AI Wants Our Jobs…All of Them

AI Advances Threaten Livelihoods

By JOE MANISCALCO

Right now, there are people in industries across the United States working very hard to raise their families, but who are openly worrying they have…maybe…one year left before AI takes their jobs.

In Nevada, for instance, where beneath the sheen or this year’s big Super Bowl bash Allegiant Stadium workers were fighting for livable wages — other service workers up and down the rest of the Las Vegas Strip have been waking up every day wondering just how much longer they’ll have their good union jobs now that the robots have arrived.

There’s not a whole heckuva lot to cheer in the face of that.

Everywhere you look nowadays, automation and AI continue to be treated like unassailable forces of nature far beyond anyone’s control — and not the result of a very specific, well-orchestrated, and easily understandable campaign by filthy rich corporations to wring even more profit out of the unwashed masses.

And I dunno about you, but it makes me sick to my stomach. Is it any wonder that depression rates in the greatest nation on earth have reached record levels, and are now some 10 percent higher that they were in 2015?

Of course the corporate capitalists are gonna capitalize — and I don’t think that’s really what’s making me sick. At least not the whole reason.

What really grinds my gears and sticks in my craw is something Martin Ford, author of “Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future” told me almost a decade ago, when I asked him if we could expect the American public to rise up at some point, plant their flag, and declare automation has gone too far and will not be allowed to go any further.

“I wouldn’t put too much hope in that,” Ford said. “It would be nice to think that people would rebel and not use the technology on that basis. But the fact of the matter is, when you’re wearing your consumer hat and not your worker hat, you look for the lowest price.”

And therein lies the crux of this problem. Capitalists are, indeed, gonna capitalize — but it’s up to the rest of us who work for a living to resist them. We have that power. We do not have to buy what they’re selling. We are more than consumers — we are citizens and we need to stop selling our souls for…what? More “convenience?” “Ease of use?” I worry, because, keep it up everyone — and we’ll ease ourselves right out of existence.

GOP's 2024 election plan

Emily Bernstein

Clear enough for ya?

European regulators bust Amazon over worker rights

A Challenge to Intrusive Workplace Monitoring

by Philip Mattera, director of the Corporate Research Project for the Dirt Diggers Digest

One of the drawbacks of the growing presence of electronic technology in the labor process is the ability of managers to conduct continuous surveillance of workers. 

Those who toil at computers have their keystrokes measured and evaluated, while others are monitored via handheld scanners or other devices.

U.S. corporations think they have every right to use these techniques in the pursuit of maximum output and higher profits. As Amazon.com has just learned, that may not be so easy when it comes to their European operations. 

The e-commerce giant was just fined the equivalent of $35 million for employing an “excessively intrusive” system of electronic monitoring of employee performance at its warehouses in France.

A cure for Trumpism?

Researchers 3D-print functional human brain tissue

University of Wisconsin-Madison

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists has developed the first 3D-printed brain tissue that can grow and function like typical brain tissue.

It's an achievement with important implications for scientists studying the brain and working on treatments for a broad range of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

It's official: The National Rifle Association IS corrupt

NRA loses New York corruption trial over squandered funds

Retired longtime leader Wayne LaPierre must repay millions of dollars

Sarah Webber, University of Dayton and Elizabeth Schmidt, UMass Amherst

Former NRA leader Wayne LaPierre addresses the group’s
members in 2022. AP Photo/Michael Wyke

A New York jury found on Feb. 23, 2024, that the National Rifle Association and three of its current and former officials had broken the state’s laws by misusing charitable assets. It also determined that two of the officials should repay the gun group millions of dollars.

The verdict followed a six-week corruption trial that came nearly four years after New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the NRA and almost five years after investigative journalists reported that the group’s leaders, vendors and contractors had improperly spent the nonprofit’s funds on lavish travel and other personal expenses. 

