Sea urchin "pandemic" causing mass die-off

My least favorite sushi

By Will Collette

Two unrelated articles that appeared the same week caught my eye. One was a URI piece on research to try to figure out a good way to raise sea urchins through aquaculture. The second was a report on Israeli research on the global die-off of sea urchins and its disruption of the marine ecology.

Although sea urchin (Uni) are the only variety of sushi I've encountered and really hated, I wondered what was the fuss. As the articles detail, sea urchins aren't just a food source, but a valuable part of ocean environment. 

I begin with first with the URI story below, followed by the report from Tel Aviv University.

URI aquaculture professor and scientists worldwide look for solutions

By Hugh Markey.

Green sea urchin brood stock at the University of Maine’s
Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research.
(Photo courtesy of Coleen Suckling)

A collection of tiny golden eggs crowns a swirl of pasta. They sit on a small plate, the beautiful orange color looking very much like salmon roe. 

However, the source of these eggs may be surprising. Instead of coming from the sleek, silvery bodies of the salmon, these are the spawn of sea urchins, spindly ocean dwellers that spend their lives wandering the cold, dark bottom of the ocean.

The eggs are commonly called uni, and Coleen Suckling, a marine eco-physiologist and associate professor of aquaculture and fisheries at the University of Rhode Island, is convinced that raising these animals and harvesting the uni is part of a viable industry.

“If you think about what a clean ocean smells like, and translate that to taste, you’ll have an idea of what they taste like,” Suckling said.  

Brown University study links hospital affiliation with higher patient costs

Ironic findings from the operator of Rhode Island's hospital group

Brown University

A study by researchers at the Brown University School of Public Health shows that nearly half of all primary care providers (PCPs) in the United States are affiliated with hospitals, while the number of PCPs affiliated with private equity firms is growing and concentrated in certain regional markets.

Compared with PCPs at independent practices, those affiliated with hospitals or private equity firms charged higher prices for the same services.

The findings were published in JAMA Health Forum.

Health care consolidation is a driving force behind high health care prices in the U.S., said lead study author Yashaswini Singh, an assistant professor of health services, policy and practice who is affiliated with the Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research at Brown.

Because of a lack of data on the consolidation of primary care physicians, Singh said that it was difficult to quantify the trend.

Why Trump’s tariffs can’t solve America’s fentanyl crisis

Jacking up American consumer costs isn't going to solve our drug problem

Rodney Coates, Miami University

Americans consume more illicit drugs per capita than anyone else in the world; about 6% of the U.S. population uses them regularly.

One such drug, fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine – is the leading reason U.S. overdose deaths have surged in recent years. While the rate of fentanyl overdose deaths has dipped a bit recently, it’s still vastly higher than it was just five years ago.

Ending the fentanyl crisis won’t be easy. The U.S. has an addiction problem that spans decades – long predating the rise of fentanyl – and countless attempts to regulate, legislate and incarcerate have done little to reduce drug consumption. Meanwhile, the opioid crisis alone costs Americans tens of billions of dollars each year.

With past policies having failed to curb fentanyl deaths, President Donald Trump now looks set to turn to another tool to fight America’s drug problem: trade policy.

During his presidential campaign, Trump pledged to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico if they don’t halt the flow of drugs across U.S. borders. Trump also promised to impose a new set of tariffs against China if it doesn’t do more to crack down on the production of chemicals used to make fentanyl. He reiterated his plan on his first day back in office, saying to reporters, “We’re thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada because they’re allowing … fentanyl to come in.”

Speaking as a professor who studies social policy, I think both fentanyl and the proposed import taxes represent significant threats to the U.S. While the human toll of fentanyl is undeniable, the real question is whether tariffs will work – or worsen what’s already a crisis.

How tariffs actually work

Definition of journalism

URI’s humanities lecture series expands discussion on ‘Sustaining Democracy’ this spring

Series wraps up in April with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jefferson Cowie

Tony LaRoche 

The University of Rhode Island Center for the Humanities will continue its year-long look at “Sustaining Democracy” this spring through the groundbreaking work of four guest speakers.

At a time of wide concern about challenges to democracy, the series showcases the vital role the arts and humanities play in interpreting and communicating threats to democracy and offering paths to democratic engagement. The spring speakers will focus on such issues confronting democracy as racism, censorship and the meaning of freedom. The lectures are free and open to the public. Registration is requested.

