Saturday, December 13, 2025
Whoa! More than half of new articles on the internet are being written by AI
Is human writing headed for extinction?
Francesco Agnellini, Binghamton University, State University of New York
The line between human and machine authorship is blurring, particularly as it’s become increasingly difficult to tell whether something was written by a person or AI.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I do not write using AI, although it's hard to do a Google search without having their AI tool kick in. I also do not post articles that I know to be AI-generated. I do occasionally use AI images and have reposted some of Donald Trump's bizarre AI videos. - Will Collette
Now, in what may seem like a tipping point, the digital marketing firm Graphite recently published a study showing that more than 50% of articles on the web are being generated by artificial intelligence.
As a scholar who explores how AI is built, how people are using it in their everyday lives, and how it’s affecting culture, I’ve thought a lot about what this technology can do and where it falls short.
If you’re more likely to read something written by AI than by a human on the internet, is it only a matter of time before human writing becomes obsolete? Or is this simply another technological development that humans will adapt to?
Everyday Plastics Could Be Fueling Obesity, Infertility, and Asthma
Rising Concerns About Plastic Exposure in Early Life
By NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of
Medicine
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This conclusion comes from an extensive review of hundreds
of recent studies published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent
Health.
Evidence Linking Plastic Chemicals to Disease
In the new analysis, researchers summarize decades of work
showing that additives commonly incorporated into industrial and household
plastics may raise the likelihood of disease and disability, especially when
exposure occurs early in life. The review highlights three major groups of
chemicals — phthalates, which increase flexibility, bisphenols, which give
plastics their rigidity, and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which make
products heat resistant and water repellent.
Together, the evaluated studies followed thousands of
pregnant people, fetuses, and children. The findings connect these chemicals to
long-term health problems that include heart disease, obesity, infertility, and
asthma.
“Our findings point to plastic’s role in the early origins
of many chronic diseases that reverberate into adolescence and adulthood,” said
study lead author and pediatrician Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP. “If we want kids
to stay healthy and live longer, then we need to get serious about limiting the
use of these materials,” added Trasande, the Jim G. Hendrick, MD, Professor of
Pediatrics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Common Cause and ACLU challenge Trump administration lawsuit for R.I.’s voter data
Protect your private voter information from Trump invasion
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the state’s Common Cause chapter jointly filed a motion Tuesday to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in Rhode Island federal court on Dec. 2, citing a need to halt a “potential misuse of voters’ sensitive data.”
“Privacy is essential — especially as related to a right as fundamental as voting,” Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, said in a statement. “The Department of Justice has no need for voters’ personal information.”
Since May, the DOJ has reached out to at least 40 states seeking voter lists, including personal information typically protected under state and federal laws, like Social Security and driver’s license numbers.
Amore was formally asked by the DOJ to turn over Rhode Island’s full list on Sept. 8, but he refused to comply. Instead, Amore offered to provide a free copy of the statewide voter list already publicly available — typically provided upon request with a $25 fee.
The Trump administration argues the government is entitled to personal voter data under the 1960 Civil Rights Act, the 2002 Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
In suing Amore, the DOJ states it aims to “ascertain Rhode Island’s compliance with list maintenance requirements,” according to the 10-page complaint.
But the ACLU and Common Cause argue in their filing that the federal government does not have a proper purpose under the law for requesting the personal data of Rhode Island’s electorate.
Friday, December 12, 2025
MAGA's Epstein gaslighting is unsustainable
To believe anything Trump's MAGA defenders say requires a complete suspension of common sense.
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| Home of the Brave paid for this billboard in Times Square earlier this month. (Adam Gray/Getty) |
After months of pushing conflicting and nonsensical talking points about the release of the Epstein files, Donald Trump is running out of time on his administration’s failing coverup of his longtime friendship with one of the world’s most notorious sex traffickers.
Trump, the White House, and congressional Republicans have
spent nearly the entire first year of the president’s second term pushing an
ever-expanding number of contradictory narratives about not just what’s in the
files, but why Democrats and even staunch conservatives like Rep. Thomas Massie
have been demanding their release.
The White House and congressional Republicans have argued
that if the Epstein files contain highly damaging information about Trump,
former president Joe Biden would have released them while he was in office.
Simultaneously, Republicans are arguing that Democrats are behind the push to
release the Epstein files because they will be bad for Trump.
