Sen. Jack Reed blasts huge military security breech by Trump's national security officials

From TB to HIV/AIDS to cancer, disease tracking has always had a political dimension, but it’s the foundation of public health

The tension between privacy and public health

Amy Lauren Fairchild, Syracuse University and Ronald Bayer, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in New York City
and the U.S. overall in the late 19th century. 
Lewis Wickes Hine/Picryl, CC BY

Federal datasets began disappearing from public view on Jan. 31, 2025, in response to executive orders from Donald Trump. 

Among those were the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which asks respondents about their gender identity and sexual orientation and tracks behaviors like smoking and drug use; CDC’s HIV dataset; and CDC and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease registry’s Environmental Justice Index, which tracks pollution in communities, and Social Vulnerability Index, which identifies communities at high risk for disease and disability.

The collection of public health surveillance data has never been politically neutral. It has always reflected ideas about individual rights. With our colleagues James Colgrove and Daniel Wolfe, we have written about the history and ethics of surveillance. Despite controversy, it remains public health’s foundational tool.

Surveillance typically involves tracking individuals with diseases by name for the purpose of direct action, including isolation, quarantine and treatment. It allows health officials to identify environmental threats and evaluate treatments. 

It allows governments to direct prevention and treatment resources where they are needed most, be that to a region or a group at highest risk. By the early 20th century, public health officials argued that without surveillance, they worked “in the darkness of ignorance” and “might as well hunt birds by shooting into every green bush.”

Three major controversies in the history of public health underscore what is at stake with the collection and maintenance of this information.

This Simple Phone Hack Can Improve Mental Health As Much as Antidepressants

Turn it off, or at least turn off the internet

By University of Texas at Austin

According to the Pew Research Center, 91% of Americans now own a cellphone with internet access, a significant increase from just one-third in 2011. Another study reports that, on average, people spend 5 hours and 16 minutes per day looking at their screens.

This surge in smartphone use has fueled growing concerns about its psychological impact. A 2022 Gallup Poll found that 58% of American smartphone users—including 80% of those under 30—worry they spend too much time on their devices.

New research by Adrian Ward, associate professor of marketing at Texas McCombs, validates those worries and suggests a remedy. In a controlled experiment, he found that just two weeks of blocking mobile internet from smartphones improved three dimensions of psychological functioning: mental health, subjective well-being, and attention span.

Payday lending reform, protecting immigrants among top priorities of R.I. lawmakers of color

An agenda to lift all boats

By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

Rhode Island’s lawmakers of color unveiled their legislative agenda on March 11, showcasing a suite of 15 bills that includes proposals to eliminate predatory loans, tweak public education funding, and protect immigrants.

The Rhode Island Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian-American and Pacific Islander (RIBLIA) Caucus consists of 21 Democratic members working across both chambers of the Rhode Island General Assembly on legislation that uplifts the state’s communities of color and level the playing field wrought by racial inequity. 

“This caucus, while composed primarily of people of color, is about all Rhode Islanders,” Sen. Tiara Mack of Providence, who co-chairs the group, said in her opening remarks. “When we uplift the most marginalized, everyone in Rhode Island thrives.” 

Minimum wage hike bills draw maximum crowds to R.I. State House

The members of the caucus comprise about 18% of both the House of Representatives and the Rhode Island Senate.

Do we still need to worry about Amtrak building a new high-speed rail line through Charlestown farmland?

Is the Charlestown Choo-choo crisis over?

By Will Collette

Since 2017, Charlestown has gone through periods of mass hysteria driven by Charlestown Planning Commissar Ruth Platner and fearmongering by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA). This hysteria has been over the then implausible and now dead proposal by the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) to build a new set of tracks in southern New England to allow Amtrak’s Acela trains to operate at full speed between New York and Boston.

The part of the FRA plan that so concerned Charlestown was called the “Old Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass and was part of a much larger and sadly overdue modernization of rail lines in the heavily travelled Northeast Corridor.

When the plan surfaced, the CCA swung into action, largely because they had ignored documents sent to the town from the FRA and were embarrassed that they were, as the cliché goes, asleep at the switch. As former CCA and Charlestown Town Council President Tom Gentz put it, “Who’s got time to read this stuff?”

Connecticut and Rhode Island communities mobilized and in short order, the FRA caved in, issuing a 2017 legally binding Record of Decision ruling out the Old Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass while calling for more planning. I believe even they realized the Bypass was a bad idea, plus they knew the project wasn’t going to happen anyway.

