Illegal seawall still stands.

CRMC can't, or won't do its job

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

The rock wall built over the winter of 2023 by the Quidnessett
Country Club in North Kingstown eliminated public access to the
water by usurping a passable shoreline to south at left.
(Photo by Save the Bay staff)

More than a year has passed since state regulators fined a North Kingstown country club for building a seawall along its property line, without permission and in violation of state coastal regulations.

The 600-foot-long stone wall, built in January 2023, is still standing.

Meanwhile, a parallel but separate consideration of Quidnessett Country Club’s application to ease development restrictions — in turn, potentially, allowing a seawall — remains under review by the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council after a panel punted a recommendation on Tuesday.

The Planning and Procedures Subcommittee’s 4-0 vote will give the country club and its attorney time to make the case for a permanent safeguard between its flagship golf course and the adjacent tidal waters. 

“We haven’t seen the evidence yet as to why it’s necessary,” Anthony DeSisto, attorney for the CRMC, said in an interview after the meeting. “We have got to be fair to everyone.”

Nice guy through the years

Devolution

Shoreline Access, Lack of Parking Found to Be Obstacles to Shared Usage of Coastal Resources

Can't use the beach if you can't get there

By Bonnie Phillips / ecoRI News staff

Photo by Will Collette

There are obstacles when it comes to sharing marine space, infrastructure, and resources in Rhode Island, a recent study found.

With the usage of the state’s coastal and offshore waters increasing, University of Rhode Island professor of marine affairs David Bidwell wanted to understand what current and potential marine multi-use opportunities might exist. 

So he, along with Tiffany Smythe, associate professor of maritime governance at the Coast Guard Academy, and Di Jin, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Policy Center, put together focus groups consisting of small-scale business owners from commercial and recreational fisheries, aquaculture, marine educators, and tour boat operators, as well as surfers, kayakers, sailors, and boaters.

What they found, Bidwell said, was that “There wasn’t a lot of clamoring for, ‘Oh, we love multi-use, and here are these opportunities.’ It was mostly this idea of, ‘Well, we deal with multi-use because we have to.’”

The idea that different marine businesses can share space, infrastructure, and resources has been touted as a way to find mutual benefits and reduce use conflicts — like using offshore wind turbines as staging areas for aquaculture farms or infrastructure for environmental data collection.

But the researchers found that lack of parking and other shoreline access issues are an obstacle to multi-use of coastal waters in Rhode Island.

Here’s how to maintain healthy smartphone habits

First question: Why do you need it?

Shelia R. Cotten, Clemson University

Do you have a healthy relationship with your phone? 
Morsa Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images

What is the first thing you do in the morning after you awaken? Many people immediately check their phones for notifications of messages, alerts and social media updates by their social ties.

Ninety-seven percent of U.S. adults report owning a cellphone, with 90% reporting that they own a smartphone.

While some researchers and media outlets portray phone use as detrimental, the reality is that the effects of technology use, including phones, vary depending on multiple factors. These include the amount, type, timing and purpose of that use. What is best for one group may not be best for another when thinking about technology use.

As a researcher who studies technology use and quality of life, I can offer some advice to hopefully help you thrive in a phone-saturated world. Some people may struggle with how to effectively use smartphones in their daily lives. And many people use their phones more than they think they do or more than they would like at times.

1. Monitor your use on a weekly basis

If the hours per day are increasing, think about why this is the case and whether this increased use is helping or hurting your everyday activities. An aspect of digital literacy is understanding your usage patterns.

For profit health care is the worst.

For some local examples, look at the Stewart chain in Massachusetts and Rhode Island's Roger Williams and St. Joseph's Hospitals

Jake Johnson

A report out September 19 shows that the United States' for-profit healthcare system still ranks dead last among peer nations on key metrics, including access to care and health outcomes such as life expectancy at birth.

The new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund is the latest indictment of a corporate-dominated system that leaves tens of millions of people uninsured or underinsured and unable to afford life-saving medications without rationing doses or going into debt.

