Copar Quarry invades Charlestown

Notorious Connecticut company acquires at least one, perhaps two, new sites WITHIN Charlestown

"They're HEREEEEEE!"

By Will Collette

The notorious Connecticut-based Copar Quarry that has plagued its neighbors in Bradford and Charlestown has acquired at least one new quarry site within Charlestown’s town limits. That site is the 47 acre former Morrone Quarry off Route 91 (Alton-Carolina Road) near the Richmond town line.

An official transfer of ownership has not yet been filed with the town, but the employees at the Morrone quarry are now Copar employees and Copar’s fleet of Connecticut-tagged purple trucks is now moving material off that site.

I have also requested a copy of Copar’s business registration and license to operate in Charlestown, but apparently Copar has not filed with the town as required under Charlestown’s Code of Ordinances §147-2 and §147-7.

I did find a record of the transfer of ownership registered with the US Mine Safety and Health Administration. It shows the transfer from Morrone to Copar taking place on March 5.

Eating for health

Pushing for green jobs

Senate votes to strengthen tie between renewable energy, economic development

STATE HOUSE – The Senate passed a bill last week which would shift more emphasis to integrating renewable energy into the state’s economic development strategy. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, would make changes to the Rhode Island Energy Efficiency and Resources Management Council in order to support forward movement in the realm of green jobs and renewable resources.

“We’re seeing more of a focus on green energy, and the passage of this bill really highlights the need for a more coordinated approach to how the state will handle that burgeoning market,” Senator Sosnowski (D-Dist. 37, South Kingstown, New Shoreham) said. “This legislation is like a guiding hand, strengthening what we have in place and slightly refocusing our efforts. I would ask my colleagues in the House to consider this defined approach in our overall strategy for a ‘green’ Rhode Island.”

Flushing Nitrates from ground water takes a long time

Ground Water Flow Rate

From: Andy Soos, ENN

Ground water flow rates can be a slow process. USGS hydrologic researchers, for example, have found that the movement of nitrate through groundwater to streams can take decades to occur.

This long lag time means that changes in the use of nitrogen-based fertilizer (the typical source of nitrate) — whether the change is initiation, adjustment, or cessation — may take decades to be fully observed in their effect on streams, according to a recent study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Uncovering hidden agendas in proposals to change voting practices

On the master lever, I am a hypocrite

By Samuel G. Howard in Rhode Island’s Future

In an earlier column, I argued that abolition of the single party option (SPO, better known as the so-called “master lever”) should fail, even though it’s good policy to abolish it. In it, I argue the opposite for what I’d argued about five months before: that regardless of the benefit abolition would accrue for proponents, it should be eliminated as a matter of good policy, and even as a matter of good politics for the establishment.

As Ken Block, the lead advocate for the abolition points out, that makes me a hypocrite. Block also points that I’m essentially advocating to keep voter confusion for the elderly, less educated and black until such a time as a larger reform can be passed so a better system can be created. Basically, even though we know the car of elections has a whole host of issues, I’m suggesting we don’t fix this one part now.

I can’t deny that this makes me hypocritical. The earlier post is right and the second post is wrong. But that doesn’t comfort me much.

Tanzi and Walsh want to eliminate ALL cesspools

“It’s time to finish the job”

News release from Reps. Teresa Tanzi and Donna Walsh

Working in close collaboration with the RI Department of Environmental Management, Rep. Teresa Tanzi has sponsored, and Rep. Donna Walsh has co-sponsored, new legislation, H-5732, to completely eliminate the use of old-fashioned cesspools in Rhode Island.

By the end of 2013, all households located near coastal waters and public drinking water supplies must replace cesspools either with state approached on-site wastewater treatment systems or hook-ups to sewer systems. But that still leaves thousands of cesspools still in use across the state and an on-going threat to the environment and public health.

“It’s time to finish the job,” said Reps. Walsh and Tanzi in a joint statement. 

Did somebody say scandal?

Wake-Up Call

By Mike Luckowich

Click here to get the latest on Washington scandals.

Eating for health

Fish poaching may be major cause of counterfeit fish

Illegal Fishing Linked to Seafood Fraud in New Report

From: Editor, Oceana, More from this Affiliate in ENN.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: read my earlier article by clicking here.

Today, as the nation's top leaders in fishery management come together at the 2013 Managing Our Nation's Fisheries Conference in Washington, D.C. to discuss science and sustainability, Oceana released a new report finding that illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing leads to seafood fraud and threatens fishing economies, seafood consumers and vulnerable marine species on a global scale. 

Hot health news

Chili Pepper is Good for You

From: Andy Soos, ENN

The chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Chili peppers originated in the Americas. Chili pepper has spread across the world and is used in both food and medicine.