Within a month of his 2017 inauguration, Donald Trump proposed cutting Amtrak’s budget by 13%, centered mostly on halting new construction and long-distance subsidies. In 2017, conservative Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and they weren’t keen on Amtrak either.

Without funding or political support, no rail project benefiting the blue states of the Northeast Corridor was going forward. The Old Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass was dead on arrival.

It only goes down hill and, of course, it burns coal
(Chris Morris) 

Don’t get me wrong: I thought the Kenyon Bypass was a bad idea and, in an abundance of caution, some organizing was feasible. But I predicted the only way Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress would move the Northeast Corridor work forward was if Trump (or his kids) ended up owning Amtrak.

Even though the Kenyon Bypass died a quick and predictable death, that didn’t stop Ruth Platner from trying to raise the alarm as if the Bypass plan was going to rise from its grave. On three separate occasions – in 2021, 2022 and 2024 – Platner tried to get Charlestown’s residents to freak out like they did in 2017.

With absolutely no evidence, Ruth proclaimed  "They're Back?" And so it has gone for the past eight years. CLICK HERE for a detailing of Platner’s efforts to fire up the town over the bogus Charlestown Choo-choo crisis.

Fast forward to today

So here we are in 2025. King Donald Trump is back, newly crowned along with a die-hard MAGA Congress willing to do his bidding. The new feature is the emergence of South African Nazi Elon Musk as our de facto President.

So how does this affect Charlestown and the zombie Charlestown Choo-Choo?

Amtrak will be lucky to survive this Trump term without being sold off in whole or in part or being shut down.

AI art by Antonio Mavinga

Trump hates trains. Even though he claims he rode the New York subway in his youth – he called it “The Tunnel to Hell” - he just doesn’t like them. Here’s how he described his train experience in an interview with NY Times reporter Maggie Haberman:

“TRUMP: It’s been a long time. It’s been a long time. It has been. I know the subway system very well. I used to take it to Kew-Forest School, in Forest Hills, when I lived in Queens. And I’d take the subway to school. Seems a long time ago —"

In his first term, he proposed zeroing out federal funding for the New York subway system. His animosity toward trains is heightened by his predecessor Joe Biden’s unbridled love of trains. If Joe likes it, Donald hates it, pure and simple.

As Trains.com put it:

“Trump, meanwhile, has a vindictive streak a mile wide. And he clearly wants to erase anything that has predecessor Joe Biden’s fingerprints on it. Amtrak Joe’s signature achievement was the infrastructure law that sent billions Amtrak’s way for new equipment, route expansion, and Northeast Corridor improvement projects.”

Trump also doesn’t like high speed rail and has been actively trying to pull all $4 billion in federal funding from California’s high-speed rail project. Trump said that California doesn’t need a high-speed rail connection because, Trump claims, you can fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles for only $2. Yes, that’s two dollars.

He said:

“We’re gonna start a big investigation on that because it’s– I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. The worst overruns that there have ever been in the history of our country. And it wasn’t even necessary. I would have said, you don’t buy it. You take an airplane – it costs you $2. It costs you nothing. You take an airplane. But this got started. And if you have to, you drive, you can drive.”

As we know, King Donald has a hard time following the plot, in this case, Amtrak’s goal to give travelers an alternative to driving.

Trump and Musk are determined to either destroy or privatize federally-funded entities they don’t like (and that’s just about all of them), whether it’s the Post Service, NOAA or Amtrak.

A Pittsburgh-Post Gazette editorial summed up what we can expect in the near term:

“In Trump’s second term, with reality television personality Sean Duffy serving as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Amtrak’s future feels less than secure. Feasibility studies to map new routes connecting Pittsburgh and Chicago via Columbus and Fort Wayne may never happen.”

Obviously, the same fate applies to the on-going feasibility study currently being undertaken to come up with options to improve Amtrak connections between New York and Boston, including a future alternative to the Kenyon Bypass.

On March 19, Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner resigned under pressure from Musk-Trump to accommodate the administration’s plans for Amtrak’s future. According to President Musk, this is the future as reported by The Hill:

“I think logically we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized,” Musk said while speaking at the Morgan Stanley conference on March 5, according to Newsweek. “I think we should privatize the Post Office and Amtrak for example. … We should privatize everything we possibly can.”

Amtrak CEO Gardner may have ended his career by releasing a five-page rebuttal titled “Proposals to Privatize Amtrak.” In that white paper, Amtrak listed its achievements and profitability. It also cited Great Britain's discovery that privatizing rail was not such a great idea:

“Proponents of privatization assert that it would produce better service at a lower cost and reduce or even eliminate the need for public funding…Great Britain’s recent renationalization of its rail service after three disastrous decades of privatization, and past unsuccessful efforts to privatize various Amtrak operations, show otherwise.”

