Friday, October 16, 2026
Uh, oh! Fox polls shows government corruption is #1 voter concern
Meanwhile, Trump is concerned about CANADA (!) interfering with the election.
And this was inevitable...
Why fall yard care could start with doing less – but not nothing
Rites, and wrongs, of fall
Manjot Kaur Sidhu, University of Maine
It is a tidy habit rooted in aesthetics, but ecologically, clearing away fallen leaves strips the very foundation of local ecosystems. Far from dead debris requiring disposal, this fallen foliage forms a dynamic layer and a biological interface that drives nutrient cycling and is essential for soil health and the environment, including biodiversity.
As a researcher of plant growth in yards and gardens, I would recommend leaving leaves on the ground. There, they can provide essential winter habitat for native pollinators – even in places that don’t have freezing temperatures. And they act as a nutrient-dense, natural mulch for the soil.
Here is the science behind why the first step of fall yard care could simply be doing less – along with practical ways to keep your yard looking neat while nourishing the ecosystem underneath.
A winter sanctuary for native pollinators
To understand why leaf litter matters, it helps to look closely at what happens beneath the surface as temperatures drop. While honeybees pass the winter in sheltered hives, the vast majority of North America’s native pollinators do not.
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| Leaves on the ground are part of the natural cycle of nutrients. Manjot Sidhu, CC BY-SA |
Up to 70% of native bee species, including many insects’ cocoons and larvae, nest in the ground. Fertilized queen bumblebees burrow just a few inches into the soil or hide under dense leaf mulch to survive the freezing months ahead, to lay eggs in the following spring.
Raking, bagging and blowing leaves away destroys this crucial winter nursery.
Many other insects depend on the shelter of fallen foliage:
Scientist Reveals 7 of the Strangest Things Coffee Does to Your Body
What do you get from coffee?
By Emma Beckett, Australian Catholic University
Coffee is best known, and perhaps most valued, for its
caffeine and its ability to make us feel more awake and alert.
But coffee is much more than caffeine dissolved in hot
water.
Coffee is a chemically complicated plant extract containing hundreds of bioactive
compounds. These can have all kinds of weird and wonderful effects in your
body, even when you’re drinking decaf.
Here are seven of the strangest.
1. Coffee can make you poo
One study shows about three in ten people say they
get the urge to poo shortly after drinking coffee.
This happens quickly, and with both regular and decaf. So
it’s down to more than just the caffeine. But it’s not clear exactly which coffee
compounds cause this.
Your colon can also be more active in the morning,
and this is when most people drink their first coffee.
What you add to your coffee can also affect your bowels. The
lactose in milk
or some sugar-free sweeteners
can also get the bowels moving, particularly if you consume a lot.
2. Coffee can affect your reflux, eyes and ears
Coffee can worsen reflux symptoms
for some people. Reflux, when your stomach acid flows back up into your food
pipe, isn’t always just felt as heartburn. It can contribute to coughing,
wheezing, and other respiratory symptoms when reflux affects the throat and
airways.
Caffeine can temporarily increase pressure inside the eye in
some people with glaucoma
or ocular hypertension, where pressure in the eye can already be high.
Controlling this pressure is an important part of protecting the major nerve of
the eye from damage. So some people with these conditions might be advised to
limit their coffee and caffeine intake.
There’s also an ear condition where the tube connecting the
middle ear to the back of the nose stays abnormally open, which can make you
hear your own voice, or your breathing, unusually loudly. People with this
condition, known as patulous Eustachian tube dysfunction, are sometimes
advised to drink fewer caffeinated drinks and stay well hydrated, because
dehydration can worsen symptoms. However, there is little direct evidence that
coffee itself causes the condition.
Caffeine’s relationship with migraine is complicated: caffeine can help
relieve a migraine, but too much, or suddenly having less than usual, can trigger one in some people.
Learn about research on medications for dementia and supplements for healthy brain aging at Oct. 22 URI forum
Can dementia be treated or prevented?
The event, which is free and open to the URI community and
the public, is part of the URI Retired Faculty Association’s speaker series. It
is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and refreshments will be provided by
Belmont Market.
The guest speakers will include John Robinson, Thomas M. Ryan professor of neuroscience, co-executive director of the URI George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, professor of psychology, and professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences; and Joseph Schrader, assistant professor at the URI George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, assistant professor of pharmacy practice and clinical research.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Trump’s and Hegseth’s barbaric decision to live-stream an execution
Public Sadism
Cruel enough that the United States is going to put someone
to death by firing squad, but only sadists would want it broadcast livestream.
