The Rhode Island Community Food Bank today
announced a first-of-its-kind gift from Taylor Swift and Travis
Kelce. The $1 million donation, one of several hunger relief donations
given by the couple nationwide, will allow the Food Bank to purchase more food
for more Rhode Island families, and will support its 137 member agencies working
on the frontlines of hunger in Rhode Island.
“We are incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
for their extraordinarily generous and unexpected gift,” said Melissa
Cherney, CEO of the RI Community Food Bank. “As the need across our
communities continues to grow, this $1 million donation will go a long way in
helping us purchase and distribute the nutritious, culturally appropriate food
that Rhode Islanders deserve. I hope their gift inspires others; it has
certainly inspired us.”
The timing of this gift is particularly appreciated by the
Food Bank team. Summer is typically a slower time of year for food donations,
which means a greater demand for food purchasing to keep
shelves stocked at food pantries across the state.
The latest data our team has amassed shows that the U.S. is falling short compared with what it could achieve, given its US$32 trillion economy. This is not a one-year blip – the U.S. has been underperforming for the past 25 years.
The real way to read the immigration decisions
the Supreme Court issued
on Thursday is not to see them solely as losses for immigrants
to the United
States or the rights of immigrants. They are much larger losses.
They
are losses for the authority of Congress to have its laws fully executed by a
president who doesn’t agree with them.
Markwayne Mullin vs. Al Otro Lado concerns a
1917 law that requires immigration officers to inspect noncitizens who arrive
at ports of entry to determine whether they may enter the United States.
Congress amended the law in the Refugee Act of 1980 to allow noncitizens
fleeing persecution in their home country to apply for asylum as part of this
inspection process.
The act lays out a required set of procedures to guide this
process. It says that a noncitizen who seeks admission to the United States
“may apply for asylum.” If the noncitizen lacks valid travel documents, the
officer “shall order [her] removed” unless she conveys an
intention to apply for asylum or a fear of persecution, which in turn requires the
officer to “refer” her for further processing of her asylum application.
This system is designed to ensure that the US government
considers the application of each person seeking to come into the United States
to determine who should be let in, who should be turned away, and who should be
allowed to apply for asylum.
This must be seen for what it really is—a systemic
effort by the six Republican appointees on the court to shrink congressional
authority and enlarge the authority of the executive branch.
July 5: Sunday morning from 9-11:30 am, CRU will be holding a signature collection event at the Mini Super on Old Post Road. Please come out and sign the nomination papers of the Charlestown Residents United slate.
July 7: Public Hearing on the Referendum Regarding the Charlestown Elementary School and the August 4 vote to approve or reject the proposal.
Charlestown Town Hall, Council Chambers 4540 South County Trail, Charlestown RI 02813 July 7, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
Charlestown Residents United | PO Box 412 | Charlestown, RI 02813 US
Sen. DiMario (left) and Rep. Teresa Tanzi (right) with Charlestown's state Rep. Tina Spears. All three are being targeted by the MAGA PAC, League of Rhode Island Businesses
Legislation from Sen. Alana M. DiMario and
Rep. Teresa A. Tanzi to strengthen coverage and reimbursement for mobile youth
crisis response teams has been signed into law.
“Mobile crisis response is an essential component of our
state’s healthcare system, and providing insurance coverage for youth mobile
crisis response last year was an important step toward ensuring the
sustainability of these essential services,” said Senator DiMario (D-Dist. 36,
Narragansett, North Kingstown, New Shoreham), who works as a licensed mental
health counselor in private practice. “But without sustainable rates, the
nonprofits that provide these essential prevention and diversion programs cannot
continue, whether their services are covered or not. This bill gives providers
across Rhode Island the consistency and financial stability they need by
ensuring that they receive at least the state Medicaid rate for the services
they provide.”
Youth mobile crisis response and stabilization services
(MRSS) provide trained behavioral health clinicians in response to behavioral
health crisis calls, who are better able than local emergency medical services
to deescalate crises and provide the crisis counseling and follow-up needed to
keep youth out of emergency rooms. This provides better patient outcomes for
youth in crisis and reduces the strain on overburdened emergency departments.
For many people, this is the time of year for cookouts, beach trips and other outdoor activities. Soccer fans are packing into stadiums for World Cup matches. But summer also brings the risk of dangerously high temperatures and humidity in many parts of America.