It's also worth remembering that Amtrak came into being in 1971 because America's private rail companies collapsed, starting with the New Haven Railroad's bankruptcy in 1961. However, when logic and facts don’t matter, how can Amtrak resist Elon Musk’s chainsaw?

Since Platner’s first revival of the Charlestown Choo-Choo Crisis, Town Council Deb Carney has diligently stayed in regular contact with the RI Transportation Department to watch out for Charlestown’s interests in Amtrak’s planning process. Nothing has arisen to raise any alarm.

Recently, Council President Carney, Town Administrator Jeff Allen and stakeholder Kim Coulter met with RIDOT to discuss a planned stakeholder meeting on the latest in the New Haven-Providence Amtrak study. Charlestown has been offered a place at the table. 

Deb Carney says no date for this meeting has been set. Given the turmoil, lack of funding and Musk's crusade to dump Amtrak, there's a good chance that meeting will never take place.

So, is it time to call an end to the Crisis? Based on all the above, I’d say yes. Except…

A far-fetched but plausible scenario

Both Donald Trump and Elon Musk are major fanboys of Russian despot Vladimir Putin. Putin’s route to absolute power began when he allowed Russian oligarchs to buy up Russian state assets for kopeks on the ruble after the break-up of the Soviet Union. To use Musk’s words, Russia privatized anything that can reasonably be privatized

These oligarchs made Putin a very rich and powerful man, at the expense of Russian citizens. As Trump and Musk start selling off US assets such as Amtrak, the Postal Service, et al., watch how they use the Russian model to offer fire sale prices to American oligarchs in return for kickbacks.

Privatizing Amtrak will mean some oligarch will get to buy it for cheap. They may have their own ideas about its future, but I’d expect them to maximize profits by modernizing the system. Plus, they will expect that the federal government to foot the bill.

Here’s how Trains.com summed it up:

Put all this together and the inevitable conclusion is that Amtrak as we know it will cease to exist. Long-distance trains will disappear. State-sponsored routes will continue in some form, so long as the states pick up the tab. And the Northeast Corridor will be raffled off to the highest private bidder.

I can easily see Elon Musk as Amtrak’s highest bidder followed by some flamboyant scheme to recreate the system as TrainX. As in all Musk’s venture, he will use other people’s money, no doubt expecting massive amounts of federal funding to turn his TrainX into a space-age system, perhaps using mag-lev technology. 

Note: there already is a TrainX, a private fitness center in California, but I'm sure Musk could convince them to sell their trademark. There is also a start-up maglev train company hoping to operate along the Northeast Corridor called Northeast Maglev.

Mag-Lev (magnetic levitation) is a technology that has been on the cusp of commercial viability for quite some time – high-speed monorails riding on waves of electromagnetic energy. China and Japan are already well on their way to building inter-city mag-lev lines where trains can run at up to 300 miles per hour.

The US is already funding Musk to build exploding SpaceX rockets and Tesla cars and trucks that crash and burn, making Elon Musk one of the biggest recipients of federal corporate welfare. If Musk “buys” Amtrak, he would expect the taxpayers to pay for him to pursue his dreams.

If Musk or some other oligarch buys Amtrak and try out some scheme to boost profits, they’re most likely to do it along the profitable Northeast Corridor. Any improvements they make will involve major construction. For instance, a mag-lev line would involve extensive new construction that would cause major environmental effects.

But Musk and Trump are wiping out environmental regulations that protect land, drinking water, farms, wildlife or human health and decimating the staffs at EPA and Interior that enforce such rules.

They won’t care if they destroy historic Charlestown farms, vital watersheds, forest land or wildlife habitats. 

For now, these are my theories about what might happen when Musk’s proposal to privatize Amtrak happens. I can only speculate about what a future Amtrak owner will actually do.

So now what?

In this article, I lay out what we know – Trump, Musk and Congress will not approve or fund Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor plans – what is reasonable to expect – Amtrak is likely going to go on the chopping block – and what we can reasonably guess. Unless something changes in Washington politics, Amtrak will be sold or closed. Some oligarch will be able to buy it for cheap.

The Trump Administration will almost certainly offer a new buyer generous financial incentives and clear away any environmental obstacles to whatever plans a new buyer might have for the system. The new buyer will, of course, be expected to give Trump a large back-hander.

But for now, the Northeast Corridor plan is dead.

