Wednesday, April 30, 2025
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Bad air in South County
American Lung Association gives South County an "F" for high ozone levels during warm months
By Will Collette
During the summer, we have the worst air in the state due to ground-level ozone levels due to heat and vehicle emissions.
High ozone levels are unhealthy for everyone but are especially dangerous to senior, the very young and anyone with lung disease.
According to Lung Association data, more than 23,000 South County residents suffer from lung disease that puts them at high risk.
Here's how the American Lung Association describes the effects:
Ozone gas is a powerful lung irritant. When it is inhaled into the lungs, it reacts with the delicate lining of the small airways, causing inflammation and other damage that can impact multiple body systems. Ozone exposure can also shorten lives. Ozone has a serious effect on the respiratory system, both in the short term and over the course of years of exposure. When ozone levels are high, many people experience breathing problems such as chest tightness, coughing and shortness of breath, often within hours of exposure. Even healthy young adults may experience respiratory symptoms and decreased lung function.
Wildfire smoke adds to the problem and South County has seen a major uptick in such fires in recent years, so much so that state Rep. Megan Cotter has become a leading advocate on fire prevention.
For the past two days, we have been under caution for elevated fire risk due to dry conditions, low humidity and brisk winds. These alerts seem to be occurring more frequently.
It doesn't help that the Trump regime not only denies there is a climate crisis but wants to make the problem worse by lessening efficiency standards and increasing the use of fossil fuels. Musk and Trump are also cancelling funding for research and environmental remediation.
Rhode Island offers you an on-line tool that allows you to easily see the quality of air. Despite today's fire risk, our air quality today is rated as "good."
Trump plays "chicken" with food contamination
USDA withdraws proposed rule meant to reduce Salmonella in poultry products
The rule, proposed by the Food Safety and Inspection Service
(FSIS) under the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in August 2024, would have
declared chicken and turkey products spoiled if they contained 10 or more
colony-forming units of the bacteria and if they were contaminated with
Salmonella strains that are considered particularly concerning for human
health.
“The Biden-era proposal would have imposed significant
financial and operational burdens on American businesses and consumers, failing
to consider an effective and achievable approach to address Salmonella in
poultry products,” said a USDA spokesperson.
FSIS will work to assess its approach to addressing
Salmonella in poultry products in ways that won’t “impose regulatory burdens on
American producers and consumers,” said the spokesperson, including by
evaluating whether an update to the current Salmonella standards is warranted.
Doctors Without Borders Says Trump Aid Cuts 'Are a Human-Made Disaster' for Millions
Aid cuts will lead to preventable disease and death
Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams
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"The U.S. has long been the leading supporter of global
health and humanitarian programs, responsible for around 40% of all related
funding," Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said
in a statement. "These U.S. investments have helped improve
the health and well-being of communities around the globe—and totaled less than
1% of the annual federal budget."
However, with the Trump administration slashing funding for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contracts by 90%, including for programs that fed and provided healthcare for millions of people and fought diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS, MSF USA CEO Avril Benoît said there will be "more preventable deaths and untold suffering around the world."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Cathy and I have been longtime supporters of Doctors without Borders. We are awestruck at the courage of their medical personnel who go into disaster and war zones without hesitation to provide desperately needed medical aid without regard to ideology. MSF is usually apolitical and rarely take part in debates over public policy. That they are speaking out on Trump's aid cuts highlights what terrible harm these cuts are doing. - Will Collette
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
The Trump Administration’s War on Children
From Mississippi to Gaza, just about every Musk-Trump action hurts kids
By Eli Hager
The clear-cutting across the federal government under President Donald Trump has been dramatic, with mass terminations, the suspension of decades-old programs and the neutering of entire agencies. But this spectacle has obscured a series of moves by the administration that could profoundly harm some of the most vulnerable people in the U.S.: children.
Consider: The staff of a program that helps millions of poor families keep the electricity on, in part so that babies don’t die from extreme heat or cold, have all been fired. The federal office that oversees the enforcement of child support payments has been hollowed out. Head Start preschools, which teach toddlers their ABCs and feed them healthy meals, will likely be forced to shut down en masse, some as soon as May 1. And funding for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against children; responding to reports of missing children; and preventing youth violence has been withdrawn indefinitely.