"Despite spending a lot on healthcare, the United States is not meeting one of the principal obligations of a nation: to protect the health and welfare of its residents," the report states. "Most of the countries we compared are providing this protection, even though each can learn a good deal from its peers. The U.S., in failing this ultimate test of a successful nation, remains an outlier."

Vance Rewrites History About Trump and Obamacare

They lie and don't care if they get caught

Julie Appleby, KFF Health News 

Donald Trump could have destroyed the Affordable Care Act, but “he chose to build upon [it].”

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on “Meet the Press,” Sept. 15

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Sept. 15 told viewers of NBC’s “Meet the Press” that former President Donald Trump built up the Affordable Care Act, even though Trump could have chosen to do the opposite.

“Donald Trump had two choices,” Vance, Trump’s running mate, said. “He could have destroyed the program, or he could actually build upon it and make it better so that Americans didn’t lose a lot of health care. He chose to build upon a plan, even though it came from his Democratic predecessor.”

The remarks follow statements the former president made during his Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia. Trump said of the ACA, “I saved it.”

The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has grown more popular as Americans have increasingly used it to gain health coverage. More than 20 million people enrolled this year in plans sold through the marketplaces it created. That makes the law a tricky political issue for Republicans, who have largely retreated from their attempts over the past decade to repeal it.

Both Vance’s and Trump’s statements are false. We contacted Vance’s campaign; it provided no additional information. But here’s a review of policies related to Obamacare that Trump pursued as president.

More choices

Reject special interests: NO ON RI QUESTION 1

New Shower and Restroom Facilities Project at Burlingame State Campground Begins in October

Burlingame gets a spruce up

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is announcing that a construction project to build six new shower and restroom facilities at Burlingame State Campground in Charlestown is planned to begin in October. 

The project’s first phase will remove the existing outdated facilities and replace them with new structures in the Mills Camp, Midpark North, and Fish Camp areas of the campground.

Beginning Tuesday, October 1, the campground will close the existing shower and restroom facilities in these areas in anticipation of the first phase of project starting. DEM expects this first phase of the project to be completed by spring 2026. The second phase of the project involving the Main, Midpark South, and Legiontown areas is expected to begin in October 2025 and be completed in April 2027. 

FDA approves at-home FluMist administration

Soon you may be able to give yourself your flu vaccine at home

Lisa Schnirring

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it has approved self- or caregiver-administered FluMist, making it the first flu vaccine that doesn’t have to be administered by a healthcare provider.

In a statement, the FDA said that MedImmune, the maker of FluMist, plans to offer the vaccine through a third-party pharmacy. 

People interested in the self or caregiver option will complete a screening and eligibility assessment when they order the vaccine. If eligibility is established, the pharmacy writes the prescription and ships the vaccine to the person who placed the order.

Then the vaccine is given at the household's convenience. The FDA recommends that a caregiver administer FluMist to those ages 2 to 17 years old.

Can you trust companies that say their plastic products are recyclable?

US regulators may crack down on deceptive claims

Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law & Graduate School

Keurig, maker of K-Cup single-use coffee pods, was recently
fined for claiming the pods were recyclable. 
Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post, via Getty Images

Plastic is a fast-growing segment of U.S. municipal solid waste, and most of it ends up in the environment. Just 9% of plastic collected in municipal solid waste was recycled as of 2018, the most recent year for which national data is available. The rest was burned in waste-to-energy plants or buried in landfills.

Manufacturers assert that better recycling is the optimal way to reduce plastic pollution. But critics argue that the industry often exaggerates how readily items can actually be recycled. In September 2024, beverage company Keurig Dr Pepper was fined US$1.5 million for inaccurately claiming that its K-Cup coffee pods were recyclable after two large recycling companies said they could not process the cups. California is suing ExxonMobil, accusing the company of falsely promoting plastic products as recyclable.