The execution will be the first by firing squad carried out
by the U.S. military
since 1945, when army private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during
the second world war. The last US military execution of any kind took place in
1961, when John Bennett was hanged.
What will be the likely effect on those who will see this?
Will they be revolted? Excited? Will the live-streaming of the execution by
firing squad deter people from committing mass murder — or will it encourage
them? Or just degrade our sense of being human?
Yet that’s what Pete (“High Testosterone”) Hegseth is
planning. He confirmed it yesterday when speaking to the conservative
broadcaster Real America’s Voice, saying said people should be able to watch
“because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these
types of things.”
Nidal Hasan committed a terrible crime. The former U.S. Army
Major and psychiatrist opened fire with a handgun at a medical facility at Fort
Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009 as soldiers waited for medical checks before
deployment, killing 13 and wounded 32 others. Twelve of those killed and 30 of
the wounded were soldiers. Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in
2013 after being convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of
attempted premeditated murder.
But live-streaming it?
The hanging of Rainey Bethea in Kentucky in 1936 is regarded
as the country’s last public execution. It was witnessed by thousands.
A live-streamed execution could be watched by billions.
No surprise. The current president of the United States is
all about spectacle; his secretary of defense (war) is brimming with
performative bravado. Punishment isn’t enough. The punishment must be cruel —
and must be seen far and wide.
Asked today whether he had personally authorized or approved
the live-streaming of Hasan’s execution, Trump responded,
“Did I approve? Absolutely.”
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| Sec. of Defense (War?) Pete Hegseth who thought up the idea |
What about its effect on those who are enemies of the U.S.?
As Ned Price, a former deputy to the U.S. representative to the United Nations,
posted on X:
“You can take it from those of us who’ve spent years working on terrorism: the
surest way to spawn more radicalized zealots is to glorify violence, embrace a
cult of death, and create a martyr for the cause.
Besides, haven’t we witnessed enough senseless and degrading
cruelty in the pursuit of the execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee?
Public executions have largely disappeared around the world
because they’re so barbaric. Amnesty International recorded 17 in 2025,
including 11 in Iran and six in Taliban-run Afghanistan.
Historian Esther Cohen writes
that during the later Middle Ages, governments often displayed their power in
visual, theatrical forms: solemn royal or urban processions, festivals, and,
most commonly, public executions of criminals. That was because other means of
communication available to governments with their subjects were extremely
limited — printing didn’t as yet exist, and preaching was the church’s
prerogative.
Medieval public executions were intricate rituals displaying
atonement, punishment and, most of all, the authority of the government to
administer justice. They also inflicted considerable pain and suffering upon
the condemned, so much so that one historian has termed them “spectacles of
suffering.” The spectacles were meant to be visual representations of authority
— displaying the full power of the law to all observers.
Making the criminal suffer achieved the dual purpose of
cleansing his soul and deterring other potential criminals. Status was
expressed by symbolic dress, worn at the procession preceding the execution, or
by the form of inflicting death. Noblemen wore their livery of rank and office,
while common criminals were often stripped to their shirts. People of rank were
very rarely hung, for hanging was a shameful death; more often, people of
nobility were beheaded, preferably with a sword.
Rulers took care to stage their public executions in a
spectacular manner. The spectacle itself was its essence. “The Ritual of Public
Executions,” from the 16th century, stated that the culprit was ‘to be dragged
as a murderer, beheaded as a traitor, quartered for several other crimes, and
his body hung on the gibbet as a thief and brigand.”
Trump and Hegseth are intent on extending such barbarism
into the 21st century. Not only that, but they want to livestream the degrading
spectacle, bringing it fully into the digital age. In this and countless other
ways, they continue to degrade and demean America.
Trump corporate donors rewarded with cancelled enforcement actions
Corporations That Enjoyed Enforcement Rollback Plowed $200 Million Into Pro-Trump Super PAC
Julia Conley for Common Dreams
Building on an analysis it released earlier this week
regarding hundreds of canceled investigations and dismissed lawsuits against
companies, many of which have ties to the administration, the group published a follow-up report detailing just how much some of the
corporations paid to have their legal troubles wiped away.
