Master negotiator

This is how Trump honors women athletes

Start small: How to make your garden grow this spring

URI Cooperative Extension gardeners offer green suggestions and advice

Kristen Curry 

URI Cooperative Extension gardeners can offer novice growers helpful suggestions and advice. (URI Photo / K. Curry)

For novice gardeners looking to break ground this spring, University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension gardeners say there’s always a good reason to get outside and grow.

Shanelle Haile’s career brought her around the world, but her efforts in her own backyard gave her a place to experiment with social issues at a condensed size. Haile spent six years working in Washington, D.C., and abroad as a development officer and advisor with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Tomatoes are an easy plant for new growers and will be highlighted at this year’s Cooperative Extension Spring Plant Sale on May 9 at URI. (Photo provided Cooperative Extension)

RIDOH reports a 2nd measles case

"Measles is almost entirely preventable through vaccination"

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is advising the public that a confirmed case of measles has been identified in Rhode Island. This is the second case of measles identified in Rhode Island in 2026. However, this case is not associated with the measles case that was identified in Rhode Island on April 18.

This individual is a female in her 20s who had traveled from outside the country to visit family in Rhode Island. This person was treated at Brown University Health Urgent Care in Middletown on April 24 and tested positive for measles at the Rhode Island State Health Laboratories. This person did not require hospitalization.

Measles is almost entirely preventable through vaccination. Approximately 97% of Rhode Island kindergarteners have completed the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine series, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella. MMR vaccine is safe and effective.

New breakthrough treatment for pancreatic cancer

What You Need to Know

By Erin Post 

A new therapy that targets RAS mutations present in more than 90% of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma — the most common type of pancreatic cancer — approximately doubles overall survival according to clinical trial results announced today.

Revolution Medicines shared Phase III clinical trial results for a pill called daraxonrasib in patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer. For decades, RAS was considered “undruggable,” meaning that there was no effective way to target RAS. These results greatly expand the potential benefit of targeted therapies for patients with pancreatic cancer.

“We are standing at the threshold of groundbreaking treatments for patients with pancreatic cancer,” said PanCAN Chief Scientific and Medical Officer Anna Berkenblit, M.D., MMSc. “Today’s announcement represents a real opportunity to bring new hope for people facing this disease: hope for more time with family, hope for better quality of life and hope that ongoing and future research may ultimately lead to a cure.”

Next, Revolution Medicines will need to take their data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If the FDA grants approval for daraxonrasib, it will be made available as a treatment for patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma who have been previously treated.

Legislators’ Annoyance at Underfunded Green Bonds Grows

It takes real money

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

Rockville is probably a farther drive than most Rhode Islanders prefer to make, but the ones who visit the area in Hopkinton are treated to some of the most beautiful forestland in the state.

Having an unbroken block of forest along the state’s western border has long been the conservation goal for environmental officials and environmental groups. 

The Department of Environmental Management, with The Nature Conservancy of Rhode Island, recently announced the state bought nearly 70 acres of forestland on the Princess Pine Estate in Hopkinton to be incorporated into the Rockville Wildlife Management Area.

The North Road purchase borders DEM, Nature Conservancy and Audubon Society lands, in a 2,140-acre block of preserved open and recreational space. It will also boost public access for boating and fishing along Wincheck Pond.

Bobby Junior and Donald Trump Junior went out and bought a bunch of sushi

Tomaquag Museum’s New Exhibition

"Revolution to Reclamation, Freedom through Indigenous Sovereignty"

Tomaquag Museum's new exhibit, "Revolution to Reclamation, Freedom through Indigenous Sovereignty" opened on April 22nd to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States. 

While the American Revolution serves as a historical focal point, the exhibit moves beyond commemoration to connect the past with the present through an exploration of land, freedom, responsibility, and enduring Indigenous presence.

This exhibition represents the first complete transformation of the museum's gallery space since 1996. Executive Director Lorén Spears encourages past visitors to return, noting that many will scarcely recognize the reimagined space. 

Designers at SmokeSygnals have reshaped the gallery through innovative exhibit fabrication and immersive design. At its center is a striking art installation of life-sized figures set against a watercolor forest, creating a visual anchor while emphasizing the enduring connection between Indigenous peoples and the land. 