The NRA responded to the verdict by saying it had been “victimized by certain former vendors and ‘insiders’ who abused the trust placed in them by the Association” and listing steps it had already taken to get its house in order.

The Conversation asked Sarah Webber and Elizabeth Schmidt, experts on nonprofit accountability at the University of Dayton and UMass Amherst, to answer questions about the complicated case.

What does this verdict mean for the defendants?

The jury evaluated evidence regarding the NRA and three individual defendants in the case: Wayne LaPierre, the longtime head of the NRA; its former treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips; and John Frazer, who is still serving as the group’s corporate secretary and general counsel.

The jury found that all three defendants had violated state nonprofit statutes and breached their fiduciary duties.

It also found that the NRA had ignored whistleblower complaints and retaliated against the whistleblowers, submitted false filings and failed to properly oversee its charitable funds. The NRA was found liable for making false statements in mandatory regulatory filings, as was Frazer.

The jury determined that LaPierre, who announced his retirement days before the trial began and officially stepped down while it was underway, had “violated his statutory obligation to discharge the duties of his position in good faith.”

LaPierre was ordered to repay the NRA US$5.4 million. Because he has already repaid over $1 million following an internal NRA investigation, he will only have to pay back $4.35 million, James announced.

Since the jury said that LaPierre should be removed from his job, from which he had already resigned, it’s possible that he will be barred from ever returning.

Phillips was ordered to pay $2 million back to the NRA. Although the jury did not find that there was enough evidence against Frazer to remove him from his current position as corporate secretary, it did find both Frazer and Phillips had violated their duties as corporate officers of the NRA.

Another defendant, LaPierre’s former chief of staff Joshua Powell, settled the case against him on the eve of the trial and agreed to testify against his former employer, the NRA. Powell must repay the NRA $100,000 and is permanently barred from serving in any fiduciary capacity at charitable organizations in New York state.

CCA complains about policy they had established

Robert’s revenge?

By Will Collette

Robert Malin, a gentle soul who showed
very little interest in revenge. RIP.

It’s an election year, so, of course, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) is seething with anger over a host of grievances and threats that they hope voters will believe and return them to power on November 5.

Among the CCA’s grievances, the CCA is angry at the Town Council majority, all of whom won under the Charlestown Residents United (CRU) banner, for not automatically filling a recent Council vacancy with their guy, the one who finished in 6th place on the ballot.

The midterm vacancy occurred due to the sad death of Council member Grace Klinger. Grace had not planned to run for reelection, but died before she could finish her term.

The CCA insisted the seat then belonged to the CCA’s Peter Gardner, the 2022 6th place finisher who got 1,655 votes (compared to Council President Deb Carney’s 2,106 votes).

Although the CCA admits on its website that Charlestown’s Town Charter does not require vacancies to be filled by the next highest vote-getter, nonetheless they were outraged the seat didn’t go to Gardner (or the 7th place finisher, another CCAer Ann Owen).

Instead, the Council exercised its prerogative to make the appointment to pick Grace’s replacement will pick from applicants who filed an application by March 1. This is the procedure for filling vacancies on boards, committees and commissions as outlined in C-168 of the Town Charter.

That triggered CCA acolyte Mikey Chambers to offer this angry commentary:

Unless I miss my guess, and I don’t believe so, the appointment will go to the highest vote getter who did not run as an Independent (CCA), but as a CRU (Democrat?) candidate. So much for the wishes of the people! This will go the way of the wishes of the people in the town-wide survey. The preference of the people will again be ignored. If you can’t see this, you haven’t been paying attention.

Mikey, it’s not just your guess that you’re missing.

First, what makes you think it will go to the “highest vote getter who did not run as an Independent (CCA)?” If the Council follows the CCA’s precedent, they might pick someone who wasn’t a candidate at all in the 2022 election.

