Thursday, September 3, 2026
SEIU leaders on why the union supports Helena Foulkes over Dan McKee
McKee’s record speaks for itself
By Jesse Martin and Victoria Mitchell
It was a great day for nursing home caregivers, residents,
and family members. We believed it was the beginning of safer, more dignified
care for our loved ones and a commitment that 80% of any Medicaid increases
would go toward worker wages. But five years later, the law - once one of
Governor McKee’s crowning pandemic achievements - has become all but
non-existent by the actions of the Governor himself.
This broken promise by Governor McKee deeply disappointed
caregivers and residents who desperately needed the law’s protections. But it
is not the only one. That’s why, this Labor Day, as we reflect on
workers’ rights, our healthcare system and the economy, we - as leaders
of SEIU 1199NE, the
state’s largest healthcare union - conclude that the status quo cannot
continue. We have had enough of McKee’s empty promises and have voted instead
to endorse Helena Foulkes for Governor.
A recent article in the Providence Journal quotes
McKee’s campaign spokesperson as saying, “Governor
McKee’s record on labor and healthcare speaks for itself.” We could not
agree more. Here are a few reasons why:
Six months after McKee signed the nursing home staffing law,
he signed the first moratorium delaying enforcement, followed by a succession
of executive orders suspending fines, the only enforcement mechanism to hold
for-profit nursing home owners accountable. Finally, in December
2023, he suspended the law altogether.
Charlestown Mini-Super changing ownership
Local guy is new owner
By Bob Yarnall
The Mini-Super is thankfully staying in local hands, those
of Charlestown resident Jeffery Hanks. Jeff has owned and operated Hanks
Hardwood Floors since 2012. Continued success, Jeff!
‘Utterly Unsustainable’: Employer-Sponsored Healthcare Costs Set to Keep Surging
Bad choices no matter where you look
Brett
Wilkins for Common Dreams
That’s $388 more than last year, and the pain is expected to
intensify in 2027. According to a survey conducted by WTW, another consultant,
US employers anticipate their healthcare costs will soar 11.1% next year. That
could be the steepest increase in more than two decades, and would mark the
fifth consecutive year of rising employer healthcare costs.
As the Journal noted, expensive cancer treatments and
widespread adoption of weight loss drugs are among the factors driving up
spending—and costs. For workers, that means larger deductions from their
paychecks, higher out-of-pocket costs, and, for some, abandoning insurance
altogether.
“Employers are telling us that this is utterly
unsustainable,” WTW population health leader Jeff Levin-Scherz told the
Journal.
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Green Report Card Gives Rhode Island’s Climate Change Actions Bad Grade
Rep. Tina Spears and Sen. Victoria Gu score "A" grades, Sen. Elaine Morgan gets an "F"
By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff
Rhode Island has slowed its actions against
climate change in the past two years, and environmental groups have found
themselves playing defense.
Tina and Victoria fought hard for the environment
That’s the takeaway from a new report by the Environment Council of
Rhode Island (ECRI), a coalition of some 60 organizations dedicated to
environmental advocacy. The group released its biennial Green Report Card on Aug. 27, less than two weeks
before the state primary elections.
It’s a big difference from just four years ago, when the
report card for the legislative sessions of 2021-2022 called them “the best two
years of environmental policymaking” in state history.
“We need to act quickly and decisively to slash emissions
from buildings and transportation and get on track to meet our climate
commitments,” said Jordan Miller, ECRI’s executive director. “We must ensure
that all our communities benefit from a just transition to a net-zero future.
The next steps we take are vital if we want to secure a healthy and sustainable
future for all Rhode Islanders.”
Elaine Morgan didn't
Environmental organizations have had a tough few years in
the General Assembly. Of the 68 priority bills ECRI identified in 2025, only
21% passed the Legislature. The group fared a little better this year, with a
third of its 78 endorsed bills securing passage out of legislative chambers.
None of the group’s eight top priority bills from the past
two years passed into law. Those priorities included a package to fund the
Rhode Island Public Transit Agency, new offshore wind procurement, a bottle
bill and extended producer responsibility omnibus bill, and building
benchmarking legislation.
That doesn’t mean the General Assembly has been completely
hostile to the group’s priorities; ECRI noted in its Green Report Card that the
past two years saw some significant wins in standards for labor and workforce
development, new protections against PFAs and rodenticides, and a stronger
Green Bond for voters in November.
Charlestown Residents United asked for continued support from Charlestown voters
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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
Map of the Proportion of Adults Age 18 to 64 Years at Risk
of Noncompliance Who Were Plausible Medicaid Expansion Enrollees and
Potentially Subject to Work-Reporting Requirements, by State. Credit: JAMA
Health Forum (2026). DOI: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.2938
.webp)
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
 |
| 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.
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