For the past eight years, parts of northern Charlestown have been at DefCon 1, thanks to alarmist and unsubstantiated rhetoric from Ruth Platner and the CCA. Knowing what we know, we can reduce the alert level to Defcon 4 on the Charlestown Choo-Choo. We should pay attention to what happens to Amtrak but with a lot less anxiety.

In other words, no more Ruth Platner Charlestown Choo-Choo false alarms.

Suck eggs, MAGA

Don't panic

How many more ways are Trump and Musk trying to kill you?

Americans to face more disease and death due to Trump’s air quality rollbacks, health experts warn

By Dana Drugmand

American families will face increasing rates of environmental-related illnesses and premature deaths, including lung and cardiovascular diseases, due to the Trump administration’s sweeping rollbacks of air quality regulations, health professionals warn.

The moves to slash roughly two dozen environmental and public health protections weaken rules dealing with a range of health threats, including mercury emissions from power plants and tailpipe pollution from vehicles.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced March 12 what the agency is labeling the biggest and greatest deregulatory push in US history.

“We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the US and more,” Zeldin said in the announcement. 

Industry trade groups applauded the EPA actions. The American Petroleum Institute said the Trump administration is “answering the call” for more “affordable, reliable and secure American energy,” while the American Chemistry Council said EPA’s plan to revisit soot standards will help “foster continued industry growth.”

Why Bananas May Become a Rare and Expensive Treat

"Yes, we have no bananas"

By University of Exeter

Rising temperatures are making it harder for banana producers to keep up with global demand for one of the world’s most popular fruits.

A study from the University of Exeter, published March 6 in Nature Food, warns that by 2080, growing bananas for export may no longer be economically viable in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. Climate change is driving temperatures higher, making conditions less suitable for banana cultivation.

A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry at Risk

Bananas are a vital export, generating $11 billion (£8.9 billion) annually and supporting the economies of multiple countries. However, without urgent action, 60% of current banana-growing regions could struggle to sustain production within the next 50 years.

The study also highlights major socioeconomic barriers to adaptation, including limited access to infrastructure and labor shortages. Because most banana farms are located near population centers and ports, relocating to cooler areas is not a simple solution.

Meeting tonight

Fellow Charlestown Residents, The Charlestown Town Council will have their second regular meeting of the month on Monday, March 24 at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers. The agenda packet can be read here. There is also a link for watching the live stream of the meeting. The Council will continue the Public Hearing on regulations for Family Home Burials, continued from the March 10 meeting. The Council will discuss a resolution in support of House Bill 2025-H5957, an Act Relating to Towns and Cities – Low and Moderate Income Housing. The resolution and house bill can be seen starting on page 86 of the agenda packet. I hope to see you there! A future meeting that may be of interest: Town Council Special Meeting - Budget, Monday, March 31, 2025, 6:00 p.m. at Charlestown Town Hall, Council Chambers The Chariho District Financial Referendum Will be Held on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. All Charlestown Voters Will Vote at the Charlestown Town Hall in the Council Chambers from 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. Charlestown's Spring Roadside Litter Pick-Up Day will be Saturday, April 19th. Information on bag pickup here. With Thanks, Tim Quillen, Chair Charlestown Residents United Paid for by Charlestown Residents United P.O. Box 412 Charlestown, RI 02813 Visit our Website   Charlestown Residents United | PO Box 412 | Charlestown, RI 02813 US

Trump Admin Lays Out Plan to 'Sabotage' Social Security by Cutting Phone Services

If you need to claim benefits or change your Direct Deposit information, you will have to PROVE your identity

You can't do it by phone anymore. If you can't do it online, you will have to go in person to a Social Security office. Except there's a huge Catch-22

Julia Conley for Common Dreams

Key point: By March 31, Social Security will enforce the following new policy on ALL recipients:

Over the next two weeks, SSA will carefully transition to stronger identity proofing procedures for both benefit claims and direct deposit changes. Individuals seeking these services who cannot use their personal my Social Security account, which requires online identity proofing, will then need to visit a local Social Security office to prove their identity in person.

The Catch-22: President Musk is closing hundreds of Social Security offices and laying off thousands of Social Security staff. No one knows how badly this will affect people who will now need a face-to-face appointment.

What to do: If you can do your Social Security business on-line, great. If you can't contact your member of Congress for help.

COMMENTARY: The Trump administration aims to "ultimately collapse the system" that allows tens of millions of Americans to collect their earned Social Security benefits each month, said one leading advocate for the system Wednesday after officials announced a major change to the Social Security Administration.

