This week's bug alert as mosquito season nears its end

RIDOH Announces First Human Case of West Nile Virus in 2026

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) are announcing the State’s first case of West Nile Virus (WNV) in 2026.

The case is a Washington County resident in their 60s who had symptom onset in early September. This person has been recovering in the hospital and is expected to be released soon. The positive WNV testing was confirmed last week at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

The individual had a history of travel to an area with active WNV transmission. Based on the travel history, it is likely that the infection was acquired outside of Rhode Island. 

Due to seasonally low mosquito populations, the risk of mosquito-borne disease has significantly decreased and the statewide risk level for WNV is low. However, until the entire State experiences a true hard frost (defined as three consecutive hours below 32 degrees), which kills adult mosquitoes, a low risk of mosquito-borne disease remains.

WNV is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States and is much more prevalent than Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus. Cases of WNV occur during mosquito season, which starts in the summer and continues through fall. There are no vaccines to prevent or medications to treat WNV in people. Fortunately, most people infected with WNV do not feel sick. About one in five people who are infected develop a fever and other symptoms. About one out of 150 infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, illness. For more information about WNV, visit health.ri.gov/wnv.

As companies trap us in subscriptions, bury us in fees, and use algorithms to fix prices, we need a new Shoppers’ Bill of Rights.

Corporations Keep Finding New Ways to Gouge Us. Our Laws Must Catch Up.

By Lindsay Owens

Every day, companies find better, and sneakier, ways to reach deeper into our wallets.

They trap us in subscriptions, bury fees until checkout, use algorithms to collude with competitors, and mine our personal data to charge us the most we’re willing to pay. With each trick and tactic, companies are reinventing the ripoff right under our noses. And, as families strain under the rising cost of living, these practices are coming for every line of the household budget.

Algorithmic price fixing is one of the most powerful tools in that arsenal. Price-fixing no longer requires a smoky back room. Today, technology can do CEOs’ dirty work for them. From rent to gasoline, this algorithmic price-fixing playbook is wreaking havoc on family budgets.

In June, a class-action lawsuit in California alleged that AI-powered pricing tool Kalibrate helped more than 1,700 gas stations coordinate and inflate prices at the pump. Drivers paid a hefty price, as Kalibrate allegedly pushed gas prices up by as much as 30 ​cents a gallon in some markets — a roughly $4 billion dollar dent in Californians’ budgets. Similar schemes could well be underway in other states.

Meanwhile, in the rental market, the blockbuster RealPage lawsuit alleged that the company’s leasing software pooled landlords’ data and spit out rent recommendations that helped landlords raise rents in lockstep. In some buildings using RealPage, rents jumped by as much as 33 percent in a single year — more than eight times the increase in a comparable building that didn’t use the software.

Another weapon in the gouger’s arsenal is dynamic pricing. Americans are familiar with prices that fluctuate when supply is scarce — say, seats on a plane or rooms at a hotel. But today, companies are pushing the practice well beyond contexts of scarcity.

For example, shoppers might find that sunscreen and bottled water have changed prices overnight in Las Vegas hotel lobby shops. And as stores like Walmart and Kroger install electronic shelf labels across thousands of stores, the infrastructure for high-frequency dynamic pricing in brick and mortar shopping is taking shape.

Why Worry About Climate Change When AI Will Get Us First?

Or maybe Trump will settle the question by pushing the nuclear button 

By Thomas Schueneman 

This short essay on climate change and AI is from my Thinking Out Loud column in our September newsletter. Subscribe for more!

When I was a wee lad growing up in the sixties, nuclear war, mutually assured destruction, or MAD, was the apocalypse du jour.

Splitting the atom ended the war and allowed a new world order to emerge. By the 1960s, that new world included schoolchildren huddled under their desks, covering their heads with their hands, practicing for the end of the world.

Some sixty years on, we live in a post-modern world nothing like that turbulent, transformative, often violent decade. But only in form. Despite the obvious technological and cultural differences between then and now, it feels vaguely the same, hiding under our virtual desks, our heads buried in distraction and division.

Climate Change and Artificial Intelligence: What, Me Worry?

You have likely heard the AI Cassandras marching up and down the digital sidewalk with their virtual placards warning that the end is near (very near), and that we are the seeds of our own destruction. We are Frankenstein; AI is the monster.

These stark warnings have spilled out as one news story after another about rogue AI agents breaking free and potentially creating havoc in the real world where humans live. It is unsettling.

Or is it?

Trump hits the airwaves with taxpayer-funded TV ads

Trump replaces the Statue of Liberty

BOLO for Charlestown: It's deer mating season

Love is in the Air and Deer are on the Move

It’s deer mating season and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) reminds drivers to keep an eye out for deer crossing roadways, particularly at dawn and dusk, when they’re on the move looking for love. 

