Who are the winners in this culture war?

The defense of transgender student rights shifts, once again, to the Westerly School Committee

Steve Ahlquist

Dozens of people attended the August 19 meeting of the Westerly School Committee to advocate against agenda item 12d, “Request of Counsel to seek written opinion from Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office regarding SCOTUS Decision as to transgender athletes.” The decision is West Virginia v. B.P.J., in which the United States Supreme Court upheld state laws, such as West Virginia’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” that banned or restricted transgender women athletes from participating in women’s school sports teams on a 6-3 vote.

You can watch the relevant parts of the School Committee meeting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltJLTv1o0g8

“You folks who came to the mic tonight wondering who put this item on the agenda,” said Westerly School Committee member Peter Nero. “It was me. The reason I put it on the agenda is that I want final clarity on where Rhode Island law stands, and I want the Attorney General to put that in writing, because I don’t want to have any more of these long nights… Bottom line: I wanted clarity on this so we don’t have more meetings like this, and we put an end to this now. That’s why it’s on the agenda.”

The long nights Committee member Nero is referring to are likely the meetings where the school committee takes up potential changes to their Transgender, Gender Nonconforming & Transitioning Students Protocol and a large number of people fill the room to advocate for transgender student rights.

Committee member Timothy Killam seemed exasperated. He wanted to talk about what he considered the positive things happening in Westerly, like the opening of a new school in a couple of weeks. “Why are we going around in circles about this instead of talking about some forward progress? In my opinion, we have a protocol in place. We don’t have a problem right now. Why are we taking the time about this?”

Committee member Killam sought to assure the people in the room that they had misunderstood the agenda and that nothing would be decided during the meeting. “I want you all to understand: if you read the agenda, we’re not voting on anything today,” said Committee member Killam. “That was never on the agenda. And if you interpreted it that way, you are incorrect. No vote is being taken tonight. Period. There is not. It was simply a statement to ask for something in writing.”

Seventeen minutes later, the School Committee voted 4 to 3 against seeking an opinion from the Attorney General. Later in the meeting, Committee member Angela Goethels apologized for her yes vote, saying that upon further reflection she was against it.

Ahead of the vote, when asked about seeking a written opinion from the R.I. Attorney General’s Office about the status of the State Law regarding transgender students, Attorney William Nardone said, “I’m not sure what you want me to ask the Attorney General. If you want me to ask him for ‘his opinion on a decision,’ frankly, I would be embarrassed to send that letter to the Attorney General…”

The “clarity” desired by Committee member Nero doesn’t exist, opined Attorney Jennifer Wood, who has decades of legal expertise in the education space.

“I wasn’t going to comment tonight because I saw that you didn’t have an agenda item that you were voting on this evening - although it ended up being voted on - and I didn’t want to attenuate further what has been a painful and difficult conversation for your committee over several evenings,” said Attorney Wood. “And I definitely never wanted to discourage anyone from seeking an opinion from the Attorney General. I would never be so arrogant as to suggest that that should not be done.

“I appreciate the desire for clarity and finality on this issue that this committee and that a lot of others in the community are yearning for. I am here to share the bad news that it is not yet available. [In the] West Virginia v. BPJ case, the Supreme Court ruled narrowly on one aspect of the issue that relates to transgender athletes’ participation in sports. But on page three of the decision, in footnote number one, it’s quite straightforward: Brett Kavanaugh, writing the majority opinion says, [paraphrasing] ‘We’re not deciding most of this issue in this decision. All we’re saying is that the 27 states who have state law that permits the exclusion of transgender women in women’s sports, they can do that. And the 23 states that do not have state law, and among them, Rhode Island, states that permit the participation of students in sports teams that are aligned to their gender identity can also do that. We’re not opining on that today. We weren’t asked to; it’s not in the case, and we’re not doing that.’ Then they, in the footnote, the court further excludes: We’re not talking about trans men participating in men’s sports.

“So the clarity and finality that I think everyone wants isn’t there.”

Public Testimony

Public testimony lasted over an hour. Every person who spoke was there in defense of transgender students. Here are some excerpts, edited for clarity:

NOT A JOKE: Trump threatens US bond market with military intervention

Trump actually said this yesterday...