“If they had anything, they would’ve used it before the
election,” Trump told reporters on November 14, before suggesting Democrats
doctored the files. “I can’t tell you what they have put in since the
election.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are “trying to manufacture some sort of
hoax that the president had something to do with Epstein,” House Speaker Mike
Johnson claimed the same day.
The Epstein files are all a “hoax,” Trump has said — a lie
made up by Democrats to make him look bad. Yet somehow, at the same time,
there’s nothing in the files that could make him look bad —
because if there was, Biden would have released them.
So which is it? The White House and congressional
Republicans can’t say. That’s because it’s difficult to cover up Trump’s ties
to Epstein when they are so widely known and obviously incriminating.
“To simply take things that are emails and accusations that
people make is not a legitimate way for us to approach this,” Sessions said
following the release of emails by House Democrats showing even more ties
between Trump and Epstein. To hear Sessions tell it, Trump is simply following
the lead of Obama and Biden, who he suggested “concluded” the files should be
released in a “different way.”
"Now, they did not ever really approach it,” Sessions
said of Trump’s predecessors, “and we’re trying to do that now.”
While Republicans have argued that Democrats want the files
released to hurt Trump — and that if there was damaging
information therein Biden would have already released them — they’ve also said
the 50,000 pages of documents and emails that have already been released by
congressional committees exonerate Trump.
None of this has worked, forcing Republicans in Congress to
pass a bill ordering the release of at least some of the Justice Department’s
materials on Epstein, which Trump has signed into law.
Now, Republicans are adjusting tactics slightly, saying that
even if Trump is in the files, it’s not evidence of any wrongdoing.
“I need to see evidence at trial and people being
convicted,” Rep. Warren Davidson said on November 21. “I don’t really need more
rage bait in terms of public documents, I want to know when are the
prosecutions underway.”
These confusing and completely contradictory arguments —
Biden didn’t release the files so there’s nothing bad about Trump in them, but
also Democrats want them released so they can score points against Trump, and
simultaneously the files will exonerate the president — are all part of an
attempted coverup of what has been obvious for a long time: Trump has deep ties
to Epstein and at the very least is mentioned in materials collected as part of
the DOJ’s investigation.
The DOJ now has 30 days to begin releasing records related
to its investigation of Epstein. Almost surely, Attorney General Pam Bondi and
FBI Director Kash Patel will continue to run cover for Trump on the materials
they’re now bound by law to release — as they have already done for months now.
In fact, Bondi is already claiming that an investigation into prominent
Democrats in Epstein’s orbit — an investigation Trump himself publicly demanded
— prevents her from discussing anything Epstein related.
Endless contradictions
The lies and conflicting narratives about the Epstein files
began almost from the moment of Trump’s second inauguration. After riling up
his supporters for years about Epstein — stoking the MAGA base on the campaign
trail and subsequently choosing two of the biggest Epstein conspiracists, Kash
Patel and Dan Bongino, to lead the FBI — Trump’s line suddenly changed once he
returned to the White House.
Trump's hand-made birthday greeting
for Jeffrey Epstein
A month into the second Trump administration, Bondi told Fox
News that the list of Epstein’s clients was “sitting on my desk right now.” A
week later, she announced the release of the “first phase” of the Epstein
files, most of which had already been made publicly available during the Biden
administration.
Bondi then invited MAGA influencers to the White House to
receive these materials. They dutifully showed off their binders full of
already-available documents as if they had just received damning evidence on a
global cabal of sex predators — before some of them took to social media to
complain that the files contained nothing new. (A second “phase” of Epstein
files was never released.)
Bondi and Patel subsequently claimed a “whistleblower” at
the FBI field office in New York said agents there had withheld “thousands of
pages of documents” related to Epstein. In a February 28 letter to Patel, Bondi
ordered the FBI director to “conduct an immediate investigation” into why the
files in New York were withheld from the DOJ and to file a “comprehensive
report of your findings and proposed personnel action within 14 days.” There is
no indication that any such report was ever filed.
“Are you still talking about Jeffery Epstein?” Trump asked a
reporter incredulously on July 9. “Are people still talking about this guy,
this creep? That is unbelievable.”
“I don’t understand why the Jeffery Epstein case would be of
interest to anybody,” Trump said the next week.
“It’s pretty boring stuff.”
