Buckle up! The energy bill roller coaster is about to begin.

New rates kick in today

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

The seasonal swings in energy bills will be a lot bumpier this year under a series of extra charges and discounts authorized by state utility regulators.

The upshot: Rhode Island Energy customers will have to start paying more in fees beginning Sept. 1 under a $138 million revenue plan authorized by the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission.  

Distribution rate increases were finalized under a series of unanimous votes by utility regulators on Aug. 21, though final bill impacts were not publicly available until Monday. 

The calculations mark the culmination of a nine-month review spanning thousands of pages of analysis and meetings among company consultants, state regulators and ratepayer advocates.

“It was quite an undertaking,” Commission Chairman Ron Gerwatowski said at a public meeting Monday. “It was a lot of schedules.”

Acknowledging the public interest in the long, complicated and confusing regulatory review process — namely, what it will mean for customers’ bills — Gerwatowski read aloud from a staff-prepared analysis on the expected bill impacts during the 15-minute meeting. 

Rhode Island Energy initially proposed a $230 million, two-year set of fee hikes, insisting that extra charges on the distribution side of the bill — separate from usage rates — were necessary to recoup the rising cost of  supplies, labor and new investments. The company also wanted to increase the maximum rate of return, or profit margin, from the existing 9.3% cap to 10.8%.

If approved as requested in November 2025, the company’s revenue generation plan would have raised average residential monthly electric bills by $7.78 and average annual gas bills by $343.53 in the first year. 

Ratepayer advocates, including the administrative arm of the state utility agency, the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, argued against the new margin cap, which would have been higher than the 9.7% national average, and exceed caps for other utilities in New England. They also warned about the burden for Rhode Island ratepayers, who are struggling to keep up with existing bills amid the broader affordability crunch.

Rhode Island joins lawsuit to stop Trump's Postal Service from messing with mail-in voting

Attorney General coalition sues USPS over unlawful attempt to interfere with states’ vote-by-mail procedures

From a Rhode Island Attorney General press release

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha joined a coalition of 25 states in filing a lawsuit against the United States Postal Service (USPS) challenging its new rule that purports to grant USPS the authority to regulate mail voting in elections. 

Tens of millions of voters across the country rely on mail-in ballots, and the coalition argues USPS’s rule will prevent states from effectively administering their mail voting programs, putting voters at risk of being disenfranchised.

“For a President who incessantly talks about combating election interference, he sure does love to interfere in our elections,” said Attorney General Neronha. “Time and time again, President Trump has lied to the American people about the legitimacy of our election system. Here, he is taking aim at voting by mail to sow seeds of distrust and inject chaos into our elections, with the ultimate goal of retaining and expanding his power. This is yet another example of this Administration’s unlawful overreach and is in direct violation of the Constitution, which makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections. Voting by mail is a tried-and-true method of exercising our most fundamental right as American citizens. Indeed, it’s the preferred voting method of the President himself. I am confident that we will succeed here, as we have many times before, thereby protecting the right of American citizens, Donald Trump included, to vote without interference.”

Trump wants to sell America's National Parks, starting with selling a part of Yosemite to a developer

How much is Trump's cut?

Jessica Corbett for Common Dreams

Even while repeatedly serving the interests of destructive industries, Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have claimed they are committed to protecting US national parks—but the Republican administration is now working to give a private developer a piece of Yosemite, NOTUS reported on Friday.

Specifically, according to unnamed sources and government documents, federal staffers are working on a potential land exchange to give a quarter-mile strip of land in California’s Yosemite National Park “to a company that, through a web of limited liability companies, is operated by real-estate developer and investment firm Kingsbarn Realty Capital.”

The developers own 83 acres west of the park, and Kingsbarn CEO Jeff Pori—whose company did not respond to a request for comment—aims “to build a short road connecting the property to one of Yosemite’s central thoroughfares,” providing “the land exceptionally rare private access to a park that is otherwise almost entirely buffered by national forests,” NOTUS detailed.

The sources told NOTUS that political leaders at the US Department of the Interior “want us to be responsive to the property owner and their lobbyists or people, and they want us to work with these folks,” and that “the political pressure being brought to bear is very unusual.”

The National Park Service, which is part of the department, said that “no final decisions have been made,” but any proposals “would be subject to all applicable federal laws, regulations, and departmental policies, including required environmental review and public notification processes.”

The revelation—which came during National Park Week—was met with outrage.

Trump posts define "malignant narcissism"

These are all posts by Donald Trump just in the past few days. Please explain these, MAGA

This is Trump's own rating. It is unsourced. Actual historians are projecting that Trump will go done as one of America's worst presidents

Here are a couple of Trump posts on his War with Canada:

Note the Germanic lettering: 

Trump DIDN'T post this:

Sept. 2 action in Ashaway

Join your friends and neighbors in re-electing Rep. Tina Spears

AUGUST 2026

Why I support Tina

As a Navy physician, I spent a year on the battlefields of Afghanistan treating nearly 1,000 wounded. There is no place for assault weapons on America's streets. I've seen firsthand what these weapons do to the human body,  They inflict unimaginable suffering in seconds.   I support Tina Spears' vote to ban these in Rhode Island. She respects the Second Amendment, and she had the integrity to draw the line where it belongs, to protect our communities from the violence I witnessed. —CAPT. MICHAEL MCCARTEN MC, USN, RET. VETERAN AND CHARLESTOWN RESIDENT

WE SUPPORT TINA

Tina has a proven record and is delivering for our communities. Tina is proud to stand together with nurses, teachers, police, firefighters, environmental organizations, gun safety advocates, working families, Planned Parenthood, and so many others...

