Wednesday, October 21, 2026
A new report just busted another myth about heat pumps
There is there plenty of room on the grid for these electrical wonders — and they'll save ratepayers tons of cash.
Matt Simon, Senior Staff Writer
You may have heard by now that heat pumps — which transfer warmth from outdoor air to an indoor space, instead of generating it like a furnace — don’t work when it gets really cold out. That’s incorrect, as models designed for frigid climes can keep you toasty even in the dead of winter. Don’t believe me? Look no further than the Nordic countries, which have fully committed to them despite the region’s not-exactly-balmy winters.
OK, so heat pumps are more efficient than ever, which is why Americans seem to be warming up to the appliances. But surely, since they’re electric, switching to them en masse will push the grid to collapse? That’s also false.
A new report from the energy think tank RMI finds that thanks to “headroom” in the grid during the winter months, three-quarters of U.S. homes — some 109 million — could adopt the technology, no problem. That would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slash electric bills by over 20 percent in some states.
Foulkes holds 11 point lead
Sabrina Matos in statistical tie for LG
By the Salve Regina University’s Pell Center
Democratic candidate Helena Foulkes leads the Rhode Island gubernatorial race with 39% support among likely voters, while the race for lieutenant governor remains statistically tied, according to a new survey from Salve Regina University’s Pell Center.
The survey was directed by Pell Center
Associate Director and Fellow Katie Sonder and fielded by Embold Research
between October 5-8, 2026. The survey included 815 likely Rhode Island midterm
voters and has a margin of error of ±3.6 percentage points.
Foulkes leads by 11 points, followed by Independent Ken
Block (28%) and Republican Aaron Guckian (17%). Foulkes leads across major
demographic subsets and has the strongest support among women (44%), people of
color (53%), and college-educated voters (43%). While support for Block and
Guckian does not individually outweigh support for Foulkes, their combined vote
share surpasses hers in some demographic groups, including across all Rhode
Island counties. Thirteen percent of likely midterm voters remain undecided.
Russia, Russia, Russia…Trump now openly aligns the US with Putin
He really is a Russian asset
Before entering the White House for the second time in 2025,
Trump agreed with Putin’s fictional grievances over the expansion of NATO —
which provided the pretense for Putin’s assault on his neighbor, saying “I
could understand their feeling.” Nonetheless, the Trump regime still purported
to be supporting Ukraine’s defense.
But last week, Trump gave up any pretense of being a
“mediator” in Russia’s War on Ukraine, and openly threw in his lot with Putin.
The dire significance of Trump’s actions can’t be minimized.
Trump has declared his desire to make the United States an ally in Russia’s
ever more brutal effort to annihilate Ukraine, including by bolstering Russia’s
flagging economy with US funds, and using Ukraine’s dependence on US defense
systems against it by hobbling the country’s successful offensive and defensive
actions.
But there may be a silver lining in a very dark cloud:
Ukraine’s true supporters are being forced to face facts many have long
avoided.
That baseless theory allowed some Europeans to avoid
the reality that they must take on the full burden — including the costs and
risks — of supporting Ukraine, or face the inevitability that Russia will come
after them next.
Trump’s announcement of his full-blown alliance with Putin
was preceded by an attempt by his incompetent and absurdly corrupt team of
“envoys,” real estate investor Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to
advance a predictably bogus Ukraine “peace plan.”
To cap off this great proposal, Witkoff and Kushner
reportedly announced that the “peace plan” would involve an immediate halt on
some of the most devastating attacks in the war … but solely by Ukraine.
But Trump himself all but put the kibosh on his purported
mediators’ “peace plan” by announcing his intention for the US to join Iran,
North Korea, and China in becoming an open ally in — and profiteer from —
Russia’s “Special Military Operation” against Ukraine.
It was hard to make sense of Trump’s actions in light of
actual energy market realities.
