After delay, Burlingame State Campground Opens for the Season

Opens Friday - Brace for another surge in summer people

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) announces the completion of three new shower and restroom facilities at Burlingame State Campground in Charlestown. Reservations will open for the 2026 season through Reserve America on Wednesday, June 10, at 9 AM. The first night to make a reservation will be Friday, June 12.

Phase One of the project brings exciting upgrades to the Midpark North, Fish Camp and Mills Camp sections of the campground with the addition of three modern restroom and shower facilities. 

Designed to enhance visitor comfort and accessibility, the new buildings are ADA-compliant and feature new septic systems, indoor/outdoor coin-operated hot water showers, energy-efficient lighting, and durable, water-conserving plumbing fixtures. 

The $18M project is funded primarily through the voter-approved 2021 Beach, Clean Water, and Green Economy Bond, along with $2M federal grant. Construction is expected to be fully completed in April 2027.

How much is Trump's war on Iran costing you?

3 Months of Trump’s Disastrous Iran War Has Cost US Consumers $60 Billion in Extra Energy Costs​

Julia Conley for Common Dreams

Americans have made clear since Donald Trump joined Israel in beginning an unprovoked war on Iran that they view the conflict-of-choice as damaging to their financial well-being—and that they blame the president for the higher cost of fuel since the war started in February.

On May 29, Moody’s Analytics put an exact number on the heightened financial anxiety families across the country have been feeling over the past three months as Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent fuel prices soaring: $447.19.

That’s how much the average US household has had to additionally spend on fuel-related expenses since Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanu launched their attack on February 28, Moody’s told CNBC.

Altogether, Americans have spent a total of nearly $60 billion on gas, airline fares, and other related costs as the strait, a key shipping route for oil, has remained effectively closed.

According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular gas stands at $4.39—up close to 50% since early March. Diesel now costs $5.52 per gallon, forcing consumers to pay $20 billion more in additional expenses on groceries and other goods.

Why does the media ignore Trump’s madness?

His Truth Social posts show he's better suited in a mental institution than at a negotiating table.

Stephen Robinson

Donald Trump frequently demonstrates a level of malignancy that still manages to shock. He doesn’t try to hide it, but unfortunately, the mainstream media covers his disordered thinking as a colorful “quirk” — Trump being Trump — rather than a serious, escalating threat to the nation.

This past weekend, Trump’s social media feed was a wellspring of lunacy. He posted more than 50 times on Saturday alone, hurling personal attacks at Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Rosie O’Donnell — one of whom was never actually president. 

He shared an absurd AI-generated image of himself as a New York Knicks player dunking on Gov. Kathy Hochul. He boasted about defeating “disloyal” Republicans in their primaries. He continued picking fights with the Pope. He attacked the judge who ruled that he couldn’t illegally deface the Kennedy Center with his name.

After even half of Milli Vanilli refused to perform at his America 250 event, Trump posted this gaping wound of narcissistic injury:

I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance on Wednesday, so I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President.

Until an appearance before cameras yesterday in which he seemed extremely tired and nearly comatose, Trump hadn’t been seen in public since May 27 — the day after his most recent trip to Walter Reed — so while these posts were technically “proof of life,” they were hardly a reassuring statement of mental stability.

Yet Trump’s unhinged posts last weekend weren’t the stuff of front-page coverage at the New York Times or Washington Post, even though there’s a direct line between them and the administration’s ongoing disaster in Iran. After all, it doesn’t take a psychoanalyst to determine, based on the president’s online crash out, that the Trump administration is no closer to a resolution of the war.

Of course he did

Cross Mills Library Garden Tour and Art Auction, June 20

2026 Garden Tour Fundraiser

Summer is coming and the gardens are beautiful! On Saturday, June 20, 2026, the Cross’ Mills Public Library will host its biennial garden tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Rain or shine, the gardens await you.

Tickets are $30 and will be available beginning May 15th. Tickets may be purchased at the Library or online.

To purchase tickets online, please click here. Select Garden Tour under Donation Category. Tickets will be emailed to the address you provide, and are mailed in batches once a week.

Please direct questions to gardentour@crossmills.org

The generosity of local gardeners and residents make this tour possible.  All proceeds benefit the Cross’ Mills Public Library.