Environmental law scholar Patrick Parenteau explains why claims about recyclability have confused consumers, and how forthcoming guidelines from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission may address this problem.

The Privatized US Rail System Is a Disaster.

A New Report Makes Case for a Public Takeover

Jake Johnson for Common Dreams

In recent years, the United States' rail system has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In East Palestine, Ohio, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials wrecked, sparking a public health crisis and national outcry. More rail workers have been killed on the job in notoriously unsafe conditions. Train after train has derailed.

Such disasters have come as no surprise to rail workers on the frontlines, who have long warned that the corporate-dominated U.S. system is a threat to public safety, employees, and the climate.

But a new report argues it doesn't have to be that way—and envisions an alternative: a publicly owned rail system that saves money, creates jobs, protects workers and the public, and aids the badly needed transition to a green transportation system.

Makes sense

Thank you, Republicans

 

Report Reveals How US Taxpayers Are Unwittingly Subsidizing Climate Lies

Disinformation groups profit from charity status - and we pay for it

Jake Johnson for Common Dreams

A report published on September 18 identifies nearly 140 "climate disinformation organizations" in the United States financed by wealthy donors who receive massive subsidies from the nation's taxpayers.

The analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) explains that wealthy donors are "pouring billions of dollars" into nonprofit organizations to "advance misleading, self-serving agendas that do irreparable harm to our planet"—all while reaping the benefits of charitable contribution deductions in the U.S. tax code.

America’s agriculture policies were written by corporate lobbyists who couldn’t run a watermelon stand.

Corporate Profiteers Are Robbing America’s Farmers

By Jim Hightower 

A farmer was asked what he’d do if he won a million-dollar lottery. “Well,” he said, “I guess I’d just keep farming ‘til the money runs out.”

Trying to make a living as a farmer is not for the fainthearted. You have to take out high-interest loans from cold-eyed bankers to put in a crop and buy supplies. Then you’re also at the mercy of everything from bugs to monopolistic middlemen. And here’s a cruel twist: If you defy the odds and produce a great crop, you lose money!

This is happening right now. With unusually-good weather this year, corn and soybean harvests are expected to set records. But this abundance creates a market glut, allowing middlemen to knock down prices paid to farmers. A bushel of Illinois corn, for example, costs farmers $4.30 to produce, but they’re only getting $3.70 for it.

Meanwhile, the cost of such basics as seed, fertilizer, and tractors are skyrocketing. High costs coupled with low crop prices means that farmers’ income is expected to drop by 25 percent this year.

Why home insurance rates are rising so fast across the US

You're already paying for climate change 

Andrew J. Hoffman, University of Michigan

The U.S. has seen a large number of billion-dollar disasters in
 recent years. AP Photo/Mark Zaleski

Millions of Americans have been watching with growing alarm as their homeowners insurance premiums rise and their coverage shrinks. Nationwide, premiums rose 34% between 2017 and 2023, and they continued to rise in 2024 across much of the country.

To add insult to injury, those rates go even higher if you make a claim – as much as 25% if you claim a total loss of your home.

Why is this happening?

There are a few reasons, but a common thread: Climate change is fueling more severe weather, and insurers are responding to rising damage claims. The losses are exacerbated by more frequent extreme weather disasters striking densely populated areas, rising construction costs and homeowners experiencing damage that was once more rare.

Parts of the U.S. have been seeing larger and more damaging hail, higher storm surges, massive and widespread wildfires, and heat waves that kink metal and buckle asphalt. In Houston, what used to be a 100-year disaster, such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017, is now a 1-in-23-years event, estimates by risk assessors at First Street Foundation suggest. In addition, more people are moving into coastal and wildland areas at risk from storms and wildfires.

Just a decade ago, few insurance companies had a comprehensive strategy for addressing climate risk as a core business issue. Today, insurance companies have no choice but to factor climate change into their policy models.