Since Trump returned to the presidency, many of Ukraine’s
supporters — including some allies in Europe and Republicans in the US — have
clung to the theory that, despite Trump’s fondness for Putin, he was not
ineluctably committed to a pro-Russian position. All that was needed, these
“optimists” argued, was continued sweet-talking and submission from Ukraine’s
leaders — including a lot of plaintive “thank yous” — and Trump would come
around.
The false notion that Trump was not fully committed to Putin
also allowed many Republican supporters of Ukraine to justify looking the other
way while Trump uttered his endearments to the Russian dictator.
Now that the Trump/Putin alliance has been indelibly
formalized, denial is no longer a remotely reasonable option.
The fake peace plan
On October 9, Witkoff and Kushner made a show of inviting
representatives of Ukraine, as well and European and NATO representatives whom
they had previously frozen out of their “mediation” efforts, to a meeting at
Witkoff’s Florida golf club.
The purpose, as columnist (and Kushner mouthpiece) David
Ignatius explained in a recent
column, was to announce a “peace” initiative.
As Ignatius touted, instead of going along with Putin’s
demand for all of the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, the Trumper plan
offered Ukraine the “carrot” of a ceasefire based on the current lines —
“guaranteed” by the US (whatever that is worth).
The only problem with the “plan” was that Putin has
resolutely refused such terms in the past, and there’s no indication he’s
changed his mind.
Ignatius asserted that the Trumper “envoys” had extended a
generous offer of funding the rebuilding of Ukraine once Russia’s campaign of
devastation ends. What Ignatius failed to mention, but later emerged from press
reports, is that Kushner and Witkoff also demanded (as they have in the past)
that Europe hand over to Trump as yet undisclosed portions of the billions of
dollars in frozen Russian assets currently held in Belgium.
In sum, their “peace plan” was to use those monies — which
rightfully belong to Ukraine — to fund the “rebuilding” effort, presumably
after skimming a large amount off the top for Trump cronies.
The one-sided “ceasefire”
For months, Ukraine has been striking key elements of
Russia’s war economy, particularly its oil and gas industry, by attacking
hydrocarbon industry plants and other infrastructure, including refineries and
tankers. As a result, Russia’s ability to generate oil revenues on the black
market is becoming impaired, as is Russia’s ability to produce the refined fuel
that is crucial to the operation of its economy and prosecution of its war of
conquest against Ukraine.
One would expect that Kushner and Witkoff, as supposed
“mediators,” would want Ukraine to continue its strikes. After all — as
demonstrated during Zelenskyy’s notorious February 2025 Oval Office encounter
with Trump and JD Vance — Ukraine needs to have such “cards” of its own both to
defend itself and obtain leverage over Russia in any actual negotiations.
But the very opposite was true. Over at least the past
several months, it has come to light that US representatives from Vance on down
have been demanding that Ukraine cease attacking Russian refineries. And during
the Florida golf course meeting, Kushner and Witkoff formalized that demand for
what Trump later called an “energy ceasefire.”
The problem, of course, is that such a one-sided “deal”
would leave Russia free to continue hitting Ukraine’s heating and electrical
infrastructure in advance of the winter, as Putin’s regime has been doing with
ever greater ferocity — including immediately after Trump announced the
“ceasefire.”
The peace “proposal,” therefore, was actually a proposal for
Ukraine to hobble its own military and defense activities, while Russia
assaults Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.
Trump’s “diesel deal”
The vehicle for that announcement was Trump’s declaration
that he had reached a “diesel deal” with Russia, pursuant to which the US would
purchase diesel fuel from Russia and facilitate the sale of the fuel by Russia
to other countries.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United
States has cut off purchases of Russian oil and gas and has strongly pressured
allies, particularly Europeans, to do the same. Some countries, particularly
Germany, have substantially reconfigured their economies to end dependence on
Russian hydrocarbons.
Furthermore, just weeks ago, Trump signed into law the
Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026, which was to impose massive
secondary tariffs on countries that continued to purchase Russian oil and gas,
including China and India. Trump’s announcement was, therefore, a complete
about-face, rendering the US into a buyer and marketer of the very same Russian
oil products the US has pressured others to shun.