 
• Community Resources

Art Auction

Bid on incredible artworks and enjoy a summer evening of Art, Music, Conversation and Refreshments. All proceeds from the auction benefit the Cross’ Mills Public Library.

The hidden ecological role of Rhode Island’s historic stone walls

Beauty and function

By Anna Gray 

For URI researchers, Rhode Island’s historic stone walls are more than remnants of the past; they are studying how these structures may support wildlife biodiversity across the state. (URI Photo / Robin Baranowski)

For Madalyn Stoltz, a master’s student in the University of Rhode Island’s environmental science and management program, Rhode Island’s historic stone walls are more than remnants of the past. Through camera trap research and ecological fieldwork, she is studying how these structures may support wildlife biodiversity across the state.

Researching Rhode Island’s stone walls

A native of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Stoltz is working alongside professors Kathleen Carroll and Shelby Rinehart on the Stone Wall Project, which examines how historic stone walls compare with natural features in supporting local biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. The project addresses a largely understudied topic and aims to contribute new understanding of Rhode Island’s natural history.

URI graduate student Madalyn Stoltz is
investigating how stone walls contribute to
biodiversity and ecosystem resilience in Rhode
Island, with support from the Rhode Island
Natural History Survey. (URI Photo / Chris Hickling)

Stoltz recently received the Godzala Research Award from the Rhode Island Natural History Survey to support her work. “Receiving the Godzala Research Award means that I can put more time and focus into my research,” she said. “This grant directly supports my work by providing me with a stipend and funding for supplies. I will be deploying more camera traps later this year, and I am able to do so because of this grant.”

“Maddy is one of only a handful of MESM students to receive grant awards in support of their major papers,” said professor Michelle Peach, one of the coordinators of the master’s program. “This recognition from RINHS is a testament to Maddy’s hard work and professionalism, as well as the value and quality of her research.”

Stoltz’s involvement in the Stone Wall Project began when she reached out about opportunities for her MESM major paper, the culminating project for the degree. As part of her conservation biology specialization, she sought a project that would connect ecological research with real-world conservation and biodiversity management challenges.

Check out the brand-new hurricane ‘cone of uncertainty’ graphics arriving this season

Might make it easier to understand hurricane risks

By Bob Henson, Yale Climate Connections

Figure 1. A comparison of the original forecast cone for Hurricane Milton issued at 4 a.m. CDT October 8, 2024 (left) and how the same forecast would look in the revised cone graphic being used this year (right). The area crosshatched in blue and pink lines is under both a hurricane watch (pink) and a tropical storm warning (blue). The revised cone graphic will also use gray shading for the entire length of the cone, rather than for only the first three days of the five-day forecast period. (Image credit: NOAA/NWS/NHC)

It might have seemed exotic when it first appeared, but the forecast “cone of uncertainty” used by the NOAA/NWS National Hurricane Center (NHC) is now a familiar part of tropical cyclone readiness in U.S. states and territories. For 2026, NHC has made a couple of key tweaks to its standard cone product. It’s also testing an expanded version of the cone – one made feasible by a new way of understanding how and where forecast errors arise.

Since its debut in 2002, the cone has become what a University of Miami writer called “arguably [the center’s] most iconic graphic,” a mainstay of TV coverage and weather apps. Prior to the cone, hurricane maps simply showed a line depicting the official multi-day forecast for the storm center, as issued every six hours by NHC. Experts urged the public not to “focus on the skinny line,” keeping in mind that a hurricane’s path can easily deviate from the forecast track and that impacts will typically extend far beyond that center.

When you see a cone graphic, that 'skinny line' may or may not appear (NHC provides both versions), but the cone itself has gone a long way to fix the skinny-line problem.

However, just as a hurricane's impacts do not just lie along a narrow line, a hurricane’s damage doesn’t stop when it comes ashore. Some of the worst U.S. hurricane disasters in recent years have occurred well inland, including billions of dollars in wind-driven destruction across Georgia in 2018’s Michael, and the catastrophic, deadly flooding from 2024’s Helene, which killed more than 100 people in and around western North Carolina.

House approves $15.2B FY27 budget with marquee acquisition: millionaire’s tax

Rhode Island budget almost done

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

A record $15.2 billion fiscal 2027 budget breezed through the Rhode Island House of Representatives in near record time Friday, with the 65-10 vote finalized with an hour to spare before sunset.