The administration has laid off thousands of workers from coast to coast who had supervised education, child care, child support and child protective services systems, and it has blocked or delayed billions of dollars in funding for things like school meals and school safety.
These stark reductions have been centered in little-known children’s services offices housed within behemoth agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice, offices with names like the Children’s Bureau, the Office of Family Assistance and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In part because of their obscurity, the slashing has gone relatively overlooked.
“Everyone’s been talking about what the Trump administration and DOGE have been doing, but no one seems to be talking about how, in a lot of ways, it’s been an assault on kids,” said Bruce Lesley, president of advocacy group First Focus on Children. He added that “the one cabinet agency that they’re fully decimating is the kid one,” referring to Trump’s goal of shuttering the Department of Education. Already, some 2,000 staffers there have lost or left their jobs.
The impact of these cuts will be felt far beyond Washington, rippling out to thousands of state and local agencies serving children nationwide.
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Congratulations to Loren Spears
Tomaquag Museum’s Lorén Spears to Be Inducted into R.I. Heritage Hall of Fame
By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff
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| Lorén Spears will be inducted to the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame early next month. (Courtesy of the Tomaquag Museum) |
Ninigret led
the Narragansett and Niantic peoples in the 1600s when the Europeans arrived,
bringing disease and violence.
To honor him, Spears performed a ceremony with her
brother-in-law, who sang and played drums. Ninigret’s award is displayed at
the Tomaquag
Museum, so others can learn about him.
Six years later, it’s Spears’ turn to be honored as a 2025
Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame inductee.
The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame was founded in 1965
to celebrate “any individual who has brought credit to Rhode Island, brought
Rhode Island into prominence, and contributed to the history and heritage of
the state.” Inductees are required to have been born in the state or to have
lived, studied, or worked here for a significant amount of time.
In a recent phone interview, after Spears described
attending the 2019 awards, she added “to then later be honored in the same
establishment, I think that’s extremely special.”
Spears is no stranger to prestigious awards. In 2016, she
accepted the National Medal for Museum and Library Service for the
Tomaquag Museum, an organization that she has helped grow since she took the
helm.
Measles Misinformation Is on the Rise — And Americans Are Hearing It, Survey Finds
RFK Jr.'s lies will cause pointless deaths. They are already.
About two-thirds of Republican-leaning parents are unaware of an uptick in measles cases this year while about two-thirds of Democratic ones knew about it, according to a KFF survey released Wednesday.
Republicans are far more skeptical of vaccines and twice as likely (1 in 5) as Democrats (1 in 10) to believe the measles shot is worse than the disease, according to the survey of 1,380 U.S. adults.
Some 35% of Republicans answering the survey, which was conducted April 8-15 online and by telephone, said the discredited theory linking the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to autism was definitely or probably true — compared with just 10% of Democrats.
The trends are roughly the same as KFF reported in a June 2023 survey. But in the new poll, 3 in 10 parents erroneously believed that vitamin A can prevent measles infections, a theory Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has brought into play since taking office during the measles outbreak.
About 900 cases have been reported in 27 U.S. states, mostly in a West Texas-centered outbreak.
New AFL-CIO Report Finds Worker Deaths on the Job Continue, Will Worsen Under Trump Administration Policies
Rhode Island has the lowest workplace fatality rate, but for how long?
AFL-CIO
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Ahead of Workers Memorial Day, the AFL-CIO released its 34th
annual “Death on the
Job: The Toll of Neglect” report, a comprehensive analysis of the state
of workers’ health and safety at the national and state levels. Findings
include:
- Inadequate
workplace safety laws and policies resulted in the deaths of 5,283 workers
on the job in 2023, the latest year of data available, and an estimated
135,304 workers from occupational diseases.
- Black
and Latino workers are still disproportionately dying on the job, both at
rates higher than the national job fatality rate.
- The
report shows 659 Black worker deaths, the second-highest number in more
than two decades.
- The
report also shows 1,250 Latino worker deaths, making Latino workers the
group at the greatest risk of dying on the job among all
demographics.
