.png)
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
URI bee specialists share information for insect enthusiasts of all ages
Mind your bee’s and q’s
 |
| Bees are small but play a big role in our environment. (URI Photos / Casey Johnson) |
For Steven Alm and Casey Johnson, it’s a bug’s world every day in the University of Rhode Island Bee Lab. With a new exhibit on insects opening at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, they could not be happier to see a new generation of insect enthusiasts get an up-close look at their small subjects of study.
Part of URI’s Plant
Sciences and Entomology department, Alm and Johnson answered
questions on the local bee population for zoo visitors who may be interested in
learning more after their day at the park:
Which bees are most common here in Rhode Island?
We know the most about our bumble bees because they are
large and fairly easy to identify. The Common Eastern Bumble Bee is our most
prevalent bumble bee here. We also have good numbers of sweat, mining, digger,
and cellophane bees.
We have recorded more than 280 bee species in Rhode Island,
past and present; they are incredibly diverse with different needs. Some
species have evolved to only collect pollen from certain plant families or even
a single plant species. This means they are closely linked to these plants and
will disappear if the plant disappears.
The Southeastern Blueberry Bee, for instance, forages only on blueberry, lupine or redbud and nests only in loose, sandy soil. This bee was recorded in Rhode Island for the first time in 2024. The Macropis Cuckoo Bee was thought to be extinct for nearly 60 years until it was rediscovered in Nova Scotia in 2004. Since then, it has been recorded in a handful of U.S. states, including one specimen collected here in Rhode Island in 2024.
Tylenol during pregnancy not tied to increased risk of autism in children
Trump and Kennedy are wrong. AGAIN.
 |
| Bobby Jr. does science. This is a REAL story, not made up |
For the nationwide study, published
yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics, Copenhagen University Hospital
investigators linked prospective individual-level data from national
demographic and health care registers on singletons born in Denmark from
January 1997 to July 2022 who were alive at one year old. Follow-up was one
year or until emigration or autism diagnosis.
Exposure to acetaminophen during pregnancy was identified by
maternal fulfillment of a prescription for the drug in the National
Prescription Register. Another analysis compared sibling groups with
discordant acetaminophen exposure in pregnancy.
“Evidence regarding the association between prenatal
acetaminophen exposure and risk of autism in offspring remains inconsistent,”
the study authors wrote. “One large Swedish cohort study reported a small but
statistically significant increase in autism risk among children in a
population-level analysis; however, the association was not observed in a
sibling matched analysis, raising questions about residual confounding.”
Trump’s unfounded claims spook pregnant women
The researchers initiated the study after Donald Trump’s September 2025 remarks discouraging
pregnant women from using acetaminophen because of a purported link to autism.
He also claimed, without evidence, that leucovorin (folinic acid) can help
autistic children.
Trump regime data shows little evidence that the killing almost 200 people on the high seas has stopped drugs from reaching the US.
Murder at sea and for what?
The US Southern Command posted a video on social media of
the bombing, which it said targeted a boat that was “transiting along known
narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in
narco-trafficking operations.”
As with the 50 previous attacks on boats in the Pacific and
the Caribbean Sea, the military did not publicize any evidence that the boat
was carrying drugs or that its passengers were “narco-terrorists.”
A small number of the at least 177 victims of the Trump
administration’s boat bombings have been identified.
The Associated Press reported in November that Robert Sánchez, who was killed
in the Caribbean, was a 42-year-old fisherman who made $100 per month and had
started helping cocaine traffickers navigate the sea due to economic pressures.
Juan Carlos Fuentes was an out-of-work bus driver who also worked as a “drug
runner” to make ends meet.
The families of at least two victims have filed legal complaints over the killings of their family
members, saying they were fishermen.
Adam Isacson of the Washington Office
on Latin America has compared the
boat bombings, assuming they have targeted people involved in the drug trade at all, to
“straight-up massacring 16-year-old drug dealers on US street corners.”
Monday, April 20, 2026
Trump’s sweeping nuclear energy and weapons agenda has prompted revisions of longstanding radiation standards.
The Nuclear Safety Protections in Federal Crosshairs
By Alicia Inez Guzmán, High Country News
Throughout, Clawson, a member of the United Steelworkers union, leaned on safety standards to argue for extra protections against radiation, including respirators and additional shielding.
But Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda to expand nuclear energy
and modernize nuclear weapons now includes easing the radiation standards that
Clawson credits with keeping his exposure as low as possible.
“They’re pulling away from what’s kept us safe all these
years,” said Clawson, who retired in 2021 and now serves on the advisory board
on radiation and workers under the Centers for Disease Control. He spoke
to High Country News in an unofficial personal capacity.
Last May, Trump signed four executive orders aimed at
reviving what he called an industry “atrophied” by regulation. The U.S.
Department of Energy quickly began stripping away regulations designed to
reduce the amount of radiation exposure workers can face at its national
laboratories, cleanup sites, and energy infrastructure.
Where There’s Wildfire Smoke, There’s Poor Mental Health
We know wildfire smoke harms your body but that's not all
Charlestown will likely get another dose of smoke from Canadian and western fires this summer
The group had gathered in Paradise, California, at a park that sits on land burned in the 2018 Camp Fire. That wildfire destroyed most of the town and killed 85 people. In the years since, the same region has experienced three other conflagrations that rank among the largest in California history; one joined the Camp Fire as among the deadliest. Within the circle sat Blake Ellis, the program manager of the ecotherapy program associated with California State University, Chico, who invited attendees to lean into their senses and pay attention to the smells, sounds, and feel of the fire.
The ecotherapy program, which is open to the public, offers “place-based, holistic healing practices” and leads guided therapeutic programs in nature, including those focused on rebuilding a relationship with nature and what Ellis calls “good fire.” “The intention is to slow down, relax, engage with your senses, and to be in nature and community with one another,” she added, and to help the brain write over traumas associated with fire and create neural pathways that connect it with more positive experiences. The ultimate aim is to build resilience within a community repeatedly impacted by devastating wildfires.
Over the last decade, wildfires and their smoke have spread into new regions and grown into a more menacing threat due to climate change. And recently, research has increasingly connected wildfire and smoke with worsening mental health outcomes, in part due to cellular changes in the brain. Papers suggest a link between wildfires and emergency room visits for anxiety disorders, increased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and suicides in rural areas. More broadly, decades of research has tied air pollution to spikes in suicide attempts, depression, hospitalizations for mental illness, and other neurological conditions such as dementia.
HPV vaccination cuts cancer risk in men by about half, study suggests
But Donald Trump has his own cancer cure
HPV vaccination has long been framed as a way to prevent
cervical cancer in women, but the virus causes a range of cancers that affect
men, including head and neck, anal, and penile cancers. In the study,
researchers from the Nara Prefecture General Medical Center in Nara, Japan,
looked at large-scale population data to evaluate the effectiveness of the
nine-valent HPV vaccine in preventing these cancers in men.
Here’s how Rhode Island can prepare for stronger wind storms.
Climate risk research tells us how the wind blows.
By Steven M. Rothstein and Christopher S. Stark, Rhode Island Current
.webp)
Global insured losses from natural catastrophes alone reached over $100 billion for the sixth consecutive year in 2025. In 2015, these numbers were between $27 billion and $37 billion across the globe. California wildfires alone in 2025 exceeded 2015 losses.
In the coming decades, millions more homes and businesses along the East Coast will be threatened by wind damage. According to a 2023 study by the First Street Foundation, the average cost of damage in Rhode Island caused by extreme weather is projected to rise by more than 50% from $10 million to $15.6 million in 2053.
Rhode Island’s 400 miles of coastline and several rivers have risen above flood stage in the past. That means an increased risk of waterborne diseases, mold growth, bacterial contamination, psychological trauma, and long-term effects on local economies in the years ahead, state officials say.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
“More bombs, less of everything else” is a tough campaign platform.
Trump's Total War Budget
That dream is the utter destruction of the US safety net and
the unlimited expansion of the US military.
“The United States can’t take care of daycare,” Trump
blustered during a speech to faith leaders. “That has to be up to
a state. We’re fighting wars. Medicaid, Medicare — they can do it on a state
basis. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. But all these
little scams that have taken place, you have to let states take care of them.”
Democrats have said the document is dead on arrival — though
Trump hopes to
pass a big chunk of it through reconciliation without Democratic votes.