Second, what do you mean by labelling CCA candidates as “independent” when they must all swear allegiance to the CCA platform AND if they are elected but fail to follow CCA orders, they are severely punished? CCA politicians are about as independent as members of Vladimir Putin’s government.

Third, what makes you think a putative choice of a CRU member means appointing a Democrat? In fact, the four-member CRU majority that swept the 2022 election consisted of one Democrat and three Republicans. The 5^th candidate on the CRU slate ran as unaffiliated with either party.

And fourth, Mikey, how is it that you claim a 2021 town survey, larded with push-poll questions and followed by cherry-picked CCA interpretation somehow trumps the 2022 General Election as the “wishes of the people?” Maybe you should ask someone for help in understanding how the democratic process works.

The most recent precedent for Charlestown’s current situation occurred in 2018.

After the 2016 election brought in an all-CCA Council, a vacancy opened up when Steve Williams resigned in January of 2018. The 6th place finisher was Democrat Robert Malin. In fact, Robert was the only candidate among the six running for Council who was not CCA-endorsed.

The argument was made that Robert should be chosen since he actually ran for the office.

CCA President Leo Mainelli disagreed, stating at the February 12, 2018 Council meeting that George Tremblay should be appointed even though he was not on the ballot. Those so-called independent remaining four CCA Councilors dutifully followed Leo's command.

As it turns out, had Robert been appointed to the vacancy, he would not have fulfilled his term, dying of cancer in June 2018. George Tremblay suffered a stroke one year into his appointed term but did finish it out but did not run for re-election in November of 2018.

How a municipality fills vacancies to elected office is a matter of law. Some towns, such as Richmond, say in their Town Charters that vacancies are filled by the next highest vote getter.

However, remember that the MAGA majority running Richmond decided not to follow that clear legal mandate when it selected a right-wing nut who didn’t even run to fill a Richmond vacancy on the Chariho School Committee. The state Supreme Court ruled the town had to follow its own Charter and booted the MAGA choice.

Charlestown leaves the decision on how to fill vacancies to the Council. That’s what the CCA said in 2018 when it chose Tremblay over Malin and that’s what the current CRU majority is saying now.

How you feel about that has everything to do with how you feel about who is running the Town Council.

Voters can decide this question if a Charter amendment question is put on the ballot. Maybe it’s time to settle that question, and I don’t mean by running some self-serving survey.

Leadership model

 

Compare the stats

 

Stanford Medicine study identifies distinct brain organization patterns in women and men

What difference does it make?

Stanford Medicine researchers have developed a powerful new artificial intelligence model that can distinguish between male and female brains.

A new study by Stanford Medicine investigators unveils a new artificial intelligence model that was more than 90% successful at determining whether scans of brain activity came from a woman or a man.

The findings, published Feb. 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, help resolve a long-term controversy about whether reliable sex differences exist in the human brain and suggest that understanding these differences may be critical to addressing neuropsychiatric conditions that affect women and men differently.

Charlestown under a high wind advisory through tonight

 

Wake up!

Back in the day, being woke meant being smart

Ronald E. Hall, Michigan State University

Demonstrators march on Jan. 1, 1934, in Washington
against the unjust trials of nine Black men falsely
accused of raping two white women. Bettmann/Getty Images

If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had his way, the word “woke” would be banished from public use and memory.

As he promised in Iowa in December 2023 during his failed presidential campaign, “We will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in the corporations, we will fight the woke in the halls of Congress. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob.”

DeSantis’ war on “woke ideology” has resulted in the banning of an advanced placement class in African American studies and the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Florida’s universities and colleges.

Given the origins of the use of the word as a code among Black people, DeSantis has a nearly impossible task, despite his tireless efforts.

For Black people, the modern-day meaning of the word has little to do with school curriculum or political jargon and goes back to the days of Jim Crow and legal, often violent, racial segregation. Back then, the word was used as a warning to be aware of racial injustices in general and Southern white folks in particular.

