Why flu and COVID hit older adults so hard

Aging lungs may spark runaway inflammation that makes infections far more dangerous.

University of California - San Francisco

Older adults are far more likely to develop severe illness from flu or COVID, and new research from UC San Francisco offers an explanation. The study shows that aging lung cells can trigger an overly aggressive immune response, which can turn even mild infections into serious conditions.

These findings provide new insight into age-related inflammation and help explain why something as simple as a cough can sometimes lead to hospitalization in older individuals.

Aging Lung Cells and Inflammation

To explore what changes in older lungs, researchers focused on fibroblasts, the structural cells that help maintain lung tissue. In experiments with young mice, they activated a stress signal typically linked to aging. This caused the lungs to develop clusters of inflamed cells, including some marked by the GZMK gene, which was first identified in severe COVID-19 cases. Scientists believe future treatments could target these cells to interrupt the harmful cycle known as inflammaging.

"We were surprised to see lung fibroblasts working hand-in-hand with immune cells to drive inflammaging," said Tien Peng, MD, a professor of Medicine and a member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute and Bakar Aging Research Institute at UCSF. "It suggests new ways to intervene before patients progress to severe inflammation that can require intubation."

Peng is the senior author of the study, published in Immunity on March 27. Nancy Allen MD, PhD, a clinical fellow in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division in the UCSF Department of Medicine, is the first author.

Foulkes Releases Plan to Lower Utility Bills and Advance Clean Energy

No False Choices

News release from the Foulkes campaign

As energy bills in Rhode Island soar and Rhode Islanders see the effects of climate change every day, Governor McKee has walked back the climate goal that he celebrated just four years ago. Lacking a plan, the governor is creating a false choice between affordable energy and taking action to meet our climate goals. Helena Buonanno Foulkes has outlined her plan to lower energy costs for Rhode Islanders while addressing climate change and advancing renewable energy in the Ocean State. 

“Choosing between lower energy costs and addressing climate change is a false choice that Rhode Island cannot afford to make,” said Helena. “As governor, I’ll focus on cost-effective sources of renewable energy to meet our climate goals while working to lower costs for Rhode Islanders. Today, I’m outlining my plan to do exactly that.”

Last year, 89% of Rhode Island’s electricity came from natural gas, and our state ranks 44th in energy affordability. Meanwhile, renewable energy sources are consistently the cheapest energy options available to meet rising demand. Helena’s plan focuses on increasing clean energy generation in Rhode Island and taking basic steps to hold our for-profit utility accountable to lower costs for Rhode Islanders.

Ensuring lower rates for Rhode Islanders starts with holding the utility accountable for proposed rate increases. The McKee Administration has allowed Rhode Island Energy and its parent company Pennsylvania Power & Light broad latitude to pass more and more costs on to Rhode Island ratepayers. Thankfully, our AG has fought to hold them accountable to the tune of tens of millions of saved ratepayer dollars. 

Helena’s plan, titled No False Choices, rejects the premise that clean energy and lower costs are at odds. As governor, Helena will: 

Something deeper than greed drives Trump’s compulsion to destroy

Will the planet survive this meddlesome moron?

Sabrina Haake

As the price of oil explodes, Trump is doing everything he can to kill cheap energy alternatives. The administration just announced that the U.S. is paying one billion dollars to a French company, TotalEnergies, to cancel wind farm projects already underway, in exchange for new investments in oil and gas. Darwin posted a cryptic ‘SMH’ in response to the news.

Doug Burgum announced the deal, claiming, “the era of affordable, reliable and secure energy is here to stay.” Someone might want to tell Burgum that we’re in the middle of a war proving just the opposite. With crude oil prices skyrocketing, and WWIII looming over the Strait of Hormuz, there’s nothing reliable or secure about fossil fuels except for campaign donations to Trump.

Trump’s war on alternative energy has led to an extraordinary transfer of public money to prop up fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change, which Trump still calls a “hoax.” Trump’s fight to overrule science and abandon all climate protections seems like a compulsion to destroy more than anything; Trump likely assumes he’ll be pushing up daisies before Big Oil is forced to compensate victims.

Who cleans up the mess?

Tomorrow is the day when Trump's Easter war crimes threat is supposed to happen

Will he do it or will he TACO?

This from the Perv-In-Chief who won't release the Epstein files

Attorney General Neronha, coalition sue Trump Administration for rolling back limits on toxic air pollutants

Fighting to stop Trump's attack on public health

SteveAhlquist.news

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha joined a coalition of 21 states and local governments in filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s repeal of the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) Rule and return to outdated standards that harm the environment and public health.