The NOAA Weather Prediction Center’s heat forecast, released June 29, 2026, shows the maximum heat risks states can expect to see at some point during the week ending Saturday, July 4.NOAA Weather Prediction Center
I study health risks in a warming climate as a professor of public health, and I’ve seen heat become a growing concern. Here are some of the key warning signs to watch for when temperatures rise – and ways to keep cool when the heat and humidity get too high.
Gina Raimondo, the 40th U.S. Secretary of
Commerce and 75th Governor of Rhode Island, and Eric Holcomb, the 51st Governor
of Indiana, today launched RAISE US, a nonpartisan national organization that
will partner with governors, employers, workers, and training organizations to
help the American workforce make a successful transition to an AI economy.
RAISE US will design and pilot new corporate incentives to retrain and redeploy
workers, new approaches to support people through job transitions, and new training
models tied to changing employer demand. The organization will leverage private
and philanthropic capital to scale what’s most effective and measure success by
whether workers land and keep good jobs. RAISE US launches with more than two
dozen of America’s largest companies and philanthropies behind it and with
initial state partnerships in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah.
“I believe AI will create new jobs and industries over
time, but the transition could be disruptive, and it’s already underway. We
shouldn’t fearmonger, but we can’t pretend our training and worker support
systems are ready either.”
Nothing makes Trump angrier than being humiliated.
Humiliation involves public shame, which Trump’s malignant narcissism cannot
abide.
But Trump is facing humiliation after humiliation. They’re
causing him to lose his mind even faster than before.
The Iranian regime knows this, which is why it’s publicly
humiliating Trump by contradicting everything he says about making progress on
the peace talks.
Yesterday, Iran went further. It refuted Trump’s claim that
Iran did not control the Strait of Hormuz, and that the strait was again open
to shipping, by striking a container ship passing through the strait. Oil
prices immediately jumped.
Meanwhile, American judges are humiliating Trump by ordering
his name off the Kennedy Center, requiring that the center remain open, pausing
work on his billionaire ballroom, threatening to stop his Arch de Trump, ending
his slush fund, and vacating charges that Trump’s Justice [sic] Department has
brought against Trump’s enemies.
Performing artists are humiliating him by pulling out of his
so-called “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall because they don’t
want any part in what’s become a Trump rally.
Congressional Republicans are humiliating him by rejecting
his demands that they enact the “SAVE” Act (which would make it harder for
millions of people to vote), pass his next reconciliation package, and blow up
the Senate filibuster.
Four Senate Republicans even crossed party lines to
back a war powers resolution directing Trump to halt military operations
against Iran or seek congressional authorization to continue.
Their support
delivered a bipartisan rebuke to Trump’s handling of the war. (After lobbying
by Trump, the Senate reversed its stance and rejected the resolution in a
late-night vote.)
Turning 80 is itself a humiliation for Trump. Even if the
media weren’t harping on it, his body is continuously reminding him that he’s
the oldest president ever elected.
Not to mention increasing calls from
Democrats to invoke the 25th Amendment in light of Trump’s erratic
behavior — including his feud with the pope, his doomsday threats on Truth
Social, and his posting of an AI photo of himself as Jesus.
But the very worst type of humiliation for Trump is ridicule
— as first became apparent in 2011 when Obama skewered him at the White House
Correspondents’ Association Dinner by producing his birth certificate and
saying Trump could “now get back to focusing on important issues like did we
fake the moon landing?”
The audience roared. Trump fumed.
Trump can’t take ridicule — which is why he tried to get ABC
to fire Jimmy Kimmel and gloated when CBS got rid of Stephen Colbert.
Yet late-night comedians are now having a field day with
Trump’s algae-infested Reflecting Pool. Some are calling it the Strait of Warm
Ooze.
The pile-up of humiliations is causing Trump to lash out at
anyone and everyone, including his recent explosion at NBC correspondent
Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Wednesday’s reported shouting
match with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy during a closed-door lunch at the
Capitol. The lunch came just after Trump dropped a bombshell by canceling plans
to sign a
bipartisan landmark housing affordability bill until he gets his way
on the SAVE Act.
I’m tempted to enjoy the Trump humiliations. But I think it
also important to note that as they mount, Trump is becoming even more erratic
and dangerous. So beware.
As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, the global data we collect and analyze shows that the country is failing to “promote the general Welfare,” as the Constitution’s framers promised a little more than a decade later.