The budget does not, at least initially, include cuts to
Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. It also does not include funding for
Trump’s war against Iran, which he also hopes to pass through a reconciliation
process without Democratic support. But it points the way clearly toward a
distinctively Republican future for America — one in which the populace is
transformed into an impoverished mass of hunger and disease, emitting
occasional hoarse pleas for castoffs from oligarchs.
Patty Murray, the top democrat on the Senate appropriations
committee, said it
is a “bleak and unacceptable” vision. It’s one that is likely to be incredibly
unpopular, throwing a lead anchor to the GOP’s already rapidly sinking midterm
prospects.
SHOCKER: Trump’s nominee to head the CDC does not seem to be crazy and may actually be qualified
Trump nominates Brown Med School graduate Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general, to head CDC
 |
| Wikimedia Commons / Mike Olliver |
Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, former Coast Guard officer, is Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Trump announced late this afternoon.
“Erica graduated from Brown University for College and Medical School, and served a distinguished career as a Doctor of Medicine in the United States Military, the Greatest and Most Powerful Force in the World, and then served as my Deputy Surgeon General during my First Term,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.
Trump
also appointed Sean Slovenski as the CDC deputy director and chief operating
officer, Jennifer Shuford, MD, MPH, as the CDC deputy director and chief
medical officer, and Sara Brenner, MD, MPH, as senior counselor for public
health to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the
knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE
at the CDC,” Trump said.
Schwartz is set to inherit a chaotic and hollowed CDC, one
that has seen public firings, the resurgence of measles across the nation, and
legally disputed changes to routine vaccine recommendations. Polling also
shows that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine “Make America Healthy Again” agenda isn’t
sitting well with voters and may be a liability in the midterm elections for
Republicans.
The CDC is an agency within HHS.
Measles has arrived in Rhode Island
Thank you, Donald Trump and Bobby Jr.
RI Health Department notice:
He went to Atmed Treatment Center on April 15, and he was
tested for measles. He is recovering at home.
The last confirmed case of measles in Rhode Island was in
January 2025. In addition, customers and staff at Panadería El Quetzal, 445
Hartford Ave., Providence, on April 15 between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. may have
been exposed.
RIDOH has worked with Panadería El Quetzal and Atmed
Treatment Center to notify staff and other people who may have been exposed.
RIDOH is working to identify and contact those people. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Global Migration
Health (DGMH) was notified because people on the same flights as these
individuals may have been exposed.
Anyone who was believed to have had contact with this
patient during his infectious period are being contacted and provided with
instructions on steps to help prevent any spread. As is protocol, RIDOH is
taking additional measures in consultation with CDC.
Those who could have been exposed and begin to develop
symptoms of measles should call their healthcare professional before visiting
an office, clinic, or emergency department. Visiting a healthcare facility may
put others at risk and should be avoided if possible.
Anyone who has had measles in the past or has received two
doses of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine is unlikely to develop
measles even if exposed.
The best way to
protect against measles is with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
MMR is safe and effective.
Chemical Threats Nearby? Trump’s EPA Doesn’t Want You to Know.
EPA wants to gut recently enhanced safety requirements for hazardous facilities.
 |
| Charlestown is no stranger to chemical accidents, such as this fire at Kenyon Industries on Route 2 |
Raschelle Grandison had just walked out her front door to grab something from her car on a chilly March morning in 2019 when she stopped dead in her tracks.
Grandison stared in disbelief at what looked like a nuclear mushroom cloud approaching the Houston home she shared with her mother, who ran outside to see what was wrong. They were still watching the giant black cloud hurtling toward their neighborhood from the Houston Ship Channel when the shelter-in-place alerts started blaring.
“It was just terrifying because when you shelter in place, you’ve got a cloud over you, you can’t leave, you can’t go anywhere and nobody can come in,” Grandison said. “It’s just you and God at that point.”
 |
| Bradford Dyeing explosion. Charlestown-Westerly town line |
The flames spread to 14 surrounding tanks, and the apocalyptic cloud menaced the Houston skyline for three days before emergency crews put the fire out. By then, a containment wall had failed and released hundreds of thousands of barrels of toxic compounds into nearby waterways, harming birds and their habitat.