In my view as a behavioral scientist who studies race, being woke was part of the unwritten vocabulary that Black people established to talk with each other in a way that outsiders could not understand.

Rhode Island Environmental Laws Find Themselves in Land of the Lost

Pass it and forget it

By Frank Carini / ecoRI News columnist

Rhode Island has a peculiar way of protecting public and environmental health. On paper, it’s awesome. In reality, it sucks.

In the early 2000s, for example, the General Assembly passed legislation designed to control the use of pesticides on school grounds. But in typical Rhode Island fashion, the law has never really been enforced.

Rep. Lauren Carson, D-Newport, expressed her frustration with this all-too-common state practice during a Feb. 6 House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources hearing.

“Many parts of the bill have never happened,” she said. “I’m disappointed this bill was not property implemented.”

Carson noted the legislation mandated that after July 1, 2001, no person other than a licensed or certified commercial applicator was allowed to apply pesticide in any school building or on the grounds of any school.

“We don’t have any idea if that is happening,” she said. “Could be maintenance people are using chemicals.”

The law’s other six mandates — e.g., the creation of a task force and providing, each new school year, parents and guardians with a written statement regarding pesticide application policy on school property and a description of any pesticide use at the school the previous year — were also forgotten.

Carson has co-sponsored a bill (H7359), with same name as its ignored predecessor, “Pesticide Control,” that she and other lawmakers hope will remedy the past 23 years of neglect.

Honestly though, what is the point of crafting, holding hearings, voting, and sometimes passing legislation that is designed to protect Rhode Island public and environmental health?

As soon as the governor’s signature dries and the bill-signing show packed up, the legislation is forgotten. No follow-up. No support. No funding. No enforcement. Pure theater.

GOP loves a parade

By Mike Luckovich

Trump's economic record

FBI’s chief explosive scientist who analyzed Boston Marathon bombing to speak at URI on March 8

FBI’s Kirk Yeager to share insight into explosives science with future forensic scientists at URI 

Kirk Yeager, chief explosive scientist at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will discuss the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and other explosive events during the University of Rhode Island’s Forensic Science Seminar Series on Friday, March 8. 

URI students attend the series for credit, but lectures are free and open to the public.  

During his presentation, “Bombings: from Tactics to Trials,” Yeager will discuss a career that has taken him to crime scenes on Boylston Street and beyond. His lecture is scheduled for URI’s Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences (Room 100), 140 Flagg Road, on the Kingston Campus from 3:30 to 5 p.m.  

Sea lampreys are our cousins; Expect awkward Thanksgiving dinners

Scientists uncover how sea lamprey brain development is remarkably similar to that of humans

Stowers Institute for Medical Research

The sea lamprey, a 500-million-year-old animal with a sharp-toothed suction cup for a mouth, is the thing of nightmares. 

A new study from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research discovered that the hindbrain -- the part of the brain controlling vital functions like blood pressure and heart rate -- of both sea lampreys and humans is built using an extraordinarily similar molecular and genetic toolkit.

Research from the lab of Investigator Robb Krumlauf, Ph.D., published on February 20, 2024 in Nature Communications offers a glimpse into how the brains of ancient animals evolved.

The team unexpectedly uncovered that a crucial molecular cue is very broadly required during vertebrate hindbrain development.

When the AI-Powered Killer Drones Start Talking to Each Other

Humanity could face a significant risk to its existence

MICHAEL T. KLARE for the TomDispatch

Yes, it’s already time to be worried — very worried. As the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have shown, the earliest drone equivalents of “killer robots” have made it onto the battlefield and proved to be devastating weapons. But at least they remain largely under human control. 

Imagine, for a moment, a world of war in which those aerial drones (or their ground and sea equivalents) controlled us, rather than vice-versa. Then we would be on a destructively different planet in a fashion that might seem almost unimaginable today. 