Calling Trump a Fascist Threat to Democracy Is Not Inciting Violence—It's the Truth

Trump IS a fascist and Americans need to understand that

Robert Reich in robertreich.substack.com

The FBI is investigating the source of suspicious packages sent to election offices in 21 states. Some election offices have been evacuated; staff are frightened.

Suspicious packages, bomb threats, death threats, harassment, assassination attempts, and violence are consequences of the politics of hate, now emanating more ferociously than ever from Trump and his sycophants.

Many explanations have been offered for why two assassination attempts have been made on Trump over the last two months. Some blame easy access to assault weapons; I’m sure that’s part of it.

But the real incitement to violence in America is hatefulness — hate speech, fearsome lies, and dangerous, paranoid rumors — the epicenter of which is Trump.

Trump blames the intensifying climate of violence on Kamala Harris and the Democrats: “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at,” he said. “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” he wrote in a social media post. Trump’s campaign has circulated a list of so-called “incendiary” remarks Democrats have made against Trump and posted video clips from top Democrats calling him a “threat.”

JD Vance says “we cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist and if he’s elected it is going to be the end of American democracy.”

Hello? Calling Trump a fascist and a threat to democracy is not inciting violence; it’s telling the truth. American voters need to be made aware, if they aren’t already.

Excuses, excuses

Protect our rights: Vote NO on RI Question 1

Could Childhood Stress Lead to Adult Diseases?

UCLA Study Reveals Startling Links

By University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences

A new study led by UCLA Health found that a person’s sex and their unique experiences of childhood trauma can have specific consequences for their biological health and risk of developing 20 major diseases later in life.

Although a large body of research has shown that childhood adversity can have long-lasting impacts on a person’s biology and health, there has been little research looking into how different types of stressors affect specific biological functions and health risks.

Detailed Study Findings on Stress Impacts

The new findings, published today (September 17) in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, not only revealed that these early stressors can cause specific health impacts, but that these impacts also systematically differed for male and females. The findings are believed to represent one of the most comprehensive analyses of the biological and clinical consequences of adverse childhood experiences, said the study’s senior author, Dr. George Slavich, director of the Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research at UCLA.

3,600+ Chemicals From Food Packaging Found in Human Bodies

Safer materials needed

Birgit Geueke, 

Lindsey V. Parkinson, 

Ksenia J. Groh, 

Christopher D. Kassotis, 

Maricel V. Maffini, 

Olwenn V. Martin, 

Lisa Zimmermann, 

Martin Scheringer & 

Jane Muncke 

A recent study published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology explores the widespread human exposure to food contact chemicals (FCCs). The research identifies which chemicals used in food packaging and other materials that come into contact with food have been detected in human samples, including urine, blood, and breast milk.

Additionally, the study underscores significant gaps in biomonitoring and toxicity data. The findings are accessible through the FCChumon database, an interactive tool created by researchers from the Food Packaging Forum in collaboration with colleagues from four academic institutions.

No, immigrants aren’t eating dogs and cats – but Trump’s claim is part of an ugly history of myths about immigrant foodways

Immigrants eating pets has long been a racist trope

Adrienne Bitar, Cornell University

When Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said during the presidential debate on Sept. 10, 2024, that Haitian immigrants are eating pets, food historians like me were not surprised at the slur. Trump’s lie followed a long American history of peddling ugly rumors about immigrants stealing and eating pets.

Dietary rules that unite and define American cuisine can so easily be perverted to use disgust to divide Americans. In the U.S., cow is food and dog is friend. Chicken is food. Cat is companion. The sharp lines between the animals Americans eat, love, protect and exterminate help write the dietary rules that define American norms.

What we eat, what we don’t and with whom we break bread are just some of the food rules that unite and define Americans. Think of how turkey – or tofurkey – unites Americans behind the Thanksgiving ritual. Bottled water. Ice. Ballpark hot dogs. Airplane pretzels. Movie theater popcorn.