Because of Ukraine’s successful refinery strikes, as
Secretary Chris Wright acknowledged during two Sunday interviews, Russia has
been experiencing a serious shortage of diesel.
Indeed, Putin has had to turn to other countries, including South Korea, for supplies of the fuel. Furthermore, the US produces more diesel that it consumes, so it’s unlikely that Russian diesel would be imported to the US even if it was available.
But Trump’s actual purpose was plainly not to increase US
diesel supplies, or otherwise lower consumer prices, but rather to make clear
his intention to definitively change sides and become Russia’s wartime ally —
and to undermine the international sanctions regime against Russia that the US
worked so hard to implement over the past nearly five years.
This became all the more clear when reports began leaking
out that Trump’s “peace” envoys, Witkoff and Kushner, have been working on a
plan with their close associate, Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, to pressure
Germany to start buying Russian gas again — but this time in a commercial
arrangement that will give Trump-associated American firms a cut. This jibes
completely with another Kushner/Witkoff scheme that was recently leaked to sell
the assets of a large Russian oil company, Lukoil, to an American investor
named Todd Boehly who has donated
millions to Trump.
If Russia is going to be an ally, why shouldn’t Trumpers get
a piece of the resulting gusher of oil profits?
Trump capped off the week by announcing last Friday that he
was “implementing” the Graham Act by suspending its provisions and preventing
the sanctioning of purchasers of Russian goods, including the diesel fuel Trump
has effectively been marketing for his ally Putin’s part.
The Graham Act requires the president to provide
certification that any such waiver “is in the national interests of the United
States” and to report to Congress on why that’s the case. But Trump made a
mockery of these requirements by simply declaring that his about-face in US
policy is in the national interest without any substantial explanation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in typically disingenuous
fashion, later said that Trump “wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort
of analyze what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global
economy and even to the US economy,” despite the fact that the president signed
a law calling for those sanctions and tariffs just days ago.
But, of course, by that time, everyone knew Trump’s actual
purpose was to help Putin vanquish Ukraine and endanger the rest of Europe.
The scheme to hobble Ukrainian defenses
Trump’s decision to ally the US with Russia became clear
last week, when the Defense Department — which uses its sophisticated aerial
intelligence to warn Ukraine of incoming Russian ballistic missile attacks —
repeatedly failed to provide such warnings in advance of massive Russian
assaults on Kyiv. That came on the heels of reports that Kushner and Witkoff
had threatened a complete cutoff of US intelligence sharing with Ukraine during
the “peace” talks in Florida.
Then, on October 12 — entirely without warning — the
Ukrainian armed forces began to incur sudden speed and connection interruptions
in the SpaceX-owned Starlink systems used for navigation of many Ukrainian
drones. As a result, Ukraine’s ability to both intercept incoming Russian drone
attacks and conduct the midrange attacks the country has been pursuing with
great success on Russian military logistics hubs were drastically impaired.
The unexplained cutoff was met with such anger and dismay by
Ukraine and its allies that even Putin-friendly oligarch Elon Musk distanced
himself from it, stating it was ordered by the US military. Defense Department
sources then pointed the finger at, you guessed it, the White House.
Rubio later acknowledged that the US government has wholly
cut off Ukraine from the “military” elements of Starlink. Rubio went on to say that it is “under discussion
right now how [Ukraine] would want to use” the services Trump has cut off, more
than implying that Trumpers are continuing to try to blackmail Ukraine into a
one way “energy ceasefire.”
Just yesterday, reports emerged the United States has been
holding off on giving necessary approvals to Ukraine of the transfer of Patriot
missile interceptors — which provide virtually the only effective defense to
increasing Russian ballistic missile attacks. This comes as the US itself has
largely refused to provide these interceptors to Ukraine from its own
stockpiles.
Also on Monday, Trump opined that Russia "hasn't been
doing much" to Ukraine and that its brutal war of annihilation is “fine.”