Companies that have benefited from the cancellation of
enforcement have given $210.5 million in contributions and pledges to MAGA,
Inc. and other super political action committees (PACs) that worked to elect
President Donald Trump
and other Republicans
in 2024 and are continuing to back right-wing candidates in
the midterms.
As Common Dreams reported, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has benefited
from at least eight canceled actions, with lawsuits filed against the former
company by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division
and the National Labor Relations Board dismissed and an investigation into data
center pollution
presumably closed. Tesla has avoided three investigations that the National
Highway Traffic Safety had begun and one that the Department of Labor has
opened into contract compliance.
“Corporations and ultrawealthy executives with enormous
financial interests before the federal government are pouring extraordinary
sums into the president’s political operation,” said Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman. “Once the
check is cashed, the administration is pulling back enforcement actions meant
to punish corporate misconduct. It’s a great deal for the corporate
wrongdoers—at the expense of their victims and the American people.”
Crypto.org is another top beneficiary of Trump’s favorable
treatment of the cryptocurrency industry, Wall Street, Big Tech, and large
corporations that have pledged to help push his far-right agenda in the
elections.
The Securities and Exchange Commission had been
investigating allegations that the crypto platform was trading unregistered
securities. The probe was abruptly closed in March 2025, after the company gave $35 million to
MAGA, Inc. and $2 million to Keep America Great, another super PAC aligned with
the president.
Gemini, co-founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, had been
facing a similar investigation, but it was also closed after the company gave
$20 million to MAGA, Inc.—on top of $10 million each that the two founders
personally donated.
“Allowing corporations to make political payments in order
to make enforcement go away is hardly a model for governing that supposedly
prioritizes ‘law and order,’” wrote Rick Claypool, research director for Public
Citizen, in the report. “On the contrary, it is indicative of a profoundly
unjust and arbitrary mode of enforcement organized around the principles of
rewarding insiders, punishing outsiders, and concentrating power in the hands
of an increasingly authoritarian president.”
He noted that while the Trump
administration has demonstrated little interest in addressing corporate
wrongdoing, “enforcement personnel and resources are being channeled toward
punishing immigrants, activists, and perceived political opponents.”
“Restoring the rule of law will be a
challenge for the future,” wrote Claypool, “and the path forward will require a
rebalance of priorities that ensures that corporations and the powerful cannot
pay to protect themselves from federal enforcement that holds them accountable
when they break the law.”
Raw milk poses serious infection risks with no added health benefits, pediatrician group warns
Yet Health Secretary Bobby Jr. continues to promote it
The statement also highlights H5N1 avian flu as an emerging
concern.
Claims that unpasteurized (raw) dairy products offer superior health benefits lack scientific support, write the authors.
“These
purported benefits have no evidence base and do not outweigh the risks of
unpasteurized milk consumption,” notes the statement. “Substantial data suggest
that pasteurized milk confers equivalent health benefits compared with
unpasteurized milk, without the additional risk of infection.”
The sale of unpasteurized dairy products remains legal in at
least 27 states. The AAP statement renews its call for a nationwide ban on
unpasteurized dairy.
Support help for affordable housing
Yes on 2 campaign launches in support of $120 million housing bond
Rhode Island is at a moment when we have both a clear need
and a clear opportunity: to invest in the homes our communities need and make
it possible for more Rhode Islanders to afford to live, work, and build their
lives here. Too many Rhode Islanders are struggling to keep up with the cost of
housing. One in three Rhode Island households is housing cost-burdened, paying
more than one third of their income toward housing costs and leaving them at
elevated risk of losing their homes.
At the same time, incomes have not kept up with housing
costs. To afford to buy a home anywhere in Rhode Island requires an income of
nearly $130,000 - more than $40,000 above the state’s median household income.
For renters, the income needed to afford a home in every R.I. community is more
than $60,000, while the average renter household earns just $48,434.
Rhode Island is also facing a significant shortage of
affordable homes, leaving thousands of households competing for a limited
supply of housing they can afford. The $120 million bond gives Rhode Island an
opportunity to meet this moment with meaningful investment.
The bond would increase and preserve the supply of
affordable homes for Rhode Islanders and support community revitalization
through the redevelopment of existing structures, new construction, property
acquisition, and infrastructure improvements.
