Trump finds new way to hurt immigrants and their families

The ICE-ification of Financial Regulation: steal their savings, especially the money they planned to send to their families at home

by Philip Mattera, director of the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First for the Dirt Diggers Digest

For more than half a century following the passage of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, financial institutions have been required to monitor certain customer transactions to thwart money laundering. The USA PATRIOT Act, passed in response to the 9/11 attacks, created additional rules designed to thwart terrorist financing.

Now the Trump Administration is starting to enlist banks in a more questionable form of information gathering involving the immigration status of their customers. For months, there have been reports that the administration is planning to require banks to determine whether customers are U.S. citizens.

That has not yet happened, but a recent executive order from the White House takes a step in that direction by advising banks to “be attentive to the credit risks posed by the extension of mortgage and auto loans, credit cards, and other consumer credit to the inadmissible and removable alien population.”  The order calls on the Treasury Department and financial regulators such as the Fed and the FDIC to develop changes to the Bank Secrecy Act to address this supposed risk.

This sounds like a prelude to more explicit rules that would bar banks from doing business with undocumented immigrants.

A masterclass in incompetence at home and abroad

Stupid at all levels in all things great or small

Sabrina Haake 

My neighbors’ mail. Note the date.

Last week my neighbors brought me an envelope with a “MAGA priorities survey” enclosed. A solicitation for money disguised as a survey, it opened with a four-page cover letter from Trump.

The survey drills down on ‘Biden’s sky-high mortgage rates,’ and ‘reckless spending binge’ even though we’re now 1.5 years into Trump 2.0. 

It blames Biden for ‘today’s affordability squeeze,’ despite Trump’s economically unhinged tariffs and $94 billion war in Iran. Trump, who still thinks exporters pay tariffs, single handedly turbo-charged the price of energy, and tanked consumer confidence at the same time, all while demanding that Americans disbelieve their lyin’ eyes.

Trump’s cover letter begins, “Dear America First Patriot, I put THREE LIVE POSTAGE STAMPS (all caps) on the enclosed Rush Return Envelope because I had to get your immediate attention… And because I need you to respond to me right away!” Four pages later, Trump urges True Patriots to make a True Patriotic donation of $2,026…. Or even just $47, by rushing back the MAGA survey using the enclosed TRIPLE-STAMPED Rush Return Envelope TODAY. (Combining all caps with bold, a triple-dog-dare-you maneuver that conveys urgency.)

The kicker is that the “triple stamped rush envelope” was the pre-marked, pre-paid, “No postage necessary if mailed in the United States” kind. Adding extra postage stamps to a prepaid postage envelope, according to the USPS, means Trump just wasted money (USPS bold, not mine). Trump, in one mailing, spent extra on an agency he accuses of waste, demonstrated his fiscal illiteracy, and declared his donors stupid. Another masterclass in Trump’s trifecta of incompetence.

New plans for the Trump Library

Monday Charlestown Town Council meeting loaded with big issues

 

Policy-packed Town Council Meeting this Monday (June 22) Night. Please consider attending to make your opinions heard. First Up: Public Hearing, Discussion and Potential Action Concerning Proposed Amendments to the Town Charter. ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS: Zoning - Battery Energy Storage Systems and Data Centers. NEW BUSINESS: Discussion and Potential Action Regarding Amending the Ninigret Park Utilization Plan to Incorporate the Comments from the National Program Manager, Federal Lands to Parks, National Park Service. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Discussion and Potential Action Regarding Ninigret Park Beautification, Presented by the South County Tourism Council Discussion and Potential Action Regarding Public Outreach for the July 7, 2026, Public Hearing and the August 4, 2026, Referendum Regarding the Charlestown Elementary School (From May 20 and June 8, 2026) Charlestown Town Hall, Council Chambers 4540 South County Trail, Charlestown RI 02813 June 22, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. Charlestown Residents United | PO Box 412 | Charlestown, RI 02813 US

Coal pollution is cutting solar power output, study finds

Will Trump look for ways to use coal to kill wind turbines?

