Friday, May 22, 2026
Marine life finds new home at base of wind turbines
How sea critters and wind turbines co-exist
| URI Ph.D. student Emmanuel Oyewole conducting field work at the South Fork Wind farm turbines. (Photos courtesy Emmanuel Oyewole) |
As lobsters migrate to colder waters due to climate change, Jonah crabs are becoming one of the most important species for fisheries in Southern New England.
“As the biomass of the American lobster declines due to climate-related changes and shifting ocean conditions, many fishermen have adapted by targeting other valuable species, and the Jonah crab has become a major alternative,” said Emmanuel Oyewole, a first-year Ph.D. student in the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography.
“The Jonah crab used to be considered a bycatch
species and thrown back because lobster was so lucrative. As lobsters became
less abundant, people started to realize that the Jonah crab is a viable and
delicious alternative.”
Oyewole is conducting a study that is partly funded by a
grant from The Nature Conservancy into how offshore wind farm structures are
impacting the growth and habitats of Jonah crabs.
Oyewole prepares Jonah crab muscle
samples for analysis in URI’s Ocean Ecogeochemistry Laboratory.
“Ecologically, Jonah crabs also play an important role in
the marine food web,” said Oyewole, who is from Ilé-Ifẹ̀, Nigeria, a town in
the southwestern part of the country. “They are both predators and prey,
helping to maintain balance within benthic ecosystems. Because they are closely
connected to seafloor habitats, they can help us understand how offshore wind
farm structures may influence local biodiversity, habitat use, and the
productivity of fisheries.”
When turbine foundations are installed on the seafloor,
their hard surfaces become desirable habitats for marine organisms to attach,
grow, and live, just as they do on natural rock or reefs. As algae, barnacles,
mussels, and other small marine life, settle on these structures, these smaller
organisms attract larger species such as crabs and fish that come to feed,
hide, or seek shelter.
“The turbines can create a kind of ‘mini ecosystem.’ They
provide food and habitat, which can draw marine life into the area and
potentially change how species use the surrounding environment,” said Oyewole.
“The question is whether they are increasing the overall amount of marine life
in the ocean by creating new production or simply concentrating animals that
were already living in the surrounding areas.”
The data Oyewole collects and analyzes will benefit
the Commercial Fisheries Research
Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by local commercial fishermen.
These Simple Plant Foods Are Linked to Lower Blood Pressure
Bobby Junior would probably disagree
By BMJ Group
Higher soy and legume intake may reduce the risk of high blood pressure, with the greatest benefits seen at moderate daily consumption levels.
Higher consumption of soy foods and legumes may help lower
the risk of high blood pressure, according to a pooled analysis of existing
research published in the open-access journal BMJ Nutrition Prevention
& Health.
Researchers found that the greatest benefit was linked to
eating about 170 grams (6 ounces) of legumes daily, including peas, lentils,
chickpeas, and beans, along with 60 to 80 grams (2.1 to 2.8 ounces) of soy
foods such as tofu, soy milk, edamame, tempeh, and miso.
Previous studies have connected legumes and soy foods with a
lower risk of cardiovascular disease, but evidence on their role in
reducing high blood pressure has been inconsistent. To investigate further,
researchers reviewed studies published through June 2025 and identified 10
publications containing data from 12 prospective observational studies.
Trump Uses America’s 250th Anniversary To Rewrite History With Corporate Sponsorships
George Orwell warned us: "Who controls the past, controls the future"
Key Takeaways
- Freedom
250 is a corporate-sponsored initiative by the Trump administration to
celebrate America’s 250th birthday, heavily influenced by Hillsdale
College’s narrative.
- Interior
Secretary Doug Burgum has directed employees to promote Freedom 250,
despite the existence of a nonpartisan organization, America250.
- The
initiative serves as an advertising scheme, allowing corporations to
sponsor the celebration for large donations, while taxpayer money funds
these events.
- Critics
argue that the Freedom 250 logo and its related propaganda undermine
government neutrality and erase historical accuracy.
- Concerns
have been raised about potential foreign donations, despite claims by
Freedom 250 spokespeople that they do not accept such funds.
What do you get when you combine a view of American history
reminiscent of the novel 1984 with corporate sponsors? Freedom 250 is the
result, or as its website proclaims, the Trump administration’s “national,
non-partisan organization leading the celebration of our Nation’s 250th
birthday.”