During the “rut”, which runs from mid-October through December, deer are more active, increasing the chances of deer-vehicle collisions. So slow down, stay alert, and keep your eyes peeled for some four-legged lovebirds on the road. Tips to avoid deer vehicle collisions include:    

• Scan the shoulders of the road in front of you
• If you see a deer while driving, proceed with caution and expect more than just one
• Follow the speed limit
• Always use seat belts
• If a collision is unavoidable, apply the brakes firmly and remain in your lane

If you hit a deer, approach with caution, as it may be stunned or wounded and could injure you while trying to escape. Report all deer collisions to DEM's 24-hour dispatch at 401-222-3070, local police, and your insurance company. Motorists should also notify the dispatch if they observe an injured or dead deer on the road. 

Full coverage of Charlestown's Town Council debate, thanks to Steve Ahlquist

The Charlestown Town Council Candidate Forum

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island and the South County Star...

Steve Ahlquist

Does anyone look like they're having a good time? 

The League of Women Voters of Rhode Island (LWV) and the South County Star sponsored the Charlestown Town Council Candidate Forum featuring Deborah Carney (D), Incumbent Council President; Stephen Stokes (R), Incumbent Council Member; Jill Marie Fonnemann (D); Sasha Puchalski (Independent); Craig Marr (R), Incumbent Council Member; Cynthia Drummond (D); and Bonnita Van Slyke (Independent), Incumbent Council Member.

Matthew Westover (R) was absent.

The forum was moderated by Torey Malatia, the executive director of Literacy Volunteers of Washington County. As a journalist, Malatia ran public media nonprofit organizations in Chicago and Providence for over 40 years. He currently serves on the board of directors of the new non-profit digital newspaper, South County Star. He trained as a medieval English literature specialist and earned an MA from Arizona State University.

Here’s the video (running time just under 90 minutes):  

Videography by Paul Roselli.

Here’s the transcript, edited for clarity:

What is the most important challenge facing Charlestown today, and how would you address it?

Deborah Carney: The most important issue facing Charlestown right now is the housing crisis. Housing costs in Charlestown are so high that it’s virtually impossible for our young families, workforce, and seniors to afford them.

Steven Stokes: Another major issue facing Charlestown right now is the struggle between state and local control of local issues. We’ve seen that slowly erode over the last several years, and it only seems to be picking up steam. We’re seeing pushback now, and that’s going to be the future for the next two years. This council will have to look into that and address the issue.

Jill Fonneman: I agree with Deb. She said it would be affordable housing and ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units). Everybody who lives in this town deserves to be able to stay in this town if they choose to, whether they’re senior citizens or our children, while also following strict guidelines and regulations to protect our environment.

Sasha Puchalski: I agree that housing affordability in town and people’s ability to move, live, raise, and support their families here is a massive issue, and that townspeople also need to understand the specific limitations on development, because while we can hope to liaise with the state in terms of maintaining control over development in town, we also need the town to be educated about responsible development and potentially alternative approaches to development of affordable housing and housing generally. We need a clear sense of the specific need and data on the number of people, so we’re catering to families that need it rather than developers.

Craig Marr: I can’t disagree with any of the comments made before me. The housing issue is the biggest challenge because we have no infrastructure in the town, so it’s very difficult. As Steve said, we also need to control development, because without it, an imposition may not fit our town. But we are an aging community, and we clearly need to bring in young families to sustain the town and move forward. These two issues are the most important ones facing the county.

Cynthia Drummond: I agree that housing is an overarching issue and that local control is paramount. I also feel that unless we do whatever we can to protect our principal economic driver, which is our coastline, nothing else will matter. It’s what keeps our taxes low, keeps people coming to Charlestown to visit, and makes people want to live here.

Bonnita Van Slyke: I agree with Steve that local control is essential to solving our housing problem. Our water is critically important and would be threatened by state mandates that greatly increase market-rate housing but not affordability. And that is a problem for us.

Why fuel prices may go higher still

Trump is out of options - except to end his illegal war

Joshua Busby, The University of Texas at Austin and Greg Pollock, Georgetown University

If you think your energy costs are high now, the situation may be about to get a whole lot worse.

With traffic in the Strait of Hormuz – normally the primary route for oil leaving the Middle East – hovering below 15% of prewar levels, oil prices have increased from US$65 a barrel before the conflict in Iran began in February 2026 to more than $100 a barrel in mid-September.