Trump congratulates himself

Plus he CHEATS

The EPA’s data on cancer risk from air pollution has gone dark

Ending your right to know

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey, Reporter

"This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here."

Darya Minovi was mapping pollution from medical sterilization plants across the country when many of the communities she was speaking to began asking the same question. The facilities emit ethylene oxide, a potent carcinogen, and those who lived nearby wanted to know how much the emissions were increasing their cancer risk. She turned to data compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency to find out.

The resulting maps, published in 2023 by the Union of Concerned Scientists (SEE SCREENSHOT BELOW), a nonprofit where Minovi is a researcher, revealed that more than 14 million people lived in a 5-mile radius of ethylene oxide-emitting facilities. Crucially, the map highlighted 23 sterilization facilities that the EPA had found emit ethylene oxide at levels that definitively contribute to elevated cancer risk. The project helped raise awareness and was used to push the government to tighten limits on ethylene oxide emissions.

But now, the cancer risk data that made Minovi’s analysis possible has quietly gone offline. After more than two decades of sharing this information with the public, the Environmental Protection Agency has omitted cancer risk estimates from its latest update to national air pollution data. The agency is continuing to release raw pollution figures, but it is no longer providing information on the additional cancer risk that the emissions cause. It has also not updated its searchable U.S. map of cancer risk from air pollution with the most recent data.

The risk assessments are routinely used by communities to understand the effects of the pollution in their neighborhoods, as well as by journalists and nonprofits to inform the public and hold polluters accountable. Withholding this information would shift the burden of interpreting pollution data — a technically demanding task requiring specialized experience and an understanding of EPA protocols — onto the public, Minovi said, making it harder for communities to access this vital public health information. 

This Flesh-Eating Fly Is Back in the U.S.

Scientists Are Tracking Where It Could Strike Next

By Mika Ono, University of California - San Diego

Meet our little friend. New World screwworm larva close up, and the mouth hooks they use to eat living flesh. Credit: USDA

A wound no bigger than a tick bite can be enough for New World screwworm to take hold.

A female New World screwworm fly can deposit hundreds of eggs at a time in an animal’s or person’s wound. When those eggs hatch, the larvae do something most maggots do not: they burrow into healthy flesh and begin feeding. A single female may lay as many as 3,000 eggs during her lifetime.

For decades, the United States had largely escaped that threat. An ambitious eradication campaign eliminated New World screwworm from the country and eventually forced the parasite south to Panama. But after spreading north through Central America and Mexico, the fly has returned.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the first animal case of the current U.S. outbreak on June 3, 2026. Since then, detections have been reported in Texas and New Mexico. Across Central America and Mexico, the wider outbreak has already produced more than 209,400 reported animal cases and 2,440 human cases. No locally acquired human infestations have been reported in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the current risk to the U.S. public remains very low.

Scientists Race to Predict Screwworm’s Next Move

The return is reviving memories of a pest that once inflicted enormous losses on American agriculture. In the 1950s, New World screwworm cost U.S. livestock producers tens of millions of dollars annually, with losses reaching an estimated $50 million to $100 million a year in the hardest-hit areas of the Southwest.

Now, researchers and public health officials are trying to answer an urgent question before the fly spreads farther: Where is it most likely to appear next?

The threat of more, expanded measles outbreaks looms with start of school

With measles on the rise, school gets riskier

Sarah Boden

Map showing where the most measles cases have been reported in the United States in 2026. 
 Credit: CDC

School starts soon in north-central Colorado and pediatrician Shen Nagel, MD, is bracing for the possibility of a measles outbreak. 

In some ways this is par for the course. After major holidays and summer breaks, kids bring viruses back to their classrooms, and Nagel sees spikes of flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory illnesses, among his patients at Pediatrics West, a practice in suburban Denver.

Measles might soon be added to that list, though it wasn't a disease that pediatricians worried about much when Nagel started practicing 25 years ago. But post-COVID-19, dropping vaccination rates and conflicting federal messaging have created an opening for measles, widely considered the most contagious infectious disease known to humans. 

The good news is that most parents do get their kids the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is 97% effective after two doses. Experts who spoke to CIDRAP News for this story say that if a fully vaccinated child has a normal immune system, parents shouldn't worry about their child catching measles at school—especially if that school has a relatively high vaccination rate. Outbreaks are extremely unlikely in communities where overall MMR coverage is 95%.