University of Oxford

Trump's 2-for-1 obsession: promote coal, kill green energy

New research led by the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL) has revealed that pollution from coal-fired power plants is significantly reducing the energy output of solar photovoltaic (solar PV) installations, particularly where these are expanding side by side. The findings have been published today in Nature Sustainability.

The new study mapped and assessed more than 140,000 solar PV installations worldwide using satellite data.

By combining this with atmospheric data on air pollution, the researchers calculated how much sunlight is lost and how this reduces electricity generation. They found that aerosols - tiny particles suspended in the air - reduced global solar electricity output by 5.8% in 2023. This is equivalent to 111 terawatt-hours (TWh) of lost energy – the amount generated by 18 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. 

Crucially, these losses represent a significant and often overlooked constraint on the clean energy transition. 

MAHA’s Treatments for Autism: Camel’s Milk, Stem Cell Injections — And Spelling Therapy

Kennedy turning health science inside out

By Arthur Allen

Elizabeth Bonker is a silent woman with a loud mission. She wants government agencies to cover the costs of training people with autism in a form of communication called assisted spelling. One problem: Leading professional organizations don’t believe it works.

“All nonspeakers above the age of 5 should be given the opportunity,” typed Bonker, who is 28 and cannot talk. Her mother, Virginia Breen, held a wireless keyboard for her. They sat on a hotel patio before an April 27 meeting with a senior aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“We are misunderstood and underestimated,” Bonker typed, occasionally humming or lightly groaning as she considered where to place a slender forefinger on the keyboard.

Assisted spelling is used to help nonverbal people communicate by pointing to letters on boards or using keyboards with physical help from another person.

Supporters say assisted spelling has improved the lives of thousands of people with autism, such as Bonker, and they have powerful allies. Kennedy appointed Bonker and another autistic “speller,” as they call themselves, to a 20-member autism panel made up largely of parents with children whose autism they attribute to vaccinations.

At the reconfigured panel’s first public session on April 28, three other members said their nonspeaking adult children were learning to communicate through spelling. The panel issued a resolution with language from Bonker stating that “robust” communications programs are essential for autistic people. Bonker has urged the Department of Health and Human Services to support training in assisted spelling for those who want it.

But leading professional groups for autism science, as well as those representing psychologists and speech pathologists, point to research showing that these methods — premised on the idea that people with autism have the normal range of cognitive powers but are imprisoned in malfunctioning bodies — are flawed or fraudulent.

Trump issues rules for sick people on Medicaid

"Throw down your crutches and go pick cotton"

By Sam Whitehead

The Trump administration has issued final rules on how states should ensure that millions of Medicaid enrollees prove they’re working or completing other activities, such as job training, volunteering, or being enrolled in an educational program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the rules on June 1. That deadline was set last year in the GOP tax-and-spending law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which established a work requirement for certain people enrolled in Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities.

Medicaid agencies are scrambling to rework IT systems and make sure they have staff to effectively enforce the rules, while also keeping enrollees from losing coverage for administrative reasons, such as difficulty navigating state eligibility portals.

The newly announced regulations offer a clearer picture of what roughly 18.5 million Medicaid enrollees will have to do to prove they qualify for benefits.

Jim Torres, who helps people enroll in health coverage at the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center in Kansas City, Missouri, said a “very small percentage” of his clients have heard of the changes coming to Medicaid.

Sen. Victoria Gu gives her review on the recently ended General Assembly session

Highlights from a productive session 

By Victoria Gu

Dear Friends and Neighbors,  We’ve finished another legislative session! After many nights of long committee hearings, bill sponsors and committee chairs work on their bill edits, and June is when bills can be approved for votes in committee and then gain final passage in the House & Senate.  New Leadership: In the past month the RI House of Representatives also elevated Majority Leader Blazejewski to the position of House Speaker and Majority Whip Katie Kazarian to the position of House Whip. Congratulations to them and the outgoing Speaker Joseph Shekarchi for their years of service.