Thursday, May 21, 2026
The long-term consequences of McKee’s short-sighted energy savings plan
Get ready for another Dan McKee mess
By Bill Ibelle, Rhode Island Current
If you think the Washington Bridge fiasco was a bummer, wait until you see the sequel.
That horror movie is in production right now and will be coming to a theater near you if the governor’s cuts to clean energy programs are approved by the legislature. It will be another example of kicking the can down the road until disaster strikes. But more importantly, it will be another example of how saving a few dollars today can lead to astronomical costs in the very near future.
What should we learn from the Washington Bridge? We knew for years that our highway bridges were aging and that hundreds of them, both large and small, were in dangerously poor repair. We know that the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and a succession of governors chose to look the other way because it’s always smart politics to save voters a few dollars immediately, even if it’s going to cost them a fortune for years to come.
Our government opted to save some money. And then the Washington Bridge had to be demolished because it was on the brink of collapse. This created a massive traffic jam that will choke our economy for at least four years and cost taxpayers a half a billion dollars to demolish the bridge and build a new one.
Now let’s look at our present situation. The governor is promising to save you $15 a month on your electric bill by ignoring the climate crisis, but experts say those numbers are wildly inflated and the governor has yet to provide documentation to specifically back up its claim. Still, the governor’s offer is nothing to sneeze at. It could buy you a few cups of coffee
All you have to do to get that free coffee is to agree to kick the climate crisis down the road by cutting programs designed to speed our transition to clean energy. You may wonder why saving $15 a month is a bad idea. To answer that question, let’s watch the movie trailer “Return of the Short-Sighted Leaders.”
Attention, former RI state Representative Justin Price...
Former Richmond state Rep. Justin Price participated in the January 6 insurrection and claimed Antifa for causing the trouble. Does that mean that Antifa can file claims from this fund?
May 27 puppet show
Remember The Way puppet show with Heather Henson
At the Cross Mills Library by the Tomaquag Museum“Where water flows and creatures return, balance is
remembered.”
Join Heather Henson in connecting to your local land and
waterways. Participants will employ kinetic learning to explore planetary
movements and seasonal rhythms. Together, we will journey through the
interconnected waterways and shifting landscapes of the planet guided by the
cultural keystone animals; Whales, Cranes, Sturgeon, and Bison.
Scientists are reading Block Island’s past to protect its future
The University of Rhode Island is working alongside that community to make those decisions better informed. Two new research projects, supported by more than $800,000 in combined Rhode Island Sea Grant funding and matching funds from URI and Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU), will produce the most detailed picture yet of how Block Island’s shoreline and salt marshes are changing and what is driving those changes.
Watch what you say
Your “um” and pauses could reveal early dementia risk
Baycrest Corporate Centre for Geriatric Care
The little pauses, “ums,” and moments when you struggle to find the right word may reveal far more about your brain than anyone realized. Researchers discovered that everyday speech patterns are closely tied to executive function — the mental system that powers memory, planning, focus, and flexible thinking.
By using AI to analyze natural conversations, the team found they could predict cognitive performance with surprising accuracy, potentially opening the door to simple speech-based tools that could detect early signs of dementia long before traditional testing does.
The way people speak during ordinary conversations could
offer valuable insight into brain health, according to new research from
Baycrest, the University of Toronto, and York University. Scientists found that
subtle speech characteristics, including pauses, filler words such as ('uh,'
'um'), and difficulty retrieving words, are closely connected to executive
function, the group of mental abilities involved in memory, planning,
attention, and flexible thinking.
The findings provide some of the strongest evidence so far
linking natural speech patterns with key cognitive abilities. The work also
expands on earlier research showing that older adults who speak more quickly
tend to maintain stronger thinking skills over time (Wei et al., 2024).
Facial recognition data is a key to your identity – if stolen, you can’t just change the locks
Who benefits?

But what if the woman’s facial information is stolen or misused? If a cybercriminal steals her password, she can change it. If they acquire her credit card number, she can cancel the card. But she can’t reset or revoke the appearance of her cheekbones.
Facial recognition systems don’t keep actual images. They convert a face into a mathematical template that maps the positions and proportions of the face’s features. When another camera scans a person later, the system checks their live face against these templates to confirm an identity.
In my work as a cybersecurity professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, I have found that even though templates are more secure than photos – which anyone online can capture and manipulate – templates, too, can be stolen. Once that happens, these digital keys create a lifelong vulnerability. If a facial recognition database is breached, the “locks” that a template opens – accessing a bank app, getting through security at an airport, entering an office building – can’t be reset. A person’s face is permanent, and so is the threat.