“Travel with Natalie”

How three words from Jon Ossoff prompted an epic MAGA crash-out.

Tom Schaller

Donald Trump is easily triggered. That’s hardly news.

He’s temperamental and emotional in a way that supposedly disqualifies women from serving in powerful political or corporate roles. He lashes out at critics, opponents, the media, even his own staff. 

Were it not so frightening, it would be Veep-level hysterical that the man atop the world’s most powerful government and military lacks the impulse control of a high schooler.

But the questions now swirling around Trump’s personal assistant Natalie Harp — and especially the way Sen. Jon Ossoff unleashed a media firestorm this week by invoking her name — offer a long overdue lesson for Democrats on how to successfully bait Trump and his MAGA cohorts for maximum effect.

Harp strikes a chord

Let’s start by unpacking what Ossoff actually said last Sunday, which was not nearly as salacious as the ensuing MAGA meltdown would have you believe.

“While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks,” said Ossoff, of Trump. “See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

In just four sentences, Ossoff’s carefully crafted language shattered Trump’s curated image as a tough, tireless, troop-loving, America First warrior. The Georgia senator indicted Trump’s military misadventures and octogenarian stamina. He highlighted Trump’s sloth and greed. Ossoff depicted Trump as a detached, spoiled, soft, and vainglorious brat who could make Charli XCX blush.

But the kicker was these three words: “travel with Natalie.”

Ossoff’s statement would have delivered the same critique of Trump as an entitled, lazy lout had he omitted any mention of Harp. But he dropped her name — and only her first name, plus the first-person plural “their” for emphasis — to pair them and suggest a degree of interpersonal intimacy.

Ossoff’s gambit worked perfectly. Americans immediately wanted to learn who Natalie Harp is. 

Answer: a “platinum blonde geyser of positivity, there to buck him up when the going gets rough,” as the New York Times described the young aide who serves as Trump’s personal, 24/7 “security blanket.”

Media journalist Brian Stelter reported that searches for “who is Natalie Harp?” surged an astounding 5,000 percent, and Fox News’ Jesse Watters had to admit on air that his program had not mentioned Ossoff in six years but now his network was talking about the young senator nonstop.

The White House and conservative pundits lost their marbles, crying foul about attacks on the young staffer and veiled implications of her and Trump having an affair.

More amusing and hypocritical is how conservative apologists rushed to Harp’s defense, depicting her as a child immune to attention or attacks, and the victim of sexist “dehumanization.” (In fact, Harp is 35 — an adult more than twice the age of the Central Park 5 Black youths when Trump called for their execution before they were even tried for a crime that, it turned out, they never committed.)

There’s more: Harp is apparently so obsessed with Trump she’s happy to serve as his emotional support companion.

In 2023, Harp twice dodged presidential security protocols and wary Trump staffers to get close to Trump — once, by securing a maid’s room at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, and then by sneaking into an SUV trunk in Trump’s motorcade. She behaves like a rock band groupie, not a presidential adviser.

Harp has also skirted security clearance checks, a fact that suggests Trump is willing to sacrifice national security to maintain his emotional “security blanket.” That’s the term Ossoff used to describe Harp when, instead of apologizing or backtracking as weak-willed Democrats often do when facing backlash, he doubled down on his Trump attack during a Monday television interview with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki.

Ossoff shows the way

But enough about poor Natalie — back to Ossoff.

The senator and his speechwriters clearly understand that powerful words do more than assert or indict: They create imagery.

Ossoff painted a picture of Trump flying in comfortable, Middle Eastern-supplied luxury, oblivious to the problems around him, his every need and indulgence fulfilled like some oleaginous sultan. That image contrasts sharply with his MAGA cult supporters’ rally flags depicting Trump as a bandana-wearing Rambo delivering rough justice.

Depicting Trump as Ossoff skillfully did generated paroxysms from Republican politicians and conservative talking heads.

The right-wing media narrative is lousy with depictions of liberals and Democrats living better than — and therefore condescending to — their lessors: those humble, hardworking, heartland Americans. Ossoff delivered this same appraisal of Trump in fewer words than a median-length William Faulkner sentence. The senator’s quip was a Thomas Nast cartoon sketched with four sentences.