Bills I Passed

Shoreline Access Disclosure for Oceanfront Property Rentals: The House & Senate passed my bill S-2734A to help make sure renters and short-term rental guests understand Rhode Island’s shoreline access rights. Part of the motivation for this bill came from seeing some short-term rental listings advertise a “private beach,” even though Rhode Island law protects public shoreline access up to 10 feet above the recognizable high tide line. This bill helps make sure visitors and tenants get clear information about those rights before they stay at an oceanfront property.  Food is Medicine: The General Assembly has passed my Food as Medicine bill, which creates a task force to design a Medicaid pilot program that uses medically tailored meals or other nutritional supports  to improve the health of patients with chronic, diet-related conditions.  Food insecurity is strongly linked to many of the most costly preventable chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, which drive enormous health care spending.  Medicaid accounts for about one-third of our state budget and is growing at an estimated 6% per year. Our budget will have a growing deficit unless we look at evidence-based programs like food as medicine. 60 Days Advance Notice of Home Insurance Non-Renewals: Insurance companies are being a lot more selective about the location and the condition of the houses they insure, declining to cover homes in coastal areas or with older roofs or water heaters. The bill that Rep. Azzinaro and I passed requiring 60 days’ advance notice will help homeowners find alternative insurance coverage and find tradespeople if they need to fix something at their house in order to continue insurance coverage.

Spotlight: Youth Mental Health

988 on Student & Staff Ids: Last week the General Assembly passed a bill Rep Earl Read & I sponsored to put suicide prevention and substance use crisis hotline numbers directly on student and school staff ID cards. At a time when young people are facing growing mental health challenges, we need to promote awareness of resources like 988. The General Assembly also passed a youth crisis response service bill that codifies a successful pilot program into law. The program helps kids in crisis by getting them fast, specialized care with behavioral health clinicians (avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits) and connecting families to ongoing support. Thank you to constituents who wrote to me about the importance of funding 988: This year, the Senate also advanced a separate bill by Senator Melissa Murray to protect the long-term funding of Rhode Island's 988 crisis line and BH Link services. More than 90% of 988 calls are resolved through phone support alone, connecting people with trained counselors before a crisis escalates. The bill stalled in the House, but we hope to pass it next year. More info here

Looking ahead: Vote for the Green Bond this Nov & Op-Ed on Managed Retreat

We got an extra $5 million for climate resiliency in the Green Bond which will be on the ballot in November! Annually, each town can apply for grants from this pool of funding to strengthen their infrastructure. One example: Westerly received funding for a flood wall around a pump station for the wastewater treatment plant.  Managed Retreat: These photos I took in South Kingstown show how shoreline armoring—like rock walls and elevated structures—disrupt the dynamic beach ecosystem and make it harder for people to walk along the beach. As sea levels rise and more coastal property owners build hard structures to protect against erosion, the public part of the beach gets narrower, and in these pictures, it has become impossible to pass along the shoreline. That's why we need to plan ahead before the next major storm. Instead of repeatedly rebuilding in areas that face increasing flood and erosion risks, towns can identify safer places for homes and infrastructure over the long term. Read more about our work to help Rhode Island communities prepare for rising seas and protect public access to our shoreline:  https://www.providencejournal.com/story/opinion/columns/2026/04/18/rhode-islands-managed-retreat-plan-for-rising-seas-opinion/89628806007/

Next rail advocates meeting: June 22nd 6pm @ Westerly Library

Budget Highlights

62-65 year old early retirees will now get the same exemptions from Social Security tax as people 65 and older. Seniors still must have incomes under $107,000 for single filers and $133,750 for married filers in tax year 2025, to qualify. Child Tax Credit - see this press release Rural Health Transformation Grant - RI received over $150 million in the first year of this federal program and will use it to implement innovative programs like Community Paramedicine - see this website for more information. Stay tuned for more healthcare highlights and impacts of HR1 on our healthcare system