Trump Administration’s Halt of CDC’s Weekly Scientific Report Stalls Bird Flu Studies

What you don't know CAN hurt you

Amy Maxmen

The Trump administration has intervened in the release of important studies on the bird flu, as an outbreak escalates across the United States.

One of the studies would reveal whether veterinarians who treat cattle have been unknowingly infected by the bird flu virus. Another report documents cases in which people carrying the virus might have infected their pet cats.

The studies were slated to appear in the official journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The distinguished journal has been published without interruption since 1952.

Its scientific reports have been swept up in an “immediate pause” on communications by federal health agencies ordered by Dorothy Fink, the acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Fink’s memo covers “any document intended for publication,” she wrote, “until it has been reviewed and approved by a presidential appointee.” It was sent on President Donald Trump’s first full day in office.

Former state Senator Sandra Cano resigned from office for a job with the SBA. It lasted two months.

She took her shot but lost when Biden lost

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Cano with her partner state Treasurer
 James Diossa and their kids

Former state senator Sandra Cano insists she has no regrets about her decision to leave political office to serve as New England regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, despite her brief tenure in the presidentially appointed role.

Cano’s last day with the SBA was Jan. 20 — the same day President Donald Trump took office, she confirmed in an interview on Monday. She had started the federal position on Nov. 4, a day before the presidential election.

Her last day was exactly two months after the SBA confirmed the rumors that Cano had been tapped to lead its small business programming for New England. While she suspected Trump’s victory would put her out of a job, she didn’t get her official notice until two weeks before he was sworn into office, she said.

“I am definitely honored to have served,” Cano said in an interview. “It was important for me to play a vital part in advancing programs that promote small business and entrepreneurship.”

She gave up her jobs as commerce director for the city of Pawtucket and resigned as a state senator representing Pawtucket’s Senate District 8 to take the federal position. 

“When the president of the United States calls you to serve the country, for me, that is a great honor and opportunity to serve,” Cano said.

Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda

“Put Them in Trauma”: 

By Molly Redden and Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Nick Surgey, Documented

For Vought, these are the good old days. John Filo's Pulitzer Prize–
winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the dead body
of Jeffrey Miller minutes after the unarmed student was
fatally shot by an Ohio National Guardsman

Reporting Highlights

• “In Trauma”: A key Trump adviser says a Trump administration will seek to make civil servants miserable in their jobs.
• Military: In private speeches, he laid out plans to use armed forces to quell any domestic “riots.”
• 1776 and 1860: He likened the country’s moment to those fractious periods in American history.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

A key ally to former President Donald Trump detailed plans to deploy the military in response to domestic unrest, defund the Environmental Protection Agency and put career civil servants “in trauma” in a series of previously unreported speeches that provide a sweeping vision for a second Trump term.

In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, described his work crafting legal justifications so that military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions.

He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country; likened the moment to 1776 and 1860, when the country was at war or on the brink of it; and said the timing of Trump’s candidacy was a “gift of God.”

ProPublica and Documented obtained videos of the two speeches Vought delivered during events for the Center for Renewing America, a pro-Trump think tank led by Vought. 

The think tank’s employees or fellows include Jeffrey Clark, the former senior Justice Department lawyer who aided Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election result; Ken Cuccinelli, a former acting deputy secretary in the Department of Homeland Security under Trump; and Mark Paoletta, a former senior budget official in the Trump administration. 

Other Trump allies such as former White House adviser Steve Bannon and U.S. Reps. Chip Roy and Scott Perry either spoke at the conferences or appeared on promotional materials for the events.

How are we doing so far?

For more cartoons from Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE

By the numbers: how the national sale tax (tariffs) will affect the price of groceries

 

US flu activity climbs, with more deaths in kids

Flu is a killer - "very high" in Rhode Island, jamming hospitals

Lisa Schnirring

The nation's flu activity continued a steady rise last week, with 44 states at the high or very high level and that national test positivity just shy of 30%, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly update.

Outpatient visits for flulike illness have been above the national baseline for 9 weeks in a row. Of samples that tested positive for flu at public health labs, nearly all were influenza A, and subtyped influenza A samples were about evenly split between the H3N2 and 2009 H1N1 strains.

On the CDC's flu activity map, most of the country is awash in shades of red that reflect high or very high activity. However, some states are shaded purple, the highest level on the activity scale. They include Southeastern states such as Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee, but also several in the Northeast, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and New Hampshire.