Food can also establish group identity apart from the mainstream. Think of the many factions of vegan, vegetarian, paleo, grain-free and carnivore dieters who use food to express a political position. Also, of course, religious dietary proscriptions have worried scholars for centuries so that Jews, Muslims and Christians may never share a meal.

There is no evidence that Haitians are stealing and eating pet cats and dogs. There is evidence, however, that racists have long twisted dietary rules to divide people and dehumanize immigrants. Trump told a lie to draw a line between Americans and others who allegedly eat the animals Americans love.

A sign at a popular hot dog restaurant in Chicago
reads ‘Immigrants eat our dogs,’ on Sept. 12, 2024,
two days after the presidential debate. 
Scott Olson/Getty Images

The legend of delicious pets

The myth of eating pets traces back to old legends in Europe, Australia and the United States that “immigrants are stealing our cats and dogs for their dinner tables or to serve in ethnic restaurants,” writes the folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand.

Two of the most common food-based legends center on “Oriental restaurants serving dog (or cat) meat, and legends about Asian immigrants in the United States capturing and cooking people’s pets,” Brunvard writes.

By 1883, the legend was so well-established that the Chinese-American journalist Wong Chin Foo offered US$500 to anybody in New York for proof that Chinese people were eating cats or rats. No proof was found, but that didn’t stop the racist jokes or urban legends.

Is Trump a loony?

Priorities, continued

Why do we tolerate children having to undergo this?

By Matt Davies

Quarter-million to clean up Green Hill Pond

Construction Grant Award for Green Hill Pond Watershed

Town of South Kingstown

Friends of Green Hill Pond

Town staff actively seeks opportunities to treat water quality in our environmentally sensitive water bodies.  In recent years, staff has been focused on the Green Hill Pond watershed. 

Last month, the Town was awarded a $250,000 grant from Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) under the Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Watershed Implementation Grants (SWIG24) to install water quality structures within the Green Hill Pond watershed.  

The design work and permitting for the structures has been ongoing for more than two years with much of the funding coming from SNEP and the Narragansett Bay Estuaries Program (NBEP).  

Our partner, Friends of Green Hill Pond, have been very supportive and have contributed financially to help with the required matching funds.  The survey, engineering and permit oversight was performed by Woodard & Curran.  

What’s in your protein powders?

Testing finds PFAS, phthalates, heavy metals and other toxics in popular brands.

EHN Editors

Ten out of eleven popular protein powders recently tested have levels of toxic lead that would trigger a health warning in California, according to a new report from Mamavation.

And that’s just the start of the problems.

Partnering with EHN.org, the environmental wellness blog and community had 11 chocolate-flavored protein powders tested by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-certified lab. The testing included more than 40 PFAS types, more than 500 pesticides, lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury. While no products contained detectable mercury or arsenic, the testing found some protein powders contained cadmium, glyphosate, PFAS and phthalates.

Only one of the products, Paleovalley 100% Grassfed Bone Broth Protein (chocolate flavor), tested free of all the contaminants tested.

The testing found:

• 10 products had levels of lead that would require a warning in California under Prop. 65, the state’s law alerting consumers to harmful pollutants.
• Two products had levels of cadmium that would require a Prop. 65 warning.
• One product contained the pesticide glyphosate, despite being labeled organic.
• Six products contained PFAS chemicals.
• Seven products contained phthalates.

R.I. voters almost evenly split on whether to hold a constitutional convention, new poll finds

Unions, civil rights, civil liberties groups oppose. Far-right, business group support Question 1

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Voters appear split on a ballot question asking if the state should hold a constitutional convention, according to a new poll released just after a new digital ad campaign launched urging them to reject it.

A coalition urging Rhode Islanders to vote no on Question 1 posted its first ad on YouTube on Sept. 20 in a $30,000 digital ad blitz running up to the Nov. 5 election meant to showcase the potential danger a 

A MassINC Polling Group survey, conducted for Rhode Island Current, found that 36% of likely voters say they would vote for a constitutional convention; 33% would reject the ballot measure while 32% were undecided on which way they’ll go during the Nov. 5 general election. The poll has a margin of error of 3.9%. 