New research has revealed that Solanaceae—a flowering plant family with some species producing foods that are edible sources of nicotine—may provide a protective effect against Parkinson's disease.

The study appears in the Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society. It suggests that eating foods that contain even a small amount of nicotine, such as peppers and tomatoes, may reduce risk of developing Parkinson's.

Gist's gotta go

Dump Deborah Gist

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island's Future

Deborah Gist is nothing if not polarizing.

Nearly 90 percent of local teachers want a new leader. But the Chamber of Commerce supports her. She backed the firing of Central Falls teachers, but she has the backing of the East Greenwich School Committee. Tom Sgouros and the Providence Student Union have twisted her in knots over high stakes testing; Travis Rowley and John DePetro think she deserves a raise.

This week I’ve been writing a lot about how there are two very different Rhode Islands: the suburbs and the cities. Deborah Gist’s management of public education has unequivocally exacerbated this divide. And more to the point, education has gotten worse not better under her leadership. Even by her own preferred metrics, student performance has decreased since she’s been in charge.

SCOOP: Charlestown hires new Special Counsel to represent Town Council in Whalerock controversy

Will probably ask for a postponement from the Zoning Board to prepare case

"When ya got trouble, get a lawyer. Then ya got more trouble but at least 
ya got a lawyer." Chico Marx to Groucho in "At the Circus"

By Will Collette

Rumors have been roiling around town that anti-Whalerock leader Ron Areglado attended last Monday’s Town Council Executive Session to ask the Council to bail out his group by hiring their attorney. 

However, late Thursday, Charlestown hired a different lawyer, John O. Mancini of the Michael A. Kelly Law Group, to serve as the Town Council's Special Counsel in the fight against the proposed Whalerock industrial wind project.

When the Town Council emerged from its secret Executive Session last Monday, they announced their decision to spend $50,000 of town taxpayer funds to hire a Special Counsel plus experts to represent the Town Council against developer Larry LeBlanc's unpopular Whalerock proposal. 

LeBlanc goes before the Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) on Tuesday, May 21 to request a Special Use Permit that would allow him to proceed with the construction of the wind turbines, presuming he actually has the financing to build the project.

Test your intelligence

From Fake Science, where all of Charlestown gets its information:

Promising research on Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease Vaccine Shows Promise in Clinical Trial

From ScienceDaily.com

Telltale rash associated with Lyme Disease

Editor's note: Lyme disease is all too common in Charlestown given our high tick population. 

The results of a phase 1/2 clinical trial in Europe of an investigational Lyme disease vaccine co-developed by researchers at Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and at Baxter International Inc., a U.S. based healthcare company, revealed it to be promising and well tolerated, according to a research paper published online in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The vaccine was shown to produce substantial antibodies against all targeted species of Borrelia, the causative agent of Lyme disease in Europe and the United States. Baxter International conducted the clinical trial of the vaccine.

Since the early 1990s, Benjamin Luft, MD, the Edmund D. Pellegrino Professor of Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and the late John Dunn, Ph.D., a biologist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, spearheaded the initial development of the original vaccine antigen concept, and together with researchers at Baxter International helped bioengineer the formulation used in the clinical trial.

JPMorgan Chase in the Sewer

Is former financial superstar Dimon in trouble?

By Phil Mattera in Dirt Diggers Digest

The business news has been full of speculation on whether JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon will go on serving as both CEO and chairman of the big bank, in light of a shareholder campaign to strip him of the latter post. The effort to bring Dimon down a notch—and to oust three members of the board—is hardly the work of a “lynch mob,” as Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of Yale suggested in a New York Times op-ed.

Weekend allergy forecast

From Pollen.com

Enviro-bills at the State House

Bills Look to Stimulate Renewable Energy

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News staff

PROVIDENCE — Two bills aimed at boosting the residential renewable energy business were heard recently in House and Senate meetings.

On May 15, the Senate Finance Committee discussed Sen. Joshua Miller’s, D-Cranston, bill to restore the 25 percent state credit for small-scale solar, geothermal and wind installations. The credit covers 25 percent for a photovoltaic system costing $15,000 or less, a solar hot water system $7,000 or less, a wind system $15,000 or less and a geothermal system $7,000 or less. Projects exceeding the cost threshold qualify for the credit up to the cap. There also are income restrictions.

NOTE: Under Charlestown's anti-wind power ordinance, it is nearly impossible for homeowners to meet the criteria, regardless of the size of the wind generator. Click here.

Who ARE those nuts?

The ones with the “Impeach Obama” signs.

