MIDNIGHT UIPDATE on the Brown shooting

Deadly Brown Shooting Spurs Calls for Action on Guns

Jessica Corbett for Common Dreams

With at least two people dead, several others in critical but stable condition at Rhode Island Hospital, and a suspect at large after a Saturday shooting at Brown University in Providence, gun violence prevention advocates and some US lawmakers renewed calls for swift action to take on what the nonprofit Brady called “a uniquely American problem” that “is completely preventable.”

A suspect ("person of interest") was arrested just before 5 AM at a hotel in Coventry. Shelter in place orders were lifted at 7 AM. Tonight, he was identified as Benjamin Erickson, 24, from Wisconsin. Police say they found two handguns in his hotel room. NEW: Just after 11 PM, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and police officials held a unscheduled briefing to say that Erickson was being released, noting that it was unfortunate his name was released. That means there is NO suspect in custody and the killer is still on the loose.

“Our hearts are with the victims, survivors, their families, and the entire community of Brown University and the surrounding Providence area in this horrific time,” said Brady president Kris Brown in a statement. “As students prepare for finals and then head home to loved ones for the holidays, our all-too-American gun violence crisis has shattered their safety.”

“Guns are the leading cause of death for youth in this nation. Only in America do we live in fear of being shot and killed in our schools, places of worship, and grocery stores,” she continued. “Now, as students, faculty, and staff hide and barricade themselves in immense fear, we once again call on lawmakers in Congress and around the country to take action against this uniquely American public health crisis. We cannot continue to allow politics and special interests to take priority over our lives and safety.”

THIS is the misinformation posted by Trump just two
hours after the shooting. Local and university officials
scrambled to correct this malicious interference. At 6 PM, 
he posted a retraction that blamed Brown University 
police for having "reversed their previous statement."
There was no such previous statement.

Despite some early misinformation ➡, no suspects are in custody, and authorities were searching for a man in dark clothing. 

The law enforcement response is ongoing and Brown remains in lockdown, according to a 9:29 pm Eastern update on the university’s website. Everyone is urged to shelter in place, which “means keeping all doors locked and ensuring no movement across campus.”

The Ivy League university’s president, Christina H. Paxson, said in a public message that “this is a deeply tragic day for Brown, our families, and our local community. There are truly no words that can express the deep sorrow we are feeling for the victims of the shooting that took place today at the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building.”

US Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said on social media that he was “praying for the victims and their families,” and thanked the first responders who “put themselves in harm’s way to protect all of us.” He also echoed the city’s mayor, Brett Smiley, “in urging Rhode Islanders to heed only official updates from Brown University and the Providence Police.”

In a statement, US Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) also acknowledged everyone impacted by “this horrific, active, and unfolding tragedy,” and stressed the importance of everyone listening to law enforcement “as they continue working to ensure the entire campus and surrounding community is safe, and the threat is neutralized.”

The state’s two Democratic congressmen, Brown alumnus Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo, released similar statements. Amo also said that “the scourge of mass shootings is a horrific stain on our nation. We must seek policies to ensure that these tragedies do not strike yet another community and no more lives are needlessly taken from us.”

Elected officials at various levels of government across the country sent their condolences to the Brown community. Some also used the 389th US mass shooting this year and the 230th gun incident on school grounds—according to Brady’s president—to argue that, as US House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) put it, “it’s past time for us to act and stop senseless gun violence from happening again.”

New York City’s democratic socialist mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, noted that this shooting occurred just before the anniversary of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut:

This senseless violence—once considered unfathomable—has become nauseatingly normal to all of us across our nation. Tonight, on the eve of the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting, we find ourselves in mourning once again.

The epidemic of gun violence stretches across America. We reckon with it when we step into our houses of worship and out onto our streets, when we drop our children off at kindergarten and when we fear if those children, now grown, will be safe on campus. But unlike so many other epidemics, we possess the cure. We have the power to eradicate this suffering from our lives if we so choose.

I send my deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and to the Brown and Providence communities, who are wrestling with a grief that will feel familiar to far too many others. May we never allow ourselves to grow numb to this pain, and let us rededicate ourselves to the enduring work of ending the scourge of gun violence in our nation.