Results mostly mirror a poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released Sept. 19, which found 39% of respondents say they plan to approve a convention, while 28% plan to reject it.

“It’s really evenly split,” Richard Parr, senior research director for MassINC, said in an interview Monday. “This really shows how up in the air people are about this.”

The poll, made possible through a grant from the Knight Elections Hub, surveyed 800 likely Rhode Island voters through telephone interviews and text messages between Sept. 12 and 18. 

Though a plurality of voters in both polls have indicated their support for the convention, the large chunk of undecided voters suggests many people may not fully understand what the ballot question entails.

Rhode Island’s convention question goes on the ballot in years ending in the number four, but voters rejected ballot questions seeking to convene one in 1994, 2004 and 2014. The Rhode Island General Assembly may also propose constitutional amendments during any election year. 

Should a majority of Rhode Islanders want to move ahead with a convention, the state would have to set up a special election to select 75 convention delegates to represent each district in the House of Representatives. Delegates would then gather, debate, negotiate and approve a set of amendments that would appear on the ballot for the 2026 general election.

The last convention in 1986 led to the establishment of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, restoration of felons voting rights, and clarification of Rhode Islanders’ rights to the shoreline but also produced a “right to life” amendment that was ultimately defeated at the ballot box.

“What tends to happen at the end of the day, people who feel uninformed tend to default to a no,” Parr said. “It might be different in a constitutional convention, but given that the numbers are so close — I suspect a lot of people will skip the question.”

MassINC’s survey results reflect the ongoing debate surrounding Question 1, with proponents touting a constitutional convention as a way to reform Rhode Island’s government and opponents warning it could strip back civil liberties.

Of the pro-convention voters polled by MassINC, 82% said that the world has changed much since the last convention in 1986 and that it’s time for an update. A little more than 42% said it was necessary because “the legislature can’t be depended on to enact important changes.” 

MassINC’s poll allowed those surveyed to select multiple options on why they would support or oppose a constitutional convention, which is why response rates go beyond 100%.

Of those who said they opposed the ballot measure in the MassINC poll, 63% said they were concerned about out-of-state special interest groups influencing changes to the state’s constitution. Such a concern has been trumpeted by the Rhode Island Citizens for Responsible Government, a coalition of 37 labor and civil liberties organizations behind the ad campaign featuring social media and video ads highlighting “the threat that a Constitutional Convention will pose to civil rights,” according to its announcement Friday.

The ad, produced by East Greenwich-based Checkmate Consulting Group, features an auctioneer selling Rhode Island’s Constitution before a room of wealthy bidders smoking cigars and pouring champagne. It’s actually the same ad the coalition aired in the leadup to the 2014 election — just with updated citations.

Checkmate co-founder Brad Dufault told Rhode Island Current Monday that footage was re-used in order to save on production costs, which will instead go toward voter education.

“The threats that a constitutional convention poses have not changed all that much since 2014. Reproductive rights, women’s health and family planning, LGBTQ+ rights, worker rights, and more may all come under attack from big-money special interests, as we’ve seen in other states and as is highlighted in our ads,” he said.

“A Constitutional Convention will jeopardize our democratic process and can potentially sway outcomes away from the will of the people and towards narrow ideological agendas,” coalition chairperson Vimala Phongsavanh, senior external affairs director for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said in a statement

Coalition members have been especially vocal about the potential for the convention to strip away the state’s protections on reproductive rights — something 45% of those polled also cited in their opposition to the ballot measure.

About 8% of convention proponents polled by MassINC said “civil liberties and abortion rights should have some restrictions.” 