As Spears explains, "We are the land, the land is us. What we do to the land, we do to ourselves. This is ancient wisdom passed down through our ancestors".

Pressure mounts on Citizens Bank over its funding of ICE contractors

Brown union to pull $500K from Citizens Bank over ICE ties. 

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current

The union representing working graduate and undergraduate students at Brown University will withdraw nearly half a million dollars from Rhode Island’s largest bank, aiming to pressure it to cut ties with private prison companies that detain immigrants on behalf of the Trump administration.

A group of Boston-area churches plans to pull about $1 million if leaders at Citizens Bank do not meet with them within a week to discuss similar demands to no longer financially support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.

“If you do happen to know a bank that is not involved in these sorts of shady business dealings, we’d love some recommendations,” Michael Ziegler, president of AFT-RIFT Local 6516, told 300 demonstrators gathered outside Citizens’ Providence headquarters Thursday morning.

The announcements came before and after the bank’s annual shareholder meeting. As bank officials and stockowners headed inside to the meeting, protesters urged them to push the company to cut financial ties with CoreCivic and the GEO Group — two of ICE’s biggest contractors.

“We’re all here today for the same reason: to protest the reign of terror and abuse being caused by ICE in Rhode Island and across the country,” Julie Craven, one of the organizers for the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, told protestors and press gathered outside the bank. “Citizens Bank has been the financial engine that made it all possible.” 

Peter Lucht, a spokesperson for Citizen’s Bank, declined to comment on Thursday’s protest and account-holder demands. 

Researchers Have Found a Dietary Compound That Increases Longevity

Natural compound, good for you, in popular fruits and veggies

By University of Seville

A little-known nutrient found in everyday fruits and vegetables may be doing far more in the body than scientists once believed.

Researchers from the University of Seville and the University of Kent report that phytoene, a colorless carotenoid present in foods like tomatoes, carrots, oranges, and peppers, can extend lifespan and protect against key processes linked to Alzheimer’s disease, at least in a widely used laboratory model.

Their experiments in the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans showed lifespan increases of 10 to 18.6 percent, along with a 30 to 40 percent reduction in the toxic effects caused by amyloid-β42, the protein associated with brain plaque formation in Alzheimer’s.

Rethinking an Overlooked Compound

Phytoene has long been overlooked. Unlike better-known carotenoids such as beta-carotene or lycopene, it does not give foods their bright colors and has often been treated as an inactive precursor rather than a functional compound.

The research, part of Ángeles Morón Ortiz’s doctoral work, tested both purified phytoene and extracts derived from microalgae, specifically Chlorella sorokiniana and Dunaliella bardawil. These extracts, which contained high levels of phytoene, performed just as well as the pure compound. Importantly, the treatments did not interfere with the worms’ growth or food supply, suggesting the benefits were not due to reduced calorie intake or stress.

Further experiments revealed how phytoene may be working. The compound improved resistance to oxidative stress, a process driven by unstable molecules that damage cells and contribute to aging and diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration. At certain doses, survival under oxidative stress increased by as much as 53 percent. This aligns with what scientists already know about carotenoids, which can neutralize harmful molecules or activate the body’s own defense systems.

The Alzheimer’s-related findings are also significant. In the worm model, amyloid-β42 buildup leads to progressive paralysis. Animals given phytoene showed a clear delay in this effect, indicating protection against protein aggregation, one of the hallmarks of the disease.

House approves Rep. Tanzi bill to disclose AI use in health care visits

Require your health care provider to prove "I am not a robot" 

The House voted to approve legislation (2026-H 7538) from Rep. Teresa A. Tanzi to require health care providers and facilities to notify patients if they use artificial intelligence tools to document visits.

“AI scribes and similar tools have the potential to decrease the documentation burden for medical providers and improve the quality of visits for patients,” said Representative Tanzi (D-Dist. 34, South Kingstown, Narragansett). 

“But as with any rapidly expanding new technology, particularly in a sensitive field like health care, it is important to protect patients and transparently disclose when AI scribes are being used. I’d like to thank my colleagues for helping to ensure that will happen by advancing this bill one step closer to becoming law.”