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| Strong unions make the difference in saving lives |
These cuts include gutting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the agency that delivers critical health and safety expertise for both workers and employers; eliminating 11 offices of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in states with the highest workplace fatality rates; eliminating 34 offices of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), which protects coal miners from hazards like black lung disease, in 19 states, while simultaneously pausing a new silica rule that would prevent coal miners from acquiring silicosis; and allowing Elon Musk, whose companies are being investigated for dozens of workplace safety and health violations, to pursue access to sensitive OSHA data through his inquisition into the Department of Labor.
Monday, April 28, 2025
Editor's Choice of 100 terrible things in 100 days
This is why Trump’s polls are in the toilet
By Will Collette
I have come to the conclusion, based on these first 100 days
as well as Trump’s First Reich, that the only way it all makes any sense is if
you regard his actions as those of a malignant narcissist, the label that most
psychologists and psychiatrists willing to speak on the subject have put on
Trump.
Yesterday, Trump gave proof to this assumption in an
interview with the Atlantic where he declared he is having fun controlling the
country and the globe:
“The first time [term], I had two things to do ‒ run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world…I’m having a lot of fun, considering what I do. You know, what I do is such serious stuff.”.
Every word he says shakes the world. He can make markets rise and fall just by spewing bullshit. A majority of 2024 voters gave this lunatic unlimited power. The Supreme Court gave him a get out of jail free card. The Republican controlled Congress does what he tells them to do. And this is what we got in the first 100 days:Got elected thanks to a pack of lies, Elon Musk’s money and Putin’s cyber-campaigning
- Got inaugurated: highlight was Elon Musk giving a Hitler salute
- Pardoned January 6 terrorists
- Declared himself "King"
- Suspended asylum protection to refugees from war zones in Ukraine, Syria, Haiti, Sudan, Somalia, etc.
- Deported cancer kids who were suffering from cancer without any due process
- Took away funding from cancer research
- Suspended research and treatment for infectious diseases (bird flu, COVID, measles, Ebola, HIV, etc.)
- Gutted worker safety programs
- Attacked colleges and universities
- Attacked state and local school systems
- Wiped out references to women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, etc. from national exhibits, books, museums, etc.
- Fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he is black
- Fired the commandant of the Coast Guard Academy because she is a woman
- Appointed drunken sexist Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense because he was a Fox News host
- Declared a trade war against virtual everywhere on the planet (except Russia) including places that aren’t even inhabited (except with penguins)
- Went to war with our closest ally Canada and continually threatened to take them over
- Declared his intent to seize Greenland against the will of its people
- Threatened to bomb Mexico
- Alienated Europe and appears to be trying to destroy NATO
- Suspended aid to Ukraine
- Demanded Ukraine sign over its mineral rights and nuclear power plants to the US
- Withdrew from the World Health Organization
- Wiped out foreign aid, exposing millions to death from hunger and disease
- Launched an undeclared war against Yemen
- Cancelled our commitment to fighting climate change
- Sanctioned the International Court of Justice
- Threatened to remove the people of Gaza to make way for a Trump luxury resort – a war crime
- Put lunatic anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of the US Department of Health and Human Services
- Withdrew protection from Dr. Anthony Fauci despite numerous death threats from MAGA nuts.
- Cancelled visas for thousands of lawfully residing students who protested Israel’s war on Gaza
- Arrested US citizens, foreign tourists and visa holders upon either returning to or entering the country because they had anti-Trump stuff on their cell phones
- Is arresting and deporting US citizens
- Eliminated any semblance of due process in mass deportation effort
- Terrorized millions of decent, hard-working people
- Created a labor shortage in agriculture, construction, health care and services
- Threatened to take over the Panama Canal by any means necessary
- Demands the Suez Canal allow US shipping to use the canal for free even though we had nothing to do with its construction and maintenance
- Effectively terminated trade between the US and China
- Made incompetent Marco Rubio Secretary of State and in charge of selling new US policies to friends and allies
- Tanked the stock market
- Tanked the bond market
- Wiped out trillions of dollars of people’s retirement savings
- Claims his tariffs are raising so much money that he might cancel the income tax
- Gutted IRS staff to make it easier for his oligarch friends to evade taxes
- Cancelled program that allowed free on-line tax filing
- Gutted staffing at Social Security
- In addition to cutting staff, he is closing Social Security offices AND requiring many seniors to show up in person to prove their identity
- Put Dr. Oz in charge of Medicare
- Gutted staffing at the Veterans Administration
- Launched his devastating war against diversity, equality and inclusion and terrorized teachers, librarians, school boards, sports teams, etc.