Fred Guttenberg has been advocating against gun violence since his 14-year-old daughter was among those murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida nearly eight years ago. He said on social media that he knows two current students at Brown and asserted that “IT DOESN’T NEED TO BE THIS WAY!!!”

Students Demand Action similarly declared: “Make no mistake: We DO NOT have to live and die like this. Our lawmakers fail us every day that they refuse to take action on gun violence.”

Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who became an activist after surviving a 2011 assassination attempt, said that “my heart breaks for Brown University. Students should only have to worry about studying for finals right now, not hiding from gunfire. Guns are the leading cause of death for young people in America—this is a five-alarm fire and our leaders in Washington have ignored it for too long. Americans are tired of waiting around for Congress to decide that protecting kids matters.”

John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, warned that “we either take action, or we bury more of our kids.”

The Associated Press noted that “Rhode Island has some of the strictest gun laws in the US. Last spring the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed an assault weapon ban that will prohibit the sale and manufacturing of certain high-powered firearms, but not their possession, starting next July.”

Gun violence prevention advocates often argue for federal restrictions, given that, as Everytown’s latest analysis of state-level policies points out, “even the strongest system can’t protect a state from its neighbors’ weak laws.”

King Donald announces official Xmas ration

Why poverty exists

Under Former Chemical Industry Insiders, Trump EPA Nearly Doubles Amount of Formaldehyde Considered Safe to Inhale

Your lungs are the cost of corruption

by Sharon Lerner for ProPublica

The chemical industry finally got its wish.

Industry lobbyists have long pushed the federal government to adopt a less stringent approach to gauging the cancer risk from chemicals, one that would help ease regulations on companies that make or use them.

Last week, in a highly unusual move, the Environmental Protection Agency embraced that approach in announcing that it is revising an assessment of the health dangers posed by formaldehyde, a widespread pollutant that causes far more cancer than any other chemical in the air. Working on that effort were two of those former industry insiders, who are now top EPA officials.

The proposed revisions to the assessment, released Wednesday, nearly double the amount of formaldehyde considered safe to inhale compared with the version that was finalized in the last weeks of the Biden administration. Even that older assessment significantly underestimated the dangers posed by formaldehyde, a ProPublica investigation published last year found.

Under previous Republican and Democratic administrations, EPA scientists were instructed to assume that chemicals that cause cancer by damaging DNA — the largest group of carcinogens, which includes formaldehyde — pose a “linear” risk, meaning that even small exposures can be dangerous. The agency adopted the approach almost 40 years ago to protect against the multitude of low-level cancer threats the public faces daily. But the industry’s favored method assumes that certain carcinogens pose no risk at lower levels and that the danger should only be considered once exposure reaches a certain threshold.

The Trump administration has already criticized the use of the linear model for calculating the risk of cancer from radiation and could scrap its use in examining other chemicals.

The EPA’s adoption of this threshold model for formaldehyde might come as little surprise given that some of the scientists who have promoted the approach on behalf of companies are now running the agency.

While Scientists Race To Study Spread of Measles in US, Kennedy Unravels Hard-Won Gains

Trump and Bobby Jr. end US's measle-free status

Amy Maxmen 

The United States is poised to lose its measles-free status next year. If that happens, the country will enter an era in which outbreaks are common again.

More children would be hospitalized because of this preventable disease. Some would lose their hearing. Some would die. Measles is also expensive. A new study — not yet published in a scientific journal — estimates that the public health response to outbreaks with only a couple of cases costs about $244,000. When a patient requires hospital care, costs average $58,600 per case. The study’s estimates suggest that an outbreak the size of the one in West Texas earlier this year, with 762 cases and 99 hospitalizations, costs about $12.6 million.

Even Fox News gets it

America’s status hinges on whether the country’s main outbreaks this year stemmed from the big one in West Texas that officially began Jan. 20. If these outbreaks are linked, and go on through Jan. 20 of next year, the U.S. will no longer be among nations that have banished the disease.

“A lot of people worked very hard for a very long time to achieve elimination — years of figuring out how to make vaccines available, get good vaccine coverage, and have a rapid response to outbreaks to limit their spread,” said Paul Rota, a microbiologist who recently retired from a nearly 40-year career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Instead of acting fast to prevent a measles comeback, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a lawyer who founded an anti-vaccine organization before taking the helm at the Department of Health and Human Services, has undermined the ability of public health officials to prevent and contain outbreaks by eroding trust in vaccines. The measles vaccine is safe and effective: Only 4% of nearly 1,800 confirmed U.S. cases of measles this year have been in people who had received two doses.