Sadly, though, it’s anything but unimaginable, given the work on artificial intelligence (AI) and robot weaponry that the major powers have already begun. Now, let me take you into that arcane world and try to envision what the future of warfare might mean for the rest of us.

By combining AI with advanced robotics, the U.S. military and those of other advanced powers are already hard at work creating an array of self-guided “autonomous” weapons systems — combat drones that can employ lethal force independently of any human officers meant to command them. 

Called “killer robots” by critics, such devices include a variety of uncrewed or “unmanned” planes, tanks, ships, and submarines capable of autonomous operation. 

They deserve each other

A perfect couple: The worst president and a wretched first lady 

by Mark Sumner for Daily Kos

Here they are with another role model power couple, convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. (Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)

Melania Trump hasn’t been associating with her husband, Donald, on his retribution tour across America. She hasn’t been at his side during his trials for fraud or for defaming a woman he sexually assaulted in a dressing room. 

She didn’t even show up for her spouse’s New Year's Eve party. That level of dedicated absence may lead to suggestions that the Einstein visa-winning former nude model doesn’t really care for her ketchup-hurling husband.

The genuineness of this photo of Trump and 11 year old
Ivanka was checked by Snopes.com
and determined to be real.

But over the weekend, there was more evidence that the pair are perfect for each other. They may not be a match made in heaven, but in whatever spiritual sweatshop cranks out rich-old-guy-and-much-younger-trophy-wife relationships, these two are a chef’s kiss.

That fresh evidence starts with Fox News fuming over the latest presidential rankings from a survey of political scholars who specialize in presidential history. Those rankings once again have Abraham Lincoln in the top spot. It’s also no surprise who is riding in the historical caboose. Not only is Trump ranked dead last, he’s last by a huge margin. It’s bad. Like, way behind James Buchanan bad.

And to really get MAGA fans grinding their molars: Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden are in the top 15.

History shows liberals were always right

For more cartoons by Ruben Bolling, CLICK HERE

Thank you for your service.

 

Electronics Recycling in Charlestown on Saturday, March 2

Safely dispose of old electronics, electrical appliances, wires, etc.

Indie Cycle owner Phyllis Hutnak (photo by Will Collette)

Put it on your calendar and start collecting all your unused stuff!

Charlestown Mini Super and Indie Cycle, LLC will hold an electronic waste drop off event on Saturday, March 2 from 9 AM until noon at the Mini-Super located on 4071 Old Post Road.

The drop off event is free and open to anyone.

Phyllis Hutnak, owner of Carolina-based Indie Cycle LLC, and her company were profiled HERE and HERE shortly after their launch more than 12 years ago.

By giving them your old electronics stuff prevents hazardous material from being dumped in the landfill and, instead, will make sure these discarded items are recycled.

See the list of things they take here, collect it up, and bring it in on March 2!

Indie Cycle normally holds an event here every three months so if you miss this one the next will likely be in early June.

Donating and reselling old clothes is getting more rough-and-tumble as older charities and newer for-profits compete for used clothing

Who should get your old clothes?

Mary Lhowe in·Ocean State Stories 

English immigrant Samuel Slater helped launch the Industrial Revolution in America by memorizing the secret design of Britain’s advanced spinning technology, smuggling the information illegally into the United States, and building, in 1793, on the Blackstone River, our country’s first textile mill. 

He could hardly have imagined some impacts of textiles more than 200 years later:

● A country awash in clothing, driven by consumerism and marketing surges like fast fashion.

● Overfilled landfills, including plenty of usable clothing.

● River bays and land polluted with microscopic plastics from polyester clothing.

● Heavy use of water, electricity, and chemicals to manufacture clothes.

Starting in the late 1990s and ramping up since then, Americans have applied their ingenuity to earn profits – and to help the poor – by collecting and reselling used clothing and other textiles.