By Will Collette

You may have seen them in Charlestown when they were camped out for a couple of days near the Post Office. I saw them a few days ago in Westerly on Route One. There’s usually a pair of them working from a folding card table with a sign that reads “Impeach Obama” and a poster of Obama with a Hitler mustache.

Several people asked me who the hell they are and I didn’t know. Until now. They are part of a new campaign by one of America’s craziest conspiracy buffs, Lyndon LaRouche.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus 

From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

Sometimes the sky above can become quite a show. In early September of 2010, for example, the Moon and Venus converged, creating quite a sight by itself for sky enthusiasts around the globe.  

From some locations, though, the sky was even more picturesque. In the image below taken in Spain, a crescent Moon and the planet Venus, on the far right, were captured during sunset posing against a deep blue sky.
  

In the foreground, dark storm clouds loom across the image bottom, while a white anvil cloud shape appears above. Black specks dot the frame, caused by a flock of birds taking flight.

Very soon after this picture was taken, however, the birds passed by, the storm ended, and Venus and the Moon set.  

Bright Venus again becomes visible just after sunset this 2013 May and will appear near Jupiter toward the end of the month.

Cost of Medical Procedures Vary Between South County, State

The cost of colonoscopies, MRIs, CT scans and mammograms can shift a lot from county to county.

By Patrick Luce in the Narragansett-South Kingstown Patch  

It costs about $1,000 more to get a colonoscopy at South County Hospital than it does in Providence, but MRIs, CT scans and mammograms are slightly cheaper in your backyard than at the average hospital in providence and throughout Rhode Island.

That's according to data from New Choice Health, a private company that encourages people to become smarter healthcare consumers.

New Choice estimates colonoscopies cost about $3,500 in Washington County, compared to just $2,500 in Providence County, and $2,700 on average across Rhode Island. But a CT scan is more than $200 cheaper at South County than the state average and an MRI is about $100 cheaper. A mammogram is similar in price across the state.

EDITOR'S NOTE: using the same database, I checked the prices charged by Westerly Hospital and its soon-to-be new owner Lawrence & Memorial for a couple of the same procedures. Westerly charges an average of $4,300 for a colonoscopy and L&M charges $4,700. Westerly charges $400 for a mammogram and L&M charges $750. 

OMGPD

Adventures on the Road

By Patrick Luce  Narragansett-South Kingstown Patch

Drunken Bumper Cars

A Newport woman was arrested around 6 p.m. Wednesday after she allegedly hit two cars and fled the scene. The woman, 48, was charged with driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license, leaving the scene of an accident of an attended vehicle and for an open container. No injuries were reported.

Police said she registered a .278  and .277 on Breathalyzer tests, which is more than three times the legal limit.

Raimondo takes her campaign against pensions to California

Raimondo pushes pension cuts to Bay Area CEO’s

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future

The Providence Journal reports that Gina Raimondo was in San Francisco recently selling her pension cutting playbook to a group of San Francisco business leaders.

The Bay Area Council, which bills itself on its website as a “a business-sponsored, public policy advocacy organization for the nine-county Bay Area. The Council proactively advocates for a strong economy, a vital business environment” and on its YouTube channel as a “CEO-led public policy and advocacy group working to improve the business climate and promote economic growth in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley Bay Area and California.”

What's happening at Ocean Pharmacy?

We search the Tubes of the Interwebs to bring you hot info!

Soon to have a new sign? Or something else?

by Tom Ferrio

I was kickin' back with Facebook yesterday, checking on my peeps, when up pops the following: "Ocean Pharmacy in Charlestown is turning into CVS in a few weeks". 

Whoa!

Despite the lighthearted introduction, this is not a joke. Read on for more details.

Election 2014 launched with big campaign donation from Gentz

New York money manager also adds to the CCA Party’s coffers.

By Will Collette

Even though the next election is more than a year and a half away, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance is already starting its major fund-raising.

In the 2012 election cycle, more than 60% of the CCA Party’s funding came from out-of-state donors who were misleadingly listed on the CCA’s campaign finance reports as Charlestown residents. The CCA Party used the addresses of their "summer cottages" as their home addresses.

Most of the balance of the CCA Party budget came from major donations from its well-heeled supporters, most of whom live south of Route One. I documented this in detail in “Who Owns the CCA?”

The new quarterly campaign finance reports have been filed and they show this pattern is continuing.

The CCA Party report, filed on April 13, shows the CCA has a cash balance of $4,439.70. The CCA collected $1,000 from Tom and Mary Lou Gentz. Gentz, a former health insurance executive, is also Town Council president and a steering committee member for the CCA Party. The Gentzs own two residences off West Beach Road assessed at a combined total of $1,249,200.

It's a mystery