Facing facts
During a Sunday morning interview Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent was repeatedly asked if Ukraine is an ally of the United States. He
refused to give a straight answer, but effectively responded in the negative by
berating Zelenskyy.
Trump himself is far less cagey than Bessent on the topic of
who his allies are. He recently announced that he was going to invite Putin to
attend the G20 meeting, to be held in December at his own Doral golf club. It
is now clear that if Putin attends, it will be in his newly anointed role as
US, or rather Trump, ally.
Trump’s open effort to join nations like Iran, North Korea,
and China in aiding Putin’s murderous assault on Ukraine is nothing short of
disastrous, and it will leave a lasting moral stain on the United States. But
there may be something of a silver lining to this dark cloud.
This never made much sense, particularly given the ample
evidence that Russia helped Trump get elected, and continues to cultivate him
through elaborate disinformation campaigns and by offering lucrative financial
“deals” to the likes of Kushner, Witkoff and other Trump cronies.
But it was also, in certain respects, a reassuring fiction.
Many European countries have been notably hesitant to take
all of the steps necessary to assist Ukraine in defending itself against
Russia. Those include sharing weapons systems and stocks of anti-missile
defense weapons (if the US allows it), and by providing Ukraine with access to
frozen Russian assets, which are needed both to keep the Ukrainian economy
afloat and fully fund the country’s defense.
That European hesitation has continued despite, and possibly
in some respects because, Russia has been increasing its so-called hybrid war
on other European countries, consisting of everything from cyber attacks to
kinetic terror attacks on airports and infrastructure. The use of the term
“hybrid warfare” itself reflects a form of self-denial by Europeans, many of
whom are hesitant to acknowledge that they are now effectively at war with
Russia.
Trump’s now open alliance with Russia may increase the
impetus for European leaders to take more steps necessary to provide Ukraine —
which after all is the frontline defender of the entire continent against
Russian aggression — the resources it requires to prevail. But even if such
full-throated resolve is forthcoming, it could also be too late given that
(with the help of Russia) pro-Russian politicians may soon come to power in
France and potentially Germany.
There also remains a chance, albeit a small one, that some
of the vast majority of Republicans who have long claimed to support Ukraine
against Russia’s murderous assault will finally stand up to Trump, even feebly.
Lindsey Graham’s sister, who Trump plucked out of obscurity to become her late
brother’s successor, took a first step in that direction last week by opposing
Trump’s “diesel deal” with Putin. A drubbing in the midterms and Trump’s
descent into the political basement could encourage that process.
Recent history makes it hard to say that optimism is
warranted. But continued, and ever greater, efforts by Ukraine’s supporters are
nonetheless essential. The stakes not only for Ukraine, but also the world,
could not be higher.
Thanks for reading Public Notice. This post is public so
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Tuesday, October 20, 2026
“At this point, Trump’s economic policy is starting to look less like governing and more like Publishers Clearing House with a campaign logo.”
Trump promises yet another check, this time a $90 Medicare check
Stephen Prager for Common Dreams
Trump, who declared on
Truth Social that his administration would send out “checks,” said the money
will come from the $2 billion Medicare Improvement Fund and is expected to appear in seniors’ bank accounts around October
8.
The $90 payment is not even enough to cover half of the
standard monthly Medicare Part B premium payment, which is about $202. But Trump described the
comparatively small payment as proof that Americans could trust his promise of
a much heftier windfall if Republicans prevail in
next month’s elections.
“Because I delivered on this very important issue for the
American people, they can also rest assured the highly popular $5,000 Trump
Dividend will be distributed to every U.S. Citizen if, and when, the
Republicans win the Midterm Elections!” Trump said.
In February 2025, he proposed $5,000 “DOGE dividend” checks for
Americans, purportedly funded by savings generated by Elon Musk’s Department
of Government Efficiency, but the payments were never authorized by the GOP-controlled Congress.
That November, he promised that most Americans would receive tariff payments
of “at least $2,000 a person,” but Congress has still not authorized them
nearly a year later.