Close to 180 million Americans live near one of the country’s 12,000 facilities capable of producing a “worst-case scenario” chemical disaster. A third of these facilities operate in areas where natural hazards like wildfires, hurricanes and sea level rise could disrupt power supplies or damage infrastructure to trigger a catastrophic accident. These risks grow as the planet warms, the Government Accountability Office reported in 2022, when it advised the Environmental Protection Agency to require plants to plan for climate-supercharged natural hazards.
But Donald Trump, whose 2024 campaign received more than $25 million in donations from the oil and gas industry, is trying to keep fenceline communities in the dark about these risks.
Saturday, April 18, 2026
PRIMARY CARE WOES --- Will We Solve Rhode Island's Problem?
Bureaucracy versus medicine
By Dr. Steven Fera for Save Our Health Care
Primary care in this country is at a critical juncture. The
causes are multiple, but government reforms, demands of private payers and
corporate employers, the burden of pre-authorization, and the introduction of
electronic medical record (EMR) systems are all important contributing factors.
To the rescue?
In the 1990s, managed-care plans emerged which greatly increased insurance company profits at the expense of the physician. Hospital executives and entrepreneurs have capitalized by organizing physicians into groups called Accountable Care Organizations, collecting a substantial percentage of collected income. Nowadays, physicians are required to use electronic medical records, which has transformed daily workflow.
In many
cases, patient visits are dominated by time spent engaged in data entry, which
requires searching for the correct medical diagnostic code (currently there are
over 69,000) and billing code, along with including sufficient medical
“information” to qualify for payment. The companies that developed them are
reaping significant profits from hospitals and physician practices. Whether
this enhances quality or simply undermines the doctor-patient relationship
depends on who you ask.
Over the past decade or so, the costs of practice have outpaced increases in reimbursement. Moreover, administrative demands have steered a majority of physicians into employment models, where they have often found that “protocols” and “productivity” were more important metrics than “quality,” leading to both physician and patient dissatisfaction. A rewarding and successful doctor-patient interaction requires time, a luxury many practitioners can no longer afford within the constraints of shorter patient visits.
Nearly 70 Acres Conserved for Recreational Use in Richmond
More than open space
“We are very pleased to work with our partners at USFWS and
TNC to preserve this beautiful property. In completing this acquisition,
we are conserving ecologically important habitat while at the same time,
expanding public access to an exceptional site for outdoor recreation,” said
DEM Director Terry Gray. “This is one of the most beautiful parts of Rhode
Island and we hope that people come out and enjoy a hike or just visit and
connect with nature. Working with our partners enables us to leverage state
open space funds from the Green Bonds overwhelmingly approved by Rhode Island
voters to secure open space resources for the good of our environment and the
people of the state.”
A closer look at vaccine strength revealed a surprising link to brain health.
Stronger Flu Shot Linked to Nearly 55% Lower Alzheimer’s Risk, Study Finds
By University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
.webp)
A new study from UTHealth Houston reports that older adults
who receive a higher dose of the influenza vaccine may have a significantly
lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared to those who receive the
standard dose.
The results were published in Neurology.
Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia,
affecting more than 7 million Americans age 65 and older as of 2025. That
represents about 1 in 9 people in this age group, and the number is projected
to more than double by 2050.
Earlier
research from 2022, led by Paul Schulz, MD, a professor of neurology at
McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and director of the Neurocognitive
Disorders Center, found that people age 65 and older had a lower risk of
Alzheimer’s disease if they received a flu vaccine.
Now, three years later, Schulz and his team report that the reduction in risk is even greater among those who receive a higher dose of the vaccine.
Unions play key role in keeping direct care workers in the workforce
Unions help prevention worker turnover
By University
of California, Los Angeles
Edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed
by Robert Egan
The findings on the role of DCW unionization, published in the peer-reviewed JAMA Network Open, apply to both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, suggesting that unionization can play a significant role in keeping DCWs in the workforce—and save the health care system $1.5 billion a year in turnover costs. It can also lead to improvements in care quality due to increased job satisfaction and lower stress.
Why direct care worker turnover matters
"Direct care workers provide essential daily care for
millions of older adults and people with disabilities, but very high levels of
worker turnover make it increasingly difficult for people to receive the
consistent care they need," said study lead Dr. Geoffrey Gusoff, assistant
professor of family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Reducing turnover and retaining workers in the direct care workforce is
essential for meeting the need for high-quality direct care services."