- Terminated federal funding to the state of Maine because their governor refused to bow to Trump
- Gutted staffing at EPA
- Fired thousands of federal workers without warning or recourse
- Terminated union rights for federal workers
- Gutted the National Labor Relations Board
- Gutted USDA’s food safety inspections
- Gutted National Park Service staff
- Threatens drastic cuts to Medicaid
- Defunded Meals on Wheels
- Defunded Public Broadcasting
- Gutted Head Start
- Refused disaster relief even in Red States like Arkansas, North Carolina and West Virginia
- Began steps to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Named wrestling mogul Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education
- Launched the shutdown of the Education Department
- Disrespected Pope Francis at his funeral
- Fell asleep at Jimmy Carter’s funeral
- Named anti-justice Pam Bondi as Attorney General and whack job Kash Patel as head of the FBI
- Suspended construction of offshore windfarms
- Cancelled most environmental grants
- Cancelled planned regulations on PFAS contamination
- Told states they may no longer run their own climate change initiatives
- Wiping out energy efficiency programs
- Eliminated rules requiring appliances to save water and energy
- Manipulated the stock market so his friends could make money on his erratic decisions
- Turned the White House lawn into a Tesla dealership
- Gave Elon Musk and his DOGE team access to the most sensitive information from government databases
- Promoted cryptocurrency even though he and his family had created their own crypto coins
- Cancelled prosecutions against corporate pals
- Bought off NYC Mayor Eric Adams with a pardon
- Solicited bribes from corporate interests as donations to his Inaugural
- Solicited more bribes in the form of donations to the White House Easter Egg Hunt
- Told Ukraine they had to give Russia territory the Russians had stolen through invasion
- Shut down the Voice of America
- Fired the Board of the Kennedy Center for the Arts and named himself Chair; promised to show programs like “Cats”
- Gutted federal funding for the arts
- Punished law firms and lawyers who represented clients suing Trump and his friends
- Forced news media companies to give him money under threat he would revoke their licenses
- Ordered criminal investigations of polling firms who ran polls he didn’t like
- Arrested two state court judges for failing to cooperate with ICE
- Threatened federal judges who ruled against him with impeachment
- Banned legitimate news outlets from the White House and gave their seats to rightwing nuts
- Claimed he popularized the term “groceries”
- Claimed he caused gas prices to drop below $2 a gallon
- Arrested and deported farmworkers
- Gutted research on how to stop the spread of avian flu
- Spent almost 40% of his term of office so far playing golf
- Started the US down the slippery slope to a fascist dictatorship
- Claimed that we have too many eggs and the price of eggs is too low
- Failed to lower the price of eggs
Virtually all of these actions are in the courts. Virtually all of them were carried out under the guise of non-existent “national emergencies.” Virtually all of them were clouded over with a thick fog of lies. Most are unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful.
All of these items came from my memory of Der Fuehrer’s first
100 days. I know there are many other items that I could have added and that
you readers would like to add. Maybe in the list for the second 100 days. Suffice to say, the magnitude of the threat King Donald
poses to democracy cannot be underestimated.
Donald Trump respectfully falls asleep at Pope Francis' funeral
When it's not enough to demand a front row seat, violate the Vatican request to wear a black suit and black tie, and to leave after only a few hours to play golf at your New Jersey course.
He also fell asleep during his own trial:
And during the Republican National Convention:
During the prayer service at the National Cathedral after his inauguration:
And at Jimmy Carter's funeral:
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Appliance efficiency standards save consumers billions, reduce pollution and fight climate change
But Donald Trump thinks they're bad and wants to end them
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In an April 9, 2025, statement, Trump claimed he could alter government regulations on his own, without the legally required process of public notice and comment.