Westerly Conservation Association Repairing Quonochontaug Sand Trail
Also trying to stop environmental vandalism
By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff
 |
| The Nope's Island Conservation Association says its decreased off-road drivers on the Quonochontaug Beach by about 90%. (Rob Smith/ecoRI News) |
The 1.6-mile, off-road trail now contains several pull-off areas, where vehicles can pass one another, and plenty of wood fencing tied together with hemp rope to block further passage onto Quonochontaug Barrier Beach.
For the Nope’s Island Conservation Association, the organization
that spearheaded the changes and manages almost all of the barrier beach, it’s
about protecting the sand dunes and vital bird habitat from washing away due to
human misuse.
“We’ve got the bad drivers down about 90%,” Michael Sands, an association member, said on a recent tour of the sand trail’s new biodegradable infrastructure. “The next 10%, that was always going to be the hardest to deter.”
In the decades since Hurricane Carol, much of
Quonochontaug’s barrier beach has washed away, blown into the ocean, or blown
into Quonochontaug Pond just behind the barrier beach. The eastern section of
the beach, about a third of the way down the sand trail, is in the worst shape.
That section of the beach is flatter and thinner around the pond, and it has
the least amount of dunegrass.
Drivers down the sand trail will notice this year 6-inch
wood slats planted in the ground. It’s a form of biomimicry to hold the sand
and rebuild the dunes, according to Sands, who said the conservation
association took the idea from one of the beaches in Truro on Cape Cod.
Quonochontaug’s barrier beach is one of the state’s most
isolated and unique coastal ecosystems. The beach makes a nearly complete
barrier between Quonochontaug Pond and the open ocean, not including the
breachway connecting the two.
Good news: Your cat probably won't give you Giardia
Really long odds against getting zombie parasite
 |
| Joey would never hurt you. Photo by Will Collette |
Only 1.2% of
fecal samples from cats were found to be positive for a form of the microscopic
parasite that's potentially harmful to humans, according to a study published this
week in PLOS One.
Stool was
collected from 157,616 cats in the United States and Canada. About 6% had any
genotype of Giardia duodenalis. However, only about one in five of those
positive samples carried genetic assemblages A or B, which can infect a range
of host species,
including humans.
In both cats and
people, a Giardia infection can be subclinical, or asymptomatic. But it
can cause a host
of issues in people,
including diarrhea, nausea, dehydration, hives, and swollen joints.
To avoid getting
the parasite from your cat, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises regularly
cleaning its litterbox and keeping its fur clean of poop. Also, ideally, cats
are kept indoors.
Midwest cats most
likely to have Giardia
The study found
that male cats and cats one-year-old or older that had not been spayed or
neutered (intact) were more likely to have any form of Giardia.
‘Nature-Based’ Solutions Could Save Insurers and Policyholders Billions
Wetlands restoration and wildfire prevention can drive down insurers’ costs and skyrocketing premiums
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Photo by Will Collette
After years trudging through marshes around San Francisco Bay studying conservation practices, coastal ecologist Megan Kelso realized that one of the largest determinants of wetland health may not be an invasive species lurking with her among the sea grasses, but decisions made miles away in the executive suites of insurance companies.
Wetlands absorb massive volumes of carbon and are vital to combating climate change, Kelso said, and she saw her early field work as the most effective way to keep them healthy.
It wasn’t until she started working alongside Mike Beck, director of University of California Santa Cruz’s coastal resilience program, and was offered a grant to research how insurance can promote similar habitat restoration projects, that she had her “aha” moment.
“I was thinking, maybe there’s a way to align this huge sector of insurance with nature and conservation in a way that could have a bigger impact than what I was doing before,” Kelso said.
Now her research is the basis of a new study published in the science journal Nature by Kelso and five co-authors that outlines what these “nature-based” insurance policies would look like and how they could benefit both insurance companies and policyholders in the long run.
“It could be tens of billions of dollars going towards nature-based projects that reduce your risk,” Kelso told Inside Climate News. “It’s this big lever that hasn’t really been fully utilized yet.”