The MATS Rule implements nationwide standards that limit emissions of toxic air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants, including mercury, arsenic, lead, and other toxic metals, as well as acid gases such as hydrogen chloride and formaldehyde. 

In 2024, following significant developments in technologies for controlling pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated the standards for emissions of these hazardous air pollutants from power plants. Last month, the Trump administration rolled back the updated standard, allowing for more of these dangerous emissions to be released into the air.

“Public health and safety should be the top priority of any government,” said Attorney General Neronha.

Judge orders Matunuk owner Perry Raso be given another shot at starting to aqua-farm scallops

‘Do it again, but the right way.’

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Perry Raso. Photo: Chip Riegel, Edible Rhody

The embattled Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council was dealt another blow last week after a Superior Court judge tossed one of its most high-profile and controversial decisions because the panel violated its own procedures.

The 48-page order from Associate Justice Joseph Montalbano reopens the longstanding battle between acclaimed restaurateur and oyster farmer Perry Raso and nearby property owners, remanding the case back to the council for additional public hearings and consideration. 

Raso, originally known for the now-closed Matunuck Oyster Bar, sought to expand his shellfish empire with a scallop farm in Potter Pond in South Kingstown. The expansion spawned public outcry by property residents who argued the shellfish beds would interfere with recreational boating, fishing and other activities within the cove. A five-year standoff ended in June 2023, when the coastal agency’s appointed panel approved a scaled-down version of Raso’s original proposal, cutting 40% of the acreage and banning floating cages. The council later signed off on further modifications submitted by Raso that changed the size, layout and position of the submerged scallop nets.

Two sets of property owners took their case to the judiciary, filing two separate lawsuits in Providence County Superior Court in September 2024, later consolidated into a single case. The property owners, through their attorneys, again argued the scallop beds interfered with their ability to enjoy the cove — a point Montalbano rejected in his order.

However, Montalbano, who is on track to become the court’s presiding justice, found credence in the plaintiffs’ arguments over process. Specifically, he said the council flouted its own rules by failing to fully explain the rationale for its decision, which contradicted the recommendation from a smaller subcommittee that gave a preliminary, and more comprehensive, review. The council also violated its procedures by failing to give public notice or opportunity for additional public input in the “substantial” revisions Raso submitted after the final vote.

Disgraced former Rhode Island general Mike Flynn just ripped you off for $1.25 million

DOJ payout to Mike Flynn has J6-ers lining up at the trough

Liz Dye

The Department of Justice announced that it was “settling” a malicious prosecution case with Michael Flynn for $1.25 million.

Flynn’s claims were entirely without merit, and a federal judge had already dismissed them once. But the Justice Department decided to pay him anyway, calling it a righteous vindication of Trump’s constant whining that he was illegally targeted by the FBI and Robert Mueller.

"Those who instigated the Russia Collusion Hoax and Crossfire Hurricane abused their power to mislead the American people and tarnish the reputations of President Trump and his supporters,” a DOJ spokesperson told ABC. “Today’s settlement, secured by this Justice Department, is an important step in redressing that historic injustice."

Encouraged by this blatant corruption, Trump’s most ardent supporters are demanding their own cut. This week, a group of January 6 rioters filed a class action lawsuit demanding recompense for the injuries they suffered when they attempted to overturn the election.

The stage is set for the wholesale looting of the federal coffers by Trump and his MAGA allies.

“I’m the opposite of desperate. I don’t care.”

The Catastrophe of Trump’s War and Its Mounting Costs

Robert Reich 

Sorry to intrude on you again, but as we near the end of the fourth week of Trump’s war with no end in sight, I want to make sure you are aware of what he said today, and its implications.

After Tehran dismissed his 15-point ceasefire plan, Trump claimed today that Iran is “begging to make a deal” and that he wasn’t the one pushing for negotiations. (Earlier, he told Tehran to “get serious soon” about negotiating an end to the war.)

“They’ll tell you, ‘We’re not negotiating,’” Trump said. “Of course, they’re negotiating. They’ve been obliterated.” He said Iran is allowing some oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as a “present” to show how serious it is about negotiating to end the war.

He rejected reports that he was looking for an exit ramp. “I read a story today that I’m desperate to make a deal,” Trump told reporters. “I’m the opposite of desperate. I don’t care.”

Is he naive? Ignorant? Stupid? Or does he think we’re so stupid as not to see that he’s making this up as he goes, that he has no plan, no exit strategy, no way out?

Trump — and Pete Hegseth and anyone else who may be advising him — have already blown this.