Opponents of a convention have also cited high costs as a reason to reject Question 1 — something 15% of respondents cited in the poll. Cost estimates for the convention range between $2.6 million and $4.6 million, which includes an estimated $1.3 million toward a special election to select the 75 convention delegates.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

SUBSCRIBE

Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com. Follow Rhode Island Current on Facebook and X.

Hold GOP Officials Accountable for Illegal Voter Intimidation

Zero tolerance for Republican voter intimidation

By Sonali Kolhatkar

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Rhode Island Republican Party recently sent out a recruiting e-mail for volunteers to act as their "ELECTION INTEGRITY OFFICE." Vigilantes by another name. Voter intimidation is a crime in Rhode Island. Be sure to document and report any incidents you experience or witness.  - Will Collette

A Florida resident named Isaac Menasche received a home visit this September from a police officer asking whether he’d signed a petition for a ballot measure.

The petition, which Menasche had indeed signed, was for a November initiative overturning a strict abortion ban that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed last year. Now the governor is attempting to discredit those signatures using state-funded cops. According to the Tampa Bay Times, state law enforcement officers have visited the homes of other signers as well.

DeSantis created an elections police unit in 2022 to investigate so-called election crimes. By that August, he’d arrested 20 “elections criminals” for allegedly voting improperly in the 2020 election.

A majority of those arrested — some at gunpoint — were Black. Most had been formerly incarcerated and thought they were eligible to vote, since Floridians had overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure restoring their voting rights. But DeSantis and his GOP allies in the state legislature used every maneuver they could to thwart that popular decision.

Lies, big and small

You choose

This Year’s Green Bond Gets Greener, with Funds for Farmland Preservation and Open Space Investments

Vote YES for Question 4, the "Green Bond"

Key role played by Rep. Megan Cotter

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

The general election season is in full swing, and on Friday state officials and environmental groups launched their campaign in support of this year’s Green Bond.

A regular feature on the ballot, the Green Bond authorizes the state to borrow money for environment-related projects such as climate resiliency, open space and farmland preservation, and outdoor recreation. 

If approved by the electorate in November, this year’s bond would give $53 million to various programs under the aegis of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Here is the breakdown for this year’s Green Bond:

$15 million to the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown, for “continued growth and modernization of Rhode Island’s only public port.” Money from the bond will be used to finance new berthing space, additional access roads, security upgrades and cargo area improvements. While not strictly an environmental priority, state officials emphasized the port’s importance for offshore wind projects.

$10 million to be administered by the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank for its Municipal Resilience Program. The money would be used to fund matching grants up to 75% to support the state’s municipalities in their efforts to improve resiliency, identify high-risk dangers, and strengthen public safety with regard to increased flooding and storms.

$5 million for forest and habitat restoration at state management areas. Funding may go toward dead tree removal, tree planting, invasive species removal, and other projects to improve forest health and wildlife habitats.

$5 million for brownfield remediation. Money would go toward matching grants to remediate former industrial and other polluted sites around the state. According to DEM data, Rhode Island has awarded funds to 77 different projects in 17 different municipalities via the department’s brownfields remediation fund. The projects to date have cleaned up nearly 344 acres of contaminated land.

$5 million for local recreation. One of DEM’s most popular matching grant programs, municipalities can apply for grants to build or improve already existing recreational areas, including parks, playgrounds, athletic areas, and other recreational facilities.

$5 million for farmland preservation. A longtime ask by the state’s environmental groups, farmland preservation funding was originally left out of the governor’s original Green Bond proposal in January. Money in this bucket would go toward the budget of the Agricultural Land Preservation Commission (ALPC), which is empowered to contribute money to farmland projects so long as they preserve land as farmland in perpetuity.

$3 million for open space investments. Another popular program by DEM, money in this bucket would go toward protecting open space, whether it is farmland, undeveloped land, or recreational lands.

$3 million for the Newport Cliff Walk, to restore pedestrian access along two sections of the walk that have fallen into the sea in recent years thanks to coastal erosion.

