Praise and support for General Stanton Inn campaign from the folks who saved the Historic Narragansett Towers

Similarities between effort to save the General Stanton Inn and their fight to save the Towers

David E. Ousterhout, President, Friends of the Historic Narragansett Towers, Inc.

I am a former member of the Narragansett Town Council and President of the Friends of the Towers. 

Twenty eight years ago I became involved with a group of Narragansett residents who came together for the purpose of developing a plan to restore, preserve and renovate the Historic Narragansett Towers for use by the public. 

At that time The Towers, as it is known today, was a deteriorating monument to Narragansett’s past history and did not provide any useful benefit to the public. 

While it was owned by the Town, there was no clear vision for it and there was a reluctance to even spend the necessary funds for simple maintenance and preservation efforts. 

Today The Towers stands as testimony to what a motivated group of citizens can accomplish when encouraged and supported by their local government.  It has become an iconic reminder of Narragansett’s history and a very busy venue for both public and private events, attracting visitors and providing a source of new business to local merchants.

Capital restoration and renovation funds were provided over the years by the Town of Narragansett, Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission grants, fundraising activities and allocation of excess revenue from its operations. 

It has not been a financial burden to the Town and, other than modest investments in capital repairs and improvements, has always paid its own way.

Crowd-funding? Cool!

Anti-abortion does not equal "pro-life"

House OKs legislation to allow limited retail sales by breweries

Bill is designed to help small businesses, promote ‘beer tourism’ industry in Rhode Island

Legislation cosponsored by Rep. Teresa Tanzi to allow breweries, distilleries and wineries to sell limited amounts of their products to visitors for sampling and off-site consumption has passed the House of Representatives.

The bill is intended to assist microbreweries, in particular, which are banned entirely from selling their products at retail at their plants under current law, but would like to do so to be part of the growing “beer tourism” industry.

“Microbreweries are a growing sector in Rhode Island, and we should give these hardworking small businesses the opportunity they need to get their products into the hands of consumers, who have been asking us for increased access. Many don’t realize the value these small manufacturers add to our economy, and increased sales will equal more revenue and more hiring locally,” said Representative Tanzi (D-Dist. 34, South Kingstown, Narragansett).

CEOs Paid 335 Times Average Rank-and-File Worker

Outsourcing Results in Even Higher Inequality

From the AFL-CIO’s Executive PayWatch

CEO pay for major U.S. companies continues to soar as income inequality and outsourcing of good-paying American jobs increases.

Outsourcing has become a hot presidential election topic with candidates calling out corporations who say they need to save money by sending jobs overseas.

Meanwhile, according to the new AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch, the average CEO of an S&P 500 company made $12.4 million per year in 2015 – 335 times more money than the average rank-and-file worker.

The Executive PayWatch website, the most comprehensive searchable online database tracking CEO pay, showed that in 2015, the average production and nonsupervisory worker earned approximately $36,900 per year, a wage that when adjusted for inflation, has remained stagnant for 50 years.

“The income inequality that exists in this country is a disgrace. We must stop Wall Street CEOs from continuing to profit on the backs of working people,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Kitty of the Week

Meet Erik

Animal Rescue Rhode Island

Meow! I'm Erik, a 3 year old love bug who's looking for a home to call my own.

I LOVE to play and climb in my temporary home, and my caregivers say I give the best snuggles around.

If you like petting, purrs, and paws kneading your lap, I am the cat for you!

I would make the purrfect fit for any home, and I even like other feline friends.

I'm looking for someone who enjoys quiet naps in the sun spots, and togetherness for the rest of our days.

Might that someone be you?

Why they fought

In Meme-Moriam

By Peter Dykstra for The Daily Climate

This past weekend, America paused to honor the thousands of men and women who fought and died to preserve ExxonMobil’s First Amendment rights, and protect it from the tyranny of justice.

Or at least that’s the way a lot of Congressional leaders and climate deniers are playing it.

The effort to cast Exxon as victim of a cabal between state Attorneys General, environmentalists, and other ne’er-do-wells followed reports by journalists from InsideClimate News, the Los Angeles Times, and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. 

They uncovered a howlingly hypocritical contrast between Exxon’s longtime internal embrace of climate science and its external support for climate denial.

Decades ago, Exxon began to ignore its own scientists’ warnings on the prospects for global disruption from climate change, opting instead to focus on climate change’s threat to the fossil fuel business model. 

