A model approach for Charlestown?

Leading dark sky protection organization endorses model for sport field lighting. Are you paying attention, Ruth?

I want to tell you about a special school on Canada’s rugged east coast: Université Sainte-Anne.  As a student there, you must sign a pledge that you’ll only speak French. The school is equally serious about protecting the night as it’s located within a Starlight Reserve.  Please help institutions like this one succeed. The university aimed to build a football pitch to give its whole community a safe place to stay active, even in winter when daylight is scarce. With support from people like you, that athletic field became the first DarkSky Approved Outdoor Sports Lighting project outside the U.S. “Seeing students, staff and community members use this facility at night and knowing that we’re preserving the surrounding dark sky at the same time makes me proud,” says University President Kenneth Deveau. This project can be a model for communities worldwide. Will you keep that momentum going with a gift to DarkSky International today? With gratitude,  Ruskin Hartley CEO & Executive Director P.S. With global light pollution increasing 10% each year, there’s no time to wait.

Trump’s Plan to Push FEMA’s Role to the States Will Be a Fiscal Disaster

Trump wants to end disaster assistance to the states

By Sarah Labowitz, Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, and Debbra Goh , Emissary

When the next Sandy hits Rhode Island, are we going to be on our own? (Judy Gray)

The late spring and early summer are typically a time when the U.S. federal government prepares for hurricane season—the period from June 1 to November 30 that produces the biggest and most costly disasters in the United States. But this year is different.

Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem continue to argue that FEMA, the primary federal disaster response organization, should cease to exist. 

There is no Senate-confirmed FEMA administrator because the White House has not nominated someone who meets the congressionally mandated basic qualifications for the role. 

Acting Administrator David Richardson still has not produced a viable plan for how FEMA will manage the hurricane season. The agency’s most experienced leadership has left or been forced out—most recently Jeremy Greenberg, who coordinated whole-of-government storm response. 

And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) remains understaffed to perform critical weather forecasting functions that allow emergency managers to anticipate extreme weather conditions and position themselves for disaster response.

All of this makes the arrival of hurricane season unusually concerning. But three striking trends threaten to jeopardize a system already under strain: a backlog in federal disaster response requests, an inability of states to fill the federal funding gap, and a shift of accountability to states. Taken together, these factors could suggest major problems not just for the coasts, but for the whole country.

Matunuck Oyster Bar is back!

Matunuck Oyster Bar debuts outside dining starting tomorrow, July 1

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

From their website, how outside dining was before the fire

Matunuck Oyster Bar will welcome diners to slurp oysters and sample seafood in a makeshift, outdoor space across the street from its acclaimed restaurant starting July 1, Perry Raso, restaurant owner, announced Wednesday.

The reopening of the acclaimed South County dining destination on its 16th anniversary comes less than two months after a fire forced the restaurant to close. Ahead of a permanent rebuild, Raso cooked up a temporary solution relying upon the marina parking lot across the street from his restaurant.

The tented dining space required sign-off from state and local officials to ease restrictions governing outdoor eateries. The Rhode Island General Assembly unanimously approved changes to state regulations on June 12, clarifying that pandemic-era allowances for al fresco dining also extend to restaurants closed due to floods, fires or other disasters.

Separately, the South Kingstown Town Council OK’d details including operating hours, parking plans and capacity caps for “Matunuck Marina,” Raso said in an emailed statement.

He thanked state and local officials for helping revive the famed seafood restaurant overlooking Potter Pond, allowing 50 of his 300-person staff to keep working over the summer.

The revival includes tableside dining and grab-and-go options, preserving the existing reservation and takeout system via the restaurant website. 

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Rhode Island Office of the State Fire Marshal. A preliminary investigation suggested it was accidental, and not caused by commercial cooking equipment.

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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.

Bye-bye, Big Balls

Musk’s DOGE protégé leaves government

by Alex Samuels, Daily Kos Staff

Elon Musk’s hold on the federal government is weakening, and the latest sign comes from one of his most notorious hires. Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old known as “Big Balls” online, has officially left the U.S. government. 

