure is an important part of protecting the major nerve of the eye from damage. So some people with these conditions might be advised to limit their coffee and caffeine intake.

There’s also an ear condition where the tube connecting the middle ear to the back of the nose stays abnormally open, which can make you hear your own voice, or your breathing, unusually loudly. People with this condition, known as patulous Eustachian tube dysfunction, are sometimes advised to drink fewer caffeinated drinks and stay well hydrated, because dehydration can worsen symptoms. However, there is little direct evidence that coffee itself causes the condition.

Caffeine’s relationship with migraine is complicated: caffeine can help relieve a migraine, but too much, or suddenly having less than usual, can trigger one in some people.

Learn about research on medications for dementia and supplements for healthy brain aging at Oct. 22 URI forum

Can dementia be treated or prevented?

Neil Nachbar 

“Newest research on medications for dementia and supplements for healthy brain aging” will be the topic of a presentation on Oct. 22 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Hope Room of the University of Rhode Island Higgins Welcome Center, 45 Upper College Road, Kingston.

The event, which is free and open to the URI community and the public, is part of the URI Retired Faculty Association’s speaker series. It is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and refreshments will be provided by Belmont Market.

The guest speakers will include John Robinson, Thomas M. Ryan professor of neuroscience, co-executive director of the URI George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, professor of psychology, and professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences; and Joseph Schrader, assistant professor at the URI George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, assistant professor of pharmacy practice and clinical research.

Trump’s and Hegseth’s barbaric decision to live-stream an execution

Public Sadism

Robert Reich

UPDATE: In response to public outcry, Trump has decided to CANCEL the public broadcast. While the execution will still take place, it will not be live-streamed.

Cruel enough that the United States is going to put someone to death by firing squad, but only sadists would want it broadcast livestream.

Yet that’s what Pete (“High Testosterone”) Hegseth is planning. He confirmed it yesterday when speaking to the conservative broadcaster Real America’s Voice, saying said people should be able to watch “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”

Nidal Hasan committed a terrible crime. The former U.S. Army Major and psychiatrist opened fire with a handgun at a medical facility at Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009 as soldiers waited for medical checks before deployment, killing 13 and wounded 32 others. Twelve of those killed and 30 of the wounded were soldiers. Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 after being convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

The execution will be the first by firing squad carried out by the U.S. military since 1945, when army private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during the second world war. The last US military execution of any kind took place in 1961, when John Bennett was hanged.

But live-streaming it?

The hanging of Rainey Bethea in Kentucky in 1936 is regarded as the country’s last public execution. It was witnessed by thousands.

A live-streamed execution could be watched by billions.

No surprise. The current president of the United States is all about spectacle; his secretary of defense (war) is brimming with performative bravado. Punishment isn’t enough. The punishment must be cruel — and must be seen far and wide.

Asked today whether he had personally authorized or approved the live-streaming of Hasan’s execution, Trump responded, “Did I approve? Absolutely.”

Sec. of Defense (War?) Pete Hegseth who
thought up the idea

What will be the likely effect on those who will see this? Will they be revolted? Excited? Will the live-streaming of the execution by firing squad deter people from committing mass murder — or will it encourage them? Or just degrade our sense of being human?

What about its effect on those who are enemies of the U.S.? As Ned Price, a former deputy to the U.S. representative to the United Nations, posted on X: “You can take it from those of us who’ve spent years working on terrorism: the surest way to spawn more radicalized zealots is to glorify violence, embrace a cult of death, and create a martyr for the cause.

Besides, haven’t we witnessed enough senseless and degrading cruelty in the pursuit of the execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee?

Public executions have largely disappeared around the world because they’re so barbaric. Amnesty International recorded 17 in 2025, including 11 in Iran and six in Taliban-run Afghanistan.

Historian Esther Cohen writes that during the later Middle Ages, governments often displayed their power in visual, theatrical forms: solemn royal or urban processions, festivals, and, most commonly, public executions of criminals. That was because other means of communication available to governments with their subjects were extremely limited — printing didn’t as yet exist, and preaching was the church’s prerogative.

Medieval public executions were intricate rituals displaying atonement, punishment and, most of all, the authority of the government to administer justice. They also inflicted considerable pain and suffering upon the condemned, so much so that one historian has termed them “spectacles of suffering.” The spectacles were meant to be visual representations of authority — displaying the full power of the law to all observers.