Read the full budget press release

Senate Highlights

Labor Protections: We passed many noteworthy bills like S-2921 to give domestic workers the same protections under the Fair Employment Practices Act (FEPA) as other Rhode Island workers. Immigration bills: see this press release and another for protecting constitutional rights Education Funding Formula: only minor changes this year by increasing the “student success factor” - which is an additional amount of funding for each low-income student - from 40% to 43%. We will need to monitor the new Senate commission to study the funding formula, specifically the one suggested by the Blue Ribbon Commission Status of CRMC reform bill: The bill that passed last year required the Governor to appoint members with expertise in coastal matters. There are some new members that the Senate confirmed this year with expertise with civil engineering, coastal wetlands, law, etc. but it remains to be seen whether the political dynamic will change and I still support the overall reform that would restructure CRMC so it’s similar to DEM, with a staff and director making the decisions instead of a politically appointed all-volunteer council. Status of Bottle Deposit & Recycling bills: The bill that passed last year began the first stage which is a needs-assessment to look at our recycling system as a whole. That is still in progress

Attention Job Seekers

The next step

‘AI gravity’ is pulling you toward dependency.

Here’s how to push back

By Beth Stackpole, MIT Sloan School of Management

As businesses pull out all the stops to integrate artificial intelligence tools into mainstream workflows and business practices, they may be overlooking the longer-term implications of widespread AI use on institutional knowledge and critical thinking.

Top of Form

Eric So, a professor of global economics and behavioral science at the MIT Sloan School of Management, believes that AI is changing the way people’s brains operate, creating a trap where users become overly dependent on the technology, with potentially serious ramifications for business.

“We are increasingly deferring tasks that our brains are meant to handle to AI systems that think for us, write for us, and create on our behalf,” said So, presenting recently as part of the MIT Sloan speaker series, “AI + X: How AI Is Changing Management Practice.”

“Each time we engage in this sort of cognitive outsourcing, we’re participating in dramatic societal change” — one that shouldn’t be taken lightly, said So, who addresses those changes in depth in his forthcoming book, “The Collision: What AI Does to Us.” 

“We need to do as much as we can to preserve our capabilities, to recognize when these tools are wrong, to understand when they are missing something, and to be able to take action when these systems fail,” he said.

mRNA Cancer vaccine sustains 49% melanoma reduction after 5 years

Trump and Bobby Jr. are trying to kill this type of vaccine

by NYU Langone Health

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan

The combination of a vaccine and a drug, which both harness the immune system to attack cancer cells, has proven successful in cutting the risk of skin cancer recurrence and death by 49%, a new study shows. This reduction was calculated five years after patients had their tumors surgically removed and remains unchanged.

How the melanoma trial worked

Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health and its Perlmutter Cancer Center, the study tested the vaccine, called intismeran, in combination with mainstay immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in 107 patients who had been randomly chosen after melanoma surgery to determine whether the combination therapy prevented their cancer from recurring.

Intismeran is a personalized immunotherapy strategy that is developed with information from a patient's individual tumor. These results were compared with those from a randomly selected group of 50 melanoma patients who had only received pembrolizumab postoperatively, a current standard of care.

Federal flood insurance carries 2 moral hazards – which you face depends largely on how wealthy you are

The high costs of climate risk

Ivis García, Texas A&M University

Anyone who has been through a flood or hurricane knows the scene: waterlogged furniture piled on curbs, gutted homes with mold creeping up the walls, families displaced for months. But the recovery isn’t the same for everyone.

While federal flood insurance subsidizes risky coastal and waterfront development for wealthier homeowners by lowering the cost of living in these areas, many low-income households in flood-prone areas remain stuck with risky properties and little help.

As a disaster recovery researcher, I’ve witnessed how perverse incentives create different cycles of vulnerability across income levels. The problem with federal disaster insurance today isn’t just about subsidizing wealthier coastal homeowners – it’s equally about leaving low-income households systematically underinsured without resources to either protect themselves or leave.

Federal flood insurance’s moral hazards

The National Flood Insurance Program was established by Congress in 1968 to provide affordable flood insurance to the public while encouraging floodplain management.

Communities that participate in the program are required to adopt regulations to reduce flood risk in their areas for their residents to qualify. The insurance policies, around 4.7 million today, are purchased either through the program or insurance companies but administered and underwritten by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the nation’s disaster response agency. When the policy cost is lower than the risk, the property is being subsidized by the federal program.