Bogus transparency claims
As Trump himself tried to dismiss the Epstein files at every
opportunity, his underlings at the Justice Department launched a new plan to
tamp down on the growing clamor for the files: “Interview” Ghislaine Maxwell in
prison and ask courts to unseal transcripts of grand jury testimony from her
trial.
Deputy AG Todd Blanche conducted the interview with Maxwell,
who told Blanche that she never saw the president engage in any criminal or
inappropriate conduct.
“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage
setting. I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any
way,” Maxwell said, according
to transcripts of her conversation with Blanche that were released by
the Justice Department. “The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In
the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”
Apparently as a reward for exonerating the president,
Maxwell was sent to a low-security prison in Texas where she has enjoyed perks
not afforded to other inmates. At the same time, the DOJ made a slapdash
attempt to feign transparency by asking courts to unseal grand jury testimony
from Maxwell’s trial.
Three federal judges denied the motions. Among them was US
District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer, who excoriated the DOJ for its
half-hearted effort at providing the public with new information about Epstein.
The DOJ’s “entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury
materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and
Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably
false,” Engelmeyer wrote in a 31-page decision denying the government’s motion
to unseal the transcripts of grand jury testimony. “The materials do not
identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact
with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or
Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of
Epstein’s or Maxwell’s.”
Engelmeyer’s denial of the motion to unseal provided a
convenient — albeit temporary — talking point for the Trump administration: We
tried to release more information but a judge stopped us.
After House Democrats released the trove of emails showing
even more ties between Trump and Epstein than were previously known — and as it
became clear that Congress would force the president and the DOJ to release the
files — the Trump administration launched its latest attempt to make all of
this go away.
First, Trump demanded that the DOJ investigate prominent
Democrats tied to Epstein. Bondi ceded to the demand, tasking the Southern
District of New York (SDNY) with launching Trump’s politically-motivated
investigations based on findings the Justice Department has already
said don’t warrant further investigation.
As expected, Bondi is saying that this new, ongoing
investigation prevents the Justice Department from discussing Epstein matters.
On November 19, Bondi was asked whether the SDNY investigation would expand
beyond the prominent Democrats who Trump demanded be investigated for their
ties to Epstein. She demurred.
“We’re not going to say anything else about that because it
is a pending investigation,” Bondi said.
With Bondi so quick to use the “ongoing investigation”
defense to avoid having to answer questions about the DOJ’s investigation into
Epstein and others, it’s entirely possible that the agency could try to use the
same defense to make significant redactions in releasing the files as ordered
by the law passed by Congress.
Reviewing the meandering path of arguments that have been
screen tested on the American people over the last 10 months reveals the
desperation with which Republicans have attempted to make all this go away.
First, Biden and Democrats didn’t care about the Epstein files because they
implicated people like Bill Clinton. Then, those files didn’t contain anything
damaging on Trump or else Biden would have released them. Now, Democrats want
the files released because they do contain damaging
information about Trump, but maybe that’s only the case because they tampered
with them.
The story has become bewildering and insane. To believe
anything about Epstein coming from Trump or Republicans requires a complete
suspension of common sense, which is why it’s good to remember that the
simplest explanation is often the correct one: Trump and Republicans are lying.
Lie after desperate, confusing, and impossible lie, all aimed at an impossible
goal: erasing history and the many deep and troubling ties between Epstein and
Trump.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and the BH Link triage center are here to help you
You're not alone
By Rep. Julie A. Casimiro and Katie Anderson
Thankfully, when stress runs high this holiday season, we can turn instead to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and the BH Link triage center. Together, these programs offer phone-based and in-person alternatives to 911 and hospital systems for those needing immediate support or timely referrals.
Anyone in crisis – kids and adults alike – can call, text, or chat 988 any time, 24/7, for free and confidential emotional support, resources, and referrals. For immediate face-to-face support, adults 18 and over, regardless of insurance, can walk into BH Link – no appointment necessary.
Depending on their needs, help-seekers will receive an assessment and safety plan, scripts for psychiatric medications; detoxification from opioids, alcohol or benzodiazepines; or a referral or transfer for ongoing care, with medical clearance and insurance authorization, as indicated. There are no out-of-pocket expenses associated with these visits.
Everyone seeking care is greeted warmly and responsively in a safe, relaxed setting, with minimal wait times relative to crowded emergency rooms. Both 988 & BH Link can also serve those simply interested in learning more about what outpatient resources, like therapists, may best help them or their loved ones.