Monday, October 19, 2026
Gawdawful candidates are hurting the GOP’s hopes of holding power.
The GOP’s parade of horribles
 |
| In Rhode Island, our top terrible Republican is Floridian Vic Mellor. Proud MAGA, part of the January 6 storming of the US Capitol building and a REGISTERED AGENT of the Government of Cuba. Seriously. He's campaigning against US Rep. Seth Magaziner. |
Utterly lacking in charisma, Paxton is a flaccid campaigner
with a stunning history
of corruption whose greatest professional achievement may be staying out of
jail. With just weeks to go before the election, a series of embarrassing stories
has dogged
him, the latest of which is the emergence
of a video of him partying in Dubai with his mistress and a couple of
fugitives from American justice.
Paxton only defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP
primary because of President Trump’s support — yet Trump can barely speak his
name without saying that Paxton is inarticulate, ugly, and a terrible dresser.
The answer to the obvious question — how could someone as
unappealing as Paxton get as far in politics as he has? — lies in the internal
dynamics of today’s Republican Party.
But the GOP’s problem goes far beyond Paxton. They are
confronting a political emergency in this year’s midterms, and doing it with an
absolutely stunning collection of lemons, lunkheads, and losers.
From a risky election to a potential catastrophe
 |
| Rhode Islanders protest against Mellor. Photo by Steve Ahlquist |
Needing a net gain of four seats to take control, Democrats
have to defend two seats in states Donald Trump won in 2024 (Michigan and
Georgia), plus another five seats Kamala Harris won by single digits.
Meanwhile, Republicans have to defend only one seat in a state Harris won
(Maine), and one in a state Trump won by double digits.
The opposition party always does well in midterms, but in
order to take the Senate, Democrats will have to nearly run the table, winning
every close race — an extremely tall order.
Yet today, it appears more likely than not that they will do
just that.
FiftyPlusOne
puts the odds of a Democratic takeover at 72 percent, while the Cook Political
Report rates six Republican-held seats as Toss-Ups and one (North Carolina)
as Likely Democratic; just one Democratic-held seat (Michigan) is in the
Toss-Up category.
The most important reason Republicans are in this position
is, of course, Donald Trump. But in race after race, Republicans would be in a
far better position if their candidates weren’t so poor.
Paxton is the most obvious, but it’s happening all over the country. A brief tour:
Ukraine defends the US from Russian election interference
And this is how Trump retaliates
Measles is a grown-up problem, too.
Are you at risk?
Jess Steier, DrPh
Huh? Laser tag is a kids' activity (or so I thought). I
called the place to ask, and it turns out adults are allowed and it's
apparently very popular with them. I had no clue, because every laser tag
invitation that has ever come through my house had a cartoon on it and a
request to RSVP for an 8-year-old’s party. It hadn't occurred to me that it was
an option for me.
Measles has a similar problem. Nearly everything the public
hears about it involves children, whether it's the childhood schedule,
kindergarten vaccination rates, school exclusions, or babies who are too young
for their first dose. Much of the media attention on
Pennsylvania's outbreak has centered on the two infants who died in August.
That attention is warranted, since those deaths are tragic, babies don't
typically get their first measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine dose until
12 months, and children under 5 are hospitalized at some of the highest rates
of any age-group.
When children are the only people we picture with measles,
though, adults process it the same way I did laser tag, as something that isn't
meant for them, and this year's data show otherwise.
4 in 10 US measles cases this year are in adults
According to CDC's latest data, 38% of confirmed
measles cases in 2026 (1,305 of 3,471) are in people 20 and older, up from 29%
in 2025. Adults are being hospitalized at a rate of 12%, about the same as
children under 5 years (13%) and three times the rate for school-aged kids and
teens (4%). They account for 156 of this year's 301 measles hospitalizations,
or just over half. In Pennsylvania, the
hardest-hit state, the share is even higher. About seven in 10 cases this year
are in people 18 and older, and the largest single age-group is 25 to 49.
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