Rhode Islanders are familiar with the multi-colored bins scattered across the landscape inviting people to drop off used clothing and textiles (bedding, linens, etc.). The names on the bins are familiar: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island, Goodwill Industries, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, Kiducation, St. Pauly Textile Inc., Upcycle Collaborative, and more.

Collecting and reselling textiles is competitive  and getting more so, with a growing influx of people getting into the game for profit. They are following the lead of non-profits that have been collecting and selling textiles for charitable purposes for decades.

Business is so good in this arena now that many charities that operate public donation bins outfit them with GPS trackers because they may be stolen and sometimes repainted and re-purposed by competitors, or even sold as scrap metal. 

Leaders of charitable organizations doing this work say they know of instances where shady operators game the system by stealing clothes or bins, or, more often, conveying the impression they are charities when they are not.

How you can tell propaganda from journalism

Let’s look at Tucker Carlson’s visit to Russia

Michael J. Socolow, University of Maine

Tucker Carlson at a Moscow grocery store, praising
the bread. Screenshot, Tucker Carlson Network

Tucker Carlson, the conservative former cable TV news pundit, recently traveled to Moscow to interview Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for his Tucker Carlson Network, known as TCN.

The two-hour interview itself proved dull. Even Putin found Carlson’s soft questioning “disappointing.” Very little from the interview was newsworthy.

Other videos Carlson produced while in Russia, however, seemed to spark far more significant commentary. Carlson marveled at the beauty of the Moscow subway and seemed awed by the cheap prices in a Russian supermarket. He found the faux McDonald’s – rebranded “Tasty-period” – cheeseburgers delicious.

As a scholar of broadcast propaganda, I believe Carlson’s work provides an opportunity for public education in distinguishing between propaganda and journalism. Some Americans, primarily Carlson’s fans, will view the videos as accurate reportage. Others, primarily Carlson’s detractors, will reject them as mendacious propaganda.

But closely considering these categories, and evaluating Carlson’s work in context, might deepen public understanding of the distinction between journalism and propaganda in the American context.

Lawmakers, advocates call for extra $16M to make the green bond greener

Has past funding been distributed fairly?

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Rhode Island has conserved more than 92,000 acres of forest and farm land through state open space and conservation easement programs. (Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management). This map shows a disproportionate distribution of state open space funded properties. Heavy in the western end of South County, especially Charlestown, while light in the eastern end towns like Exeter, North and South Kingstown and Narragansett.

It doesn’t matter who hears the tree that falls in the forest if the forest has already been razed for development or ravaged by brush fires.

Which is why environmental advocates and lawmakers are rallying behind a proposal to borrow $16 million for state land preservation — before it’s too late.  

“Once farmland is gone, it’s gone,” said Sen. Lou DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat. “You can’t get that back.”

DiPalma and Rep. Megan Cotter, an Exeter Democrat, introduced legislation earlier this month to add $16 million for land protection programs to the existing, $50 million “green economy” bond included in Gov. Dan McKee’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal. 

The extra money would replenish depleted grant programs that preserve open space, forest and farmland, which might otherwise be sold for commercial development or cleared to make way for massive solar arrays. There is also money for forest management and habitat restoration.

3233.8766 acres in Charlestown alone: 

DEM Land Aquisition report. These figures DO NOT include open space where state funding was not a factor, such as lands owned by the federal government, the Narragansett Indian Tribe, private non-profits, the Town of Charlestown or its two "fake" fire districts (Central Quonnie and Shady Harbor).

Only $399.00

The simple truth

Toxics, trolls and trucks in Ninigret Park

February 26 Town Council Meeting Preview

By Charlestown Residents United

We've known about hazardous waste left behind by
the Ninigret Naval Air station since at least 1987.
Here is a 2015 map. Much of it is still there.
Current information will be part of the 
Corps of Engineers presentation at the Council meeting.

The Charlestown Town Council will hold their second February meeting on Monday, February 26.

 

First, there will be an executive session meeting, at 6:30 pm, to discuss pending litigation regarding a zoning matter.