Measles outbreak reaches Connecticut
Thank you, Bobby Jr., and all you anti-vaxxers
In January 2026, the United States is at risk of losing its
measles elimination status because of ongoing transmission chains from a West
Texas outbreak that began early last year and sickened roughly 800 people. The
country first gained elimination status in 2000.
Eighty-eight percent of cases in the United States this year
are outbreak-associated, and there have been 47 outbreaks recorded. Last year,
16 outbreaks were reported during 2024 and 69% of cases (198 of 285) were
outbreak-associated.
Currently Utah, Arizona, and South Carolina are seeing large
outbreaks that since Thanksgiving have pushed state totals well past 100 cases.
Those outbreaks have been marked by exposures at schools and churches in
communities with low vaccination levels.
Possible plowable snow for us this weekend
Odds are 59% for an inch or more, up to 3 inches. Drive carefully
Here's the National Weather Service forecast for Charlestown:
Big drama over Big Pharma: McKee still linking Foulkes to opioid epidemic
Behind in the polls, saddled with the Washington Bridge, McKee looks for an issue he can use
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
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| Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current |
The latest jab from the McKee campaign came in the midst of a Monday luncheon fundraiser for Foulkes, hosted by her uncle, former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd.
The private luncheon for Foulkes was held at The University Club on the East Side of Providence, with tickets for attendees ranging from $500 to $2,000 — the maximum annual contribution to political candidates under state law. Dodd was listed on the event flyer as a special guest, alongside dozens of other prominent names in state politics and business circles who are backing Foulkes in the 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary.
A fixture in Democratic politics, Dodd represented his home state of Connecticut for two decades in the U.S. Senate, until 2011, and is the partial namesake of the famous Wall Street reform law, the “Dodd-Frank Act.”
But McKee’s campaign offers a different descriptor of Dodd: “Purdue Pharma ally.”
And the governor’s campaign says Dodd’s involvement in a fundraiser for Foulkes is further proof of her ties to the “very insiders who enabled Purdue’s rise.”
Thursday, December 11, 2025
The clearest symptom yet of Trump’s mental decline
His brain is turning into sh*t
But that’s hardly the most troubling aspect of his aging.
In the last few weeks, Trump’s insults, tantrums, and
threats have exploded.
To Nancy Cordes, CBS’s White House correspondent, he said:
“Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? You’re just asking questions because
you’re a stupid person.”
About New York Times correspondent Katie
Rogers: “third rate … ugly, both inside and out.”
To Bloomberg White House correspondent Catherine Lucey:
“Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
About Democratic lawmakers who told military members to defy
illegal orders: guilty of “sedition … punishable by DEATH.”
About Somali immigrants to the United States: “Garbage”
whom “we don’t want in our country.”
What to make of all this?
Trump’s press hack Karoline Leavitt tells reporters to
“appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on
a near-daily basis.”
Sorry, Ms. Leavitt. This goes way beyond
frankness and openness. Trump is now saying things nobody in their right mind
would say, let alone the president of the United States.
He’s losing control over what he says, descending into
angry, venomous, often dangerous territory. Note how close his language is
coming to violence — when he speaks of acts being punishable by death, or human
beings as garbage, or someone being ugly inside and out.
The deterioration isn’t due to age alone.
I have some standing to talk about this frankly. I was born
10 days after Trump. My gray matter isn’t what it used to be, either, but I
don’t say whatever comes into my head.
This is NOT how numbers work.
The most you can reduce a product price is by 100%, making that produce free. To reduce a product price by 500%, the pharmacy would have to pay the consumer five times the sale price of the item. If the pills cost $10, the pharmacy would have to pay you $50. But hey, why let basic arithmetic spoil a good lie.
The next time you buy a prescription, be sure to demand your 500% discount. Tell them King Donald sent you.
Trump Wants Americans To Make More Babies
Critics Say His Policies Won’t Help Raise Them.
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“Our country wants us to be birthing machines, but they’re cutting what resources there already are,” said Olcott, 20. “And a $1,000 baby bonus? It’s low-key like, what, bro? That wouldn’t even cover my month’s rent.”
The Trump administration wants Americans to have more babies, and the federal government is debuting policy initiatives to reverse the falling U.S. fertility rate. In mid-October, the White House unveiled a plan to increase access to in vitro fertilization treatment. President Donald Trump has heralded such initiatives, calling himself “the fertilization president.”