Coristine, a recent high school graduate-turned-technologist, was part of the small group of Musk loyalists recently granted full-time positions at the General Services Administration, which the so-called Department of Government Efficiency used as its main hub.

A White House official confirmed that he resigned June 23, though the reasons remain unclear. By the next day, his government email and Google Workspace accounts were deactivated, and his name was removed from the internal White House DOGE directory.

Coristine’s time at DOGE was short but chaotic. Hired early in Donald Trump’s second term, he quickly became an example of the agency’s dysfunction: young, unqualified, and given broad access to sensitive government systems. He attended high-level meetings across federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Education.

His persona only made things more absurd. Coristine embraced the nickname “Big Balls,” even adding it to his LinkedIn profile—something Musk reportedly found hilarious.

It CAN happen here in South County

Don't wait until it's too late

South County Resistance

ICE tactics everywhere, especially in LA, are threatening our constitutional liberties.  It's only a matter of time until they show up here in South County to raid our restaurants, businesses, and courts with their thuggery, at the administration’s orders.

During the last Westerly Town Council meeting, Councilor Alex Healy spoke out against the aggressive tactics employed by ICE and questioned the police chief about his intention when ICE shows up. 

He seemed to skirt answering the question, saying they would cooperate with anyone with a warrant.  But we all know that the clandestine agents on a mission to meet Steven Miller's quotas rarely have warrants and often result in the disappearance of people with legal status and no criminal records. 

Since that discourse, Alex and supportive councilors have been targeted by Westerly supporters of the Administration's crackdown on immigration with accusations that Alex and others are advocating for illegal blocking of ICE actions.  

They are advocating for the legal treatment of humans in America who hold the right to due process. They are wondering how the local police department will react to such unprecedented violence from Federal officials.  READ MORE about the legality issue.

The Westerly Town Council needs our help! They need to see that there are people in Westerly who stand by the desire not to see local law enforcement wrapped up in executing the unilateral and patently unconstitutional orders of the presidential administration. 

The next Town Council meeting is July 7, 2025, 6:00 pm – come out to provide public comment or just show up in support of those councilors who are willing to stand up for your rights!

EDITOR’S NOTE: The threat posed by Trump to our fundamental civil liberties cannot be exaggerated. So far, just about anything that could happen has happened or seems likely to happen.

I agree with South County Resistance’s assessment that it’s only a matter of time before repression starts to occur here. You are vulnerable if you have spoken or written against Trump. If you have a Hispanic or Middle Eastern sounding name. If your parents or grandparents were foreign-born. If your skin is the “wrong” color. It doesn’t matter whether you are a citizen or have committed no crimes.

Trump’s jackboots have already scooped up totally innocent people and without due process, shipped them off to third-world gulags – with the blessing of Trump’s Supreme Court appointees.

So the time to prepare is now. Don’t wait until you get that knock on your door, or as happened recently, having your door blown in with explosives.    – Will Collette

"Feed me!"

Who gets what

Five losses from Rhode Island’s 2025 legislative session

RIPTA, climate change, open records reform, school lunch and McKee's agenda lose out

By Nancy Lavin, Christopher Shea and Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

More than 2,500 bills and resolutions were introduced across both sides of the State House rotunda this year. But far fewer — about 300 when discounting resolutions extending congratulations and condolences, and granting officiants’ wedding rights — survived the six-month session.

Some were killed outright, while others were left to languish in political purgatory known as legislative committee, or without the necessary budget funding to survive. 

Earlier, we brought you five wins from the legislative session. Now, here are five losses.

1. Gas tax hike not enough to avoid layoffs and service reductions at RIPTA

Cuts are coming soon to the state’s public bus service. That’s even after the General Assembly propped up the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) with nearly $15 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget, including with revenue from a 2-cent increase in the state’s gas tax.

It wasn’t enough to fill what was a $32.6 million shortfall when Gov. Dan McKee released his version of the budget in January. After state lawmakers reduced the deficit to $18 million, RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand said 90 layoffs and a 20% reduction in service may be necessary.

