Elaine Morgan gets help from ultra-rightwing smear machine

Antisemitic dog whistles featured in new Gaspee Project mailer supporting State Senator Elaine Morgan

By Steve Ahlquist  in UpriseRI

Aside from the outright lies, such as “force you to pay for the most brutal late-term abortions¹,” a new mailer from the Gaspee Project in support of Elaine Morgan contains a decent amount of Trump-inspired, far right antisemitism.

The mailer reads, in part:

“But sadly, the Democrat party is led by intolerant European-style socialists like MAXINE WATERS and BERNIE SANDERS; and in Rhode Island it is funded by out-of-state special interests like the SEIU and GEORGE SOROS!”

There is no evidence that Jennifer Volpe Douglas, Morgan’s Democratic opponent for State Senate District 34 has taken any money from George Soros. EDITOR'S NOTE: State Senate District 34 includes most of the northern half of Charlestown.

How to save lives

New at the Breachway Grill

It's Fall at The Breachway Grill! Fall is officially in the air! While we do love the summer, it's always great to see our loyal locals again and to welcome you back for the fall! This summer was a big one for us this year. On top of our usual summer zaniness, we made some big changes to our management team. As some of you may have heard, Craig welcomed two new business partners to his team. Mark Lacz and Tyler Carlson, owners of three successful Westerly restaurants, have joined forces with Craig to help make the Breachway Grill the best it can be. As always, we strive to give Charlestown the one of a kind food and atmosphere that only the Breachway Grill can deliver! Now that the fall season is back in full swing, we are ready to start offering all of our wonderful fall/winter specials! We've brought back your favorite specials like Half Price Pizza on Mondays & Date Night on Tuesdays, as well as trying out a few new things. Stay tuned for more details on those! We've also updated our menu for the fall, taking off seasonal items like Whole Belly Clams and Steamers, while adding some fall favorites like Chicken Parmesan and Braised Short Ribs. We've even added some new items, including: Seafood Arancini: Crispy risotto balls stuffed with shrimp & lobster, lightly breaded and fried to golden perfection. The Breachway Burrito: Your choice of Chicken or Beef, loaded with seasoned rice, black beans, pico de gallo, Monterey Jack cheese, lettuce, guacamole, and Sriracha sour cream. And Gnocchi Bolognese: House made potato gnocchi tossed in a hearty meat sauce of veal, pork and beef, (Featured on In The Kitchen on the Rhode Show!) Seafood Arancini Braised Short Rib Gnocchi Bolognese Check Out What's Happening This Fall Weekly Specials Return All of your favorite weekday specials are officially back for the fall & winter! ·     Monday Nights enjoy 1/2 Price Pizza and Team Trivia at 7pm. ·     Tuesday Nights join us for Date Night: Dinner for 2 & a bottle of wine for only $50! ·     Thursday Nights enjoy our savory Blues, Brews & BBQ's Specials. ·     Friday & Saturday Nights continue to enjoy our live entertainment every weekend at 7pm! Sunday Gravy Will Return! Two years ago we started our delicious Sunday Gravy Specials, authentic Italian style dishes every Sunday. This year, we will be continuing our "Sunday Gravy" specials, but they will now be a Family Style Sunday Dinner Special! Our new special will include salad and bread for the table and a family style entree to share!  Sunday Gravy has always been about bringing everyone together for a delicious, heartwarming dinner as a family, and that's the spirit we'd like to continue every Sunday night.    Stay tuned for our full list of Sunday Specials from now until December! The Breachway Grill 1 Charlestown Beach Rd Charlestown, RI 02813 401-213-6615 www.BreachwayGrill.com ‌ ‌ ‌

The Breachway Grill | One Charlestown Beach Road, Charlestown, RI 02813

South Kingstown polluted site to become a solar array farm

DEM Announces New Round Of Brownfields Grant Awardess

A South Kingstown property that was once a waste disposal area can soon begin its transformation into a solar array capable of producing enough clean energy to power 610 homes, thanks to a $306,000 combination brownfield site assessment-redevelopment grant it will obtain from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM).

Supporting the Raimondo Administration's commitment to Rhode Island producing 10 times as much clean energy and 20,000 clean energy jobs by 2020, the proposed waste disposal site-into-solar farm metamorphosis is one of 12 projects that DEM has approved for $2.6 million in grant awards through the 2018 Brownfields Remediation and Economic Development Fund Grant Round. 

Four out of the 12 selected projects have green energy characteristics. The 2016 Green Economy Bond, which RI voters passed by a 68%-32% margin and invested $5 million in incentivizing the redevelopment and productive reuse of polluted sites – known as brownfields – is the source of the money.

"When we're able to clean up brownfields while also increasing our commitment to renewable energy, that's progress we can all be proud of. Cleaning up contaminated brownfields sites is one of the smartest investments government can make," said Governor Gina Raimondo. "I'm committed to funding these projects quickly, and I look forward to the success stories that this latest round of funding will set into motion."