Following the pattern set by tobacco, pesticide, asbestos and tetraethyl lead producers, Exxon circled the tankers and fought against progress on climate.

Part 3: Memorial Day Feature - Searching for a home for the "Ninigret Bomb"

Charlestown and World War II, Part 3
No Room at the Ninigret Wildlife Refuge Headquarters

By Frank Glista

From the Charlestown Press, August 2, 2007

In August of 2007 I invited my friend, Mark Godden, to join me at the Groton-New London Airport for an adventure.  Mark, never knowing what to expect from me when I used the word "adventure", looked puzzled.  

Years earlier, I requested that he ride along with me on my third cross country motorcycle trip.  Each owning a Harley-Davidson, we left Charlestown in May of 1979 and rode to California and back in about six weeks.  So what was I up to now?  I told him that we were going to go back in time.....for about an hour.

America

For more cartoons by Jen Sorenson, CLICK HERE

VIDEO: Inside the mind of Donald Trump

Watch this on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X7f4eHzSAM

Striking Verizon Workers Win Big Gains

More good jobs to be added in the East

Communication Workers of America

Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers who have been on strike since April 13 are celebrating big gains after coming to an agreement in principle with the company.

After 45 days of the largest strike in recent history, striking CWA members have achieved our major goals of improving working families’ standard of living, creating good union jobs in our communities and achieving a first contract for wireless retail store workers.

How much for naming rights at the Ninigret Wildlife Refuge?

National Parks Will Start Selling Naming Rights to Corporate Sponsors

By: Kevin Mathews at care2causes

Home Depot’s Yellowstone National Park. Merrill Lynch’s Yosemite National Park. Exxon Mobil’s Grand Canyon National Park. 

You’re probably shuddering at the thought of these national treasures being linked to corporate sponsors, but thanks to new federal rule changes, this possibility is closer than you think.

Since it was established, the National Park Service has thwarted attempts to commercialize these nature preserves. 

In the past, the parks have limited commemorations of large donations to modest, easy-to-overlook plaques. 

Now, during the park service’s centennial celebration, the organization is deciding to court corporate money by offering up a lot of opportunities for naming rights.

First of the season

Trump’s fraud against veterans

‘Fraud’: Major Veterans Group Accuses Trump Of Ripping Off Soldiers

By Oliver Willis

The military veterans group VoteVets is blasting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as a “fraud,” after it was revealed that his claim that he raised $6.5 million for veterans was a lie.

A Washington Post report uncovered the truth behind yet another wild Trump statement:

One night in January, Donald Trump skipped a GOP debate and instead held his own televised fundraiser for veterans. At the end of the night, Trump proclaimed it a huge success: “We just cracked $6 million, right? Six million.”

Now, Trump’s campaign says that number is incorrect.

Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said the fundraiser actually netted about $4.5 million, or 75 percent of the total that Trump announced.

Trump used the $6 million figure as a public relations talking point for himself in the days following the fundraiser, while he campaigned for votes in the Republican primary. 

Yet when asked by the Post to account for all of the money he allegedly collected, Trump refused. 

VIDEO: Disappointed that Trump says no debate with Bernie Sanders? Progressive Charlestown has you covered!

To watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfXdmHseiFA&feature=youtu.be&utm_campaign=ThisIsFusion&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social

Who says Trump isn't open-minded?

Deutschland uber alles

Sorry, GOP: This Economic Powerhouse Just Got 99% of Its Energy from Renewable Energy

By Stephen D Foster Jr

Republicans have pessimistically said it can’t be done, that renewable energy can’t do for us what oil, gas, and coal have done for generations.

But Germany just put Republicans in their place and proved that clean energy can do just that if given the chance.

On May 15, Chancellor Angela Merkel had good reason to celebrate as renewable energy sources provided nearly 100 percent of the nation’s energy needs for the first time.

How do trees go to sleep?

Scientists use laser scanners to study sleeping trees 

Vienna University of Technology

Most living organisms adapt their behavior to the rhythm of day and night. Plants are no exception: flowers open in the morning, some tree leaves close during the night.

Researchers have been studying the day and night cycle in plants for a long time: Linnaeus observed that flowers in a dark cellar continued to open and close, and Darwin recorded the overnight movement of plant leaves and stalks and called it "sleep".