Kennedy has fired experts on the vaccine advisory committee to the CDC and has said, without evidence, that vaccines may cause autism, brain swelling, and death. On Nov. 19, scientific information on a CDC webpage about vaccines and autism was replaced with false claims. Kennedy told The New York Times that he ordered the change.

“Do we want to go back into a pre-vaccine era where 500 kids die of measles each year?” asked Demetre Daskalakis, a former director of the CDC’s national immunization center, who resigned in protest of Kennedy’s actions in August. He and other scientists said the Trump administration appears to be occupied more with downplaying the resurgence of measles than with curbing the disease.

Nine Rhode Island State Senators want to decide where and how you may protest

“Public expression and demonstration are fundamental rights, but…”

Steve Ahlquist

RI DINOs need to reacquaint themselves with the Constitution

“Street take-overs and protesters blocking roadways are both extremely dangerous for our communities and have no place in our state,” said Senator Leonidas Raptakis (Democrat, District 33, Coventry, West Greenwich). “Whether it’s protesters keeping people from getting to work or going to the hospital for an emergency, and other duties of first responders, or these outrageous street takeovers that block the use of and vandalize our roadways, these troubling behaviors need to have consequences for those who disregard others’ safety and time. Public safety needs to be protected and upheld.”

Because nothing can be better than politicians legislating punishments for protests they dislike, Senators Raptakis and Patalano will introduce two bills in January to keep roadways clear and safe for motorists and pedestrians. They highlight the need for legislation due to protesters blocking highways and the recent phenomenon of “street takeovers.” Senators David Tikoian, Peter Appollonio Jr., Brian Thompson, Andrew Dimitri, Robert Britto, John Burke, and Stefano Famiglietti will cosponsor the legislative package.

“As both a State Senator and a Major with the Cranston Police Department, I have seen firsthand the catastrophic consequences that occur when our roadways are turned into staging grounds for reckless stunts or obstructed by individuals who believe they can shut down highways without regard for the safety of others,” said Senator Todd Patalano (Democrat, District 26, Cranston). “We have already witnessed incidents across the country where blocked roadways delayed emergency medical care with tragic outcomes. Rhode Island cannot afford to wait until a family in our state suffers that same loss. Passing these bills is not about politics; it is about protecting the innocent and preventing the avoidable.”

“The ACLU will vigorously oppose this proposed legislation because it is unnecessary and unconstitutionally overbroad,” commented Steven Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. “It is unnecessary because Rhode Island laws already impose criminal penalties for obstructing a roadway, and there is no need for another law that is clearly designed simply to be more punitive. It is overly broad because it could criminalize a wide variety of innocuous activities and conduct protected by the First Amendment, including that of panhandlers or activists standing on a highway median to direct attention to a cause.

CRMC must enforce its own rulings

Two years later: Quidnessett Country Club’s illegal rock wall still stands without enforcement action

SteveAhlquist.news

From a Save The Bay press release:

Today marks two years since the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) issued a cease and desist order requiring Quidnessett Country Club to remove the illegal rock wall they erected without permission on Narragansett Bay. Since the issuance of that order, CRMC’s politically-appointed Council has allowed Quidnessett to retain the unlawful wall, allowing numerous extensions, at the cost of Rhode Islanders’ access to the natural shoreline and local habitats like the beach and salt marsh near the shores of the country club.

“CRMC’s Council is complicit in maintaining this illegal rock wall on the shores of Narragansett Bay,” said Jed Thorp, Director of Advocacy for Save The Bay. “First, the Council entertained a water-type change that would have allowed the Club to keep a massive structure built on the coast without any permits. Then, when that avenue failed, the Council gave the Club multiple extensions to deliver restoration plans that would properly restore the ecosystem to its previous state. Now, a recent appeal filed by Quidnessett in Superior Court will, in effect, grant the Club more time to keep the unpermitted and illegal rock wall. The wall has stood for over two years, constructed by the Club in violation of state and federal law, and to date, with no consequences. It’s time for the Council to stop protecting this private golf course and treat it like any other willful violator of the law–order the Club to rectify the violation, remove the wall, and fully restore the shoreline.”