Durand told reporters Thursday afternoon that the deficit was down to $10 million after the agency identified another $8 million in savings from a “favorable price lock” in diesel fuel, along with a positive market performance for the agency’s pension plan.

When cuts would take effect is still to be determined. The agency plans to hold a series of public hearings on potential service changes starting July 28. But RIPTA already has a guide available — an efficiency study of its operations and financial situation mandated in the state’s fiscal 2025 budget. The governor and legislative leaders wanted the agency to finish the study by March 1, but the board of directors was focused on finding a permanent CEO and didn’t commission Canadian engineering consulting firm WSP to conduct the study until March 27.

Scientists Tracked 200,000 Diets for 30 Years – Here’s the Real Key to Heart Health

Diets rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes significantly reduce heart disease risk, while those heavy in processed and animal-based foods do the opposite

By American Society for Nutrition

A new study that followed almost 200,000 people for several decades has found that when it comes to heart health, the quality of food consumed matters as much as following a low-carbohydrate or low-fat diet. The results suggest that choosing healthy, high-quality foods is key to protecting the heart.

In the past two decades, low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets have been promoted for their potential health benefits, such as weight management and improved blood sugar and cholesterol levels. However, the impact of these diets on reducing heart disease risk has remained an ongoing debate.

Connecticut Senator Blumenthal wants probe into Trump cancellation of Veterans Administration contracts

Musk's DOGE kids used artificial intelligence to find and kill contracts deemed "Munchable"

By Eric Umansky and Vernal Coleman for ProPublica

Paul Windle for ProPublica

What Happened

Senators called for a federal investigation into the Trump administration’s killing of hundreds of contracts for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Angus King, a Maine independent, wrote to the agency’s inspector general asking for an investigation into the administration’s cancellation of the contracts and the consequences for veterans.

The senators highlighted “damning reporting from ProPublica” on the cancellations, including how the Department of Government Efficiency used an artificial intelligence tool that marked contracts as “MUNCHABLE.”

The senators wrote that DOGE’s use of AI to scrutinize contracts “adds an entire new level of unease connected to the decision-making, security, governance, and quality control of the entire process.”

VA officials have said they’ve killed nearly 600 contracts after DOGE’s review but have declined requests by lawmakers and ProPublica for details.

“Despite repeated requests in letters to the Secretary, questions at hearings, and dozens of emails to VA officials,” the senators wrote, “the Department has not provided a single briefing or a complete and accurate list of the contracts it has cancelled.”

Blumenthal and King wrote that the VA shared a list of contracts in May, but it was “riddled with errors and inaccuracies.”

Boston federal judge rules that anti-woke is just racism

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a rancid bigot.

Liz Dye

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Boston explicitly called out the Trump administration for its “palpably clear” discrimination against racial minorities and LGBTQ+ Americans in a case involving canceled grants from the National Institutes of Health.

“Have we no shame?” Judge William Young asked, in an unmistakable echo of attorney Joseph Welch, who famously punctured Joe McCarthy’s popularity with his simple plea for decency.

Seventy-five years ago, McCarthy and his sidekick Roy Cohn hunted Communists. Now, Donald Trump, who was mentored by Cohn, hunts a different kind of subversive. In executive orders signed during his first weeks in office, he targeted “Illegal DEI and DEIA policies,” claiming that they violate civil rights laws. He declared that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” and branded “efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex” as discriminatory against women and girls.

This is a radical misstatement of the law. No court in the land has ever held that DEI — whatever that means — constitutes racial discrimination, or that allowing trans people to participate in society amounts to gender discrimination. It also defies the medical and scientific consensus about sex, gender, and biology. But no matter! The president redefined reality by executive fiat, and then instructed his minions to carry out a purge consistent with his edict.

And purge, they did! The administration immediately moved to kick trans service members out of the military, reorient the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to focus on “DEI-related discrimination at work,” and pulled down websites on everything from baseball icon Jackie Robinson to transgender health care.