 

The regular Council meeting will begin at 7 pm in the Council Chambers. Here are some of the topics that will be of interest:

 

• The Council will discuss, and possibly approve, the agreement with the South County Tourism Council for the placement and maintenance of the Thomas Dambo Trolls artwork in Ninigret Park.
• Consideration and possible approval of Charlestown Craves food truck nights at Ninigret Park on May 9 and June 6.
• The Council will continue the discussion about Special Use Permit changes needed to conform with State law.
• The Council will discuss and possibly approve a resolution requesting the RI General Assembly amend RIGL § 45-24-38- regarding Substandard Lots of Record. Explanatory memos from the Building Official and Town Planner are included in the packet after the draft resolution.

The entire agenda, including the procedure for streaming access, can be viewed here.

 

In 2004, former Charlestown Citizens Alliance President Virginia Wooten chaired a committee to look at toxic waste problems in Ninigret. They issued a 2.5 page long report (you can read it HERE). Above☝, you can see their top recommendation.

There will also be a special meeting in the Town Hall Council Chambers on Thursday, February 29, starting at 6 pm with a presentation from the Army Corps of Engineers concerning an update of the testing and monitoring activity in Ninigret Park and the Environmental Land Use Restrictions (ELUR) proposed to the Town. The meeting packet includes a lot of background information.

Study Commission Ready to OK Installing Solar Panels on Medians

Either that or high-speed rail

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

This system is already in place in South Korea

Should Rhode Island install solar panels along highway medians and other places? A state panel studying the issue says yes.

The commission, chaired by Rep. Robert Phillips, D-Woonsocket, has been studying the feasibility of installing solar panels in the medians of highways like I-95 and I-295 since September.

“We want to make sure we take advantage of any and all areas that can produce solar energy for the state,” Phillips said.

Under the possible recommendations discussed by the commission Feb. 12, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation would modify its utility accommodation policy (UAP) to include procedures and regulations for the state to follow when accepting future solar projects on lands adjacent to its interstate highways, which in turn would have to be approved by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

Once the modifications are approved by the federal government, the state is given the all clear to accept bids from contractors on solar projects, like any other procurement process from state officials.

Politicians pay next to no attention to the concerns of low-income Americans

Only big turn-outs will change political neglect

By Sarah Anderson

By Mike Luckovich

Amidst all the nail-biting uncertainty over the 2024 election, one thing’s for sure: turnout will be key. This February, the Poor People’s Campaign announced plans to mobilize a powerful yet often overlooked voting bloc: the 85 million eligible voters who are poor or low-income.

The campaign crunched the numbers and determined that if this bloc voted at the same rate as higher-income voters, they could sway elections in every state. But most voting drives — and candidates — still ignore this segment of our society.

“The conventional wisdom — which isn’t very wise — is that the poor don’t care about voting,” said Poor People’s Campaign Policy Director Shailly Gupta Barnes at a February 5 press conference. “But that’s just not true.”

What’s the biggest factor discouraging low-wage people from exercising this basic right?

“Political campaigns do not talk to them or speak to their issues,” explained campaign co-chair Bishop William J. Barber II. “In our election cycles sometimes we have 15, 20 debates for president. In 2020, not one of those — not 15 minutes — was given to raising questions about how the policies of that particular party or politician would impact poor and low-income people.”

The Poor People’s Campaign is organizing to push the concerns of poor and low-income people into the center of the 2024 political debate. Their goal is to mobilize 15 million “infrequent” poor and low-income voters.

Will politicians listen?

Tipping points

A Republican tradition for over 50 years

 

Going, going...

 

Endangered Species Protections Sought for Prehistoric Creature

Populations of these body-armored arthropods, a popular bait and biomedical species, have plummeted

By Frank Carini / ecoRI News staff

Ancient creatures with 12 legs, 10 eyes, and blue blood were once so prevalent on southern New England beaches that people, including children, were paid to kill them.