In all, 11 of the funded projects will create 598 construction jobs and 269 permanent jobs. The application for the first phase of the remediation of the Newport Grand property estimates that by itself, this project will generate 1,241 construction jobs and 565 permanent jobs. The projects also will unlock tens of millions of dollars in additional investments and promote smart growth by reclaiming and reusing valuable real estate.

"DEM significantly increased the emphasis on the green energy reuse option in the scoring criteria for this request for proposals. It's terrific to see that three of the projects feature solar arrays and one will become a LEED-certified building," DEM Director Janet Coit said. 

She noted that the 2018 Green Economy and Clean Water Bond – Question No. 3 on the November ballot – includes $4 million more to invest in brownfields cleanup. "Supporting Question 3 will continue our positive trajectory toward cleaning up our waterways and contaminated sites, preserving farmland and open space, and ensuring our state remains a healthy and wonderful place to live, work, visit, and raise a family," Coit said.

Brownfield Grants Fast Facts

• DEM is awarding 13 brownfields grants to 12 projects (1 site is getting 2 grants). • The projects are in Cranston, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence, Smithfield, and South Kingstown. • Green and clean: projects include 1 solar farm, 2 rooftop solar arrays, and 1 LEED-certified apartment building with a green roof to collect stormwater. • The grant awards total $2.6 million (the balance remaining from the 2016 Green Economy Bond). • Of the 13 grants, 3 are for site assessment and 10 are for redevelopment.

Not even Cheerios are safe

Another round of tests finds weedkiller widespread in popular cereals and snack bars

Brian Bienkowski for the Environmental Health News

Glyphosate— the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller—was found in all 28 samples of different cereals, oatmeal and snack bars tested by a lab for Environmental Working Group, according to a report released today.

The nonprofit health and environmental organization sent 10 samples of different types of General Mills' Cheerios and 18 samples of different Quaker brand products from PepsiCo, including instant oatmeal, breakfast cereal and snack bars to Anresco Laboratories in San Francisco.

"People don't want this pesticide on their food, especially in foods marketed to and consumed by children," Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist at EWG, told EHN.

The report comes two months after EWG reported glyphosate in 43 out of 45 samples of oat-based foods, including five foods that used "organic" oats. Since that report, glyphosate has been consistently in the news as last month a jury in California found Monsanto's Roundup caused a groundskeeper's cancer, and awarded him a settlement of $289 million. The damages were reduced to $78 million this week after Monsanto asked for a retrial, which wasn't granted.

Trump made him do it

Man arrested for groping woman on Southwest flight says said It’s OK to grab women by their private parts’

By Joe Clark 

Alexander's mug shot

As Donald Trump continues to normalize insanity, his supporters around the country are increasingly citing him to explain their atrocious behavior.

A Houston, Texas newspaper, KHOU, is reporting that 49-year-old Bruce Alexander of Tampa, Florida was arrested after groping a woman on a Southwest Airlines flight from Houston to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The woman said she felt Alexander’s hand move from behind her and grab her right breast. She said she fell asleep about 20 minutes into the flight and not long after, she felt him touch her but assumed it was an accident.

About 30 minutes later, she said she felt Alexander’s hand grab the back of her arm ‘slowly and attentively‘ and grope around her ribs and then her breast.

She stood up and confronted Alexander, telling him that she didn’t understand how he could possibly think this is OK.

A flight attendant re-seated her in another part of the plane.

Why did Alexander think this is OK? Well, according to Alexander, he got his ideas from the pr*sident.

Go Big and Bold

Democrats: Don’t Go High or Low.

By Robert Reich

Donald Trump says the midterm elections are a “referendum about me.” Of course they are. Everything is about him.

Anyone who still believes the political divide runs between Republicans and Democrats hasn’t been paying attention. There’s no longer a Republican Party. The GOP is now just pro-Trump.

Meanwhile Trump is doing all he can to make the Democratic Party the anti-Trump Party. 

“Democrats,” he declares, are “too dangerous to govern.” They’re “an angry left-wing mob,”leading an “assault on our country.”

Never before has a president of the United States been so determined not to be president of all Americans. He’s president of his supporters.  

Tyrants create cults of personality. Trump is beyond that. He equates America with himself, and disloyalty to him with insufficient patriotism. In his mind, a giant “Trump” sign hangs over the nation. “We” are his supporters, acolytes, and toadies. “They” are the rest of us.

Not a joke.

For more cartoons by Mike Luckovich, CLICK HERE.

Read what Trump apparently can't read (or understand)

Is it an “either-or?”

Rules Near for Renewables on Farms and Open Space

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

The struggle between open space and renewable energy is playing out on Rhode Island farms.