Friday, April 17, 2026
Environmental Council of RI seeks to protect Rhode Island's climate goals, expand conservation funding, decarbonize buildings, and save RIPTA
ECRI pushes green agenda
The Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI), a coalition of more than 60 organizations “advocating for policies to protect and enhance the environment for all Rhode Islanders,” introduced its 2026 legislative priorities at a State House event on Tuesday. “These priorities were chosen by the membership of ECRI through a month-long democratic process and represent the diversity of the environmental community in Rhode Island,” said ECRI Executive Director Jordan Miller at the opening of the event.
Here’s the video:
This year, ECRI announced four legislative priorities for
the 2026 legislative session. As described by ECRI Vice President Tina
Munter, “[T]hese priorities, in no particular order, include urging our
legislators to oppose the rollback of state clean energy and energy efficiency
programs that have been proposed in the governor’s FY2027 budget, the Green
Bond plus crucial additional funding for conservation and open space measures,
the Save RIPTA legislative package as put together by the Save RIPTA Coalition,
and building decarbonization legislation, both building benchmarking and
reporting and building performance standards.”
Big win for Rhode Island voters
Trump DOJ loses again, now 0 for 5 on voter roll cases, as court rejects Rhode Island lawsuit
By Jim Saksa for
the Democracy Docket
In Donald Trump’s second term, the DOJ has
demanded every state’s unredacted voter registration records — including
sensitive private data like social security numbers and dates of birth — as
part of the administration’s obsessive focus on immigration enforcement.
While 17 Republican-led states have complied,
the rest have refused, leading the DOJ to sue 29 states and Washington, D.C.
for their voter rolls.
Rhode
Island is now the fifth state to secure a district court victory,
joining California, Oregon, Michigan and Massachusetts.*
U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy, a Trump appointee,
called the DOJ’s widespread voter roll demands a “fishing expedition.” The DOJ
sought to use the 1960 Civil Rights Act (CRA) to order Rhode Island to turn
over unredacted versions of its registration records, saying they were needed
to ensure compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Help
America Vote Act (HAVA).
CDC Head Blocks Release of Findings Showing Strong COVID Vax Effectiveness
The report detailed how adults receiving COVID-19 vaccines saw hospitalization rates drop by 55 percent.
By Chris Walker
.webp)
Acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Jay Bhattacharya, who also leads the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is reportedly delaying the publication of new findings within the health agency showcasing the strong effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines to prevent emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
According to a report from The Washington Post, which cites two scientists with knowledge of Bhattacharya’s actions, the unpublished report examined adults who had been vaccinated between the months of September and December last year, and compared their health results to adults who didn’t get vaccinated. Among those who received vaccinations, ER and urgent care visits dropped by 50 percent, while hospitalizations overall saw a 55 percent decline.
The report has cleared the CDC’s scientific-review process, but Bhattacharya is blocking its publication over supposed concerns over its methodology, the scientists said, demanding further scrutiny. However, the report used methods that are regularly utilized by the national health agency, and a report on flu vaccines, using the same methodology as this blocked report, was published just last week.
The revelation of the delay of the report and the questionable rationale for delaying its release is raising concerns among members of the scientific community that the agency is shaping its policy due to the anti-vaccine attitudes of Bhattacharya and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Government May Be Spying on Your Phone
The rapid erosion of privacy
By Don
Bell
 |
| ...And everything else |
In order to function, they connect with communications
networks and geolocation services, creating detailed maps of our daily lives.
If you knew how to read them, you’d know someone’s favorite coffee shop, the
person they’re dating, where they go to school or church, and more.
Would you want the government to have this information at
its fingertips? Most of us wouldn’t — but that’s what’s happening. FBI Director
Kash Patel recently admitted that
the agency is buying up our personal information — including movement and
location data — without a warrant.
If this concerns you, it should. It’s a clear violation of
the Fourth Amendment. And it’s one reason why privacy and civil liberties
advocates have been demanding Congress close a
loophole that essentially allows the government to purchase our data without a
warrant.