But reproductive rights groups and other advocacy organizations say these efforts to buttress the birth rate don’t make up for broader administration priorities aimed at cutting federal programs such as Medicaid, its related Children’s Health Insurance Program, and other initiatives that support women and children. 
Trump likes kids once they turn 14
The pro-family focus, they say, isn’t just about boosting procreation. Instead, they say, it’s being weaponized to push a conservative agenda that threatens women’s health, reproductive rights, and labor force participation.
Some predict these efforts could deter parenthood and lead to increases in maternal mortality.
“The religious right wants more white Christian babies and is trying to curtail women’s reproductive freedom in order to achieve that aim,” said Marian Starkey, a spokesperson for Population Connection, a nonprofit that promotes population stabilization through increased access to birth control and abortion. “The real danger is the constant whittling down of reproductive rights.”
The White House did not respond to repeated interview requests.
Gas stoves are filling millions of homes with hidden toxic air
Maybe you love your gas stove but it may not love you back
Stanford University
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According to the research, switching from gas to electric stoves lowers nitrogen dioxide exposure by more than one quarter nationwide and by about half for people who use their stoves most frequently. Earlier studies documented nitrogen dioxide from gas stoves, but this work is the first to examine both indoor and outdoor exposure across the entire country.
"We know that outdoor air pollution harms our health,
but we assume our indoor air is safe." said study senior author Rob
Jackson, the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor in Earth System
Science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. "Our research
shows that if you use a gas stove, you're often breathing as much nitrogen
dioxide pollution indoors from your stove as you are from all outdoor sources
combined."
Indoor pollution can be as dangerous as outdoor emissions
Outdoor air pollution contributes to hundreds of thousands
of deaths in the U.S. each year and leads to millions of new cases of childhood
asthma worldwide. Laws such as the U.S. Clean Air Act have helped reduce
outdoor pollution, but indoor air remains largely unregulated even though it
can pose similar risks. This new analysis is the first nationwide evaluation of
how much nitrogen dioxide people encounter from both indoor and outdoor
sources, including gas stoves, vehicle traffic, and electricity generation.
Federal judge declares Trump wind memo blocking offshore wind farms to be unlawful
This is good news, but what will the Supreme Court do?
By Anastasia E. Lennon, Rhode Island Current
A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of Massachusetts and more than a dozen states that sued the Trump administration in May over President Donald Trump’s day-one offshore wind memo. The directive has frozen permitting since January, pending a comprehensive review by federal agencies.
The states argued the memo is unlawful and has caused significant harm – stymieing domestic investment, jeopardizing states’ abilities to supply enough electricity, and creating an “existential threat” to the industry.
Judge Patti B. Saris seemed to agree with their legal claims: “The State Plaintiffs have produced ample evidence demonstrating that they face ongoing or imminent injuries due to the Wind Order.”
On the flip side, she delivered sharp criticism of the federal government’s arguments and the wind memo itself, writing that it fails to adequately explain or support such a significant change in course from the agencies’ prior permitting practices.
“Whatever level of explanation is required when deviating from longstanding agency practice, this is not it,” Judge Saris wrote.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
We were warned this would happen
New US domestic terrorism priorities raise constitutional alarms
Melinda Haas, University of Pittsburgh
A largely overlooked directive issued by the Trump administration marks a major shift in U.S. counterterrorism policy, one that threatens bedrock free speech rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
This seventh national security memorandum from the Trump White House pushes the limits of presidential authority by targeting individuals and groups as potential domestic terrorists based on their beliefs rather than their actions.
National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-7, issued on Sept. 25, 2025, is a presidential directive that for the first time appears to authorize preemptive law enforcement measures against Americans based not on whether they are planning to commit violence but for their political or ideological beliefs.
You’ve probably heard a lot about Donald Trump’s many executive orders. But as an international relations scholar who has studied U.S. foreign policy decision-making and national security legislation, I recognize that presidents can take several types of executive actions without legislative involvement: executive orders, memoranda and proclamations.
This structure allows the president to direct law enforcement and national security agencies, with little opportunity for congressional oversight.
The memorandum represents a profound shift in U.S. counterterrorism policy, one that risks undermining foundational American commitments to free speech and association.
WHOA! Donald Trump explains how healthy he is in body and mind.
Says it's "seditious" and "treasonous" not to believe he's perfect. And "thank you for your attention to this matter."