The threat isn’t theoretical. Biometric data has been stolen in data breaches. In 2024, biometric data from a facial recognition system used at bars and clubs in Australia was hacked. And in 2019, biometric data from a pilot facial recognition system set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection was breached in an attack on a subcontractor’s network. It’s not clear whether anyone’s stolen biometric data has been exploited, however.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
New hospital safety ratings show Westerly Hospital with an “A” and South County with a “C”
South County Hospital needs help
By Will Collette
South County’s two non-profit hospitals have bracketed
hospital ratings for safety and effectiveness over the past couple of decades,
one usually ranked at or near the top, the other at or near the bottom.
When Cathy and I returned to Rhode Island in 2001, it was
South County Hospital with the great scores and Westerly Hospital with the poor
ones. That
changed about ten years ago.
In 2012, Westerly
Hospital was on the brink of shutting down, having run out of money with a
management that had run out of ideas. They were saved, barely, when they were
purchased by Lawrence & Memorial Hospital of New London. L&M management
brutally
cut staff and services at Westerly, while also engaged in a bitter
strike with their own employees in New London.
However, in 2016, the dynamic changed when both Lawrence
& Memorial and Westerly Hospitals were bought
out by Yale-New Haven as Yale brought higher standards to both hospitals.
By contrast, South County Hospital remained Rhode Island’s
only independent hospital, for better or worse, and also recently went through
its own corporate turmoil that broke into the open in summer 2024.
My own personal connection to South County Hospital goes
back more than 50 years. As a young strategic researcher, I worked on a
statewide campaign led by former RI AFL-CIO President George Nee to get every
hospital in Rhode Island to help uninsured and unemployed workers by treating
them regardless of ability to pay and to write off a substantial amount of
medical debt. Each hospital in turn was targeted until they agreed to these
terms.
![]() |
| Donald Ford |
I went and discovered a new friend, if not a kindred spirit.
As we walked through the whole hospital, especially the inner sections rarely
seen by visitors, Donald greeted workers and often patients by name. He ran the
hospital that way for almost 30 years. I mourned
his passing in 2010.
Fast forward to the present and we have a new South County
CEO, Aaron Robinson who took over as boss in 2018. His policies and management
style provoked a staff revolt, mass resignations, a sharp decline in South County’s ratings and community protests demanding his resignation.
Robinson responded by adopting a siege mentality and, in a
move I’ve never seen, filed a punitive SLAPP suit against the community opposition
group “Save South County Hospital.” SLAPP suits are illegal under Rhode Island law.
Whether it was the SLAPP suit or some genuine compromise,
South County management and its angry constituents came to some kind of undisclosed compromise, but not in time to prevent South County Hospital’s
safety score from dropping another letter grade.
One of the few details of the settlement acknowledged by both sides was that South County would seek and secure some sort of "partnership" deal with an undisclosed third party that would boost quality through more investment yet also preserve SCH's independence.
I asked several SCH staff at various levels about this secret deal, and they said they were waiting to see what Robinson had in mind.
Meanwhile, under Yale-Haven, Westerly Hospital continues to show marked improvement as their scores over the past several years shows.
If you open up the FULL REPORT, you can see where South County has fallen short. I was especially concerned about the two tables above. My interpretation of this data is that safety standards certainly appear to have slipped, but it doesn't seem to be the staff's fault.
Non-profit hospitals should be a public trust. That's what Donald Ford told me almost 50 years ago. Today, they are more like businesses, and their leaders resemble Wall Street CEOs rather than Main Street civic leaders. While I harbor no false hopes about any return to the good old days, there must be a way rekindle the bond between the public and these once revered institutions.
RI Senate passes Victoria Gu bill to require home insurers to give proper notice before cancellation
Climate change risk pushes insurers to cancel coastal home insurance
The Senate approved legislation sponsored by Sen. Victoria Gu to require insurers to provide customers with advance notice of nonrenewal for homeowners and residential fire insurance policies.
“Insurance companies are being a lot more selective about the location and the condition of the houses they insure, declining to cover homes in coastal areas or with older roofs or water heaters,” said Senator Gu (D-Dist. 38, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown).
