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Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Charlestown Residents United asked for continued support from Charlestown voters
Nearly one in five Medicaid-eligible adults may miss new 80-hour work rule
Trump covering health coverage for more people
Edited by Gaby Clark,
reviewed by Robert
Egan
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Up to 10 million people may lose Medicaid coverage in the
United States due in part to new work requirements and eligibility
redeterminations under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which mandates a
reduction of nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid spending over a decade.
While the administrative
burden associated with meeting and maintaining these work requirements
is expected to be the primary driver of disenrollment, a new study led by
researchers at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the Arnold
School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina (Arnold School)
found that millions of Medicaid enrollees may lose their health coverage
because they are unable to achieve the required work hours.
Who is most at risk
Set to take effect nationwide on Jan. 1, 2027, the new
federal Medicaid work reporting rules require adults enrolled in the Affordable
Care Act's Medicaid expansion to show that they are working, volunteering,
enrolled in school and/or participating in job training for at least 80 hours
per month, with certain groups exempt. But the new study found that nearly 20%
of Medicaid-eligible adults living in states that expanded Medicaid are at risk
of noncompliance because they are unlikely to fulfill the minimum required
hours once the rules take effect. The findings are published in JAMA Health Forum.
Certain groups were more at risk of noncompliance than
others. Women had a 22% higher probability of having insufficient or
inconsistent work hours than men, while married Medicaid enrollees had an 18%
lower probability of noncompliance than unmarried enrollees.
How patients write portal messages may affect whether doctors respond
Maybe AI should write your portal messages
By Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Edited by Sadie Harley,
reviewed by Robert
Egan
Researchers analyzed more than 3.6 million patient portal
message threads and found that patients from historically marginalized groups
were generally less likely to receive responses from their care teams and, in
particular, were less likely to receive responses from the messages' originally
intended recipient—most often their doctor. The natural next question was
"why?"
While the content of a message was an important predictor of
care team response, it explained little of the differences by race, ethnicity,
education or insurance. Writing style—including factors such as length,
formality, sentiment and how a message opened—accounted for nearly half of
those differences.
"Patient portal messages are an increasingly central
channel for patient-clinician communication, but there are inequities in how
responsive care teams are to messages sent by patients from historically
marginalized groups," said Mitchell Tang, Ph.D., assistant professor of
health policy and management at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.
"Our findings suggest that message writing style may be
a potential source of bias in message triage and point to possible ways to
reduce these disparities."
Facing public criticism, Rep. Julie Casimiro resigns
Necessary but overdue
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
The three-paragraph email, obtained by Rhode Island Current, comes amid mounting pressure for Casimiro to give up her seat — and legislative salary — because she no longer lives in Rhode Island. Casimiro, formerly of North Kingstown, moved to Hardeeville, South Carolina, as of July 1, as first reported by the Boston Globe. The 64-year-old Democratic lawmaker had already announced she would not seek reelection to the District 31 seat representing North Kingstown and Exeter after 10 years in office.
But she intended to serve out her fifth and final term to its completion, refusing to cave to calls to resign, including from House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski. Although state lawmakers only meet for the first six months of the year, their taxpayer-funded salary is spread across the entire calendar year. Casimiro was earning $800 every two weeks, plus health insurance, under the $20,922 annual salary for rank-and-file lawmakers.
“I would have preferred to quietly exit Rhode Island politics, but it seems as though that didn’t happen,” Casimiro wrote in the email.
Critics, including Neronha, cited the state constitutional qualifications for elected officeholders, which include state residency, as reason why Casimiro could no longer keep her seat. A separate section of state law also defines residency as a “fixed and established domicile,” determined by a “factual physical presence in the voting district on a regular basis incorporating an intention to reside for an indefinite period.”