When the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran, analysts feared prices would soon reach $150 or even $200 a barrel. That hasn’t happened yet. But seven months into the conflict, with no clear end in sight, the global oil market has now largely exhausted the safety measures that exist to keep a lid on petroleum prices.

As researchers who study the relationship between energy and national security, we have been following these dynamics throughout the conflict, and the oil market is now showing signs that significant price hikes – and perhaps even shortages – may be on the way.

The squeeze tightens

Some oil has been able to make it out of the Persian Gulf despite the closure of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia increased output via its East-West pipeline, which runs from Abqaiq on the Persian Gulf overland to Yanbu on the coast of the Red Sea. At full capacity, that pipeline can carry as much as 7 million barrels per day, although only about 4 million to 5 million barrels per day are typically exported.

But attacks on the pipeline in mid-September that Saudi Arabia blames on Iran-backed militias based in Iraq forced the Saudis to temporarily halt oil shipments through that pipeline. The pipeline has now restarted operations at very low volumes, but it will likely take at least six to eight weeks to regain full capacity. Even this short cessation has tightened already constrained oil markets, and the threat of further Houthi attacks on Red Sea oil exports will only add to inflationary pressures.

Meanwhile, in Russia, Ukrainian drone attacks have damaged refineries, reducing Russian production of diesel fuel and prompting the country to ban exports of it. That has removed another 3% of the global daily supply of diesel, an important fuel for trucking and shipping. When diesel costs go up, the result is inflation in the cost of goods across the global economy.

Harsh Reality Awaits Ocean State’s Human-Built Coastline

Six decades of beach surveys reveal extent of shoreline erosion

By Frank Carini / ecoRI News columnist

Southern New England’s beaches are under attack from misdirected human behavior. While they may be eroding and retreating, they will survive. The same can’t be said for the human-made infrastructure sitting on and behind these popular stretches of sand.

The region’s coastline is a transitory environment in which change is both natural and unforgiving. But a century-plus of sustained coastal development, buoyed by shortsighted federal flood insurance, has significantly changed the dynamic.

Bottom of Form

With nowhere to retreat because of oceanfront cottages, private bathhouses, massive vacation homes, assorted businesses, roads, parking lots, and various shoreline amenities, these coastal areas of loose sand, pebble, and shell particles will eventually just take what we think is ours.

“A beach is a transition zone between land and sea. There’s always going to be a beach, where the geology allows,” J.P. Walsh, a University of Rhode Island professor of oceanography, marine geology, and geophysics, said. “It’s just what is it going to look like? Is it going to be a nice sandy beach? Unless you’re eroding into bedrock, you will form a beach from what you’re eroding into.”

In that case, most of Rhode Island’s coastal beaches, in the not-too-distant future, will be comprised of worn-down pieces of aluminum siding, cedar panels, roofing shingles, steel beams, cement, asphalt, and tons more plastic.

A rapidly increasing number of human beings, our relentless burning of fossil fuels, and our unabated consumption of natural resources is taking a toll on the natural world. It’s upending the climate by changing natural systems, such as slowing down the Gulf Stream and melting mountain glaciers and ice sheets. Sea level is rising.

While the climate crisis shouldn’t be blamed for all of this coastal change, it has accelerated natural processes. Beach nourishment is for us. Mother Nature has her own way of dealing with a changing shoreline. Humans just get in the way.

An ongoing University of Rhode Island project has been documenting changes along the Ocean State’s coastal landscape for six decades.

Why you pay taxes

Don't like them

RI Ballot Question 1 would support healthcare, workforce training in Rhode Island’s high-demand fields

Higher education bond would fund programs at URI, RIC and CCRI

Dawn Bergantino

The University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island are partnering on efforts related to Question 1, a higher education bond measure on the November ballot. The measure would provide funding for training and workforce development in healthcare, the skilled trades, and other high-demand fields.

A new Integrated Health Building at URI will expand modern health education and clinical training, strengthening the pipeline of professionals who care for Rhode Islanders and their families. Healthcare careers are among the fastest-growing occupations, as well as the state’s largest employment sectors.

A recent poll showed that 49% of respondents believe that Rhode Island isn’t spending enough money on improving and protecting healthcare in the state, with 62% indicating that healthcare should be a top priority for elected leaders.

Trump and RFK Jr.’s Gutting of CDC ‘Should Terrify Everyone,’ Advocates Say

“This is not normal” 

Jake Johnson for Common Dreams

Reporting published over the weekend detailing the “zombified” state of the preeminent public health institution in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sparked deep alarm among advocates and experts, who warned that Donald Trump’s gutting of the agency leaves the country badly unequipped to handle future emergencies.