“The 60 days’ advance
notice will help homeowners find alternative insurance coverage and find
tradespeople if they need to fix something at their house in order to continue
insurance coverage.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: Cathy and I went through this last year TWICE, each time finding insurance companies were changing the rules about covering properties near the coast. Once you find coverage, or maybe I should say IF you find coverage, prices are way up. - Will Collette
Newest poll shows Helena Foulkes kicking Dan McKee's butt by 20%
59% Say Rhode Island Is Headed in the Wrong Direction
A new Emerson College Polling/WPRI-TV 12 News survey of Rhode Island finds incumbent Governor Dan McKee trailing businesswoman Helena Foulkes in the Democratic primary by 20 points, 20% to 40%. Thirty-seven percent are undecided ahead of the September primary.
“Registered Democrats support Foulkes over Governor McKee by
a 12-point margin, 37% to 25%, while independent voters break more
significantly for Foulkes by 32 points, 45% to 13%,” Spencer Kimball, executive
director of Emerson College Polling, said.
McKee is viewed unfavorably by 60% of Rhode Island voters,
while 21% have a favorable view of him. Among Democratic Primary voters, 29%
have a favorable view of McKee and 50% an unfavorable view. Foulkes’
favorability is split: 27% have a favorable view of her and 29% have an
unfavorable view of her. Among Democratic Primary voters, 35% have a favorable
view of Foulkes and 23% an unfavorable view.
Trump fights fraud by withholding funds from blue states while pardoning the fraudsters
It's odd that fraud only seems to happen in blue states
Julia Conley for Common Dreams
“Political retribution, plain and simple,” was how US Sen. Alex Padilla described an announcement by Vice President JD Vance late Wednesday regarding the White House’s decision to withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursement payments to California.Vance and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, claimed the state’s Medicaid records have generated
“red flags” and demanded officials clarify $630 million in billing, $500
million that’s been spent on home health services, and $200 million in what Oz
called “questionable expenditures,” which he claimed had been used to provide
coverage for undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible for Medicaid.
The announcement came a month after Vance’s federal
anti-fraud task force suspended the licenses of nearly 450 hospice care
facilities and 23 home health agencies in the Los Angeles area, accusing them
of fraud.
“We can turn off other resources within their state Medicaid
programs as well,” said the vice president.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has
frequently sparred with the Trump
administration, said Vance and Oz were “attacking programs that keep
seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes,” which are far more
expensive to run than home healthcare agencies.
Newsom said the growth of the state’s In-Home Supportive
Services program has saved taxpayers “$107,000 per person” by reducing reliance
on nursing homes.
“MAGA hates in-home support programs—which help people stay
out of costly institutional settings like nursing homes and get the care they
deserve, typically from loved ones,” said Newsom.
Newsom also said the Trump administration had informed state
officials that the deadline to review California’s Medicaid records “before
deciding whether to defer funding” would be later in the month.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Will the rich run away if Rhode Island tries to tax them?
Weayonnoh Nelson Davies & Patrick Crowley call out vague claims and weak evidence in RIPEC's anti-millionaires' tax report
"With the report’s vagueness about the possibility of economic consequences and failure to quantify risk, RIPEC’s warnings ought not to persuade policymakers or anyone considering the evidence."
The Economic
Progress Institute (EPI) and Rhode Island AFL-CIO find
that the Rhode Island Public Expenditure
Council (RIPEC)’s recent report, Rhode
Island’s Millionaires’ Tax Proposal: The Economic Risks of Becoming Less
Competitive and Losing Taxpayers, falls woefully short on data
or evidence to justify its claims and opposition to raising taxes modestly on
the state’s highest-income filers.
Here are the Top 5 reasons why the report is unreliable
and misleading – plus a critique of the report’s main data point and
statistical claim:
McKee unveils 6 picks for revamped CRMC.
Critics are underwhelmed.
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
Three lawyers, two former state lawmakers and an entrepreneur whose business ventures include a word game app and organic salad dressings are Gov. Dan McKee’s picks for the reshaped Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council.
The six nominees, all men, are slated for initial confirmation hearings before the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture Wednesday — nearly three months after the March 1 deadline for new appointees to join the volunteer council.
McKee’s office did not respond to requests for comment Monday on the delay or on his choices of candidates. Copies of their resumes or applications were also not immediately available, nor was the total number of applications received.
McKee’s recommendation letters, submitted to the Rhode Island Senate on May 14, do not offer any details about the candidates besides their names, and, when applicable, their professional qualifications.
