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Monday, May 18, 2026
News from the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee
Neronha sues country club that refuses to obey CRMC order
RI AG sues Quidnessett over rock wall built without permission
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
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| A man fishes along the shoreline immediately north of the rock wall built without permission by the Quidnessett Country Club in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. The attorney general’s office sued the country club over the wall on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Save the Bay) |
The state’s top prosecutor is stepping in to try to force Quidnessett Country Club to remove a rock wall built without permission along its shoreline more than three years ago.
The complaint filed Tuesday by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office comes after years of unsuccessful efforts by state coastal regulators to negotiate with the country club owners and later, pursue legal action against them for the rock wall built in defiance of state coastal regulations.
The 600-foot stone wall was built along the shoreline of the North Kingstown country club in early 2023 — though not flagged by regulators until that summer — to protect the 14th hole of its signature golf course from coastal erosion. But state coastal regulations restrict development along sensitive and species-rich waters like the section of waterfront in question, a violation the Rhode Island Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) has sought to have corrected.
Yet the wall remains, each day worsening the delicate ecosystem that surrounds it and inhibiting the state’s constitutionally enshrined public access to the shore, the AG’s complaint states. The 28-page complaint filed in Providence County Superior Court asks a state judge to issue a preliminary injunction forcing the club owners to remove the seawall and restore the shoreline, including vegetation, to its natural state awaiting a jury trial.
Cotter proposes sales tax holiday weeks for restaurants
Gives customers and restaurants a welcome break
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“This is a bill to help boost small businesses,” said
Representative Cotter (D-Dist. 39, Exeter, Richmond, Hopkinton). “Mom-and-pop
businesses make up a substantial portion of the restaurant industry. A tax-free
week is a great way to encourage people to visit a restaurant they’ve never
tried, hopefully one they’ll want to visit more often. This will put more money
directly into the hands of servers and small business owners alike and
encourage Rhode Islanders to enjoy the many fantastic restaurants we are fortunate
to have all over the state.”
The legislation (2026-H 8512), which Representative Cotter introduced May 1,
would establish one sales tax-free week in the summer and one in the winter for
restaurants statewide. The specific dates would be determined by the General
Assembly.
The tax holiday weeks could essentially create statewide
“Restaurant Weeks” which several communities in Rhode Island currently
organize. Such weeks usually include special menus and deals to entice
customers who might not otherwise visit.
The legislation is supported by the Rhode Island Hospitality
Association.
Trump appeals decision protecting trans kids at Rhode Island Hospital
Leave trans kids ALONE!
By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current
The federal appeal is the latest volley in a back-and-forth court saga with a cache of sensitive medical records at its core, namely six years of patient information from minors prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy via Rhode Island Hospital providers.
The court fight — whose genesis lies in DOJ’s July 2025 maneuvering to obtain these records via an administrative subpoena — has now spanned two U.S. District Courts and two Courts of Appeals.
The DOJ filed its notice of appeal with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, aiming to undo U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy’s decision in the case first brought to her court on May 4 by Rhode Island’s Office of Child Advocate.
Child Advocate Katelyn Medeiros is tasked with legal representation and advocacy for children in state care, an unspecified number of whom would be affected by the desired records’ disclosure. Her office moved to have Rhode Island’s own federal court nullify the DOJ subpoena that would have forced the hospital to turn over medical records by Thursday — a deadline set per the order of a judge in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, where the DOJ sought, and obtained, an order to enforce the subpoena on April 30.
McElroy granted the child advocate’s petition and impugned the federal prosecutors for their conduct during an in-person hearing on Tuesday and their claims made in court documents. McElroy wrote that DOJ “has misrepresented and withheld information” to not only her court, but to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Sunday, May 17, 2026
MAGA Supreme Court Okays G.O.P. Overthrow of American Democracy
Disenfranchising 40% of a state’s citizens cannot be reconciled with representative democracy
The Supreme Court gave a “two-fer” to white supremacists and proponents of Republican autocracy: First, six right-wing justices completed the erasure of the crowning achievement of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act. Second, in the same case, Louisiana v. Callais, the right-winger judges approved of states shaping legislative districts that deny the opposing party any role in government.