How much carbon do our coastal wetlands absorb?
URI study reveals opportunity to improve blue carbon measurements in coastal wetlands
By Mackensie duPont Crowley
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| A new study finds a critical limitation in a widely used method for measuring organic carbon in flooded coastal sediments, a gap that could influence global carbon storage estimates and assessments of marsh resilience. (URI Photo/Courtesy Erin Peck) |
Coastal wetlands, like salt marshes, keep pace with sea-level rise by accumulating sediment and burying organic carbon in their soils, an important natural process that also helps sequester carbon. Accurately measuring this stored carbon is essential for understanding marsh resilience and informing blue carbon strategies.
But a new study led by Erin Peck, an assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, and Serina Wittyngham, an assistant professor at the University of North Florida, identifies a fundamental limitation in a widely-used method for measuring organic carbon in flooded coastal sediments.
This gap has implications for global estimates of carbon storage and marsh resilience. Traditional blue carbon methods assume that all measured organic matter contributes to long-term carbon storage and sediment volume. The new study shows this isn’t always the case.
Some organic matter is dissolved in sediment porewater, while other portions adhere loosely to sediment particles or are bound within the internal structure of clay minerals. These forms of organic matter may not contribute to sediment volume, accretion, or marsh resilience.
By examining more than 23,000 tidal marsh sediment samples
across multiple marsh systems, Peck, Wittyngham, and their collaborators
demonstrated that this overlooked fraction of “volumeless” organic matter can
lead to overestimates of both carbon storage and marsh elevation gains.
Recognizing this nuance allows scientists to refine their estimates of carbon
sequestration and resilience, ensuring that restoration planning, carbon
accounting, and predictive modeling are based on the most accurate information possible.
The researchers’ findings were published recently in a
peer-reviewed article in the journal Limnology
and Oceanography Letters.
South County Habitat for Humanity receives $200,000 from Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Program
Welcome boost to addressing affordable housing shortage
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| Representatives from Bank of America and South County Habitat for Humanity. Photo: South County Habitat for Humanity |
South County Habitat for Humanity (SCHH) has been named a 2025 Bank of America Neighborhood Builder, receiving $200,000 in unrestricted funding to support its mission of building affordable homeownership units in Washington County, Rhode Island.
“This year, as we celebrate the 35th anniversary of South County Habitat for Humanity, we are deeply honored to receive this incredible investment from our longtime partners at Bank of America,” said Colin Penney, Executive Director of SCHH.
“Unrestricted support like this gives us the flexibility to strategically grow our capacity and better meet the needs of our community, ensuring every dollar advances our mission of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. With ambitious plans for larger-scale housing developments, this funding arrives at a pivotal moment. We are truly grateful for Bank of America’s partnership.”
Yes, the government can track your location – but usually not by spying on you directly
Your cell phone tells them where you are
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The U.S. government doesn’t need to collect data about people’s locations itself, because your mobile phone is already doing it. While location data is sometimes collected as part of a mobile phone app’s intended use, like for navigation or to get a weather forecast, more often locations are collected invisibly in the background.
I am a privacy researcher who studies how people understand and make decisions about data that is collected about them, and I research new ways to help consumers get back some control over their privacy. Unfortunately, once you give an app or webpage permission to collect location data, you no longer have control over how the data is used and shared, including who the data is shared with or sold to.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Every time we debate taxing the rich in Rhode Island, this issue comes up
What the data shows about threats of a tax exodus by the wealthy
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It set off a chorus of warnings about the tax flight of the city’s wealthiest residents.
Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman claimed that both the city’s businesses and wealthy residents “have already started making arrangements for the exits.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul echoed the concern, opposing the proposal “because we cannot have them leave the state.” Before the election, Mamdani’s opponent, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, joked that if Mamdani won, “even I will move to Florida.”
I research whether high earners actually move when their taxes go up. My colleagues and I have analyzed millionaire taxes in New Jersey and California, the migration of Forbes billionaires globally and decades of IRS data tracing where Americans with million-dollar incomes live.
Top earners are often thought of as “mobile millionaires” who are ever searching for lower-tax places to live. In reality, they’re often reluctant to leave the places where they built their careers and raised their families.
At the same time, there are grains of truth in the tax migration arguments, so it’s important to carefully parse the evidence.
Rep. Spears holds community meeting, December 13
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