The approved budget is almost identical to the version given preliminary vetting by the House Committee on Finance one week ago, featuring a phased-in millionaire’s tax, a state inspector general’s office, and additional funds for healthcare, families with children, and the state public transit agency. 

The $15.2 billion bottom line for fiscal 2027 marks the highest spending in state history — roughly $300 million more than what Gov. Dan McKee proposed in January, and $900 million above the current fiscal year budget approved one year ago. 

“Sustainability was at the core of what we’re looking at to make sure we’re investing not just today, but for our families for the future,” House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski, a Providence Democrat, told reporters after the vote on Friday. 

All 10 Republican lawmakers voted against the budget, blasting the unsustainable growth in state spending and the controversial millionaire’s tax, which dominated debate throughout the legislative session.

Fourteen Rhode Island municipalities are planning to sue the state over laws designed to make it easier to build housing

Charlestown is NOT suing, at least for now

Steve Ahlquist

Charlestown Town Council gave its OK to converting
this derelict motel on Route 1 into affordable housing.
The ONLY dissenting vote was Charlestown Citizens Alliance
(CCA) rep Bonnita Van Slyke

Over the last three years or so, under the leadership of former Speaker of the House K. Joseph Shekarchi, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation designed to make it easier for developers to build housing. 

Given the massive shortage of available housing, rapidly escalating rents that harm low- and middle-income families, and a more than 400% increase in homelessness across the state, these measures, though not sufficient, are a necessary stab at mitigating Rhode Island’s housing apocalypse.

The legislation, among other things, reformed the comprehensive permitting process to better enable affordable housing development and streamlined zoning and land-use regulations. These aren’t exactly the sexiest bills; we’re talking about things like density bonuses for building near transit, adding homes in commercial lots, or infilling non-conforming lots (think weird-shaped lots that require some creative designs).

The goal of these reforms is to reduce costs and accelerate the construction of new homes. Given that Rhode Island has long been last in the nation for building homes (on a per capita basis, not because of our size), and it is estimated that the state needs to build between 15,000 and 24,000 new units to get the situation under control, it is right to ask if the state is doing enough. That said, permitting for new housing is trending up, as shown in the 2025 Integrated Housing Report from the Rhode Island Executive Office of Housing, but at our current rate of development, we are over a decade from seeing the housing market stabilize.

As Rhode Island families suffer, you’d think that local municipalities would be all in on these reforms, but of course, that’s not the case. Instead, around 14 municipalities, including Portsmouth, Tiverton, Hopkinton, Burrillville, Bristol, Smithfield, West Greenwich, East Greenwich, Lincoln, Middletown, Charlestown, and Westerly, have signed onto a Joint Municipal Statement¹ opposing the state’s efforts. The statement appears to be the brainchild of Larry Fitzmorris, President of the conservative Portsmouth Concerned Citizens, and Mark Brady, former Narragansett Planning Board Chair.

EDITOR'S NOTE: When I saw that Steve listed Charlestown among the towns planning to sue, I asked Charlestown Council President if this was true. It's not. This is what Deb said:

"My concern is the one size fits all approach to solve the housing problem.  Charlestown relies on private wells and septic systems which makes our situation different from those cities and town with public water and sewer.  Charlestown did not vote to join the lawsuit at this time. Based on the information presented at the May Town Council meeting,  it does not seem as though this lawsuit has a likely chance of success.  The Town Council will revisit the matter once new information is available."

- Will Collette

Dear Leader knows how to put on a show

Winning!

House approves Fogarty bill to authorize state to enter international public health collaboration

Trump pulled U.S. out of World Health Organization. Kathy's bill would allow Rhode to get back in

Idiot

The House of Representatives passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Kathleen A. Fogarty (D-Dist. 35, South Kingstown) that would authorize the Department of Health to participate in international public health collaboration networks.

Under the terms of the bill (2026-H 8365A), the department would be authorized to participate in a Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, which is an international collaboration coordinated by the World Health Organization for the purpose of disease surveillance and outbreak response.

“The U.S. officially withdrew from the World Health Organization on Jan. 22, 2026 because of an executive order from the president, which I found to be reprehensible,” said Representative Fogarty. “The impact of this withdrawal has repercussions on infectious disease surveillance, pandemic planning and vaccine initiatives. This bill would allow the Department of Health to participate in international public health collaboration networks for the safety and welfare of all Rhode Islanders.”