Some farmers see wind turbines and solar fields as a boost to their modest and often unpredictable income. 

They say renewable energy can keep a farm practicing traditional agriculture instead of being forced to sell farmland — a tempting option given that Rhode Island farmland is the most expensive in the country.

Happy Halloween

Pass the pancakes

USDA gives URI $500,000 to promote maple industry

Carol McCarthy

A new, federally funded initiative at the University of Rhode Island will promote the maple industry throughout the Northeast, stressing the sustainability and market value of this local crop and the potential health benefits of maple food products.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Acer Access and Development Program has awarded nearly half a million dollars to researchers from three colleges at URI to raise public awareness of maple products and the potential benefits of the natural sweetener, increase consumption and promote the industry. 

The initiative, called the Collaborative to Communicate Maple Benefits, will target all of New England as well as New York and New Jersey.

Trump Administration Creating A Massive Refugee Crisis

No, it's not the ‘Caravan.’ 

By Sarah Okeson

Trump is about to create a massive refugee crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Even as the administration riles its voter base with cooked-up stories of an invading caravan of Central Americans, the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to release thousands of asylum-seekers already here—stranding them in border towns from Texas to California.

Immigration attorney Bridget Cambria said the mass release could be an attempt to pressure to undo the Flores settlement that limits how long our country can hold immigrant children in custody.

Rhode Island women call on Fung to ditch DePetro

DePetro called nurses and school teachers “hags” and “whores”

 UpriseRI 

Women leaders are calling on Mayor Allan Fung to ditch his association with the oft-fired, sexist and conspiratorial radio host John DePetro.

DePetro is scheduled to emcee Fung’s “Women for Fung” fundraiser Tuesday night. DePetro was sued in 2012 by a co-worker for sexual harassment, then called female teachers and nurses “union hags” and “whores” on-air, sparking a statewide boycott of DePetro’s former WPRO radio show.

“Asking someone with views like John DePetro to preside over a women’s get-out-the-vote event is tone-deaf and alarming, but hardly surprising coming from Allan Fung. Allan Fung has embraced Donald Trump and shown Rhode Island women that he does not stand with us,” said Sulina Mohanty, chairwoman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party’s Women’s Caucus.

“We call on Allan Fung to ditch John DePetro from his event. Standing alongside a bigot like DePetro sends a glaring message to Rhode Island women, minorities, the LGBTQ community and all marginalized communities that you do not represent us.”

In 2013, after DePetro made caustic and derogatory statements about teachers and nurses, calling them “union hags” and “whores,”

After a week of right-wing mayhem...

For more cartoons by Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE.

Going to the source

Environment and economy go hand in hand

URI’s Coastal Resources Center leads major statewide initiative on Rhode Island’s ‘blue economy’

Tony LaRoche

The University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center is leading a statewide initiative to document the Ocean State’s robust “Blue Economy’’ – the vast array of businesses, industries and institutions tied to the state’s waters. The initiative will serve as the catalyst to promote and enhance this vital sector.

“The initiative’s overall goal is to build a thriving network among Rhode Island’s ocean industries, which promotes innovation and cooperation, and leverages the public-private partnerships URI has built over decades of research, education and collaboration,” said URI President David M. Dooley. 

The study, backed by the Graduate School of Oceanography and Rhode Island Sea Grant, may be one of the first to compile a complete picture of the state’s ocean economy into a single source.

The “blue economy” is a wide-ranging sector comprising industries such as defense, recreation and tourism, marine construction and transportation, boat and ship building, offshore energy, commercial and recreational fishing, hatcheries and aquaculture, and research and education.

Making transgender rights disappear

SEX AND GENDER AREN’T THE SAME THING

By Jill Richardson

Trump is having a problem with sex, and it’s not exactly what you might think. There are no Russian tapes, spankings with magazines, or confessions of grabbing anyone this time around.

Specifically, it’s a problem with sex and gender.

Sex and gender aren’t the same thing, though many people mistake them for being synonymous.

I was mistaken too, until I began studying social science. I was born with two X chromosomes and all of the body parts that come with them. 

So I was assigned female (my sex) at birth and I was raised as a girl (my gender). Since my sex (determined by chromosomes, body parts, and hormones) and my gender (all of the non-biological components of what makes you a man or a woman) matched, the two felt synonymous.

Nothing about my chromosomes or genitalia created a biological need to do the behavior associated with my gender: playing with dolls, wearing dresses, polishing my nails. But, as I was taught as a child that girls do those things, they felt right.

Social scientists say that gender is something you do, not something you are. We also talk about something called the “gender binary.” This is the false yet pervasive belief that there are two, and only two, sexes and genders.