But while the government was busy deleting pronouns from civil servants’ signature lines, it also slashed thousands of federal grants because some DOGE bro (or possibly an AI) decided that the recipient was vaguely “woke” — whatever that means. At NIH, more than a $1 billion of funding was cut because of its supposed association with “woke” ideologies.

Blanket termination letters informed recipients that their funding was being cut, often in the middle of a multi-year grant, for vague thought crimes:

Research programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry, do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness. Worse, so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) studies are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race and other protected characteristics, which harms the health of Americans. Therefore, it is the policy of NIH not to prioritize such research programs.

MAGA bar

Feeding ducks

Cats among five major wins from Rhode Island’s 2025 legislative session

Rhode Island cats celebrate new ban on de-clawing

By Nancy Lavin and Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Photo by Will Collette

The race to the legislative finish line this year was every bit as drama-filled and frenzied as expected. Restrictions on assault weapons got top billing, including on the eight-and-a-half hour marathon that marked the final day of the session, but there was plenty more to crow about and criticize during the jam-packed final weeks.

Here are five wins you might have missed from the 2025 Rhode Island General Assembly. Stay tuned for the losses, coming Friday.

1. Shekarchi zones in on housing

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi succeeded in his push to boost housing production in Rhode Island for a third consecutive year, with 10 of the 12 bills of his legislative package clearing the Senate in the final days of the session. (All 12 had already secured approval in the lower chamber.)

That includes two bills sponsored by Shekarchi: one to expand electronic permitting and another to amend the state’s building code by centralizing the responsibilities of various officials, commissions, and boards involved in building and fire code permitting.

Other bills passed include measures to allow townhouses wherever duplexes are permitted, require mixed-use zoning in every community, and promote the conversion of vacant or underused commercial buildings into housing.

“Rhode Island’s housing crisis was decades in the making and is taking a sustained effort, over the course of years, to address,” Shekarchi said in a statement Monday.  “I am so appreciative of all of the partners who work with me to address our housing shortage, and this progress is the result of our collaborative efforts.”

Legislation that would have allowed development of vacant state-owned land did not make it across the finish line. Shekarchi described the bill as in need of some “fine-tuning,” pledging to work with the Senate on it again next year.  

Also left hanging by the Senate was legislation that would have eased local restrictions on subdividing large parcels of land, despite having passed in the House on May 15. However, Shekarchi noted that elements of the stalled bill were addressed in one of the successful 10 bills, which sought to eliminate unnecessary red tape and delays in local land subdivision more broadly.

Senate President Valarie Lawson said while there were concerns with the bill, she intends to continue to work with Shekarchi and other lawmakers to encourage further housing development.

2. All rise for AG Neronha

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s skilled litigation style persuaded lawmakers to his side on a host of policy changes and added funding for his office for new hires.

Neronha initially sought 13 more staffers for his office, asking for $1.7 million to fund the hires in his fiscal 2026 budget request to Gov. Dan McKee. McKee’s proposed spending plan did not offer any of the money, or additional employees.

Neronha subsequently revised his request, asking lawmakers in the House Committee on Finance for four, rather than 13, hires, funded by settlements his office had won for the states. Lawmakers included an $848,000 allocation of state settlement money for the extra AG staffers in the final fiscal 2026 budget.

Neronha thanked lawmakers for funding the hires in a statement Tuesday.

“The people of my Office show up to work every day with one goal: improve the lives of Rhode Islanders,” Neronha said. “These four additional attorneys will share in that goal, and deliver for the residents of our state.”

Neronha scored wins on several policy changes, too, including a change to state procurement to ban “bid-rigging” by public officials. The Neronha-backed legislation taking aim at McKee’s involvement in “steering” a state education contract to the ILO Group in 2021, passed unanimously in the Senate on the final night of the session, having already secured approval by a strong majority of the House. 

Lawmakers also signed on to versions of some of Neronha’s proposed remedies for the health care crisis, such as using Medicare reimbursement rates as the standard by which to hike corresponding Medicaid payments to primary care providers, and doing away with cumbersome and time-consuming pre-authorization requirements for primary care providers.