They thought the Iranian regime would fall as easily as the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. They assumed they could use air power alone. Wrong on both counts.

They overestimated the capacity and desire of Iranians to overthrow the regime.

They underestimated the regime’s resilience. They didn’t count on it expanding the conflict through the use of cheap drones aimed at closing the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting supply chains throughout the region, and raising oil prices — thereby putting mounting political and economic pressure on the United States.

They didn’t anticipate that they’d have to lift sanctions on Iran, delivering the regime a huge windfall. Nor that they’d deliver vast oil profits to Vladimir Putin.

To the extent they engaged in any planning at all, they focused on America’s military might rather than the consequences of what might happen next. But as we should have learned years ago from bombing North Vietnam, political outcomes cannot be achieved solely from the skies.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on fired Attorney General Pam Bondi

April 7 – Chariho School Budget Referendum

Vote "YES" on Tuesday - vote at Charlestown Town Hall

Donald Trump issues his most inspiring and profound holiday message yet

Will someone PLEASE go get the 25th Amendment!

Save the Bay volunteers count nearly 600 seals along Rhode Island coastline

Seal population drops

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Photo by Will Collette

Volunteers for Save the Bay counted 22% fewer seals when conducting their annual census of the marine mammal along Rhode Island’s coastline in mid-March. A third of those counted were found on or around Block Island.

The nonprofit environmental advocacy group held its point-in-time count on Wednesday, March 18, when the high temperature reached into the mid-30s off Block Island and winds were between 5 to 10 mph. 

Counts are typically held in March because that’s when the peak number of harbor seals are seen in the Narragansett Bay before they migrate further north, Save the Bay spokesperson Juan Espinoza said. 

“They kind of thrive in spring,” Espinoza said in a phone interview.

How to contain avian flu H5N1 if human-to-human spread begins

With RFK Jr. in charge of the CDC, we are not prepared

By Sandra McLean, York University

Edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan 

The Onion

At this point, avian flu H5N1 is thought to have very limited ability to transmit between humans, but a recent case in British Columbia with an unknown source of transmission has piqued the curiosity and concern of scientists, including York University Professor Seyed Moghadas. Did this lone case come about through transmission from an animal or another person, and if it was via human transmission, what methods would control its spread in the human population?

Director of York's Agent-Based Modeling Laboratory in the Center of Excellence in AI for Public Health Advancement, Moghadas and a group of researchers used modeling to understand the best spread control measures should human-to-human transmission become possible.

"The idea was, let's evaluate some of the interventions that we usually implement at the very earliest stage of a disease outbreak or emerging disease, which we know very little about," he says.

For the research, "Containment Scenarios for Post-Spillover Transmission Chains of Avian Influenza H5N1 from Poultry to Humans," published in Nature Health, various scenarios from isolation to vaccination before or after a spillover event were modeled.

It is one of only a few studies that have explicitly modeled outbreak dynamics following spillover into humans or the effectiveness of public health interventions in early and highly uncertain phases of virus development.

VA Families Losing Homes After Trump Killed Loan Program

"The Most Anti-Veteran President in History"

Julia Conley for Common Dreams

Just as Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress were warned would happen, close to 100,000 US veterans are currently behind on their mortgage payments or are in the process of foreclosure as a result of the White House’s decision to shut down a Department of Veterans Affairs program that helped people with VA-backed home loans when they were behind on their monthly payments.

As NPR reported Thursday, more than 10,000 have already lost their homes, nearly a year after the Trump administration abruptly did away with the VA Servicing Purchase (VASP) program.

The program was rolled out during the Biden administration, after the VA ended a pandemic-era assistance program that had allowed VA home loan borrowers to gradually pay back mortgage payments that they had needed to skip.

Under VASP, the VA purchases home loans that were in default from mortgage services and then modified the loans.

In March 2025, a representative from the Mortgage Bankers Association told the House Veterans Affairs Committee that widespread foreclosures would result if the VASP program—which Republicans in Congress said had been created by former President Joe Biden for “political purposes... to undercut the VA Home Loan program—was not protected.

Despite the warning, the VASP program was halted two months later.

Nearly a year after the program’s end, the VA is still developing a replacement to help veterans—many of whom are struggling to afford essentials just like the majority of other Americans as the cost of living crisis intensifies with rising fuel prices due to Trump’s war on Iran.

Pope to Hegseth: God disapproves

Pope tells Trump administration that God does not want their holy war

Sabrina Haake

The First Amendment strictly prohibits the government from favoring one faith over another, or from endorsing religion in general, whether through subtle or not-so-subtle means. As it evolved from Constitutional text into the canons of caselaw, that framework has protected the plurality for over 250 years by heeding our founders’ warnings to keep church and state separate.