Making the criminal suffer achieved the dual purpose of cleansing his soul and deterring other potential criminals. Status was expressed by symbolic dress, worn at the procession preceding the execution, or by the form of inflicting death. Noblemen wore their livery of rank and office, while common criminals were often stripped to their shirts. People of rank were very rarely hung, for hanging was a shameful death; more often, people of nobility were beheaded, preferably with a sword.

Rulers took care to stage their public executions in a spectacular manner. The spectacle itself was its essence. “The Ritual of Public Executions,” from the 16th century, stated that the culprit was ‘to be dragged as a murderer, beheaded as a traitor, quartered for several other crimes, and his body hung on the gibbet as a thief and brigand.”

Trump and Hegseth are intent on extending such barbarism into the 21st century. Not only that, but they want to livestream the degrading spectacle, bringing it fully into the digital age. In this and countless other ways, they continue to degrade and demean America.

Going to market

Trump ag scientists make breakthrough

Agriculture Dept. Puts Trump’s Face On Soybeans - The Onion

Trump corporate donors rewarded with cancelled enforcement actions

Corporations That Enjoyed Enforcement Rollback Plowed $200 Million Into Pro-Trump Super PAC

Julia Conley for Common Dreams

The Trump administration’s canceled enforcement actions against at least 205 corporations accused of wrongdoing have been cases of powerful companies “getting what they paid for,” according to a new report by government watchdog Public Citizen.

Building on an analysis it released earlier this week regarding hundreds of canceled investigations and dismissed lawsuits against companies, many of which have ties to the administration, the group published a follow-up report detailing just how much some of the corporations paid to have their legal troubles wiped away.

Companies that have benefited from the cancellation of enforcement have given $210.5 million in contributions and pledges to MAGA, Inc. and other super political action committees (PACs) that worked to elect President Donald Trump and other Republicans in 2024 and are continuing to back right-wing candidates in the midterms.

As Common Dreams reported, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has benefited from at least eight canceled actions, with lawsuits filed against the former company by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the National Labor Relations Board dismissed and an investigation into data center pollution presumably closed. Tesla has avoided three investigations that the National Highway Traffic Safety had begun and one that the Department of Labor has opened into contract compliance.

The cancellations didn’t come for free, Public Citizen said. Musk—who also served in the administration last year and is now helping with a Pentagon project—donated $5 million to MAGA, Inc. and has pledged to spend $100 million to help elect Republicans this year.

“Corporations and ultrawealthy executives with enormous financial interests before the federal government are pouring extraordinary sums into the president’s political operation,” said Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman. “Once the check is cashed, the administration is pulling back enforcement actions meant to punish corporate misconduct. It’s a great deal for the corporate wrongdoers—at the expense of their victims and the American people.”

Crypto.org is another top beneficiary of Trump’s favorable treatment of the cryptocurrency industry, Wall Street, Big Tech, and large corporations that have pledged to help push his far-right agenda in the elections.

The Securities and Exchange Commission had been investigating allegations that the crypto platform was trading unregistered securities. The probe was abruptly closed in March 2025, after the company gave $35 million to MAGA, Inc. and $2 million to Keep America Great, another super PAC aligned with the president.

Gemini, co-founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, had been facing a similar investigation, but it was also closed after the company gave $20 million to MAGA, Inc.—on top of $10 million each that the two founders personally donated.

“Allowing corporations to make political payments in order to make enforcement go away is hardly a model for governing that supposedly prioritizes ‘law and order,’” wrote Rick Claypool, research director for Public Citizen, in the report. “On the contrary, it is indicative of a profoundly unjust and arbitrary mode of enforcement organized around the principles of rewarding insiders, punishing outsiders, and concentrating power in the hands of an increasingly authoritarian president.”

He noted that while the Trump administration has demonstrated little interest in addressing corporate wrongdoing, “enforcement personnel and resources are being channeled toward punishing immigrants, activists, and perceived political opponents.”

“Restoring the rule of law will be a challenge for the future,” wrote Claypool, “and the path forward will require a rebalance of priorities that ensures that corporations and the powerful cannot pay to protect themselves from federal enforcement that holds them accountable when they break the law.”