16 more pediatric flu deaths

The CDC reported 16 more pediatric flu deaths, which push the season's total to 47. The deaths occurred between the middle of December and the week ending January 25. All involved influenza A, and, of 13 subtyped samples, 7 were H1N1 and 6 were H3N2. 

For deaths overall, the level remained steady, with flu making up 1.6% of all deaths last week.

Baby shark (doo-doo-doo) caught off Charlestown

Ocean State Shark Discovery: Rare Visitor or Sign of Change?

By Staff / ecoRI News

The surprise visitor was measured and released.
(Atlantic Shark Institute)

On the first day of September last year, Captain Carl Granquist was fishing just south of Charlestown, R.I., when his catch landed on the deck of his boat, the F/V Estrella Domar. A small shark he was unfamiliar with was thrashing around.

Granquist wasn’t sure of the species. He videoed the shark and measured the 24-inch species before releasing it. When Granquist shared the video with the Rhode Island-based shark research group the Atlantic Shark Institute to see whether it could make a positive identification, his unplanned catch kick-started a dive that culminated in a research paper published recently in the Journal of Fish Biology.

New England Offshore Wind Projects Likely to Survive Trump Order

Maybe

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

Trump's hatred of wind power goes back to his
losing fight to stop Scotland from building turbines
offshore from his golf course.

Offshore wind projects already underway are expected to survive in New England, for now.

Newly inaugurated Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at curtailing the development of offshore and onshore wind in the United States. The order revokes the offshore wind leases in the Outer Continental Shelf — the area of the ocean in which many wind projects are in development — until further notice, and prohibits consideration of any new offshore wind projects.

During the campaign, Trump was hostile to renewable energy sources, pledging to end the offshore wind industry upon his return to the White House and boost the nation’s fossil fuel production.

But the order is expected to have limited impact for most of the wind projects in the New England region. Many of the projects have already received final approvals from the federal government prior to Trump taking office, with SouthCoast Wind securing federal permits less than a week before the transition.

SouthCoast Wind was also awarded a multistate procurement from Massachusetts and Rhode Island to deliver 1,287 megawatts (MW) of power by 2030, with construction expected to start sometime this year, according to the project website.

To Pay for Trump Tax Cuts, House GOP Floats Plan to Slash Benefits for the Poor and Working Class

Robin Hood in reverse

By Robert Faturechi and Justin Elliott for ProPublica

One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was a promise of sweeping tax cuts, for the rich, for working people and for companies alike.

Now congressional Republicans have the job of figuring out which of those cuts to propose into law. In order to pay for the cuts, they have started to eye some targets to raise money. Among them: cutting benefits for single mothers and poor people who rely on government health care.

The proposals are included in a menu of tax and spending cut options circulated this month by House Republicans. Whether or not Republicans enact any of the ideas remains to be seen. Some of the potential targets are popular tax breaks and cuts could be politically treacherous. And cutting taxes for the wealthy could risk damaging the populist image that Trump has cultivated.

For the ultrawealthy, the document floats eliminating the federal estate tax, at an estimated cost of $370 billion in revenue for the government over a decade. The tax, which charges a percentage of the value of a person’s fortune after they die, kicks in only for estates worth more than around $14 million.

Among those very few Americans who do get hit with the tax, nearly 30% of the tax is paid by the top 0.1% by income, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center think tank. (Many ultra-wealthy people already largely avoid the tax. Over the years, lawyers and accountants have devised ways to pass fortunes to heirs tax free, often by using complex trust structures, as ProPublica has previously reported.)

Another proposal aims to slash the top tax rate paid by corporations by almost a third.

Trump promised such a cut during the campaign. But Vice President JD Vance came out against it before Trump picked him as his running mate. “We’re sort of in line with the OECD right now,” he said in an interview last year, referring to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 38 wealthy developed nations. “I don’t think we need to be cutting the corporate tax rate further.”

Trump says "“BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”

 

Homebuilders outline what Trump's tariff/national sales tax will do to building

Rep. Cotter named R.I. Southern Firefighters League Legislator of the Year

South County firefighters honor Rep. Megan Cotter for her hard work to help prevent wildfires

Rep. Megan L. Cotter has been honored as the R.I. Southern Firefighters League Legislator of the Year.

Representative Cotter (D-Dist. 39, Exeter, Richmond, Hopkinton) was selected for her efforts to support the fire and safety services in the General Assembly.