In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause for public school officials to sponsor or encourage prayer in school. State regulations in New York required public schools to open each day with both the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer in which the students recognized their dependence upon an un-named and unspecified God. Under that law, students could absent themselves from the prayer if they found it objectionable. A parent sued.

The Court found that the recitation of a state-composed, non-denominational prayer in public schools was a form of religious indoctrination, even if the prayer was not specific to one denomination, even if it was optional.

The rub then and now is that “optional” participation in a setting controlled by the government is never completely optional. The Jewish kid, the Muslim kid, the Buddhist kid, or the child taught to love God as nature instead of a vindictive creep in the sky has to set themselves apart from the other kids in order not to participate in the prayer. Even standing there silently while the popular kids mouth the prayer all around you can signal difference— defiance against the norm, even. Given stigma and peer pressure, the Court acknowledged that there are social ‘costs’ for not adhering to the group norm. That’s why reinforcing religion as a norm is a form of government indoctrination prohibited under the First Amendment.

Hegseth: First Amendment Who???

Despite the decades-long smacking clarity of the law, Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News bobblehead who renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War without permission from Congress, can’t stop imposing his own religion on the military.

Hegseth holds a monthly Evangelical prayer service at the Pentagon. He announces and promotes his monthly worship coven, what some have called “combative Christianity,” through formal announcements to the troops, and by encouraging attendees to spread the word.

Similar to the school prayer case, these ‘voluntary’ services aren’t entirely voluntary even though Hegseth says they are. They are held in the official Pentagon auditorium, and are broadcast on the Pentagon’s internal TV network, a system designed for maximum saturation at military installations available to over 1.4 million active duty personnel, 1.2 million National Guard/Reserve, 650,000 civilian employees, and thousands of military residents.

How widespread is voter fraud?

Another win for Rhode Island against illegal Trump policies

OMG! Baby bunnies!

Wild, captive, to wild: Working to help save New England’s only native rabbit

Kristen Curry

URI faculty and students are working to help save New England’s only native rabbit; their work follows efforts started at the University by faculty emeriti Thomas Husband in the Department of Natural Resources Science. (Rabbit Photos/Courtesy Roger Williams Park Zoo)

The elusive native New England cottontail rabbit is the subject of lore and literature. But over the last century, their numbers declined precipitously in our region due to development, landscape change, and the introduction of an invasive rabbit.

Now researchers at the University of Rhode Island are using a two-pronged approach to improve the New England cottontail’s prospects, combining genetic and behavioral approaches at two very different sites: busy Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence and the aptly named Patience Island, off of Warwick.

Breeding programs coupled with translocation form an increasingly important method for conserving imperiled species; the approach has been used in the United States to help conserve pygmy and Riparian brush rabbits, but U.S. islands have rarely been used to produce animals for translocation.

T.J. McGreevy, Jr. in URI’s Department of Natural Resources Science is hoping that islands will help preserve the New England cottontail here.

McGreevey recently finished his 14th season of field trapping the New England cottontail on Patience Island; now his state wildlife biologist collaborators will release the rabbits in New Hampshire and Maine this spring. Each winter they move approximately 30 rabbits off island to the mainland; last winter it was 41.

He’s working with URI colleague Justin Richard; they hope their combined efforts will give the native rabbit a better future, preserving its numbers here for centuries to come.

COVID‑19 variant BA.3.2 is spreading quickly across US – a doctor explains what you need to know

Covid variant poses new risks

Kyle B. Enfield, University of Virginia

A variant of COVID-19 called BA.3.2, which has circulated under the radar since late 2024, is now spreading quickly across the United States.

As a pulmonary and critical care doctor, I see many patients who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 due to chronic lung disease, as well as patients living with long COVID. All of them ask me how worried they should be about new variants of the virus.

There’s no sign so far that BA.3.2, nicknamed Cicada, is any more dangerous or causes more severe disease than the variants that were circulating in the winter of 2025-26. But because it’s significantly different from them, the current COVID-19 vaccine may not be as effective against it.

Where did the BA.3.2 variant come from?

BA.3.2 is descended from the omicron variant, which emerged in late 2021.

Compared to the current predominant strains of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, BA.3.2 carries 70 to 75 genetic changes in its spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it get into cells. The spike protein is also the part of the virus that vaccines rely on to coax people’s immune systems into recognizing the virus.

Researchers first identified BA.3.2 in November 2024 in Africa. It started its global trek in 2025 and had made it to 23 countries as of February 2026.