But even to this day, such studies have only been done with small plants grown in pots, and nobody knew whether trees sleep as well. Now, a team of researchers from Austria, Finland and Hungary measured the sleep movement of fully grown trees using a time series of laser scanning point clouds consisting of millions of points each.

No longer the path to the middle class

Manufacturing McJobs at Nissan and Elsewhere

By Phil Mattera for the Dirt Diggers Digest

Getting a manufacturing job is no longer your ticket to the middle class.
Busted unions, off-shoring destroyed the American Middle Class
(photo from the Library of Congress collection)

Bring back manufacturing jobs: For years this has been put forth as the silver bullet that would reverse the decline in U.S. living standards and put the economy back on a fast track.

The only problem is that today’s production positions are not our grandparents’ factory jobs.

In fact, they are often as substandard as the much reviled McJobs of the service sector.

The latest evidence of this comes in a report by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, which has issued a series of studies on how the growth of poorly paid jobs in retailing and fast food have burdened government with ever-rising social safety net costs.

Now the Center shows how the same problem arises from the deterioration of job quality in manufacturing.  

VIDEO: Filippi turns Charlestown Memorial Day Parade into a self-serving political sideshow

Charlestown Citizens Alliance backs their boy’s play

By Will Collette

This is what Memorial Day is supposed to be about. View this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL695-8gVzE

State Representative Blake “Flip” Filippi (District 36) is a master at turning concocted controversy into self-aggrandizing media opportunities. He’s so good at it that he has actually given classes to other political candidates, probably those as shallow and self-serving as himself, on his techniques.

We’ll go into some examples of that later, but let’s look at Flip’s latest stunt which is to claim that he has been “blacklisted” from speaking at the Charlestown Memorial Day Parade. This has put him directly at odds with the Parade Committee’s long-time chair, Jim Mageau.

Filippi is being aided in his fight by none other than Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) leader Tom Gentz, boss of the Charlestown Town Council, who demanded that Filippi be given a speaking slot on the agenda.

Boss Gentz also has demanded that the independent, non-profit Charlestown Memorial Day Parade Committee oust Mageau for not giving Flip what he wants.

I rarely ever agree with Jim Mageau on anything – as even a cursory glance through Progressive Charlestown articles on Mageau will show (154 articles: CLICK HERE) – but on this matter, Mageau is right. And Flip and Boss Gentz are totally out of line.

Let’s start with a consistent principle Mageau has applied to the Charlestown Memorial Day Parade. Mageau does not allow this annual ceremony honoring America’s veterans to be sullied by partisan politics.

Tom Gentz, for all his feigned “shock” at this controversy, knows this all too well, because Gentz has not been allowed to use the Parade as a political platform either.

In the Channel 10 news coverage of this flap, Flip attempts to portray Mageau’s decision as a “pay-to-play deal,” that Mageau expected Filippi to come up with a legislative grant for the Parade and, because Flip doesn’t believe in legislative grants on principle, Mageau “black-listed: Filippi.

As the CCA Party describes it in their official web blog “State Representative Punished for not Providing Legislative Grant to Charlestown Memorial Day Parade” and that “Speakers are evidently required to pay before they approach the podium.”

Complete, total bovine excrement.

Nice to get to see the details

For more cartoons from Ted Rall, CLICK HERE

Wingnuts of the week

Getting rid of “hard-to-dispose-of” wastes could get a little easier

Senate passes Sosnowski’s Household Hazardous Waste Management Act

The Rhode Island Senate passed legislation sponsored by Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski (D-Dist. 37, New Shoreham, South Kingstown) that would create a system for disposal of hazardous household materials.

The bill (2016-S 2526A) would establish programs to aid in the monitoring, tracking, reuse, recycling, and proper disposal of hard-to- dispose materials.

“Rhode Islanders are increasingly using hard-to-dispose hazardous materials,” said Senator Sosnowski, chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee. 

“The proliferation and accumulation of these materials is a public health hazard and seriously impedes our efforts to maintain a healthy and clean environment. This legislation will bring about the effective control, recovery, and recycling of hard-to-dispose material.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: this legislation, while meritorious, does NOT address the growing problem of electronic waste. Charlestown, like many other municipalities, no longer provides a drop off for e-waste, much of which is loaded with potentially hazardous materials.

Can legumes solve environmental issues?

