Saturday, July 11, 2026
States see unusual spike in parasite that causes 'explosive' diarrhea
Wash your fresh produce
By Ellyn Vohnoutka
Edited by Stephanie Baum, reviewed by Andrew Zinin
A parasite that causes severe, watery diarrhea is spreading across the United States, and health officials in Michigan are racing to explain an unusual surge in cases.
Michigan's outbreak has grown fast. It has recorded 572
cases of cyclosporiasis as of July 4, up from 170 on June 30, according to the
state's Department of Health and Human Services. The state typically sees about
50 cases in an entire year.
The recent infections span seven counties in southeast
Michigan, and a source has not been identified. Officials are urging anyone
with symptoms to seek care.
Nationwide, at least 145 people in 17 states became sick
with cyclosporiasis between May 1 and June 16, according to the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those figures do not include
Michigan's more recent spike or updated figures after June 16.
Amid Trump Cuts, Foulkes Unveils Healthcare Policy Proposals For Rhode Island
Foulkes' campaign rolls out health care plan
Every state’s healthcare system is struggling thanks to unprecedented federal cuts from the Trump Administration, and Rhode Island is no exception. But our challenges—and our opportunities—differ from other states. Helena’s plan rethinks how Rhode Island can overcome Trump’s disastrous cuts and still deliver quality, affordable healthcare to its people.
“In a state of one million people, we should have some of the best healthcare in the country. I’m excited to share my plan to address the challenges and embrace the opportunities facing our state’s healthcare system,” said Helena. “I’ve spent my entire career in healthcare, and I can’t wait to get to work as your governor to deliver a healthcare system where all Rhode Islanders can see a doctor when they’re sick, can afford to go to the hospital in an emergency, and can live happy, healthy lives.”
Helena’s plan, titled Reimagining Rhode Island Healthcare, includes:
Friday, July 10, 2026
Why Is He Using the Communist Trump Card?
He's run out of other cards.
Robert
Reich for Inequality.org
 |
| The cover of “Is This Tomorrow,” an anti-communist comic book published in 1947, suggests the chaos and ruin that would follow a communist takeover of the United States. The publications reflected a fevered politics that prevailed after World War II and through the 1950s. (Image via Wikimedia Commons) |
He can’t talk about the economy, because prices continue to
rise faster than wages, which means most Americans are getting poorer. He can’t
talk about foreign policy, because his war in Iran has been a debacle,
his tariffs are
an utter failure, and he obviously hasn’t settled the war in Ukraine on “Day 1.” He
can’t talk about immigration,
because his raids and mass deportations have
become so unpopular.
So, facing the midterm elections, what’s left?
He’s resorting to the oldest of right-wing tropes —
accusing Democrats (especially a rising generation of new, young, vigorous
Democratic politicians) of being commies.
He kicked off America’s 250th anniversary celebrations on
Friday with a speech at Mount Rushmore extolling American culture and warning
of a resurgence of the “communist menace.” With the granite faces of four of
his predecessors behind him, Trump took aim at what he called “radicals” and
“extremists.”
“There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our
land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed
to our way of life and our great success. You can be a communist, or you can be
a patriot. You cannot be both.”
Oh, please.
But he hasn’t gotten anywhere because these initiatives are
supported by most Americans.
So now he’s throwing the commie label at the wall and seeing
if it sticks.
Communism was the scare word used by right-wingers after
World Wars I and II to crack the whip on the left. It provoked witch hunts and
ruined careers.
It made former Wisconsin Senator
Joe McCarthy a one-man bomb squad in the early 1950s, when he rid
iculed the
“pitiful squealing” of “those egg-sucking phony liberals” who “would hold
sacrosanct those Communists and queers,” and forced American citizens to “name
names.”
McCarthyism was a by-product of the Republican Party’s
postwar effort to eradicate the New Deal. The GOP had portrayed the
midterm election of 1946 as a “battle between Republicanism and communism,” and
the Republican National Committee chairman claimed that the federal bureaucracy
was filled with “pink puppets.”
Southern segregationist Democrats joined in the red-baiting. Mississippi senator Theodore Bilbo, a Klansman who filibustered to block anti-lynching legislation, described multiracial labor unions’ advocacy for civil rights as the work of “northern communists.”
Trump rejects Rhode Island’s request for blizzard relief.
McKee vows to appeal.
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
On July 2, President Donald Trump denied requests from both Rhode Island and New York for federal funding to recover from the historic storm while granting disaster aid relief for red and purple states, along with blizzard recovery help for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts.
“The Trump Administration’s denial of Rhode Island’s disaster declaration appears to be yet another case of the White House putting politics ahead of people,” McKee, a Democrat, said Monday in a statement. “Despite the significant documented damage and our state’s compelling case for federal assistance, Rhode Island and our communities are being denied the support we deserve.”