“The grim state of affairs at the Trump CDC should terrify everyone,” Brad Woodhouse, president of the advocacy group Protect Our Care, said in a statement on Monday in response to reporting by The New York Times, which shows how Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other administration officials have made the CDC “a skeleton of the powerhouse it was.”

The Times noted that, as of May 2026, the CDC had 30% fewer employees than it did before the Trump administration initiated mass layoffs at the agency and across the federal government last year.

There is also a leadership vacuum at the agency, according to the Times, which reported that “only one of the 11 center directors from March 2025 remains at the agency” and “most of the other centers are being run by acting directors, some of whom were elevated from jobs one or two levels below.” The current CDC director is Dr. Erica Schwartz, who “has made no public statements about the importance of childhood vaccines or corrected misinformation from her boss, Mr. Kennedy,” the Times observed, even as recorded measles cases reach levels not seen in decades.

‘ICE Is Everywhere’: Investigation Reveals More Arrests Than Ever, With Quieter Tactics

Citizen or not, ICE will grab you

Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams

The Trump administration may have deliberately toned down its highly visible, militarized immigration raids that generated widespread backlash, but US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is arresting more people than ever, an investigation published Monday by The Guardian revealed.

The British newspaper examined what it called the increasingly “invisibilized” immigration dragnet reaching into workplaces, airports, traffic stops, convenience stores, and communities far from the US-Mexico border, declaring “ICE is everywhere.”

“Before, [ICE] were storming around, making a lot of noise,” Gracie Willis, a rapid-response attorney with the National Immigration Project, told The Guardian. “Now, they are moving more quietly.”

“More quietly” does not mean fewer arrests. In fact, The Guardian reported that ICE apprehended nearly 50,000 people in July, a record high. The agency has also more than doubled its workforce this year to more than 22,000 officers and staff after Congress provided the Department of Homeland Security with $75 billion in additional funding.

As of September 15, ICE had also signed more than 2,500 agreements allowing state and local law enforcement agencies to participate in federal immigration enforcement.

“The detentions are happening in a flash—we’re talking, like, 90 seconds from the time ICE shows up to that person being driven away,” Willis said. “And often they are moving very quietly, with very soft feet.”

The shift in tactics came after the administration’s highly publicized operations provoked intense opposition, especially following a series of fatal shootings, including of American citizens.

The final month before Charlestown town elections - early voting starts next week

Lowkey campaigns, but stark contrasts and high stakes

By Will Collette

This is the endorsed slate of Charlestown Residents United town office candidates

Early and mail-in voting starts on October 14 for the November 3 General Election. This year’s perennial struggle between Charlestown’s former rulers, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), and the current majority faction, Charlestown Residents United (CRU) has been pretty low-key compared to prior elections. Fewer yard signs, fewer mailers, less fireworks.

That’s because Charlestown’s new CRU leadership for the past four years has brought more competent, responsible government after 10 years of CCA chaos. Gone are the CCA’s mismanagement, secrecy and paranoia. The craziness has been turned down to a mere background buzz. Not surprisingly, the CCA has failed to come up with a full slate of candidates for town office for the first time in memory.

When Charlestown Residents United ousted the CCA’s Town Council majority in 2022, they did so after the CCA demonstrated it could not properly manage the town’s finances. The highest visibility evidence was a “misplaced” $3 million that for almost two years was somehow lost in the Byzantine system the CCA created. That's the “$3 million Oopsie” that no one in the CCA would accept responsibility for causing.

It didn’t help the CCA’s cause that they used that money, and more, to finance questionable land deals. And, completely missing the Watergate lesson that “it’s the cover-up that gets you,” the CCA tried to prevent the public from knowing what they did by having their lapdog Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz use every trick in the book to keep the records out of public view.

The CCA learned you can’t screw up the money and stay in office. The CRU by sharp contrast, resolved the financial mess the CCA created to the point where a detailed report by the Rhode Island Auditor General showed how the new CRU majority improved Charlestown’s fiscal systems:

The four years of Council control by Charlestown Residents United have been largely drama-free. Under the CCA, Charlestown seemed to be continuously assailed by “threats,” often imaginary, that supposedly only the CCA could handle.

Under the CRU, it seems the only chronic emergencies are weather related – drought, wildfires, sea level rise and severe storms – and this council has shown its ability to proactively handle these problems.

Here's a typical example of how CCA's flunky
Stankiewicz responded to open records requests. He actually
made you PAY to get records like this.

Gone is CCA lapdog Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz who told me to my face that he worked for the CCA not the people of Charlestown. He showed his mettle by covering up public records that showed how badly he and the CCA-controlled Town Council and Planning Commission screwed up the money and conducted shady land deals.