Raw milk poses serious infection risks with no added health benefits, pediatrician group warns

Yet Health Secretary Bobby Jr. continues to promote it

Laine Bergeson

Unpasteurized milk and milk products are the source of preventable, life-threatening infections in both healthy people and those with compromised immune systems, warns the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in an updated policy statement published this week in Pediatrics. Unpasteurized dairy poses particular dangers to children, pregnant women, and those who are breastfeeding, continues the statement. 

The statement also highlights H5N1 avian flu as an emerging concern. 

Claims that unpasteurized (raw) dairy products offer superior health benefits lack scientific support, write the authors. 

“These purported benefits have no evidence base and do not outweigh the risks of unpasteurized milk consumption,” notes the statement. “Substantial data suggest that pasteurized milk confers equivalent health benefits compared with unpasteurized milk, without the additional risk of infection.”

The sale of unpasteurized dairy products remains legal in at least 27 states. The AAP statement renews its call for a nationwide ban on unpasteurized dairy.

Support help for affordable housing

Yes on 2 campaign launches in support of $120 million housing bond

SteveAhlquist.news

 The Yes on 2 campaign has officially launched, calling on Rhode Islanders to support the passage of a $120 million affordable housing and homeownership bond that will appear on the ballot for Rhode Island voters on Election Day, Nov. 3.

Rhode Island is at a moment when we have both a clear need and a clear opportunity: to invest in the homes our communities need and make it possible for more Rhode Islanders to afford to live, work, and build their lives here. Too many Rhode Islanders are struggling to keep up with the cost of housing. One in three Rhode Island households is housing cost-burdened, paying more than one third of their income toward housing costs and leaving them at elevated risk of losing their homes.

At the same time, incomes have not kept up with housing costs. To afford to buy a home anywhere in Rhode Island requires an income of nearly $130,000 - more than $40,000 above the state’s median household income. For renters, the income needed to afford a home in every R.I. community is more than $60,000, while the average renter household earns just $48,434.

Rhode Island is also facing a significant shortage of affordable homes, leaving thousands of households competing for a limited supply of housing they can afford. The $120 million bond gives Rhode Island an opportunity to meet this moment with meaningful investment.

The bond would increase and preserve the supply of affordable homes for Rhode Islanders and support community revitalization through the redevelopment of existing structures, new construction, property acquisition, and infrastructure improvements.

Of the $120 million, at least $25 million is allocated to increase the production of housing intended for homeownership, allowing more Rhode Islanders to purchase a home. In addition, up to $10 million of the $120 million may support a public housing development program.

Vote “No” on Question 3

Blue is not Green: ...What, exactly, is the money for? 

Steve Ahlquist

These signs can be found across North Kingstown

(Frank Carini/ecoRI News)

Rhode Island will soon be voting on five ballot measures to borrow money for education, housing, economic development, cultural improvements, and the green economy. 

I want to focus on Question 3: a $100 million investment in the so-called Blue Economy. The question reads:

• Economic Development $100 million: Approval of this question will allow the State to issue general obligation bonds, refunding bonds, and/or temporary notes in an amount not to exceed one hundred million dollars to fund industrial facilities infrastructure improvements for economic development purposes, to fund site development and growth industry infrastructure, to be allocated as follows:
• Site Development: Provides $55 million for land acquisition or assembly, environmental remediation, infrastructure and utility installation, site preparation or development, and project investments. Eligible uses include, but are not limited to, large-scale industrial site development to create pad-ready locations and/or facilities, infrastructure improvements and investments within the Quonset Business Park, and land acquisition, preparation, and project investments within the I-195 District.
• Growth Industry Infrastructure: Provides $45 million for infrastructure, facilities, projects, and investments that support Rhode Island’s ocean, defense, life sciences, data analytics, and related industries. Eligible uses include, but are not limited to, water-based test ranges and onshore ocean- or defense-related innovation/production facilities, as well as facilities, projects, and investments that advance businesses and job growth in the life sciences.

Question 3 will almost certainly pass. As far as I can tell, every bond question sent to Rhode Island voters for approval over the last two decades has passed. [Note: A $100 million bond, paid back over 20 years at 5% interest, will ultimately cost Rhode Island taxpayers over $160 million.] But what, exactly, is the money for? 

The phrase “[e]ligible uses include, but are not limited to” is extremely broad. A literal reading of the phrase could include any imaginable expenditure. Similarly broad is the phrase, “investments that support Rhode Island’s ocean, defense, life sciences, data analytics, and related industries.” Does “data analytics” include data centers? Such an investment is certainly covered by the phrases “related industries” and “not limited to.”