But as a scholar of environmental regulations, I know those regulations were created to save energy and lower utility bills for consumers. I also know that many companies and consumers have supported federal regulation to strengthen energy efficiency standards and generally have opposed weakening them.
The first government-set energy efficiency standards for appliances were issued by California in 1974. They were initially for refrigerators, the household appliance that used the most energy. Subsequently, several other household appliances were added. During the next decade, more states issued standards, as saving energy would help avoid the costs of constructing new power plants.
The proliferation of state standards led the federal government to prohibit states from issuing appliance efficiency standards once the federal government had done so. The first federal standards, in 1987, applied to 13 household products, including refrigerators.
Since then, the federal government has created standards for additional products and tightened existing ones. Those changes have progressively made home appliances and business and industrial equipment more efficient, saving consumers billions of dollars, decreasing air pollution from power plants and reducing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.
RFK Jr. gets something right; also even a broken clock (non-digital) gives the right time twice a day
FDA moves to phase out petroleum-based food dyes
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary,
along with other Trump administration officials, announced a series of moves to rid the American food
supply of the dyes, including revoking authorization for two food dyes (Citrus
Red No. 2 and Orange B), working with industry to eliminate six other synthetic
dyes by the end of next year and authorizing four new natural color additives
in coming weeks.
The agencies will also work with the National Institutes of
Health to research how food additives impact children.
“For the last 50 years, we have been running one of the
largest uncontrolled scientific experiments in the world on our nation’s
children, without their consent,” Makary said at a Tuesday press conference,
flanked by children holding signs that read ‘Make America Healthy Again’ and
‘Better Food, Brighter Futures’.
“And today we’re removing these petroleum-based chemicals
from their food supply,” Makary added.
The dyes are commonly found in candy, sodas, cereals, sports
drinks and other highly processed foods, but also show up in unexpected items like casserole mixes, yogurts and
salad dressings. The dyes are linked to health problems including hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children.
Health advocates have long argued that the bright food colorings also make
unhealthy foods more attractive to children.
The Bird Flu Virus Is Mutating Fast – And Scientists Say Our Vaccines May Not Be Enough
H5N1’s Rapid Evolution Poses a Growing Threat
By University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Published on March 17 in eBioMedicine (a
journal within The Lancet family), the study highlights urgent
concerns. As avian influenza continues to spread globally, it poses not only a
serious risk to agriculture but also an increasing threat to human health.
Worsening Antibody Affinity Raises Concerns
The researchers found a clear trend: antibodies are becoming
less effective against newer strains of H5N1. This “worsening antibody
affinity” suggests that future versions of the virus may be even more difficult
for the immune system to recognize and fight, raising the risk of transmission
to and among humans.
The study’s lead author is Colby T. Ford, Ph.D., a visiting
scholar in data science at UNC Charlotte’s CIPHER center and founder of Tuple,
LLC, a biotechnology consulting firm based in Charlotte.
Crucially, Ford explains, this rapid adaptation means that
“if one makes an H5N1 vaccine with a previous vaccine candidate virus, the
vaccine will have less efficacy, based on our measurements of how much the
virus has evolved in recent years” As such, the team’s research approach
provides guidance for keeping pace with a rapidly adapting viral threat.
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Why a psychopath (like Trump) wouldn’t hesitate to cause another global financial crisis – if there was something in it for them
Trump just loves being able to scare the whole world
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| Trump says "We have too many eggs. In fact, the prices are getting too low." |
Since I began researching corporate psychopaths and the global financial crisis, the idea of the financial psychopath, an employee in the financial sector acting ruthlessly, recklessly, greedily and selfishly with other people’s money, has gained traction.
The theory won support because psychopaths are more commonly found in financial services than in other sectors. It has even been argued that up to 10% of employees in financial services could be psychopathic. That is to say they have no empathy, care for other people, conscience or regrets for any damage they do.
These traits make them ruthless in pursuit of their own agendas and entirely focused on self-promotion and self-advancement.
But my ongoing research goes even further. It has found that psychopaths are willing to knowingly cause financial harm to the entire global community, in order to receive a financial bonus for themselves. Personal greed outweighs the immense social and community costs of implementing that greed.
Birds! And more
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