Short Takes

URI Bay Campus

 BRING ON THE NUKES! Now that wind power in Charlestown is effectively dead, maybe it's time to revive an idea that died in 1978 - our own nuclear power plant. That was one of the uses considered for the Charlestown Naval Air Station (now Ninigret Park and the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge). That nuke plant was Donna Walsh's first experience as a political activist. In Thursday's GoLocalProv, there's a piece asking whether RI's only operating nuclear power plant, the two-megawatt nuclear reactor on URI's Bay Campus in Narragansett is safe. Generally, the article concludes "there's no cause for alarm" but I noticed they didn't say anything about shadow flicker in the story.

NIMBYS LOSE IN WESTERLY. In an earlier post, I confessed to working for almost 20 years to help NIMBY groups block toxic dumps, coal mines, liquid pig manure lagoons, etc. but that I was disgusted to see the same tactics used to block good things. I'm happy to report that the Wilcox East Neighborhood Association lost its bid to kill the WARM Center's planned affordable housing for the disabled and new eating facilities for the homeless. Even though the Wilcox East folks used the line, "we're not against affordable housing, BUT...." they have been trying to drive WARM out of the community. They have actually proposed that a better place for WARM would be the town dump. Well, they had their asses handed to them last Monday when the Westerly Town Council voted unanimously to approve a compromise plan.


DOREEN COSTA STICKS IT TO TERESA TANZI. A couple of the earliest pieces I wrote for the blog dealt with Tea Party Rep. Doreen Costa (R-NO Kingstown) and her flare for the trivial. After her triumphs in getting a resolution requiring the state to call Christmas Trees, ah,  Christmas Trees and another memorializing an almost entirely fictional image of Ronald Reagan, I came this close to getting her sponsor a resolution marking Red Sox Truck Day.

Rep. Teresa Tanzi (D-So. Kingstown) gave fellow freshman Costa a chance to be part of something serious - to co-sponsor sponsoring the bill Tanzi and Sen. Sue Sosnowski have introduced on behalf of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin to change the state's "good time" early release policy to prevent monsters like kid killer Michael Woodmansee.

In return for a high profile role on a very popular bill, Tanzi wanted a favor: she wanted Costa to vote to move the Marriage Equality bill out of committee and onto the floor of the House. Costa was shocked, shocked I tell you that there would be deal-making in the General Assembly. Apparently, this is unheard of in that part of Oz where Costa comes from. Instead of doing not one, but two good things, Costa gave the story to the media in a clear effort to tarnish Tanzi's reputation as one of the star freshmen legislators. Teresa should have known better than to expect honorable conduct from the likes of Costa, but live and learn..

PEEPS! One of the things I love about this time of year is marshmellow Peeps. Yes, I know they're disgusting, but they've been a guilty pleasure for many years. Now that I'm diabetic, I can't pig out on them, but I let them get stale (the way I like them best) and use them to halt bouts of hypoglycemia. The other great thing about Peeps are the annual Peeps contests. A lot of newspapers - I don't know how many - invite readers to create Peeps dioramas and submit them for competitive judging. The New London Day runs a credible contest. But my annual favorite, hands down, is the Washington Post contest. Come Easter and we'll be treated with Peeps displays and I can hardly wait.

WHILE YOU'RE WAITING for the results of the Peeps contests, here's a very scary/cool interactive tool that allows you to see the ebb and flow of our national employment numbers over the past ten years. I know that sounds incredibly boring, but check it out.

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! Of course, that's true, eventually, and we all hope it will be later rather than sooner. But there is a certain amount of buzz that the end of the world will come in 2012 based on interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar, though I've always found my horoscope to be more dependable. Anyway, there is a messager of death and destruction headed our way - the Comet Elenin. Comet Elenin will make a close pass by the Earth and may be at its brightest on September 10th. But some millenialists see Elenin as the cosmic destroyer and are already blaming it for earthquakes, including Japan's terrible quake. Google "Comet Elenin" and "end of the world" for some light-hearted reading, like this.

Author: Will Collette