And therein lies the key lesson of this episode: Trump can be weakened by policy attacks, especially on the economy and his foolhardy war with Iran. But politicians in the new media age who want to gain traction — no less run for the White House — need to talk less in stentorian policy tones, like a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, and more like Jimmy Kimmel or Chelsea Handler.

The Georgia senator whom many believe to be a frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination understands that Democrats need more than “affordability” policy messages to win in 2026 and beyond. They need to depict Trump as feeble, selfish, and tone-deaf.

By inserting Harp into the national political discourse, Ossoff inverted the national narrative about which side is politically soft and entitled. The 2028 presidential election is more than two years away, but this week Ossoff put his party and the punditry on notice that he will be a skilled and formidable contender.

A flustered Trump dismissed Ossoff as “Pee Wee Herman.” Weak tea.

Trump’s snide derogatories have lost their oomph. More to the point, like all bullies his feckless response proves he can throw a punch but can’t take one.

And the senator’s invocation of “Natalie” — leaving out her last name to imply some special intimacy between Harp and Trump — was the shiny frame that drew millions of eyes to the Trumpian imagery Ossoff so deftly painted.

Troll bridge to 2028

Conservative media routinely dismiss Trump’s opponents by attaching the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” label to those who dare to criticize their MAGA champion. But nobody is more troll-able and deranged than the thin-skinned, fragile male egoist who currently occupies the Oval Office.

Narcissists like Donald Trump cannot abide criticism, and no critique is more effective with insecure narcissists than mockery. Making fun of Trump as a lazy, unpatriotic, and ineffective president cuts to his bone. Trump commits ample policy and political errors without provocation, but he is far more prone to blunder when under attack and on the defensive. And so are his allies.

Trump’s supporters warn that if Democrats recapture the House this fall, they will immediately impeach Trump for a third time. His self-dealing corruption, which makes Watergate look like a parking ticket, alone warrants his removal. But to paraphrase a time-worn maxim, if you try to kill a wannabe king you better succeed. Even if Democrats flip the Senate, they will not have enough Republican support to convict Trump on any House impeachment article.

The better way to impeach Trump is to rattle his confidence and destroy his heavily-curated image as a tough and competent patriot. This week, Jon Ossoff separated himself from the pack by providing liberals and Democrats a perfect formula for how to do so.

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Too much?

Early voting has begun. Do you need a ride?

Sunday Women's Equality Day event in Westerly

Trump Threatens to ‘Bomb the Shit’ Out of Oman as Strait of Hormuz Traffic Again Grinds to a Halt

Add another US ally to the list of formerly friendly nations Trump wants to bomb

Brad Reed for Common Dreams

Donald Trump threatened to bomb a US ally in the Middle East if it gets in the way of a perpetually elusive deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking with Fox News, Trump was asked about talks that Iran and Oman have been conducting about jointly overseeing operations of the strait, which has been shut down ever since Trump started an illegal war in late February.

Trump replied that “if Oman gets in the way” of reopening the strait, “we’ll bomb the shit out of them.”

It is unclear how effective Trump’s threats against Oman will be, as the US military still hasn’t forced Iran to reopen the strait even after burning through massive stocks of munitions—including what military sources have described to The Military Times as “virtually all” of its Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM).

Bug report: High risk of West Nile Virus

Will flu, COVID-19 vaccines be available this fall?

What road blocks will Bobby Jr. and Trump throw up?

Meghan Holohan

As fall nears and the respiratory illness season begins, many people are wondering if they’ll be able to receive updated flu and COVID-19 vaccines amid the turmoil created by the federal government about vaccines. Some worry that recent changes could mean they have to pay out of pocket for their annual doses. 

But experts say Americans don’t have to worry about vaccine coverage—this year, at least. 

“There will be available an updated influenza vaccine and an updated COVID vaccine. So far, that’s pretty normal,” William Schaffner, MD, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Health and spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), told CIDRAP News. “Insurers, that is, the medical insurance industry, have said that they would cover those vaccines.” 

While Actively Trying to Deny Millions This Right, Trump Again Votes by Mail

Is it possible Trump votes by may BECAUSE it is "inherently corrupt?"

Stephen Prager for Common Dreams

Donald Trump has pushed to strip millions of Americans of the right to vote by mail. But he doesn’t seem to think these restrictions should apply to him.