The Blue Economy is bullshit

You may have heard the phrase “Blue Economy” bandied about by our federal delegation and local state and corporate leaders. The Grow Blue Partnership, a Rhode Island-based coalition of industry groups, environmental organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions, including the University of Rhode Island (URI), defines the Blue Economy as “the sustainable use of the ocean to create a resilient economy and good-paying jobs.” Which sounds great, until you realize that defense contractors make up a substantial chunk of the Blue Economy.

 

Help save farm animals

Location: 20 Elm Street, Westerly, RI

Terranova Farm Livestock Sanctuary invites you to the inaugural "First Annual Grazing and Giving Fundraiser." The sanctuary specializes in the passionate care of ruminants (like sheep and goats), alpacas, pigs, and poultry—those often-forgotten animals with nowhere else to turn.

Currently home to 100 incredible rescue animals, the sanctuary provides a haven for individuals with stories of true resilience. Partnering directly with state authorities and local animal control, TFLS steps in during severe cases of abuse and neglect.

The sanctuary also accepts complex, high-need medical cases that standard farms cannot manage, offering a vital second chance to vulnerable animals and delicate babies who otherwise wouldn't make it. Through a dedicated rehabilitation program, every resident receives the specialized medical care, nourishment, and love needed to heal—finding permanent sanctuary to spend the rest of their natural lives in peace and safety.

As a 100% donation-dependent organization, this life-saving work relies entirely on community support. Join us for a truly impactful evening to eat, drink, and bid on a fantastic array of auction items while celebrating the animals that call TFLS home. Your support means the world, and we’re excited to see you there!

Check the event website for the most up-to-date info.

URI’s 11th Guitar and Mandolin Festival takes the stage beginning Oct. 18

Here's a rundown on who will be appearing

By James Bessette 

The warm, mellow sounds of guitars and mandolins will once again blend with the cool autumn air across the University of Rhode Island campus and neighboring southern Rhode Island communities in late October.

Joao Luiz Rezende, a two-time Latin Grammy nominee and
professor at the Yale University School of Music, will be the
artist-in-residence in this year’s URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival,
and will perform on Oct. 22.
(Photos courtesy URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival)

The 11^th annual URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival will bring together the global string artist community for a weeklong celebration of music beginning Oct 18. Guitarists and mandolinists from all corners of the world, including Brazil, Peru, Australia, Costa Rica, Italy, France, South Korea, Israel, Greece and Japan, will descend upon the Ocean State to delight local music enthusiasts.

Ten performances will be held Oct. 18-25 on the Kingston Campus and the surrounding area.  Thirty notable artists, including Duke Robillard, Eliot Fisk, Jorge Caballero, Antoine Boyer, Eleonora Strino, Vincent Beer-Demander, Fabio Gallucci, Ian Coury, Jacob Reuven, Duo Sonidos, Adrian Montero Moya, URI Associate Teaching Professor, Instructor of Classical Guitar and festival founder Adam Levin and more will be featured. URI music students and alumni and faculty will also take the various stages during the festival, including at the General Stanton Inn, the URI Fine Arts Center and Edwards Hall Auditorium.

Rhode Island blues legend Duke Robillard will perform at this year’s
 festival on Oct. 18.

The seven-day festival will also offer several educational and competition programs, including masterclasses by guest artists, workshops, a guitar and mandolin competition and an expo featuring instrument makers showcasing their work. These educational opportunities will provide students a chance to learn from the best performing an array of genres, including jazz, Latin mix, classical and blues. 

The festival is a melting pot, of sorts, where aspiring artists can meet their heroes—and possibly even collaborate with them—in front of a live audience, creating a special atmosphere at the University and points elsewhere, and establishing itself as a cultural mainstay at URI, according to Levin.

“Over the past decade, this festival has become a stomping ground for artists and students alike to have a conversation, to engage one another in a relaxed environment. A student can ask an artist, ‘how can I play this passage better?’ And an artist can offer one-of-a-kind feedback into how to refine their artistry,” Levin said. 