Save The Bay staff recently visited the illegally erected rock wall site on Narragansett Bay. While there, staff observed local wildlife such as horseshoe crabs and birds that depend on the local habitat for survival, a habitat that has been partially buried under a 20-foot-tall pile of rocks on the shoreline. CRMC’s staff stated in its evaluation of the violation that the massive stone structure could also affect the nesting of the eastern diamondback terrapin, an endangered species. Additionally, the wall deflects wave energy along the wall to neighboring properties–in this case, the salt marsh and sandy beaches–which will increase erosion in those habitats.

Save The Bay continues to advocate for comprehensive CRMC reform, including removing the Council, leaving coastal decision-making to CRMC’s expert staff, and putting a full-time staff attorney in place to ensure that law and science, not politics, guide regulatory decisions.

“We need a coastal agency that will defend our local habitats and natural resources, not violators of the law,” Thorp said. “By maintaining this illegal wall in place, the Council is sending the wrong message to coastal developers that you can build without permits or impunity.”

SteveAhlquist.news is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

King Donald celebrates the holidays

Understanding billionaire green-washing

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.

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?

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

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

Childhood contact with chemicals used in everyday plastic products appears to carry significant health risks that can continue well into adulthood, according to experts from NYU Langone Health.

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

A week after being sued by the federal government to turn over Rhode Island’s complete voter rolls, Secretary of State Gregg Amore is now receiving legal help from two of the state’s good government organizations.

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.

MAGA's Epstein gaslighting is unsustainable

To believe anything Trump's MAGA defenders say requires a complete suspension of common sense.

Justin Glawe

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.

There’s a very simple reason for this: Trump and Republicans have no idea how to cover for a president who is clearly all over the files.

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.

Dig a little deeper into Republican talking points about the Epstein files and it gets even more confusing. When asked on November 13 by CNN’s John Berman why Trump won’t simply release the files, Rep. Pete Sessions claimed the president is just doing the same thing as Obama and Biden before him: not releasing context-free materials about those in Epstein’s orbit en masse.

“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.

“The evidence we’ve gathered does not implicate President Trump in any way,” Rep. James Comer claimed on October 21.

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

Trump's hand-made birthday greeting
for Jeffrey Epstein

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.

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.

In March, the FBI tasked its agents in New York with searching through an estimated 100,000 documents for references to Trump — and redacting any mention of the president. In May, Bondi reportedly informed Trump that he was in the massive trove of materials at the Justice Department. This was the point at which Trump switched gears from loudly proclaiming for years that he would release the files to attempting to dismiss them entirely.

“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.

In July, the DOJ said no further investigations were warranted. Now, investigations into prominent Democrats based on the files are necessary. For years, Trump said the files should be released — until he found out he was in them. Then, the files became nothing but hearsay that could hurt innocent people. Now, they can’t be fully released under the ongoing investigations Trump himself demanded.

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.

Inside Trump Cabinet meeting

Touché, Seth

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 

Rhode Islanders deserve timely access to lifesaving, affordable, high-quality mental health and substance use services. Historically, those in crisis, unsure where else to turn, have called 911 and have sought help at hospitals where they face long wait times and, often, a hefty bill. 

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 

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on December 10 said the United States has 1,912 confirmed measles cases so far in 2025, an increase of 84 cases since last week and a bad sign as holiday gatherings, travel, and indoor activities is set to pick up in the final weeks of the year. 

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

Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee continues to attack 2026 Democratic rival Helena Buonanno Foulkes for her personal and professional ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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.”

The clearest symptom yet of Trump’s mental decline

His brain is turning into sh*t

Robert Reich

After criticizing media coverage about him aging in office, Trump appeared to be falling asleep during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

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.

Trump Advent Calendar on sale now

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.

Stephanie Armour and Amanda Seitz

Maddy Olcott plans to start a career once she graduates from college. But the junior at the State University of New York-Purchase College is so far not planning to start a family — even with the Trump administration dangling inducements like thousand-dollar “baby bonuses” or cheaper infertility drugs.

“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.”

Trump likes kids once they turn 14

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. 

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.