Early Voting has begun!

You can vote early in person Monday through Friday at Charlestown Town Hall from 8:30 AM–4:30 PM 4540 South County Trail

Get your yard sign! Contact Tina at tina@tinaspearsri.com or call Kathleen 401 439 4469 to get yours!

If you'd like to donate to Tina's re-eelction campaign, please make personal checks payable to: The Friends of Tina Spears 82 Hillside Drive Charlestown, RI 02813   Or click HERE to contribute online or scan the QR code

Want to volunteer on Tina's re-election campaign? Contact us here. We have lots of fun and we'll keep Tina in the State House!

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State law prohibits the acceptance of any corporate or business checks. Only individuals and RI registered PACs may contribute. RI law requires contributors to note place of employment. Contributions are limited to $2,000 per person per calendar year, and are not tax-deductible.

Workers call for boycott of Starbucks

Help works get a fair contract from Starbucks

Int'l Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations. IUF

Starbucks baristas fighting for a fair contract need public support to put pressure on Starbucks.

More than 12,000 baristas have organized with Starbucks Workers United, winning more than 700 union elections nationwide, adding more workers to their ranks each consecutive month for nearly five straight years.

Starbucks is the second largest fast-food company in the world, and they have the resources to settle a first contract. It would take less than one day’s sales to settle a fair and reasonable contract that meets baristas’ demands. Instead, the company chooses to be the biggest U.S. labor law violator in modern history and stonewalls and stalls progress in negotiations.

Starbucks’ flagrant disregard for labor law isn’t just an attack on their own workers, it’s an attack on all working people. When union baristas—backed by a coalition of allies—prove that they can take on the biggest bosses and win despite rampant union busting, it will put all employers on notice about the power of the labor movement.

That’s why Starbucks baristas are calling on labor unions, federations and other allies to support the boycott, including through:

• Not purchasing Starbucks products for offices, meetings, or events, and to blacklist Starbucks from catering and sponsorships.
• Publicly amplifying the boycott, and encouraging members to do the same.
• And demanding that Starbucks settles a fair contract with union baristas.

The Supreme Court’s Mail Voting Ruling Is Manufactured Chaos

Here’s what you should know.

Michael Waldman, Brennan Center for Justice

A year ago we warned that Donald Trump had a concerted strategy to undermine the midterm elections.

Here’s news you can use: That effort is failing so far. For every move, there’s a countermove from voting rights groups, local and state governments, and more. In November, we should be able to have elections that are free, fair, and secure. But it will take a lot of work between now and then.

We saw that for sure when the Supreme Court made headlines and sowed confusion, but it did not change much. Here’s what you should know.

Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order to upend mail voting. That is the way 1 in 3 Americans vote. Trump purported to order the US Postal Service to refuse to deliver lawfully cast ballots unless the voter is on a list—which doesn’t exist yet—created by each state and sent to the post office for checking against mail ballots. It’s absurd. And, no surprise, it’s illegal.

Trump’s executive order is not in effect. Mail voting continues as before. There have been no changes to the Postal Service practices. BUT that is subject to change, possibly quick and abrupt.

Neronha urges state regulators to reject proposed health insurance premium hikes

The cost of health insurance is too damn high

By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha is urging state regulators to reject two insurers’ proposed increases to premiums for individual health plans in 2027.

After a July administrative hearing by the state’s Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC), Neronha’s office formally submitted a brief objecting to Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island’s (NHP) request for a rate increase of 22.4%.

Premium increase requests are submitted annually by insurers, and this year they were submitted to the commissioner’s office on May 18. The agency then reviews the submissions and can accept, modify or reject them, with the final approved rates expected to arrive in September. Rate hike requests trigger a formal, public, administrative hearing if they exceed 10%.

So the health insurance commissioner’s office held a hearing for Neighborhood Health Plan but not for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, which requested a 9.8% increase. The AG instead submitted public comments encouraging the office to reject Blue Cross Blue Shield’s proposed rates.

Collectively, the two insurers cover more than 50,000 Rhode Islanders who purchase their individual plans through the state’s health insurance marketplace.

Breaking news from The Onion

Home - The Onion

Homeland Security tells Haitians to get out. NOW.

South County Rising community meeting on Sept. 4

Herbicide, Tree Cutting Underway at East Beach

Plan seeks to make the beach more open, sandier and bird friendly

Adriana Vossari, RI & Local Government

Photo by Will Collette

East Beach is a state-managed public beach and campground in Charlestown, and visitors will see active restoration crews, posted work areas and a more open, sandier landscape through 2027.

Crews began applying targeted herbicide to invasive plants at East Beach in Charlestown on August 25, the latest phase of a multi-year habitat restoration project on the Ninigret Barrier Beach, according to the Rhode Island State Parks project page. The beach, campground and permitted sand trail remain open, though visitors are told to follow posted signs and stay on designated trails and in parking areas.

The Town of Charlestown has posted its own notice pointing residents to the work, which is led by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the nonprofit Save The Bay. The town's page describes the effort as restoring dune and salt-marsh habitat, removing invasive plants and restoring natural tidal creeks.

For beachgoers, the practical effect is visual as much as anything: portions of the barrier beach that were shaded by pine stands are now open and sandy, and crews and equipment may be working in posted areas.