‘No Kings’ events return to Rhode Island Saturday with a new focus: Early voting

South County Rising event starts at noon in Westerly 

By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

A fresh round of “No Kings” events is happening across the state on Saturday, Oct. 17. This time around, organizers of at least 10 events planned so far across Rhode Island are emphasizing voting early.

The focus is aligned with a push by national organizers to highlight early voting and protect voting rights, Rob Vitello, the Newport Democratic City Committee’s treasurer who has helped organize previous No Kings outings on Aquidneck Island, said via email Monday.

“These are meant to be small events as opposed to a big rally/march as we’ve done in the past,” Vitello wrote.

Vitello said the Newport event will take place outside Newport City Hall from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. The event page describes it as “a day of nonpartisan voter participation” meant to encourage early voting and ensure “every eligible voter understands their options for how to vote and has the opportunity to make their voice heard.”

Early voting starts on Wednesday in Rhode Island. The deadline to request a mail ballot is Tuesday. The General Election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

North Kingstown’s event will take place on the sidewalk outside 80 Boston Neck Road, with organizers describing it as “a hyper-local gathering site where neighbors can double-check their voter registration, locate polling places or ballot drop boxes, organize rides to the polls, and connect with voter protection networks ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.”

“Our communities, our rights, and our future are shaped by the choices we make at the ballot box,” Jennifer Lima, the president of Transformative Action for North Kingstown (TANK), which is organizing the town’s Saturday event, said in a statement. “Don’t leave your vote to chance.

TANK is also encouraging attendees to bring a non-perishable donation for the North Kingstown Food Pantry.

The No Kings rebrand is national, with many of the events subtitled “Vote Early.” Compared to the mass protests of earlier No Kings events, the new emphasis is on helping voters with registration, understanding options and making a voting plan — in contrast to the colorful, raucous rallies that began last summer.

In Providence, the first rally drew roughly 3,000 people in June 2025, while organizers estimated more than 30,000 attended a second rally outside the Rhode Island State House last October. Those October numbers weren’t independently verified, although Providence police estimated as many as 20,000 people attended another State House demonstration in March.

No events were listed on the No Kings site for Providence as of Monday.

National organizers could not immediately be reached for comment Monday, but an autoreply email contained an FAQ detailing the retooled approach as “the critical next step in our strategy.”

“This is an urgent, massive day of voter participation and election protection,” the email stated. “We’re going to turn people power into voter power while also building a network of election defenders.”

“October 17 is a celebration, an orientation, and an activation — all designed to drive mass early vote participation and build the nationwide capacity we’ll need to ensure the countless efforts to undermine our elections are met with the overwhelming nonviolent people power needed to defeat them,” the email continued.

Here are where No Kings events are planned for Saturday

Rhode Island events listed as of Monday include:

The More Ultra-Processed Food People Ate, the Higher Their Risk of Disease and Death

Eating ourselves to death

By BMJ Group

Ready-to-eat meals and heat-and-serve snacks have become increasingly common in diets around the world over the past few decades. As people eat more of these heavily processed products, researchers have been trying to work out whether there is a safe amount to consume and where the risks to long-term health might begin.

A large pooled analysis, published in the open access journal Family Medicine and Community Health, found that higher consumption was linked to greater risks of several chronic diseases and death from any cause. Across 51 studies involving 8,819,894 adults, the risks generally rose with the amount eaten.

Richmond calculates the cost of their share of proposed Chariho elementary school project

Richmond has published its fiscal breakdown for the $116 million Chariho elementary school bond on the November ballot

Kelly Lockhart, an AI avatar used by Uprise RI to scan public records and then prepare articles like these. For more on how this is done: How a Rhode Island meeting becomes a story | Uprise RI

Charlestown would need to increase its tax rate by thirteen cents. Source: The Pipeline, Charlestown town government.

Richmond property owners face an estimated 5.03% tax increase under the proposed school bond, though the town's published figures carry slight accounting discrepancies.

When Richmond voters open their ballots on November 3, they will confront a regional school proposal that has been reworked, downsized, and sent back to the ballot box. But for local property owners, the decision ultimately narrows to two practical questions: what will the project cost, and how much of that burden lands on their tax bills?

Richmond officials released the town's official fiscal impact breakdown for Question 6—a regional ballot referendum authorizing the Chariho Regional School District to borrow up to $116 million for elementary school construction. The figures give the town its first detailed projection of its expected debt payments and property tax adjustments before next month's vote.