Finally, the AG’s office staved off an eleventh hour challenge by House Republicans to his authority over state settlements. GOP lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted during the House budget vote on June 17 to siphon $11 million from the AG’s fiscal 2026 funding as a quid pro quo for what they argued was an unconstitutional overstep of his authority. Neronha had already set in motion a plan to spend the $11 million state settlement from the Route 6/10 contamination lawsuit on pediatric dental care in Providence. 

Speaking to reporters after the June 17 House budget vote, Shekarchi affirmed Neronha’s authority over the state settlement funds.

“If this particular settlement was unfair, the solution is to appeal that,” Shekarchi said. “What we’re doing with the money is helping underprivileged children with health care and dental care is a good thing and I will never be against that.”

3. Republicans at the ready for 2026

RI Republicans outraged at infringement
of this guy's 2nd Amendment rights

The most high-profile victory of the session belongs to those who supported a state ban on assault-style weapons — even if the final legislation did not go as far as some had hoped. 

But state Republicans wasted little time turning “L” on what they say is a matter of Constitutional rights into a potential win for the party and its candidates in the 2026 election cycle.

GOP Chairman Joe Powers initiated the call to action Friday night, declaring it was actively recruiting candidates to challenge the “anti-Constitution, anti-liberty legislators” who voted to limit assault-style weapons in the state.

“We now have a clear, targeted list of every legislator who voted to betray their oath — and their time is running out,” Powers said in a statement. “To every Rhode Islander who still believes in the Constitution — we’re not going to fix this by posting memes or yelling at the TV. We fix it by running for office, knocking doors, and taking back this state seat by seat.”

His call to action has already been met with a flurry of responses — a few dozen potential candidates have reached out to the Republican Party in just the last four days, Powers said Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz of North Smithfield debuted a new “Keeping the Spirit of 1776 Alive” fundraising campaign Tuesday morning, seeking support and donations to retain and boost the Republican’s 14-person presence on Smith Hill.

It’s no secret that state and local Republican party committees have struggled to recruit candidates for state and local office, diminishing their voice in a solidly blue state. Could the contested ban on assault weapons sales change the tides in their favor?

Many Older People Embrace Vaccines. Research Is Proving Them Right.

Seniors know vaccines work, having lived through times when vaccines were rare

Paula Span 

Kim Beckham, an insurance agent in Victoria, Texas, had seen friends suffer so badly from shingles that she wanted to receive the first approved shingles vaccine as soon as it became available, even if she had to pay for it out-of-pocket.

Her doctor and several pharmacies turned her down because she was below the recommended age at the time, which was 60. So, in 2016, she celebrated her 60th birthday at her local CVS.

“I was there when they opened,” Beckham recalled. After getting her Zostavax shot, she said, “I felt really relieved.” She has since received the newer, more effective shingles vaccine, as well as a pneumonia shot, an RSV vaccine to guard against respiratory syncytial virus, annual flu shots and all recommended covid-19 vaccinations.

Some older people are really eager to be vaccinated.

Robin Wolaner, 71, a retired publisher in Sausalito, California, has been known to badger friends who delay getting recommended shots, sending them relevant medical studies. “I’m sort of hectoring,” she acknowledged.

Deana Hendrickson, 66, who provides daily care for three young grandsons in Los Angeles, sought an additional MMR shot, though she was vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella as a child, in case her immunity to measles had waned.

For older adults who express more confidence in vaccine safety than younger groups, the past few months have brought welcome research. Studies have found important benefits from a newer vaccine and enhanced versions of older ones, and one vaccine may confer a major bonus that nobody foresaw.

The new studies are coming at a fraught political moment. The nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long disparaged certain vaccines, calling them unsafe and saying that the government officials who regulate them are compromised and corrupt.

On June 9, Kennedy fired a panel of scientific advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and later replaced them with some who have been skeptical of vaccines. But so far, Kennedy has not tried to curb access to the shots for older Americans.

The evidence that vaccines are beneficial remains overwhelming.