McKee’s office officially submitted the request under the federal Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act on April 7. The federal law allows governors to either request support for disasters caused by severe weather or if “the situation is beyond the capability of the state.”
The governor specifically sought out a declaration with public assistance, which provides reimbursements to state and local governments for storm-related expenses.
Rhode Island’s Emergency Management Agency received an email from FEMA denying the application a little after 11:30 a.m. July 2, according to records obtained by Rhode Island Current.
An attached letter from acting FEMA Administrator Robert J. Fenton offered no specific reason for the decision, saying only that “based on our review of all of the information available, it has been determined that supplemental federal assistance under the Stafford Act is not warranted.”
“Therefore, I must inform you that your request for a major disaster declaration is denied,” he wrote.
Over 3 feet of snow fell across many parts of Rhode Island, with 37.9 inches of snow recorded at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport when the blizzard hit on Monday, Feb. 23.
West Nile Virus Detected in Providence
Early arrival
The virus was found in a mosquito sample collected by DEM in Providence
on June 29 and tested by the Rhode Island State Health Laboratories. The
other mosquito samples collected statewide showed no signs of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)
virus, Jamestown Canyon Virus (JCV), or
additional WNV. Check RIDOH’s arboviral surveillance data webpage for
weekly test results.
Rhode Island’s risk
level for WNV is medium statewide. WNV is the main mosquito-borne
disease in the US. While most people with WNV don’t get sick, about one in five
people who are infected develop a fever and other symptoms. There are no
vaccines to prevent or medications to treat WNV in people. For more information
about WNV, visit www.health.ri.gov/wnv.
To learn ways to prevent mosquito bites and the diseases
carried by mosquitoes, please visit health.ri.gov/mosquito. For mosquito
control info, visit dem.ri.gov/mosquito.
For more information on DEM programs and initiatives,
visit www.dem.ri.gov. Follow DEM on Facebook, Twitter/X
(@RhodeIslandDEM), or Instagram (@rhodeisland.dem) for timely updates. Sign up here to receive the latest
press releases, news, and events from DEM's Public Affairs Office to your
inbox.
Latinos in U.S. are indispensable to nation's prosperity, health, future
Trump attacks are against US self interest
By Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Edited by Sadie Harley,
reviewed by Andrew Zinin
At the same time, they warn that false narratives and
discriminatory policies are exacting a measurable toll on Latino communities,
contributing to rising rates of preventable illness, psychological distress,
and death.
In "Correcting False Narratives—Indispensable Latino
Contributions to U.S. Population Health," Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, RN,
founding director of CLAFH and executive director of the Institute for Policy
Solutions at the School, and colleagues document the breadth and depth of
Latino contributions across economic, social, health, and political sectors—and
make clear that addressing the health and social needs of the U.S. Latino
community is not about serving outsiders: Latinos are not loose fringe at the edges
of the great United States of America tapestry, they are essential threads
woven throughout its core.
The paper presents striking data that overturn prevailing
assumptions about the U.S. Latino community and what they contribute to the
nation's well-being:
- Four in five Latinos in the United States—approximately 79%—are U.S. citizens by birth or naturalization, and one in four U.S. children is of Hispanic origin. Latinos are the second-largest racial/ethnic group in the country; by 2060, they are projected to reach nearly 100 million, or 27% of the U.S. population.
- The U.S. Latino economy generates more than $4 trillion in annual economic output. If measured independently, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy—larger than the United Kingdom, Germany, India, or France.
- Latinos hold the highest labor force participation rate of any racial or ethnic group. They represent more than one-third of the U.S. construction workforce, making crucial contributions to combating the nation's housing shortage. They also are contributing to U.S. wealth creation through higher rates of new homeownership than any other racial or ethnic group.
- Far from draining the health care system, undocumented immigrants (a small share of the overall Latino population) contribute more than $50 billion annually in health insurance premiums and taxes, five times as much as the system spends on their care. They effectively subsidize the care of U.S.-born citizens and sustain the system for everyone.
- Politically, a record 16.6 million Latinos voted in the 2024 presidential election—the highest U.S. Latino participation ever recorded, and a decisive factor in several key states. With approximately 1.4 million more becoming eligible to vote each year, Latinos are the second-largest racial/ethnic voting bloc in the country and a growing force in shaping federal, national and state policies.
Thursday, July 9, 2026
League of Rhode Island Businesses: Republican business owners seeking power by subverting campaign finance rules and misleading voters
Behind the mask
You can see a “Lively” interview with him where he calls
women’s rights and the repeal of Roe v. Wade “little
bitty issues” and tries valiantly to avoid saying that Joe Biden was
elected President in 2020. (Kudos to Bill Bartholomew for
pursuing him on the points.)