Their helmet-like bodies can still be seen along the region’s coastline and around its salt marshes, but in a fraction of the numbers witnessed seven decades ago. There are many reasons why.

In the 1950s coastal New England paid fishermen and others bounties to kill the up to 2-feet-long arachnids — horseshoe crabs are more closely related to spiders, scorpions, and ticks than to crabs — because they interfered with human enjoyment of the shore and were viewed as shellfish predators.

People, not just fishermen, were reportedly encouraged to toss horseshoe crabs above the high-tide line, so they would dry out and die. They were labeled “pests” and ground up for fertilizer. Beachfront property owners were apparently concerned the creature’s presence and their decaying death would impact real estate values.

Those ignorant days may be over, but horseshoe crabs are facing other threats to their existence.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based nonprofit, and 22 partner organizations recently petitioned NOAA Fisheries to list the Atlantic horseshoe crab as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Horseshoe crab populations have crashed in recent decades because of overharvesting and habitat loss, according to the petitioners.

Rhode Island among nine states pledging to boost heat pumps to 90% of home equipment sales by 2040

Green, clean and money-saving

By Annie Ropeik, Rhode Island Current

Environmental agencies in nine states, including Rhode Island, will work together to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions by making electric heat pumps the norm for most new home HVAC equipment sales by 2040.

A memorandum of understanding, spearheaded by the inter-agency nonprofit Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, or NESCAUM, was signed by officials in California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island.

While it is not legally binding and does not commit particular funding, the agreement released Feb. 7 calls for heat pumps to make up 90% of residential heating, air conditioning and water heating sales in these states by 2040.

An interim goal of 65% by 2030 is based on last fall’s target from the U.S. Climate Alliance, a group of 25 governors, to quadruple their states’ heat pump installations to 20 million in the same timeframe.

The residential sector is one of the top two or three contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in most of the East Coast states signing on to the agreement, driven in part by cold climates and a heavy reliance on oil and gas for home heating. Residential emissions rank far lower in the Western states participating.

In a press release, NESCAUM emphasized the harmful smog, haze and ozone driven by nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions from fossil fuel combustion, calling buildings “a hidden source of air pollution.”

Senior policy advisor Emily Levin said states must move quickly to help residents replace these fossil-fired HVAC and water heating systems with heat pumps in time to limit the harms of global warming.

“You may only have one more crack at these buildings between now and 2050, because these are long-lived pieces of equipment — they can last 10 or 20 years,” she said. “So we really can’t miss our opportunity.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: We've had a heat pump, installed as part of a ductless A/C system, for more than 10 years. It delivers heat efficiently and is largely maintenance-free. Based on personal experience, I recommend them. - Will Collette

Amazon mounts attack on all unions

In 'Direct Attack' on Labor Movement, Amazon Backs Claim NLRB Is Unconstitutional

Joins Elon Musk's Space X and Trader Joe's in anti-union bid

JULIA CONLEY for Common Dreams

(Photo: Emaz/VIEW Press/Corbis via Getty Images)

Amid a recent surge in unionization and other workers' rights victories, wealthy U.S. corporations have fired union organizers, surveilled employees as they voted on forming a collective bargaining unit, and closed store locations to penalize labor leaders—but a court filing by Amazon on Thursday suggested a new tactic as the e-commerce giant seeks to dismantle the federal agency tasked with protecting employees.

Fighting accusations from prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that Amazon illegally retaliated against warehouse workers who unionized, the company submitted a legal filing arguing that the board itself is unconstitutional.

Amazon claimed it did not break the law by limiting workers' access to the warehouse, which the NLRB said last year was a transparent effort to quash union activity. In its filing, the company also claimed "the structure of the NLRB violates the separation of powers" by "impeding the executive power provided for in Article II of the United States Constitution."

The company is the third corporation to make such a claim in recent weeks.