The White House confirmed to The New York Times that the president voted by mail ahead of Florida’s Republican primary on Tuesday, marking at least the third time he has done so since becoming president. He also voted by mail in a state legislative special election earlier this year and in the 2020 Republican primary.

Though Trump has repeatedly characterized mail-in voting itself as a form of “cheating” and pushed to abolish it for most Americans under his proposed SAVE America Act, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said it was a “non-story” that he chose to participate in the practice himself.

“The SAVE America Act has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel— but universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it’s highly susceptible to fraud,” she said. “As everyone knows, the president is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections, but he obviously primarily lives at the White House in Washington, DC.”

Florida notably does not distinguish between absentee and other forms of mail-in voting, allowing residents to cast votes without an excuse—so the system Trump used to vote by mail is the same one he wants to make illegal.

Failing to pass his SAVE America Act through Congress, Trump has attempted to restrict mail-in voting via executive order.

Inside Trump’s Failed Hunt for Noncitizen Voters

You want to find voter fraud? You're looking in the wrong place

By Peter Elkind, Jen Fifield, Doug Bock Clark, Ken B. Morales and Andy Mannix for ProPublica

Looking for voter fraud? Here are filings by Vic Mellor, Republican, on June 16 with the Justice Department as an agent of the Cuban government. Mellor wants to win the Sept. 9 Republican primary here in Rhode Island so he can run against Rep. Seth Magaziner (D) for the Second Congressional District seat.
Aside from the huge question of what the hell is Mellor doing representing the Cuban government, note that on his filing he lists his home address as Florida. Mellor filed his candidacy notice on November 1 with the Federal Election Commission, giving a Rhode Island address. That is contradicted by this filing made by him more than six months later. One of these two failings was false.

It was late March when Joe Teirab, the second-in-command at Minnesota’s U.S. attorney’s office, received an urgent email from Washington.

The federal government was scrambling to find criminal cases to back up President Donald Trump’s claims that illegal voting by noncitizens was tipping the scales in American elections. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a massive federal law enforcement agency, had been dispatched to work leads across the country, including hundreds in Minnesota.

Teirab was already under pressure. In an earlier missive, Nick Davis, a high-ranking Justice Department appointee helping to lead the election fraud crusade, had reminded him the cases were so high priority that Teirab and his staff couldn’t decline to move forward on them without express approval from agency higher-ups. On March 24, Davis demanded a status report — within hours.

Teirab, a former Marine and a Harvard Law graduate who’d run unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican, responded with a blunt reality check.

“Bottom line up front,” he replied in an email reviewed by ProPublica. After subpoenaing records on about 130 people, only one had been referred for prosecution, his staff had told him. Agents had deluged local election offices with calls and demands for voting histories, demonstrating “a complete lack of understanding” of illegal voting investigations.

“The HSI task force has been disjointed and disorganized,” Teirab wrote. The entire process, he said, had been “dysfunctional.”

Ken Paxton wants to find voter fraud.
Did he look here...

Since Trump regained the White House, his administration has launched a series of unprecedented initiatives to find and prosecute voting by noncitizens, which he’s long claimed, without evidence, is rampant.

He’s stepped up this push in recent weeks, saying in a nationally televised speech that the American election system was “so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it.” To support that assertion, the Department of Homeland Security, HSI’s parent agency, released documents asserting it had found more than 250,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in just four states, all led by Democrats. The documents included no explanation of how that number was calculated.

It’s well known the administration has tasked HSI — a force established to combat drug cartels, terrorism and other cross-border criminal enterprises — with leading the campaign to find election fraud cases in the United States.

Did he look in the mirror?

But an investigation by ProPublica reveals for the first time how the Trump administration came to harness HSI’s personnel, technology and sweeping legal authority in service of its election agenda — and how meager the results have been, despite the prodigious resources sunk into the effort.

According to interviews and internal emails reviewed by ProPublica, career staffers at the Justice Department warned that transferring voter rolls to HSI to enable it to search for noncitizen voters could violate federal privacy laws. Similarly, longtime HSI insiders cautioned that using the agency’s databases and tools to search these lists would yield mismatches and wildly inflated results.

The administration plowed forward anyway.