Measles, misinformation, and what's actually in the MMR vaccine

Bobby's lies cost lives

Jake Scott, MD

More than 4,000 Americans have contracted measles since January 2025. Two children and one adult have died. Sixteen states have fallen below the vaccination threshold required to prevent sustained transmission. The United States is at risk of losing its measles elimination status, which it achieved in 2000.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a message for the communities at the center of these outbreaks: the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine contains "millions of particles that were created from aborted fetal tissue, millions of DNA fragments." It does not.

He is the nation's chief public health officer. He is making this claim during the worst measles outbreak in more than three decades. He is making it about the one vaccine that could stop that outbreak. And he is directing it at the religious communities—Mennonite, Orthodox, conservative Catholic—in which vaccination rates are lowest and where the current cases are concentrated.

Let’s explore what the manufacturing, regulatory, and scientific records actually show.

Where the vaccine comes from

Viruses can replicate only inside living cells. To make the rubella component of the MMR vaccine, manufacturers grow the live weakened virus in a human cell strain called WI-38. 

In 1962, a researcher named Leonard Hayflick isolated cells from lung tissue obtained from a single elective abortion performed in Sweden. Those cells were placed in laboratory cell cultures—controlled environments where cells are grown outside the body—where they have been propagating ever since. The cell strain used in Merck's MMR-II traces its lineage to that original culture. 

The chickenpox and hepatitis A vaccines use a similar strain, MRC-5, established in 1966 by J.P. Jacobs from lung cells obtained from an elective abortion performed in the United Kingdom.

Both of these facts come directly from the product pages of the American Type Culture Collection, the national repository that catalogs and sells biological materials to researchers—the same database cited by those making these claims.

These cell strains are not immortal. They replicate for roughly 50 passages, then reach the end of their replicative lifespan. Manufacturers maintain frozen seed stocks that can be thawed to start fresh cultures as needed. This finite nature is a safety feature: It distinguishes these strains from continuous cell lines, which replicate indefinitely and carry a theoretical cancer risk.

The cells used today are the laboratory descendants of those original strains, not material from any abortion. The original cells have not existed for sixty years. No new abortions are performed to manufacture these vaccines.

Once the virus finishes growing in these cell cultures, it is extracted and purified. What ends up in the final vaccine is the weakened virus, stabilizing ingredients, and trace amounts of residual protein and DNA left over from the production process. There are no intact human cells in the vaccine.

Clown

Republican platform for the midterm elections

Former Charlestown road safety activist Robin Foote, age 76, dies

Campaigned for accountability for chronic traffic violators

By Will Collette

Robin Foote, Providence Journal photo by Kathy Bourchers

The Jamestown Press reported former Quonnie resident and traffic safety activist Robin Foote died on March 27 due to complications following surgery.

Mr. Foote became a public figure unwillingly, spurred by the May 2010 unlawful death of his son Colin at the intersection of Route 1 and West Beach Road. He was killed by Laura Reale, a habitual dangerous driver, when she ran the red light and broadsided Colin, killing him on the spot.

Robin and his wife Maryann worked closely with then state Rep. Donna Walsh to win the 2011 passage of “Colin’s Law” that cracked down on habitual offenders like Reale.

Reale gamed the system at the time to avoid serious consequences for her repeated arrests for dangerous driving. Reale is also the niece of Charlestown’s longtime state Senator Dennis Algiere. He denied using his substantial political influence to prevent Reale from losing her license.

The Foote family also became major advocates for installing red-light cameras on Route 1, including the one that now covered the intersection where their son Colin died. They overcame the vehement resistance to the cameras from the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) followers. I believe Robin and Maryann helped sway public opinion enough to force the CCA-controlled Town Council to greenlight the cameras.

These issues may figure in this year’s Democratic primary on Wednesday, September 9. That primary will feature a challenge to our hard-working state Rep. Tina Spears by a MAGA DINO Leah Boisclair. Tina holds the House District 36 seat that was once held by Donna Walsh.

Boisclair is supported by the League of Rhode Island Businesses (LORIB), run by Republican MAGA and gun wingnut David Levesque. Boisclair is a lawyer whose practice is focused on defending clients charged with some of the most heinous crimes (e.g. sex crimes against children) but also including this self-promo on her website:

 

If Robin was still alive, I think I know where he would stand.