The CRU replaced Stanky with highly respected former Charlestown Police Chief Jeffrey Allen who has managed the town’s business without rancor or controversy.

The CCA first took total control of the Town Council in 2010.
Tax rate = $7.48. Under the CCA, it rose steadily to a
2016 peak of $10.21. When the CCA was booted in 2022,
the rate was $8.17. Under the CRU, the rate has dropped
to the current $5.05. The CCA's claims about the tax rate
are untrue. Source: Charlestown Tax Assessor.

During the CCA’s decade of control, they constantly touted Charlestown’s low tax rate, while failing to acknowledge that the tax rate is only one of two major factors determining how much property tax you pay. The second factor is property valuation.

But if you look at the actual numbers, under the CCA, tax rates went up every year as did the actual tax Charlestown property owners paid. 

Under Charlestown Residents United, the much-touted tax rate went down dramatically due to the sharp rise in property values.

The CCA, and especially its leader Ruth Platner who also has run the Charlestown Planning Commission, has continually tried to convince Charlestown voters that we are on the brink of environmental disaster. 

Again, says the CCA, only the CCA can save the town. This year’s theme has been “local control.” 

That’s Platner’s code for the threat that “people from Providence” might diminish her long-held sole control of what gets built in Charlestown.

To put it bluntly, Platner equates “local control” with control by her.

Charlestown property taxes are affected mostly
by market swings. Source: GoLocal

It’s been a challenging four years for Ruthie. Loss of control of the Town Council meant that she could no longer direct her Council majority to support her own anti-family, pro-nonresident agenda. And it could get worse if she loses her CCA-majority on the Planning Commission.

In the November 3 General Election, Charlestown voters could quite easily vote Platner off the Commission – she and her minions face a strong challenge from the CRU slate for Planning. With four seats on the ballot, obviously Platner needs to finish in the top four. Plus she needs to get her slate elected to maintain her majority. Otherwise, she can no longer tell any of her minions who get more votes than her to step aside so she can continue her reign as Planning Commissar.

I’d love to see Charlestown voters send Ruth Platner into retirement once and for all.

I also hope that with another term for the Charlestown Residents United Town Council majority, we can see the resolution of some unfinished business. These include:

Homestead Tax Credit. The CRU majority succeeded in getting the General Assembly to authorize Charlestown to change its tax code to grant yearlong residents a break on their property taxes as other RI shoreline communities do. The CCA long opposed the Homestead tax break, arguing that this would somehow be “unfair” to nonresident homeowners, who coincidentally finance much of the CCA’s political activity. A CRU majority needs to write the ordinance to enact this long overdue tax relief.

Tax Fake Fire Districts fairly. Many coastal towns have homeowner associations (HOAs) who have found a legal loophole to style themselves as “Fire Districts” even though they have no ability to fight fires. Charlestown has two: Shady Harbor and Quonnie. Between them, they own millions of dollars in prime shoreline real estate yet pay little or no property tax, shifting those taxes on to the rest of us. These two neighborhoods are solid CCA territory so naturally they were protected while the CCA ran the town. A CRU majority needs to end the privileged tax treatment enjoyed by fake fire districts and tax their property as they would any other HOA.

Adopt prudent Bad Actor policies and practices. Charlestown buys goods and services from a variety of businesses and also awards lucrative permits and licenses to a variety of others. It does so without any policies to judge whether those businesses are honest and ethical. The CCA’s Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz actually granted the notorious Mob-connected Copar Quarry a business license to operate a quarry right off Route 91 on the bank of the Pawcatuck River. The CCA spent thousands of your tax dollars to fight the Dollar Store’s effort to site a store in the Cross Mills village district. These and other questionable businesses would have been blocked if Charlestown had enacted a policy that barred doing business with companies or individuals with bad track records. We can set our own criteria so long as they are reasonable and fairly applied. We can stop doing business with crooks. A CRU majority should make sure Charlestown does not do business with criminals.

Tax breaks for volunteer firefighters. The Charlestown Fire District is currently in another drive to recruit more volunteer firefighters. This is a regular problem when we ask people to step up for the hard and dangerous work of protecting people’s lives and property. I am in awe of those who do this and think they should be rewarded. One straightforward way to do that is to give them a generous tax break on the property or auto tax. We can work with the Fire Districts on a fair formula for earning the tax cut (i.e. length of service, response to turn-out calls, etc.) but let’s do it, both out of gratitude and to help with recruitment. A CRU majority needs to act.

All of these ideas have been kicking around a while. During the decade of CCA reign, they were all non-starters. The CRU majority has now had enough time to study these issues and, if they receive a continuing mandate from the voters on November 3, they should act posthaste.