Legumes are important for the sustainability of European agriculture

Frontiers

It's a win-win situation for the environment and the economy when it comes to introducing legumes into agricultural systems, says new research published in Frontiers in Plant Science, carried out by an international team of scientists as part of the European Union project, Legume Futures.

Currently Europe's crop production is highly specialized in only a small number of plant species, to the detriment of the environment. Cereal crops dominate, meaning Europe imports over 70% of its protein feed stocks to support the meat industry.

"The introduction of legumes such as clovers, lupins, lucerne and faba beans can increase the sustainability of agriculture and the supply of protein in Europe," stated Moritz Reckling of the Leibniz Centre for Agriculture Research (ZALF) in Germany and lead author of this study. 

Legumes are protein-rich and would provide relief for the deficit; they also increase the amount of nitrogen available to plants through biological nitrogen fixation, reducing the need for fertilisers.

Tobin “zombie youth” theory challenged

Reverend takes Tobin to task for calling to keep cannabis criminalized

By Alexander Sharp in Rhode Island’s Future

Rev. Alexander Sharp, of Clergy for a New Drug Policy, wrote this open letter to Bishop Thomas Tobin, the head of the Catholic Church in Rhode Island who recently asked state legislators in a blog post not to make marijuana legal.

Dear Bishop Tobin,

On May 10, you asserted in a public commentary that all drug use is sinful and immoral. You urged state legislators to reject the legalization of marijuana. As a member of the Protestant clergy, I reach a very different conclusion.

We read the same Bible, worship the same God, and seek to follow the teachings of Jesus. What, then, explains where we differ, and why? You acknowledge that a case, which you do not refute, can be made for the recreational use of alcohol. Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol, yet you do not attempt to justify this double standard.

You then quote the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life.” You cite the words of Pope Francis two years ago: “Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise.”

The reality is that we live in a drug-using society. Most of us consume some kind of drug on a regular basis: alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, prescription drugs, or marijuana. The question that challenges us both, then, is how to respond to the possibility that drug use can become addictive.

Sadly, your understanding of addiction is incomplete and outdated.

VOTE YES!

Ignore the stupid rumor

By Will Collette

Photo by Will Collette

There is a stupid and malicious rumor going around that somehow I have “flipped” and no longer support the citizen referendum for Charlestown to purchase the General Stanton Inn.

That rumor is false.

Totally false. 

As if the display ads (top left and right) saying “Vote Yes!” on the front page of Progressive Charlestown weren’t enough, we have a VOTE YES yard sign on our Route One frontage. Cathy and I have also donated to the Friends of the General Stanton Inn.

I was in favor of the town’s purchase of the General Stanton Inn before the petition even started to put the question on the ballot.

When the Charlestown Town Council killed the last and final offer from a potential buyer for Inn by rejecting a necessary zoning change, I concluded that the only sure way to save Charlestown’s iconic heart was for the citizens of the town to own it.

I supported the citizens’ referendum campaign from before the very beginning. Always have. Still do.

Mixed emotions

More trout in local ponds

DEM adds 6,000 for Memorial Day weekend

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is stocking 20 ponds and rivers across Rhode Island with some 6,000 trout in advance of Memorial Day weekend - a popular time for recreational fishing.

As part of a larger network of recreational opportunities in the state, fishing plays an important role in connecting people with nature, promoting health, attracting tourism, and supporting a treasured tradition for Rhode Island families.

According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, there are approximately 175,000 recreational anglers (age 16+) in Rhode Island. And recreational fishing contributes more than $130 million to the economy each year.

Water conditions and temperatures will determine which locations are stocked. For a list of stocked waters, contact DEM's Division of Fish and Wildlife at 789-7481.