Trump-appointed Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek claimed the agency needs to "identity-proof" Social Security beneficiaries as he told reporters that millions of people will now be required to verify their identities using an online system—and will have to provide documentation at local field offices if they're unable to use the SSA website's verification system.

The change is set to take effect March 31 and comes as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire ally whom he named to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE) with the aim of slashing government jobs and spending, have baselessly claimed that the Social Security system is riddled with fraud and sends benefits to millions of deceased Americans and to undocumented immigrants.

A source at the SSA told Judd Legum, author of the newsletter Popular Information, that there are "no significant concerns about fraud at intake" and said the change is aimed at creating "additional hurdles to filing claims and [overwhelming] the system."

Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, noted that for decades, senior citizens and people with disabilities who rely on Social Security payments have been able to verify their identities over the phone when applying for benefits.

"The new process would force seniors and people with disabilities to navigate a needless technical hurdle in applying for their earned benefits. If these claimants (who do not always have computers or smartphones, reliable internet service, or the technical skills to complete the process online) cannot verify their identity online, they would have to call SSA via the already overburdened phone line to set up an appointment, and travel in person to an SSA field office," said Richtman.

RI House GOP got the records they asked for after all. They just didn’t unzip them.

Republican effort to create an issue out of the Echo Village homeless site turn into humiliation for Mike Chippendale

Follows Charlestown's MAGA Senator Elaine Morgan's bizarre raid.

By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

Rhode Island House Minority Leader Mike Chippendale blasted the state’s housing department at a March 19 press conference for not sending invoices detailing the $4.6 million spent on the ECHO Village pallet shelters in Providence. 

But the Foster Republican reversed course about an hour later even as he criticized the state’s demand for $495 to collect and release emails relating to the project.   

The Rhode Island Department of Housing actually did send Chippendale the information he requested, the minority leader acknowledged in an email after the press conference at the Rhode Island State House. 

The files in question revolved around Chippendale’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request for information on the 45-pallet shelter village that was approximately $1.3 million over budget when it opened in February. 

Curious as to why the project cost so much more than intended, Chippendale requested from housing officials the complete list of contractors and subcontractors involved in the construction, plus purchase orders, project budgets and any email correspondence from state officials relating to the project on Feb. 14.

Chippendale said to reporters at the 1 p.m. press conference that the state had only sent over one invoice for electricity costs. But after the press conference, the Minority Office’s legal counsel reexamined the files sent over by the housing department and found staff had not unzipped everything. 

“It appears that I did receive a file from Housing that includes some invoices attached within it,” Daniel P. Reilly, a former state rep and the minority leader’s legal counsel, wrote in an email to Chippendale Wednesday afternoon. “It appears that the file did not transfer over initially when I received it via Dropbox from Housing and was not sent to you.”

EDITORIAL ASIDE: Chippendale's spokesperson Daniel Reilly's parents William and Marielle currently hold second place on the RI Division of Taxation's list of income tax deadbeats. They moved to Boca Raton, FL leaving what now totals $2,377,830.58 delinquency. No word on what discipline, if any, will be meted out to Reilly for this screw-up.  - Will Collette

Trade wars bloodshed

King Donald's forbidden words

Home Improvements Can Help People Age Independently. But Medicare Seldom Picks Up the Bill.

Access is cost-effective for Medicare when it helps people stay in their homes

Joanne Kenen 

Chikao Tsubaki had been having a terrible time.

In his mid-80s, he had a stroke. Then lymphoma. Then prostate cancer. He was fatigued, isolated, not all that steady on his feet.

Then Tsubaki took part in an innovative care initiative that, over four months, sent an occupational therapist, a nurse, and a handy worker to his home to help figure out what he needed to stay safe. 

In addition to grab bars and rails, the handy worker built a bookshelf so neither Tsubaki nor the books he cherished would topple over when he reached for them.

Reading “is kind of the back door for my cognitive health — my brain exercise,” said Tsubaki, a longtime community college teacher. Now 87, he lives independently and walks a mile and a half almost every day.

The program that helped Tsubaki remain independent, called Community Aging in Place: Advancing Better Living for Elders, or CAPABLE, has been around for 15 years and is offered in about 65 places across 26 states. It helps people 60 and up, and some younger people with disabilities or limitations, who want to remain at home but have trouble with activities like bathing, dressing, or moving around safely. Several published studies have found the program saves money and prevents falls, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says contribute to the deaths of 41,000 older Americans and cost Medicare about $50 billion each year.

EDITOR'S NOTE: in Rhode Island, we have the Ocean State Center for Independent Living (OSCIL) that can help. CLICK HERE.   - W. Collette