$2 million for coastal resilience for cities and towns, matching grants for public or nonprofit entities to improve the resilience of vulnerable coastal habitats in rivers and floodplains that also improve climate resiliency in the face of rising seas, increased flooding, and storms.

Lawmakers noted the final Green Bond proposal that passed the General Assembly to appear on this year’s ballot is much greener than the one originally proposed by McKee. His original proposal did not include money for farmland preservation, open space acquisition, or forestry and habitat restoration programs, DEM initiatives that have been on almost every ballot for nearly 40 years.

In his prepared remarks at the campaign kickoff, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, D-Warwick, credited Rep. Megan Cotter, D-Exeter, for reaching across the aisle and lobbying to make the Green Bond greener.

Shekarchi said he supported changes to the bond, once budget officials in May announced the state had an extra $58 million in surplus tax revenue to work with for this fiscal year.

While policymakers stressed the need to campaign for the environmental bond’s passage, recent history has shown that it’s routinely one of the more popular ballot items to appear before voters every two years. On average since 2018 the Green Bond has garnered more than two-thirds or more of the vote share in each election.

The last Green Bond was approved in 2022 with 67% of voters approving the measure. The pandemic-era Green Bond, postponed until early 2021, was approved with 78% of the vote. 2018’s Green Economy and Clean Water Bond passed with similar support.

This year’s kickoff had an extra special guest: an actual farmer. Andrew Morley, who runs Sweet and Salty Farm, a dairy farm in Little Compton, with his wife, said if it wasn’t for the farmland preservation program in Rhode Island, they would likely be living in another state like New York or Connecticut.

Morley and his wife came to the state 15 years ago, taking over a piece of farmland that had already been preserved by the ALPC. Morley said farming in Rhode Island wasn’t impossible, but without farmland preservation funding, it soon would be.

“Farming is the most rewarding work I’ve ever done,” he said. “But it’s also the most challenging.”

The 2024 Green Bond will appear on ballots on Election Day as Question 4, with the rest of the state bond ballot initiatives.

New Research Reveals That Cannabis Can Reverse Brain Aging

Alter, was machst du?*

By University Hospital Bonn

A low-dose, long-term administration of cannabis has been shown to not only reverse aging processes in the brain but also exhibit anti-aging effects. Researchers from University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, in collaboration with a team from Hebrew University in Israel, demonstrated this effect in mice.

The key to this discovery lies in the protein switch mTOR, which influences cognitive performance and metabolic processes throughout the body. These findings have been published in the journal ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science.

Information about the availability or scarcity of resources is of crucial importance for the regulation of metabolism. The so-called metabolome is a complex reaction network that summarizes all metabolic properties of a cell or tissue. In higher organisms, the protein mTOR [Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin] is the central hub for cell growth and metabolism.

Rhode Island Receives $30 Million for Energy-Efficiency Rebates.

How Can You Cash In?

By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff

Rhode Islanders, especially low- and middle-income residents, spend a lot on energy, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a visit to the Ocean State on Tuesday afternoon.

The U.S. Department of Energy considers a household energy cost-burdened if it spends 6% or more of its income on energy needs. But in Rhode Island, some of the lowest income earners are spending about 18% of their income on energy, according to Granholm.

“That’s not acceptable, not acceptable, right governor?” she asked Gov. Dan McKee during an event launching the new rebate program at the IBEW Local 99 Union Hall in Cranston.

“Absolutely not,” he replied.

“Okay,” she said. “So, what are we doing about it?”

Granholm explained her visit marked the launch of Rhode Island’s federal Home Energy Rebate program to help low- and middle-income residents pay for energy-efficient home improvements that will lower their energy bills and help reduce carbon emissions.

The Ocean State received $32 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to start the program initially and will receive more funding to expand the rebates to higher income residents in 2025.

Residents making 80% or less of the state median income can qualify for updated electric panels and wiring and some new energy-efficient appliances, including electric stove tops, ranges, ovens, and heat pump clothes dryers.