Charlestown Historical Society opens this weekend

	THE CHARLESTOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
	MAY/JUNE 2016
1838 SCHOOLHOUSE & ARCHIVE OPENING ON MAY 27TH NEW HOURS!!! Fridays:  1:00 - 3:00 PM Saturdays:  11:00 AM - 1:00 PM The 2016 Season is about to begin at the CHS 1838 Schoolhouse & Archive. This year we have new hours for Saturday visitors from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.  Friday hours will remain the same - 1:00 - 3:00 PM. Parking is available in the lower lot of the Cross' Mills Public Library or next door at the Cross' Mills Baptist Church, if needed. Looking forward to visiting with you, your families and guests this summer! MEMORIAL DAY 2016 PARADE Sunday, May 29th, 1:00 - 2:00 PM We wish you a Happy Memorial Day. The Charlestown Memorial Day Parade will take place this Sunday, May 29th, from 1:00 - 2:00 PM, along the Old Post Road in Cross' Mills. Immediately following the parade will be ceremonies, concert and refreshments at Ninigret Park. GENERAL STANTON INN OPEN HOUSE Saturday, June 4th & Sunday, June 5th 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Sunday, June 5th 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM Performance by the Cape Cod Blue Jackets Fife & Drum Corps Learn about the history of the General Stanton Inn and its possible future usage at the Open House sponsored by the Friends of the General Stanton Inn.
About Us Charlestown Historical Society P.O. Box 100 Charlestown, RI  02813 401-364-1838 Email:  info@charlestownhistorical.org  Website:  www.charlestownhistorical.org The Charlestown Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.  Charlestown Historical Society, P.O. Box 100, Charlestown, RI 02813

Calamari for everyone!

Squids on the rise as oceans change

The University of Adelaide

Unlike the declining populations of many fish species, the number of cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish and squid) has increased in the world’s oceans over the past 60 years, a University of Adelaide study has found.

The international team, led by researchers from the University’s Environment Institute, compiled a global database of cephalopod catch rates to investigate long-term trends in abundance, published in Cell Press journal Current Biology.

“Our analyses showed that cephalopod abundance has increased since the 1950s, a result that was remarkably consistent across three distinct groups,” says lead author Dr Zoë Doubleday, Research Fellow in the Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences.

AIR QUALITY ALERT, first of the season, EXTENDED

AIR QUALITY ALERT EXTENDED, worse than yesterday 

Charlestown continues to be in the "Red Zone" for high tree pollen

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is predicting that air quality will reach unhealthy levels statewide during the afternoon and late into the evening hours on Thursday, May 26. 

Continued warm weather and favorable meteorological conditions will result in unhealthy air quality, which could last possibly into Friday. The poor air quality will be due to elevated ground level ozone concentrations. 

Additionally, fine particles are expected to reach moderate levels. Ozone is a major component of smog and is formed by the photochemical reaction of pollutants emitted by motor vehicles, industry and other sources in the presence of elevated temperatures and sunlight.

Rhode Island residents can help reduce air pollutant emissions. Limit car travel and the use of small engines, lawn motors and charcoal lighter fuels. Travel by bus or carpool whenever possible, particularly during high ozone periods.

From Pollen.com

Trump’s mortgage bankster business

How Trump betrayed America

By Oliver Willis

Donald Trump’s mortgage company was part of the carnival of greed that preyed on the American people by providing subprime mortgages to unqualified borrowers, a practice which led to the financial collapse in 2008 and the Great Recession that followed.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is making a major push to bring up Trump and his role in the business that led to billions in bailout costs for the American taxpayer.

Trump wasn’t just on the outside of the scheme. His company was right in the middle of it.

Clinton’s allies highlight that Trump Mortgage approved subprime mortgages to unqualified borrowers. The mortgages were one of the key financial instruments linked to the crash.

Trump even handed out advice on how to profit from a crash like the one that would eventually occur and consume millions of jobs in America and around the world. In his book, How to Build a Fortune, Trump said, “If there is a bubble burst, as they call it, you know you can make a lot of money.”

VIDEO: Rooting for people's misery

To see this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Mrfu4yE-w

Always look at the bright side of life

New at the Charlestown Gallery

Marc Civitarese "Seeing You Again" Charlestown Gallery Open 7 Days Monday thru Saturday 10am - 5:30pm Sunday 11am - 4pm New Art and Jewelry Arriving Daily! New Persian Rugs too! 3 Great Exhibits Planned for the Summer. SUMMER OPENING GROUP SHOW June 17th - July 12th / Reception - Saturday, June 25th 5:30 - 8pm MARK FREEDMAN / Down and Up July 16th - August 9th / Reception - Saturday, July 16th 5:30 - 8pm SCOTT CONARY, DEREK GORES & SHAWN KENNEY Swan Point Connection August 13th - September 11th / Reception - Saturday, August 13th 5:30 - 8pm  All Artwork and Jewelry - Sales Tax Free www.charlestowngalleryri.com   (401) 364-0120

Charlestown Gallery, 5000 South County Trail, Charlestown, RI 02813