According to Charlestown Ambulance-Rescue Service Chief Andrew D. Kettle, who presented the award at the R.I. Southern Firefighters League Legislators Night Jan. 27, Representative Cotter has demonstrated “unwavering dedication to the fire service, EMS and public safety as a whole. Her leadership and advocacy have had a direct and positive impact on our ability to serve and protect. Whether it is through sponsoring critical legislation, securing vital funding, or simply taking the time to listen to our needs, Representative Cotter has proven to be a true champion of our mission.”

In her first year the in the House, Representative Cotter sponsored legislation that created a legislative commission to help the state determine the best action for improving forest management. 

Don't hold your breath for cheaper eggs

Avian flu strikes second biggest US egg producer

Lisa Schnirring

Rose Acre Farms, the nation's second largest egg producer, said yesterday that tests have confirmed avian flu at its facility in Seymour, Indiana, which could further stretch the supply of eggs as commercial farms in several states continue to battle the spread of the H5N1 virus.

In other developments, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported more H5N1 detections in mammals, poultry, dairy cows, and wild birds, and European health groups issued a guide for assessing avian flu mutations that may pose a risk to humans.

Layer farms hard hit in poultry outbreaks

The company said on X that it first noticed mortality in the layers on January 25 and quickly sent samples for testing. Rose Acre Farms has operations across the country. The Seymour, Indiana, facility is located in Jackson County. The Indiana Board of Animal Health of Animal Health on January 26 announced that the virus had been detected at a layer farm in Jackson County that has 2.8 million birds.

The company said it tightened its already rigorous biosecurity measures, is working with state officials, and is monitoring its other facilities.

Since the first of the year, outbreaks at layer farms have led to the loss of at least 13 million birds.

Trump executive order attacks long-standing American principle of birthright citizenship

Trump's grandparents were immigrants making his father a beneficiary of birthright citizenship

Carol Nackenoff, Swarthmore College and Julie Novkov, University at Albany, State University of New York

The Constitution is clear that children born on U.S. soil
 automatically have U.S. citizenship, regardless of
who their parents are. RichLegg/E+ via Getty Images

One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders relating to immigration and immigrants is a direct attack on the long-standing constitutional principle of birthright citizenship. That’s the declaration in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that anyone born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen, regardless of their parents’ nationalities or immigration status.

Specifically, Trump’s order says the federal government will stop issuing federal identification documents such as Social Security cards and passports to infants born in the U.S. unless at least one of their parents is either a U.S. citizen or a “lawful permanent resident.” So it would deny paperwork to infants born to people who are in the U.S. by other, legal means, such as work, tourist or student visas, as well as to undocumented people. Several states have already filed suit to block the move.

This first step down a path to deny citizenship to some individuals born in the United States reflects a conflict that’s been going on for nearly 200 years: who gets to be an American citizen.

Debates in American history over who gets citizenship and what kind of citizenship they get have always involved questions of race and ethnicity, as we have learned through our individual research on the historical status of Native Americans and African Americans and joint research on restricting Chinese immigration.

Nonetheless, even in the highly racialized political environment of the late 19th century, the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed an expansive view of birthright citizenship. In an 1898 ruling, the court decreed that the U.S.-born children of immigrants were citizens, regardless of their parents’ ancestry.

That decision set the terms for the current controversy, as various Republican leaders, U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Vice President JD Vance, have claimed that they will possess the power to overturn more than a century of federal constitutional law and policy and deny birthright citizenship.

How Labor Can Fight Back Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda

The worst is yet to come

Natascha Elena Uhlmann and Sarah Lazare

This is a frightening time for immigrant workers. President-elect Donald Trump ran on the slogan “mass deportations now,” and has appointed a team of anti-immigrant hardliners. The leadership of the Democratic Party has lurched to the right on this issue, adopting Trump’s rhetoric about “securing the border,” and embracing core Republican policies.

A bill that would target undocumented people for deportations if they are merely accused—not convicted—of nonviolent crimes like shoplifting passed in the House with bipartisan support. It’s moving forward in the Senate where only eight Democrats opposed its advance.

Fortunately, some unions and workers’ centers have been busy mobilizing a robust defense, through direct action, political action, and negotiating protections into union contracts. Many of these efforts started long before Trump was elected.

The need is great: The United Farm Workers reported on January 8 that some of its members were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) traveling home from work in Kern County, California. “Random actions like this are not meant to keep anyone safe,” the union wrote on X, “they are intended to terrorize hardworking people.”