Of the $120 million, at least $25 million is allocated to
increase the production of housing intended for homeownership, allowing more
Rhode Islanders to purchase a home. In addition, up to $10 million of the $120
million may support a public housing development program.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Vote “No” on Question 3
Blue is not Green: ...What, exactly, is the money for?
Rhode Island will soon be voting on five ballot measures to
borrow money for education, housing, economic development, cultural
improvements, and the green economy. 
These signs can be found across North Kingstown (Frank Carini/ecoRI News)
I want to focus on Question 3: a $100 million investment in the so-called Blue Economy. The question reads:
- Economic
Development $100 million: Approval of this question will allow the
State to issue general obligation bonds, refunding bonds, and/or temporary
notes in an amount not to exceed one hundred million dollars to fund
industrial facilities infrastructure improvements for economic development
purposes, to fund site development and growth industry infrastructure, to
be allocated as follows:
- Site
Development: Provides $55 million for land acquisition or assembly,
environmental remediation, infrastructure and utility installation, site
preparation or development, and project investments. Eligible uses
include, but are not limited to, large-scale industrial site development
to create pad-ready locations and/or facilities, infrastructure
improvements and investments within the Quonset Business Park, and land
acquisition, preparation, and project investments within the I-195
District.
- Growth
Industry Infrastructure: Provides $45 million for infrastructure,
facilities, projects, and investments that support Rhode Island’s ocean,
defense, life sciences, data analytics, and related industries. Eligible
uses include, but are not limited to, water-based test ranges and onshore
ocean- or defense-related innovation/production facilities, as well as
facilities, projects, and investments that advance businesses and job
growth in the life sciences.
Question 3 will almost certainly pass. As far as I can tell, every bond question sent to Rhode Island voters for approval over the last two decades has passed. [Note: A $100 million bond, paid back over 20 years at 5% interest, will ultimately cost Rhode Island taxpayers over $160 million.] But what, exactly, is the money for?
The phrase “[e]ligible uses include, but are
not limited to” is extremely broad. A literal reading of the phrase could
include any imaginable expenditure. Similarly broad is the phrase, “investments
that support Rhode Island’s ocean, defense, life sciences, data analytics, and
related industries.” Does “data analytics” include data centers? Such an
investment is certainly covered by the phrases “related industries” and “not
limited to.”
The Blue Economy is bullshit
You may have heard the phrase “Blue Economy” bandied about
by our federal delegation and local state and corporate leaders. The Grow Blue Partnership, a Rhode
Island-based coalition of industry groups, environmental organizations,
government agencies, and academic institutions, including the University of
Rhode Island (URI), defines the Blue Economy as “the sustainable use of the
ocean to create a resilient economy and good-paying jobs.” Which sounds great,
until you realize that defense contractors make up a substantial chunk of the
Blue Economy.
Help save farm animals
Location: 20 Elm Street, Westerly, RI
Terranova Farm Livestock Sanctuary invites you to the
inaugural "First Annual Grazing and Giving Fundraiser." The sanctuary
specializes in the passionate care of ruminants (like sheep and goats),
alpacas, pigs, and poultry—those often-forgotten animals with nowhere else to
turn.
Currently home to 100 incredible rescue animals, the
sanctuary provides a haven for individuals with stories of true resilience.
Partnering directly with state authorities and local animal control, TFLS steps
in during severe cases of abuse and neglect.
The sanctuary also accepts complex, high-need medical cases
that standard farms cannot manage, offering a vital second chance to vulnerable
animals and delicate babies who otherwise wouldn't make it. Through a dedicated
rehabilitation program, every resident receives the specialized medical care,
nourishment, and love needed to heal—finding permanent sanctuary to spend the
rest of their natural lives in peace and safety.
As a 100% donation-dependent organization, this life-saving
work relies entirely on community support. Join us for a truly impactful
evening to eat, drink, and bid on a fantastic array of auction items while
celebrating the animals that call TFLS home. Your support means the world, and
we’re excited to see you there!
Check the event website for the most up-to-date info.
URI’s 11th Guitar and Mandolin Festival takes the stage beginning Oct. 18
Here's a rundown on who will be appearing
The warm, mellow sounds of
guitars and mandolins will once again blend with the cool autumn air across the
University of Rhode Island campus and neighboring southern Rhode Island
communities in late October.