Trump Labor Department announces its fall offensive against workers’ rights

Wages, safety, pension rules head for the meat grinder

By Christine Owens, Executive Director, National Employment Law Project

In the Fall Regulatory Agenda released by the U.S. Department of Labor, the Trump administration continues its relentless march toward repealing safeguards designed to protect the rights of workers to receive the wages they are owed, to be safe on the job, and to have access to robust health care and retirement security.

For a president who promised in his inaugural speech that every decision he made would be to benefit our nation’s workers, the DOL’s Fall Regulatory Agenda is just another in a long string of broken promises to working people.

How about the “New England Cottontails?”

Of sports and endangered species

Peter Dykstra for the Environmental Health News

Wolverine range in the U.S. has declined substantially.

The ill-tempered beasts can only be found in the mountains of the Northern Rockies and the Cascades range, and a hundred-yard long patch of grass in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The University of Michigan Wolverines ranked fourth in licensed merchandise sales this year. 

This includes not just the football Wolverines, but 28 other men's and women's varsity sports, but it does not include presumably much larger income in ad and broadcast revenue, alumni contributions, ticket sales, and much more.

Overall, the college sports merchandise biz totals $4.6 billion. The Wolverines' sales trail two other vanishing animals and an ethnic stereotype, the Texas Longhorns, the Alabama Crimson Tide (who deploy an elephant as their symbol, go figure), and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

This cashflow is even more impressive when two more facts are tossed in: 1) Wolverines – the four-legged ones – are actually the feistiest members of the weasel family; and 2) There hasn't been a four-legged wolverine spotted in the state of Michigan since the 19^th century.

The wolverines of the Northwest keep no such data but it's widely believed that public interest and expenditures are considerably less.

Sidenote: Maybe the New England Cottontails would be a better name than the New England Patriots. The little critters could use some help especially since Trump has put the brakes on federal wildlife refuges. He and his Interior Department flunky Ryan Zinke are openly hostile to expanding federal protected lands such as the proposed Great Thicket NWR that would have included Charlestown. 

But some Interior Department staff are still working on breeding the bunnies and then placing them in uninhabited areas to expand the population. Click HERE for more. Imagine what they could do with the support of New England's sports franchises. Next, the Boston Redtail Hawks. – W. Collette

Your fault

Heil Trump

Yes, your pet can tell time

New study finds 'timing cells' in the brain may underlie an animal's inner clock

Northwestern University

Are you taking your time when feeding your pet? Fluffy and Fido are on to you -- and they can tell when you are dawdling.

A new study from Northwestern University has found some of the clearest evidence yet that animals can judge time. 

By examining the brain's medial entorhinal cortex, the researchers discovered a previously unknown set of neurons that turn on like a clock when an animal is waiting.

"Does your dog know that it took you twice as long to get its food as it took yesterday? There wasn't a good answer for that before," said Daniel Dombeck, who led the study. 

"This is one of the most convincing experiments to show that animals really do have an explicit representation of time in their brains when they are challenged to measure a time interval."

Despite pleas from jurors. Judge reduces damages levied against Monsanto

Judge Upholds Landmark Monsanto Verdict, But Slashes Punitive Damages by $211 Million

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams

A judge in California on Monday upheld a landmark verdict in a case brought by a terminal cancer patient who successfully argued his illness resulted from his exposure to Monsanto's weedkiller RoundUp, but slashed the damages the agrochemical giant was originally required to pay from $289 million down to just $78 million and said she would order a retrial if former groundskeeper Dewayne "Lee" Johnson rejects the payout.

Jurors had come forward to demand that San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos respect their historic verdict, issued in August. The judge had been considering a request for a retrial from Monsanto, but decided (pdf) instead to cut the punitive damages from $250 to $39 million.

A spokeswoman for Johnson, a 46-year-old father of three who is battling non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and his lawyers told NBC News, "Although we believe a reduction in punitive damages was unwarranted and we are weighing the options, we are pleased the court did not disturb the verdict." They have until Dec. 7 to make a decision.

Corrupt Government Officials Have Less To Fear Under Trump

Study Finds a Sharp Decline in Prosecutions, Down 25% from Obama Administration

By David Cay Johnston, DCReport Editor-in-Chief

Under Donald Trump, federal corruption prosecutions dropped by nearly a quarter, Syracuse University researchers found after analyzing detailed new Justice Department data.

The long-term trend shows that under Trump a steady decline in federal law enforcement efforts against government corruption is accelerating. 

Trump has repeatedly attacked the Justice Department and the FBI, including delusional rhetoric based on conspiracy theories about a  “deep state” that he says is out to get him. 

In September, at a rally for his 2020 re-election campaign, he accused the agencies of not doing their jobs and indicated he wants them to prosecute Hillary Clinton.

There were 340 corruption prosecutions during the first 11 months of the 2018 budget year, which ended Sept. 30. That indicates the annual total will be about 371 cases, down almost 24% from the previous year, which began under President Obama.