The department would also be permitted to enter into agreements with federal agencies, international organizations, academic institutions and public health authorities, as well as participate in training programs, data-sharing initiatives and technical assistance programs.

Dr. Jerome M. Larkin, director of the Department of Health, testified in support of the legislation, telling the House Committee on Health and Human Services, “The Rhode Island Department of Health does not already engage in these activities because the United States is no longer a member of the World Health Organization, so participating in GOARN allows the department to have better visibility of what is happening globally with infectious disease so we can continue to help keep Rhode Islanders safe.”

The measure now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Fourth of July Tomato is URI Cooperative Extension’s Plant of the Year, producing delicious vine-ripened tomatoes as early as Independence Day

Would love to get some

 Kristen Curry 

The Fourth of July Tomato is URI Cooperative Extension’s Plant of the Year, producing delicious vine-ripened tomatoes as early as Independence Day. (Stock Photo / URI Cooperative Extension)

Although Independence Day is fast approaching, the University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension program says there’s still time to get plants in the ground and growing for later summer cook-outs and gatherings. URI Extension is putting a spotlight on tomatoes this year, highlighting the Fourth of July Tomato as a solid choice for new gardeners looking to impress at annual summer celebrations.

URI Master Gardeners say it takes about seven weeks to produce this easy-growing variety for your plate. While it’s too late to start from seed, starter plants can now be found at local garden centers or farm stands for purchase.

According to Program Administrator Kate Hardesty, URI Cooperative Extension’s annual Plant of the Year is chosen each year based on good trial performance and reviews. The University’s Extension program has been picking a winning plant for many years, often choosing plants that inspire beginning gardeners. Staff say they bounce back and forth between vegetables and pollinator-supporting flowers. Last year, the plant of the year was Penstemon hirsutus (or hairy beardtongue), a purple perennial native to eastern North America.

Hardesty said that the Fourth of July Tomato, this year’s Plant of the Year, grows to 55 inches tall and is an early-maturing slicer tomato. It’s great for fresh eating and is an indeterminate variety, meaning it will continue to grow and produce, with proper maintenance, until the fall frost. The Fourth of July requires full sun and can be transplanted after the last frost in the spring. Its good flavor only improves as the season warms up.

When a president settles his own lawsuit to create a fund for allies, fundamental questions about justice arise

"No one should be the judge in their own case"

Austin Sarat, Amherst College

Thomas Hobbes took a very dim view of rebels and insurrectionists. He believed that insurrectionists relinquish their status as citizens the moment they seek to overthrow the government and should never be rewarded for doing so.

Hobbes, one of the finest political theorists of his time, said this in his great political treatise, “Leviathan,” published in 1651 during a civil war in England and Scotland.

Hobbes would likely also take a dim view of a major development announced by the Trump administration on May 20, 2026.

The U.S. Department of Justice has established a US$1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” to be used, the AP reports, to “allow people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes, including by the Biden administration Justice Department, to apply for payouts.”

The fund, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, offers “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”

Critics immediately charged that it might be used to compensate people involved in – some even convicted for – the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Blanche has not ruled out that possibility.

The establishment of the fund is part of a settlement agreement, in response to which President Donald Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service for damages stemming from the leak of his tax returns. Those leaks, the lawsuit alleged, “caused Plaintiffs reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump.”

When ICE ramped up enforcement, US‑born workers didn’t see any economic gains

US workers don't want or get jobs done by deported workers

Chloe N. East, University of Colorado Boulder and Elizabeth Cox, University of Colorado Boulder

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to strengthen the labor market. His immigration platform – including a pledge to conduct the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history – was central to that promise.

“For too long, Washington ignored how mass illegal immigration artificially suppressed wages, hurting working-class Americans – especially young men,” wrote Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on X in July 2025. “But under President Trump, we now have a secure border, a blue-collar wage boom, and major investments from trade deals.”

The labor market tells a different story. In the first year of Trump’s second term, unemployment rose, hiring slowed and wage growth stagnated. The construction sector was hit particularly hard.

We’re scholars of labor markets, immigration and public environmental policy who have examined how these economic trends can be traced to the mass deportation campaign of Trump’s second term. Notably, while areas with heavier ICE enforcement saw a drop in employment among immigrants, there was no increase in either employment or wages among U.S. citizens.