And some employers are already instituting identity and employment authorization checks. At least 100 custodial and kitchen workers at New York City’s Tin Building were fired after the building’s corporate manager, Seaport Entertainment Group, carried out one such crackdown, according to Gothamist.

Workers and unions face a dual challenge: They must defend their undocumented co-workers and ensure that no crackdown will deter their ongoing battles to improve workers’ lives.

More on the price of eggs

Or use a very large Sharpie

Diverse caucus in the RI General Assembly re-organizes

Charlestown's state Senator Victoria Gu is a prominent member

That's Sen. Gu on the far right-side The Rhode Island Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian-American and Pacific Islander Caucus (RIBLIA) held its first meeting of the 2025 legislative session yesterday.  Two new members of the caucus were welcomed and two new co-chairs were also elected.             The caucus was chaired by Sen. Jonathon Acosta (D-Dist. 16, Central Falls, Pawtucket) and Rep. Leonela Felix (D-Dist. 61, Pawtucket) during the 2023-2024 legislative sessions.             “It has been a distinct honor to chair the RIBLIA Caucus over the past two years and both of us are extremely proud of what has been accomplished during this time,” said Senator Acosta and Representative Felix.  “The caucus has made some notable policy gains and I know that it will continue to be a voice for the vulnerable and downtrodden during the current session.  As we see policy after policy coming from the federal government that chooses to attack and scapegoat our most vulnerable populations, the RIBLIA Caucus will always choose to defend and uplift the community against such attacks, and we are ready to continue this mission during the new year.”

How to tell valid health information from pseudoscience

From vaccines to nutrition, misinformation is everywhere 

Aimee Pugh Bernard, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated a vast landscape of misinformation about many topics, science and health chief among them.

Since then, information overload continues unabated, and many people are rightfully confused by an onslaught of conflicting health information. Even expert advice is often contradictory.

On top of that, people sometimes deliberately distort research findings to promote a certain agenda. For example, trisodium phosphate is a common food additive in cakes and cookies that is used to improve texture and prevent spoilage, but wellness influencers exploit the fact that a similarly named substance is used in paint and cleaning products to suggest it’s dangerous to your health.

Such claims can proliferate quickly, creating widespread misconceptions and undermining trust in legitimate scientific research and medical advice. Social media’s rise as a news and information source further fuels the spread of pseudoscientific views.

Misinformation is rampant in the realm of health and nutrition. Findings from nutrition research is rarely clear-cut because diet is just one of many behaviors and lifestyle factors affecting health, but the simplicity of using food and supplements as a cure-all is especially seductive.

I am an assistant professor specializing in medical education and science communication. I also train scientists and future health care professionals how to communicate their science to the general public.

In my view, countering the voices of social media influencers and health activists promoting pseudoscientific health claims requires leaning into the science of disease prevention. Extensive research has produced a body of evidence-based practices and public health measures that have consistently been shown to improve the health of millions of people around the world. Evaluating popular health claims against the yardstick of this work can help distinguish which ones are based on sound science.

Trump plays the race card - with no evidence - to lay blame for the DC plane crash

As Trump Blames DEI for Plane Crash, Report Shows Understaffed Air Traffic Control

Julia Conley

A preliminary report on Wednesday night's crash involving a American Airlines commercial flight and a military helicopter revealed that the air traffic control tower in the vicinity of the accident was not staffed at "normal" levels, with just one controller handling a task that two employees ordinarily would have done in the high-stress job.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report on Thursday said the staffing at the time of the crash was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic."

One controller was instructing helicopters near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport while also directing planes landing at and departing from the airport.

As The New York Times reported, controllers use different radio frequencies to communicate with helicopter pilots and those flying planes.

"While the controller is communicating with pilots of the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not be able to hear each other," according to the Times.

Air traffic controllers have been forced to work longer hours and workweeks in recent years, amid budget constraints and high turnover. In 2023, the tower near Washington, D.C. had 19 fully certified air traffic controllers. The FAA and the controllers' union say the optimal number is 30.

The FAA report was released shortly after President Donald Trump presented his own theory, without evidence, of why the crash that killed 67 people happened.

Trump suggested at a press briefing that under the Biden administration, the FAA had overseen a "diversity push" with a "focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities."

A reporter at the briefing asked whether Trump was saying the crash "was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring" and called on him to offer evidence to support the claim.

"It just could have been," Trump said, adding that his administration has "a much higher standard than anybody else" for hiring federal employees.

Government Executive noted that the FAA began diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring programs as early as 2013, which continued under the first Trump administration.