The National Flood Insurance Program did succeed in providing accessible insurance for many people, but it also produced a “moral hazard,” where people take on risk without bearing its full consequences. What’s less well understood is that this operates differently by income level.

FEMA is currently working to adjust flood insurance prices to more closely match each property’s actual risk. The program’s Risk Rating 2.0 changes, which began in 2021, aimed to transition policies to full-risk pricing for everyone. The annual premium increases are capped by law at 18% for primary residences, so full-risk pricing won’t be fully reached until around 2037, according to federal estimates.

But there’s another, less visible problem: Federal flood insurance already wasn’t affordable for many people.

In low-income neighborhoods, more than 90% of households are estimated to be underinsured, and their uninsured losses when they experience flooding often exceeds 20% of their annual income.

Many families are unable to afford federal flood insurance premiums – only 37% of all policyholders pay less than $1,000 per year, according to FEMA. Instead, homeowners may skip insurance, gambling that disasters won’t strike. When floods do occur, these households can face catastrophic uninsured losses.

Homeowners and renters may also choose federal flood insurance plans with lower premiums but that provide less coverage in a disaster, and even those plan costs can be high.

Because the federal flood insurance program doesn’t specifically help those who cannot afford premiums, this creates a structural trap: Wealthier homeowners receive government-subsidized insurance support for risky properties, while many lower-income households fall outside the system entirely.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Last year, Cathy and I received two homeowner insurance cancellations because of climate risk. A final carrier agreed to cover us on the condition we also buy federal flood insurance even though we are up on the tip of the moraine north of Route 1. That added an additional $1200 to the high premium charged by the new carrier.  - Will Collette

Charlestown Democrats - Don’t be fooled

There is only ONE Democrat running in the September 9 primary

By Will Collette

Boisclair sign in front of Jim Mageau's house.
Photo by Will Collette

The September 9 Democratic primary is important not just for the three statewide contests to pick candidates for attorney general and lieutenant governor plus the epic match-up pitting Helena Foulkes against hapless incumbent Governor Dan McKee.

Here in Charlestown, September 9 will decide who will represent Charlestown in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. 

It will feature incumbent Rep. Tina Spears, running for a third term versus self-described sex crime lawyer Leah Boisclair who is backed by rich MAGA gun nut Dave Levesque.

Here is her "menu" of sex crimes she is willing to defend from her own website:

Rape, child rape, child pornography, sex trafficking, slavery are all crimes Boisclair will defend

Boisclair is running as a Democrat even though she has no connection to the Democratic Party other than to say she’s a Democrat this year. Her signs are popping up along South County Trail, including in front of the house of Charlestown’s most vocal Trumper Jim Mageau.

Her record is that of running a law practice that takes pride in representing child abusers, rapists, spouse beaters, bad drivers, crooks and cheats. She uses her website to advertise these specialties and to seek more such clients.

Sure, under the Constitution, everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence and to legal counsel. But LAWYERS choose who they will represent.

Even public defenders have discretion under the Code of Professional Responsibility to decline representation to a client if they are unable to mount a rigorous defense. In fact, the Rhode Island version of the Code expressly acknowledges “[A] lawyer is also guided by personal conscience and the approbation of professional peers.”

Boisclair CHOOSES to represent scumbags. Don’t believe me? READ her own website, as well as the screenshots I have presented taken directly from that site. I was particularly impressed with her graphics in this section on her representation of men accused of crimes against women:

But wait, there's MORE! Here are the other types of crime she will defend:

How is Boisclair different from, for example, a mob lawyer? Or a Trump lawyer? Or a lawyer defending men in Jeffrey Epstein’s circle of friends? Or any other pedo protector? I dunno…you tell me.

I would not want to spend a lot of time in her office's waiting room.

On this alone, I could never support Boisclair. Frankly, why would ANY Charlestown voter want Boisclair to represent then in the General Assembly? I’d rather bring back Flip Filippi, even though he represented the January 6 insurrectionists, the Oath Keepers. But as the saying goes, “but wait, there’s more!”