Levesque was to be a featured speaker at a “Rhode Island First”
rally planned for this past May, featuring Roger Stone. Yes, that Roger Stone,
the treasonous fop with a Nixon tattoo on his back, was
sentenced to prison for covering up for Donald Trump’s campaign
collusion with Russian operatives in 2016. Trump commuted his sentence, leaving
him free to become centrally involved in the 2021 “Stop the Steal” event
that led to the January
6 assault on Congress.
To me, the remarkable part is that they boast, right there on the website, that they are doing this to evade disclosure requirements. ➜
⟵ But for the sake of comparison, here is a chart of information from the Board of Elections showing all the organizations who control multiple PACs. (Thank you, Nancy Lavin, of the Rhode Island Current.) Sometimes a difference in degree becomes a difference in kind, and I marvel that any union would lobby to preserve this kind of disadvantage.
As Levesque has explained, the organizing base of the League is the pro-gun activists who show up to the state house every year to lobby against any proposed regulation of guns. Their website features lots of calls to action like this one. ⬇
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with advocating for positions I do not agree with. Obviously, I think people who hold positions I disagree with are misguided (that’s what it means), but go ahead and take those positions and defend them.
What’s remarkable about the League is the extent to
which its candidates seek to obscure those positions, mainly by running in
Democratic primaries on an essentially Republican platform.
Take Kevin Hoyle, for instance, a candidate in
the Democratic primary for House District 32 in North Kingstown. Here’s how he
introduces himself on Facebook, an image he included in an email exchange with
me.
Challenged to endorse the state’s Democratic Party platform, Hoyle emailed me a detailed list of where he agrees and where he does not.
I suspect he thought this would end a conversation about what kind of Democrat he actually is by allowing him to say he agrees with most of it.
But his endorsement is filled with cautions and careful wording, such as saying “Recent IPCC reports may change some of this” in response to the platform’s Environment and Climate section, or noting that investment in transportation and infrastructure is important but not through taxes.
He supports the party platform on voting rights, but felt it was important to emphasize that he only wants voting rights for citizens. Imagining that there is anyone out there advocating for voting rights for non-citizens is a standard part of the MAGA fever dream, of course. Hoyle even included a strange hedge on the civil rights plank, questioning its use of the word “equitable”.
As an exercise in power, running very conservative, if not covertly Republican, candidates in September’s Democratic primary is not a terrible strategy. As we have seen all too well, many voters are not inclined to do much research on the candidates they vote for, and it is relatively straightforward to mislead them.
Blake Filippi, who was the
Republican leader in the House from 2018 to 2022, first won his seat in a
Democratic primary in 2014. After defeating Donna Walsh, one of the
leaders of Progressive Charlestown, he was unopposed in November
and promptly disaffiliated upon his election. Eventually, he became the House
Minority leader, successfully — and repeatedly — winning re-election while
never using the word “Republican” on his campaign website. You can say this is
essentially dishonest, but you can also say, hey, it worked.
EDITOR'S NOTE: While Rep. Donna Walsh was a Progressive Charlestown favorite and I personally work with Donna on issues and her campaigns, she never had any official connection to Progressive Charlestown. - Will Collette
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Charlestown Conservation Commission holds July 23 on the safety of your well water
Cool, crisp, clear … safe to drink?
 |
| In Rhode Island, private well owners are responsible for testing and maintaining the quality of their own well water. |
To provide residents with information on private well water testing, treatment, and maintenance, research associate Lisa Hollister with the University of Rhode Island’s Cooperative Extension Water Quality Program and private well specialist Shannon Nakama with the Rhode Island Department of Health Private Wells Program will hold a free program on Thursday, July 23, from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Cross’ Mills Public Library, 4417 Old Post Road, in Charlestown.
This program is held in partnership with the Charlestown Conservation Commission and the Cross’ Mills Public Library. Attendees will learn about well maintenance and protection, the importance of regular well water testing, and resources available to interpret results.
New research suggests that heavy soybean oil intake may disrupt the gut
America’s Most Popular Cooking Oil May Be Harming Your Intestines
 |
| A diet high in soybean oil is found to encourage the growth of harmful bacteria such as adherent invasive E. coli in the gut. Credit: Sladek lab, UC Riverside |
Soybean oil or “vegetable oil” is everywhere in the American
diet. It is used in salad dressings, sauces, fried foods, packaged snacks,
frozen meals, and many restaurant meals. Most people may consume it regularly
without realizing how much they are getting.
New research from the University of California,
Riverside suggests that high soybean oil intake may affect more than
body weight. In mouse studies, it has been linked to changes in gut bacteria, a
weaker intestinal barrier, greater susceptibility to ulcerative colitis, and
metabolic problems.
The findings do not prove that soybean oil causes these diseases in people. But they do raise concerns about how often this inexpensive, widely used oil appears in processed and restaurant foods.
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