The Fourth Amendment exists to prevent the government from
conducting unreasonable searches and seizures. So normally, if law enforcement
officers want to access a person’s cell phone location data in the United
States, they need a warrant. However, because Congress hasn’t updated laws to
address technological advancements, government agencies can instead pay third
party data brokers to access this data for them — no warrant needed.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing in the law that explicitly
outlaws buying information from third parties. This loophole is the equivalent
of the police handing your landlord an envelope of cash in order to enter your
apartment without a warrant, with the police arguing that they didn’t technically break
and enter.
Thursday, April 16, 2026
He is Seriously, Frighteningly, Utterly, and Completely Losing His Mind
We are in great danger
Trump is rapidly going stark-raving mad. He’s a clear and
present danger to the United States and the world.
He lashed out at The New York Times after
its chief White House correspondent questioned his mental
health and stability and pointed to his “erratic behavior and extreme
comments.”
“HAVE THEY NO SHAME? HAVE THEY NO SENSE OF DECENCY?” Trump
posted in CAPITAL LETTERS about the Times, inadvertently echoing
the famous words of Joseph Welch when standing up to Joseph McCarthy during the
Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954. Trump went on to take issue with the Times’s
coverage of his war in Iran rather than his mental state, as if to prove
the Times’s point.
He keeps saying he’s “won” the war with Iran, although he’s
never said what “winning” means. At one moment his goal is to free Iran’s
people. At another, it’s to end Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. At
another, to destroy Iran’s missiles. At another, to achieve “regime change.” At
another, to open the Strait of Hormuz (which was open before Trump started his
war). At another, he says he’ll know the U.S. military operation in Iran is
over when he feels it "[in] my bones.”
He can’t even stay on the same subject for more than a few
minutes. In the middle of a high-level Cabinet meeting about the war, he spends
five minutes talking about his preference for Sharpie pens. He interrupts
another Iran war update to praise the White
House drapes.
He threatens that if Iran doesn’t reopen the strait, “a
whole civilization will die tonight.” Then he says America doesn’t need the
strait reopened. Then he says: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or
you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J.
TRUMP.”
He calls the Pope “WEAK
on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” because the Pope wants peace. He
posts an AI-generated picture of himself as Jesus, then says he was only
depicting himself as a physician.
He won’t give up on his illegal and dangerous (for the
economy) criminal investigation of Fed Chief Jerome Powell, claiming it’s not
just about Powell’s renovations at the Fed but also a “probe on incompetence,”
adding he’ll fire Powell if he doesn’t resign after his term as chair ends.
He claims that the United States “needs” Greenland. He
confuses Greenland with Iceland.
He says whales are being killed by windmills.
He claims that he won all 50
states in 2020. That he defeated Barack Obama in
2016. He says the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed.
He goes on an eight-minute ramble about poisonous
snakes in Peru. He boasts of ending a fictional war between Cambodia
and Armenia.
After Robert Mueller’s death, he says, “Good, I’m glad he’s
dead.” He blames the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle on “the anger
[Rob Reiner] caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable
affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
After Joe Biden is diagnosed with an aggressive form of Stage 4 prostate
cancer, Trump says, “I’m surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time
ago because to get to Stage 9, that’s a long time” (there is no Stage 9
cancer).
He’s been losing it for a while now, but in the last few
months it’s become far worse.
Want help with your garden?
URI Master Gardeners awaiting your call (or email)
 |
| The URI Gardening & Environmental Hotline is now open and in full operation through Nov. 1. (URI Photos / Cooperative Extension) |
Have a garden quandary or need some advice before you start planting your 2026 garden? Ready to celebrate spring but don’t know where to start?
The University of Rhode Island Gardening &
Environmental Hotline is now open and in full operation through Nov.
1.
Southern New Englanders are welcome to send an email and
photos to the University’s Master Gardener volunteer
educators or call for science based-answers to their gardening and
environmental questions. In-person visits are also available by appointment at
URI’s Mallon Outreach Center on the Kingston Campus. Just call 401-874-4836 or
email gardener@uri.edu.
Food Companies Backslide on Promises to Reduce Pesticides
Raise your hand if you are surprised
By Lisa Held
• In an annual report, As You Sow awarded lower scores to 10
out of 17 major food companies on their approach to mitigating pesticide risks.
• Companies are making little progress in reducing the volume of pesticides
used in the U.S. food system, despite the increase in public awareness.