In essence, the Supreme Court okayed the destruction of
Congress as an instrument of American democracy.
The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was enacted and
ratified five years after the Civil War. The Amendment confirmed – in principle
– that African-American citizens have the right to vote and to have their votes
count.
So said the Constitution. But for almost a century the former Confederate states negated African-Americans’ right to vote.
The Voting Rights Act put an end to the myriad legal schemes Southern white politicians had used to disenfranchise Black Americans
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 put an end to the myriad legal
schemes that Southern white politicians had used to disenfranchise Black
Americans and terminated the ploys used to deny African-Americans a fair
opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.
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Rep. Spears honors great-nephew of Ellison ‘Tarzan’ Brown for completion of Boston Marathon
Congratulations Thawn
Thawn Sherenté Harris of Charlestown completed the marathon
in an official time of 3 hours, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds, making him the
third member of the Narragansett Tribe to complete the race and giving him the
second-fastest recorded time among the tribe.
The resolution (2026-H 8539) sponsored by Representative Spears (D-Dist. 36, Charlestown, New Shoreham, South Kingstown, Westerly) declared that “Ellison ‘Tarzan’ Brown rose to national prominence in the 1930s, winning the Boston Marathon in 1936 and again in 1939, and competing in the 1936 Olympic Games, while bringing recognition and pride to the Narragansett people.
Tarzan Brown’s 1936 victory included his legendary
passing of race favorite Johnny Kelley on the hills of Newton, an iconic moment
that gave rise to what is now known as ‘Heartbreak Hill.’ In completing the
Boston Marathon, Thawn symbolically followed in his great-uncle’s footsteps
along that same historic stretch, retracing the site of one of Brown's most
celebrated achievements.”
Doctors Are Surprised by What This Vaccine Is Doing to the Heart
New benefits found for getting shingles vaccine
By American College of Cardiology
The analysis included more than 246,822 adults in the United
States with atherosclerotic heart disease, a condition caused by plaque buildup
in the arteries. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that the
shingles vaccine may do more than prevent shingles, with potential benefits
that extend to heart health and even conditions like dementia.
“This vaccine has been found over and over again to have cardioprotective effects for reducing heart attack, stroke and death,” said Robert Nguyen, MD, a resident physician at the University of California, Riverside and the study’s lead author.
“Looking at the highest risk population,
those with existing cardiovascular disease, these protective effects might
be even greater than among the general public.”
Private Equity Is Taking Over Nursing Homes — And Seniors Are Paying the Price
Vulture capitalists milk Medicare and Medicaid money
By Scott
Doerr
As private equity takes over more nursing care, studies show
higher mortality rates, reduced staffing, and increased costs as a result. But
seniors are fighting back.
I live in Lincoln County, Wisconsin. For generations, our
public nursing home — Pine Crest — has served our seniors. “Pine Crest is there
for us when we need it. It’s worked that way for 70 years,” said retired
accountant and Pine Crest Nursing Home volunteer Eileen Guthrie.
Eileen and I were among the concerned locals who tirelessly
fought to keep our five-star-rated home
in public hands when the county board put it up for sale to the highest bidder.
Few wanted to privatize our beloved county-owned institution, which always
treated residents with love and respect. Privatizing it would turn us into
expendable cogs in the wheel for greater profits.
Despite broad public opposition, the county board sold Pine
Crest to a subsidiary of the Ensign Group, a for-profit company. Almost
immediately, the harm started. Less than a month after the sale, state
regulators cited the
nursing home for neglecting a patient’s medication needs, sending that person
to the hospital, and reducing the necessary staff.
Since 2016, there have been 125 publicly-owned nursing home
sales to private companies in Wisconsin. In nearly half of these, the federal
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) quality ratings declined after
the sale.
That tracks with what
communities have seen nationally.
The Center for Medicare Advocacy has found that “promised
cost savings rarely materialized” when communities privatized public nursing
homes, “while accountability and public oversight were significantly
reduced,” the Daily
Yonder reported. And the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that
privatized nursing homes nationwide tend to have lower-quality ratings than
those that are publicly owned.