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| Joao Luiz Rezende, a two-time Latin Grammy nominee and professor at the Yale University School of Music, will be the artist-in-residence in this year’s URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival, and will perform on Oct. 22. (Photos courtesy URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival) |
The 11th annual URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival
will bring together the global string artist community for a weeklong
celebration of music beginning Oct 18. Guitarists and mandolinists from all
corners of the world, including Brazil, Peru, Australia, Costa Rica, Italy,
France, South Korea, Israel, Greece and Japan, will descend upon the Ocean
State to delight local music enthusiasts.
Ten performances will be held Oct. 18-25 on the
Kingston Campus and the surrounding area. Thirty notable artists,
including Duke Robillard, Eliot Fisk, Jorge Caballero, Antoine Boyer, Eleonora
Strino, Vincent Beer-Demander, Fabio Gallucci, Ian Coury, Jacob Reuven, Duo
Sonidos, Adrian Montero Moya, URI Associate Teaching Professor, Instructor of
Classical Guitar and festival founder Adam Levin and more will
be featured. URI music students and alumni and faculty will also take the
various stages during the festival, including at the General Stanton Inn, the
URI Fine Arts Center and Edwards Hall Auditorium.
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| Rhode Island blues legend Duke Robillard will perform at this year’s festival on Oct. 18. |
The seven-day festival will also offer several educational and competition programs, including masterclasses by guest artists, workshops, a guitar and mandolin competition and an expo featuring instrument makers showcasing their work. These educational opportunities will provide students a chance to learn from the best performing an array of genres, including jazz, Latin mix, classical and blues.
The festival is a melting pot, of sorts, where aspiring artists can meet their heroes—and possibly even collaborate with them—in front of a live audience, creating a special atmosphere at the University and points elsewhere, and establishing itself as a cultural mainstay at URI, according to Levin.
“Over the past decade, this festival has become a stomping ground for artists and students alike to have a conversation, to engage one another in a relaxed environment. A student can ask an artist, ‘how can I play this passage better?’ And an artist can offer one-of-a-kind feedback into how to refine their artistry,” Levin said.
‘No Kings’ events return to Rhode Island Saturday with a new focus: Early voting
South County Rising event starts at noon in Westerly
By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current
The focus is aligned with a push by national organizers to highlight early voting and protect voting rights, Rob Vitello, the Newport Democratic City Committee’s treasurer who has helped organize previous No Kings outings on Aquidneck Island, said via email Monday.
“These are meant to be small events as opposed to a big rally/march as we’ve done in the past,” Vitello wrote.
Vitello said the Newport event will take place outside Newport City Hall from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. The event page describes it as “a day of nonpartisan voter participation” meant to encourage early voting and ensure “every eligible voter understands their options for how to vote and has the opportunity to make their voice heard.”
Early voting starts on Wednesday in Rhode Island. The deadline to request a mail ballot is Tuesday. The General Election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
“Our communities, our rights, and our future are shaped by the choices we make at the ballot box,” Jennifer Lima, the president of Transformative Action for North Kingstown (TANK), which is organizing the town’s Saturday event, said in a statement. “Don’t leave your vote to chance.
TANK is also encouraging attendees to bring a non-perishable donation for the North Kingstown Food Pantry.
The No Kings rebrand is national, with many of the events subtitled “Vote Early.” Compared to the mass protests of earlier No Kings events, the new emphasis is on helping voters with registration, understanding options and making a voting plan — in contrast to the colorful, raucous rallies that began last summer.
In Providence, the first rally drew roughly 3,000 people in June 2025, while organizers estimated more than 30,000 attended a second rally outside the Rhode Island State House last October. Those October numbers weren’t independently verified, although Providence police estimated as many as 20,000 people attended another State House demonstration in March.
No events were listed on the No Kings site for Providence as of Monday.
National organizers could not immediately be reached for comment Monday, but an autoreply email contained an FAQ detailing the retooled approach as “the critical next step in our strategy.”
“This is an urgent, massive day of voter participation and election protection,” the email stated. “We’re going to turn people power into voter power while also building a network of election defenders.”
“October 17 is a celebration, an orientation, and an activation — all designed to drive mass early vote participation and build the nationwide capacity we’ll need to ensure the countless efforts to undermine our elections are met with the overwhelming nonviolent people power needed to defeat them,” the email continued.
Here are where No Kings events are planned for Saturday
Rhode Island events listed as of Monday include:
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