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Charlestown had a similar situation in 2022 when Charlestown Citizens Alliance Town Council member Cody Clarkin moved to Westerly but maintained the fiction that he still lived in Charlestown. Scout's Honor! CCA leader and Charlestown Planning Commissar needed Clarkin to continue on the Council to conserve the CCA's 3-2 majority. The CCA ended up losing that majority anyway due to their mishandling of Charlestown taxpayers' money when the Charlestown Residents United (CRU) walloped them at the polls. - Will Collette
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
72% of Rhode Islanders feel healthcare costs are too high; some are going without treatment
Poll shows housing, roads and bridges, and education among top concerns
While most Rhode Islanders are satisfied with how healthcare is delivered in the state, they feel more should be done to make it more affordable to everyone, according to a new public opinion poll from researchers at the University of Rhode Island. Those high healthcare costs have led to some people not seeking recommended medical care.
The fourth annual Rhode Island Survey Initiative poll—led
by URI’s College of Arts and
Sciences, and its Social Science
Institute for Research, Education and Policy—surveyed a representative
sample of 500 Rhode Islanders ages 18 and older between July 29 and Aug. 13,
2026. Administered by the polling firm YouGov via the internet, survey
participants were chosen from YouGov’s opt-in survey panel of Rhode Island residents.
The margin of error for the poll is +/- 5.73%.
According to the poll, 36% of Rhode Islanders graded the
state’s overall healthcare system as a “C,” or “satisfactory,” while 27% rated
it as a “B,” or “good.” Most Rhode Islanders also feel that access to
healthcare in the state is satisfactory (34%) or good (28%), and the quality of
it is mostly good (37%) or satisfactory (31%).
The cost of healthcare, however, is a problem, Rhode
Islanders say. This year’s poll shows that healthcare costs were the
most-common worrisome household expense over groceries, gas, monthly rent and
other expenses among respondents. Seventy-two percent of the poll’s respondents
indicated they were either very worried (33%) or somewhat worried (39%) about
healthcare costs for themselves and their families.
“Every household bill we asked about gets easier as income
rises, except healthcare costs. What this tells us is that for low-income
households in Rhode Island, healthcare costs are one worry among several
others, as budgets are stretched across a variety of necessities,” said Michael DiNardi, URI
associate professor of economics and SSIREP director. “Among high income
households in Rhode Island, healthcare stands alone, 17 points above any other
costs we surveyed.”
More troubling is some Rhode Islanders are choosing to not
seek medical help due to those rising costs. According to the poll, 29% of
Rhode Islanders did not pursue doctor-recommended procedures, tests or other
evaluations in the last 12 months. The most common reason? Cost.
Candidate for local office features uncomfy shoe in her ad aimed at alleged sex criminals
Most women wear shoes that don't match their feet, study finds
Edited by Sadie Harley,
reviewed by Andrew Zinin
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| Leah Boisclair wants your vote in the September 9 Democratic Primary in her effort to oust our effective state Rep. Tina Spears. Don't give it to her. Check out the stilettos in her ad appealing to sex crime defendants |
Most women in a new RMIT University study wore shoe sizes that differed from the size indicated by their foot length, highlighting the limitations of conventional sizing systems in accounting for differences in foot width and shape. The study of 107 women found 72% wore a different size under U.S. sizing and 65% under EU sizing.
More participants wore a larger size than their foot length
indicated—59% under U.S. sizing and 52% under EU sizing. The researchers say
this tendency to size up suggests some women may be compensating for shoes that
do not adequately accommodate their foot width, rather than simply choosing the
wrong size.
Supporting this explanation, women assigned the same shoe
size based on foot length varied by up to 40 mm (1.6 inches) around the widest
part of the foot under U.S. sizing and 37 mm (1.5 inches) under EU sizing.
The study, published in the International Journal of
Fashion Design, Technology and Education, also found 68% of participants
had at least one recurring problem with shoe fit.
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
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.”
Monday, August 31, 2026
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
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
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| 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. He also leaves out Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy among others. |
Here are a couple of Trump posts on his War with Canada:
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Join your friends and neighbors in re-electing Rep. Tina Spears
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