Boisclair’s main backer, far right MAGA gun nut Dave Levesque, set up 40, count ‘em 40, political action committees under the banner of the “League of Rhode Island Businesses” (LORIB). He has a statewide plus 39 “local” PACs, supposedly for each Rhode Island city and town. Their registrations all look the same, with no local people on any of the PACs and that includes the Charlestown LORIB PAC.

See if you can find any connection to Charlestown in the Charlestown LORIB PAC:

Levesque uses these PACs to get around the state campaign finance law limiting PACs to $2000 in contributions to a single candidate. Since Levesque controls all the LORIB PACs, he simply cuts checks to endorsed candidates from several of his PACs.

Levesque owns the Brewed Awakenings coffee shop chain and is a long-time anti-gun control activist. The gun lobby is also heavily backing his candidates.

Support - LORIB Main PAC

Levesque also takes in anonymous donations. In fact, he has solicited donations by advertising how they can game the system to prevent having their names reported as LORIB donors.

He set Boisclair up with six LORIB checks totaling $10,500 coming from six LORIB PACs. There’s the Charlestown LORIB PAC of course, plus the LORIB PACs purporting to be from Westerly, South Kingstown, North Kingstown, Newport and Block Island.

Levesque also opposes any attempt to tax the rich. He was a big opponent to last year’s “Taylor Swift” tax that imposes a state levy on multi-million properties owned by non-residents. He also unsuccessfully fought this year’s “Millionaire Tax” that imposes a 1% income tax surcharge on millionaires.

His candidates, including Leah Boisclair, toe that line. They should have a generic LORIB bumper sticker reading “Don’t regulate guns. Don’t tax the rich.”

Levesque has targeted nearly every Democratic woman legislator in South County because their progressive stances. He is bankrolling opponents to our state Senator Victoria Gu as well as South Kingstown Dems Teresa Tanzi, Carol McEntee, Alana DiMario, Kathy Fogarty and Bridgette Valverde.

Sen. Alana DiMario and Rep. Kathy Fogarty, both targeted by Levesque, introduced legislation to close what ought to be called the “Levesque Loophole” (2026-S 2720, 2026-H 7450) by extending the $2000 limit to apply to multiple PACs that have the same owner. Unfortunately, that legislation did not pass.

Finally, Boisclair’s land use legal work ought to earn her the opposition of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), especially this case that was covered by ecoRI (CLICK HERE). So should Jim Mageau’s support for Boisclair.

Those are the negatives. Let’s look at your positive alternative

Why you should vote for Tina Spears

Here's where I stand. Photo by Will Collette

Tina Spears has served all of Charlestown and the rest of House District 36 with distinction for two terms and seeks your vote for re-election.

Tina points to these achievements from the recently completed General Assembly session:

We were able to make life in our community better by:

·       Fully funding library aid

·       Increasing education funding, especially for special education

·       Securing funding for the Charlestown Breachway rebuild

·       Passing the South Kingstown High School bond

·       Advancing legislation allowing New Shoreham to increase landing fees, manage its water district, and better structure its taxing authority. ​

I am especially proud to have sponsored and passed two bills: 

The Act on Coasts provides Rhode Island with a roadmap to strengthen coastal infrastructure in the face of rising seas. Rather than debating the causes, I am focused on preparing our communities, particularly in District 36, for the changes we are already seeing along our coastline 

The Purple Alert establishes an early alert system when individuals with disabilities go missing, making Rhode Island one of a small number of states to prioritize this vulnerable population. In partnership with advocates, families, and public safety officials, we turned a tragic situation into meaningful action that strengthens our public safety response and saves lives.​

Tina has a long record of community service, while Boisclair has none. Tina often teams up with other legislators such as state Senator Victoria Gu to boost her ability to get bills passed. She meets often with voters in her district. On top of that, she’s a genuinely kind and warm-hearted person.

Vote for Tina Spears in the September 9 Democratic primary. You must be a registered Democrat to vote in this primary.

And Tina DOES NOT protect pedos.