• An increase in consumer pressure could push companies to improve; many
companies that scored poorly in the report are also seeing their stock prices
decrease.
In 2019, food giant General Mills debuted a
three-point strategy to reduce synthetic pesticide use within its supply
chains. The plan was to implement regenerative agriculture practices on 1
million acres of farmland by 2030, increase the use of integrated pest
management (IPM) on farms, and expand organic acreage.
More than six years later, the webpage that outlined that
plan redirects visitors to a
page on regenerative agriculture, where the word “pesticide” does not
appear.
“They are no longer aligning their regenerative agriculture
program with pesticide reduction at all, which is obviously concerning, because
what the soil science points to is that regenerative without significant
pesticide reduction is not regenerating soil health,” said Cailin Dendas, the
senior coordinator of As You Sow’s Environmental
Health Program.
Dendas is the author of a new report that found General Mills is not alone: It’s one of several food companies moving away from earlier promises to reduce pesticide use.
Thanks to Trump’s Iran War, Big Oil Raking in $30 Million Per Hour in Windfall Profits
Making Trump's friends richer
An analysis published by The Guardian estimated that the 100 biggest oil and gas companies have
collectively raked in an extra $30 million per hour since Trump launched his
war with Iran without any congressional authorization in late February.
In just the first month of the conflict, The Guardian
reported, Big Oil made
$23 billion in windfall profits, and the industry is projected to haul in an
additional $234 billion in windfall profits by the end of the year if the price
of oil stays in the $100 range.
The top beneficiaries of the Iran conflict are Saudi Aramco,
which is projected to earn $25.5 billion in windfall profits by the end of the
year; Kuwait Petroleum Corp., which is projected to earn $12.1 billion;
and ExxonMobil,
which is projected to earn $11 billion.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Five top psychiatric specialists warn Congress about Trump’s instability and danger
They cite the “Dark Triad” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.
Jeffrey D. Sach, sBandy X. Lee, James Gilligan, Prudence L. Gourguechon and James R. Merikangas in Common Dreams
Senator John Thune
Senate Majority Leader, US Senate
Senator Charles E. Schumer
Senate Minority Leader, US Senate
Representative Mike
Johnson
Speaker of the House, US House of Representatives
Representative Hakeem Jeffries
House Minority Leader, US
House of Representatives
Dear Senate Majority Leader Thune, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, Speaker
Johnson, and House Minority Leader Jeffries:
We write to you today with a sense of urgency that we do not use lightly. The
behavior and rhetoric of President Donald Trump have
crossed a threshold that demands the immediate and bipartisan attention of
Congress. This is not a partisan assessment. It is a judgment grounded in
observable fact, consistent professional assessment, and the constitutional
responsibilities that your offices carry.
.jpg)
What makes this more than an academic matter is what
predictably happens when this personality structure collides with immovable
obstacles. The clinical literature is clear: individuals with Dark Triad
profiles, when confronted with situations they cannot control or escape, do not
recalibrate. They escalate. The psychological imperative to relieve
narcissistic collapse overrides strategic calculation, concern for
consequences, and ordinary self-restraint. Rage surges to domination.
Impulsivity overrides caution. The urgent need to extinguish psychological pain
eclipses every other consideration.
We are watching this dynamic unfold in real time.
The President’s recent public communications have been, by
any normal standard of political discourse, alarming. His posts demanding that
Iran “open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards” and his threat to bomb Iran
“back to the stone ages,” adding that “a whole civilization will die tonight,
never to be brought back again,” are not the rhetoric of calculated
geopolitical pressure. They are the expressions of a man in profound
psychological distress who is reaching for the most extreme retaliatory threats
available to him. That these statements were addressed to an adversary in the
context of an active military confrontation makes them not merely shocking but
profoundly dangerous.
President Trump has now ordered a US naval blockade of Iran
— an action that has sent world oil prices soaring and
placed the United
States in direct opposition to the international community. His
ongoing actions carry the potential to trigger a global economic catastrophe,
draw in regional and great powers, and ignite a wider conflict with
consequences that no one can bound. These orders are being issued without
adequate deliberation, without congressional authorization, and in a context in
which the President’s judgment is, by every visible measure, severely
compromised.
We urge three specific actions.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)