Requiring the volunteer panel members to have relevant work experience was a central part of the reform effort approved by state lawmakers on the final day of the 2025 legislative session. The law reduced the size of the council from 10 to seven people to fix the problem of recurring vacancies that force meetings to be canceled due to lack of quorum.
Foulkes rolls out first part of her economic plan with a $100 Million "Classroom-to-Career" proposal
Practical approach for jobs and the economy
Gubernatorial candidate Helena Buonanno Foulkes (Democrat) announced the first component of “Believe in Rhode Island,” her comprehensive economic plan to give “every Rhode Islander a real shot at a good-paying job, a career, and a better future.”
“Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be rolling out parts of Believe in Rhode Island, my comprehensive economic plan that I will implement as governor,” said Foulkes.
“My plan is grounded in the belief in our
people, our talent, and the incredible assets that Rhode Island has to offer.
For too long, our elected leaders have been trying to tax incentive or special
deal their way into economic success. Instead, we should invest in Rhode
Islanders and lean into what our incredible state has to offer. I’m proud... to
announce my Classroom-to-Career Initiative, the largest investment in career
and technical education in the history of Rhode Island.
“Every parent I meet wants the same thing for their kid: a good, stable job and a future where they don’t have to leave Rhode Island to find a job. For too long, we’ve told young people that the only path to a successful career runs through a four-year college, but talking to the men and women in our trades, the operating engineers, the electricians, the plumbers, the iron workers, and the carpenters, they’ll tell you they have stable careers, good pay, and pride in the work they do.
"It’s the same for our healthcare workers, our advanced manufacturers, and our marine technicians. All Rhode Island needs is more people in all of these careers, and that’s why, as governor, I’ll propose a $100 million bond to fund capital construction for career and technical education facilities at or near high schools throughout the state, so our young people can learn career track skills and start careers with Rhode Island companies straight after graduation.”
“My classroom to career plan has four key points,” said Foulkes.
Monday, May 18, 2026
Earth-Destroying Trump and the Threat of World War III
The nightmare that is Donald Trump
Tom Engelhardt in the TomDispatch
Unlike every other column of mine, this one won’t be broken up with section titles for a simple reason. It’s all about Donald J. Trump and when it comes to him, in this strange world of ours, no one ever really gets a break.In that context, here’s my advice to you: Don’t get old. For years, I managed not to do so, but unfortunately that’s all over now and I’m increasingly an old man. In fact, I’m not quite two years older than Donald J. Trump.
I was born on July 20, 1944, while World War II was still ongoing, and
he was born on June 14, 1946, in the peacetime that followed but would all too
soon become the Cold
War with the Soviet Union.
And let me tell you something else: these days it’s hard enough to keep the website I still run, TomDispatch, in some kind of reasonable shape, while also keeping track of our ever-stranger, more confusing, all-too-Trumpian world.
But keeping track of things nationally and
globally as an 80-year-old president of the United States (with
another two-and-a-half years to go) in a world that seems to be coming apart at
the — whoops, sorry, I can’t help it! — seams? I simply can’t imagine that. Of
course, I couldn’t imagine it for Joe Biden either,
and yet he left the presidency when he was a staggering 82 years and 61 days old and will still have been
younger than Trump if he truly makes it to January 20, 2029. (And both of them
will have beaten the oldest Roman Emperor, Gordian
I, who at 81 only lasted a few weeks in power.)
And meanwhile, of course, in his own ever stranger fashion,
“our” president took out after Leo, the American pope, himself a veritable
youth at 70 years old, calling him of all things, “WEAK on crime” and, of
course, “catering to the Radical Left.” Oh, and while he was at it, Trump
also posted an image of himself being hugged by (yes, of
course!) Jesus. And Leo responded to the president’s abuse by all too
accurately deploring a world being “ravaged by a handful of
tyrants” (including, of course, You Know Exactly Whom).
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, as an imperial power (even,
historically speaking, the imperial power, the only one at its
height to control quite so much of the planet in one fashion or another), this
country, too, is growing ever older and (again) in its own strange fashion
going down (as, of course, all great imperial powers do sooner or later). Phew!
That was a long sentence for this old guy, but you can’t get too long and
complicated (or do I mean confused?) when it comes to the world of Donald J.
Trump. In electing him a second time in 2024, 49.8% of
American voters clearly opted to go down in style by giving imperial oldness a
startling new meaning.
News from the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

.webp)



.webp)



.png)
.jpeg)


.webp)