The first U.S. case was detected in a traveler coming into the U.S. in June 2025. Since then, it has been detected in patients and the wastewater systems of 29 states.

Wastewater monitoring is one of the best early methods of detecting strain shift, though the number of states submitting wastewater data to the CDC has declined since around 2022, after the height of the pandemic.

The Cicada variant was first detected in November 2024.

New Trump Rule Would Let Private Equity, Crypto ‘Endanger Retirement Savings of Millions’

Money for tech bros

Jake Johnson

Donald Trump’s Labor Department unveiled a proposal that would welcome private equity and cryptocurrency investments into Americans’ 401(k) plans, the culmination of an aggressive Wall Street lobbying push that could leave the retirement savings of millions vulnerable to the wild swings of so-called “alternative assets.”

The proposed rule, now subject to a public comment period, was issued at the direction of a Trump executive order from last year that was characterized at the time as “the holy grail for private equity.”

In addition to giving employers a green light to include private equity and crypto investments in 401(k) plans offered to workers, the new rule would establish a “safe harbor” allowing retirement account administrators to avoid legal action from employees who believe their funds were steered into excessively risky products.

Trump's Magical Thinking

He says he's winning in Iran. He's losing bigly.

Robert Reich

Mr. Trump, may I have a word?

Bad enough for you to insist — in the face of all evidence to the contrary — that you won the 2020 election.

But it’s another thing for you to pretend — in the face of mounting deaths and injuries, ballooning expenses, and rising prices — that you won, or are winning, the war with Iran you began on February 28.

“Let me say, we’ve won,” you told a rally in Kentucky on March 11.

“I think we’ve won,” you said on the White House South Lawn on March 20.

“We’ve won this war. The war has been won,” you said in the Oval Office on March 24.

“We are winning so big,” you told a fundraising dinner on March 25.

“We’ve had regime change,” you told reporters three days ago. “The one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead. The next regime is mostly dead.” Iran has now moved onto its “third regime,” and American negotiators are now speaking to “a whole different group of people” who have “been very reasonable,” you said.

You’re making all this up. In fact, you’re losing your war. And so is America and much of the rest of the world.

Bombs for bucks

Well, look who's trans

Here's hubby (Photo: Daily Mail)

Senator Gu posts new bill to protect you from identity theft

Sen. Gu, Rep. Carson bill would modernize identity theft protection laws

Legislation from Sen. Victoria Gu and Lauren H. Carson aims to modernize cybersecurity laws to better protect the personally identifiable information of Rhode Islanders.

“In the wake of the RIBridges cyberattack, it’s important to set clear expectations that state agencies, municipalities and companies should be meeting current best practices of an industry-recognized cybersecurity framework, such as NIST Cybersecurity Framework, to protect the personally identifiable information of Rhode Islanders,” said Senator Gu (D-Dist. 38, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown) who chairs the Senate Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies. “Our current laws governing the protection of this information need updating to match the reality of our increasingly digital world and its threats.”

The December 2024 breach of RIBridges, Rhode Island’s online portal for social services, affected around 650,000 people in total, releasing Social Security numbers, employment details, financial data and other personal information to the dark web. Senator Gu and Representative Carson saw this as a clear sign that Rhode Island needed to update its cybersecurity standards.

How far can anti-vax craziness go?

More people requesting ‘unvaccinated’ blood for themselves or their children

Liz Szabo, MA

A growing number of patients who need transfusions are asking for blood from unvaccinated donors, a difficult request to honor, given that blood centers don’t ask donors if they’ve been vaccinated and don’t label blood according to vaccinated status.

These requests often delay care and, in some cases, harm patients’ health, according to a report published late last week in Transfusion. Health systems need to develop standardized policies, include counseling, to handle these requests, the report’s authors wrote.

The US blood supply is incredibly safe, the authors wrote. Donations are carefully screened for HIV and other potentially infectious microbes. There’s no evidence that blood from unvaccinated people is any safer than other blood.

The requests for “unvaccinated blood” increased after the release of COVID-19 vaccines, which saved an estimated 20 million lives in their first year of use, but which have been the subject of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center received 15 requests for unvaccinated blood from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2025, according to the new report. The median age of patients was 17 years old; more than half were children.

An Inadvertent Release

Yet another monumental screwup

Joyce Vance

Judge Aileen Cannon forbade it. There would be no release of Volume II of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report, the part that dealt with the discovery that Donald Trump kept classified documents, some at the Top Secret/SCI level, when he left the White House. When Smith testified before Congress, he carefully tailored his responses to avoid violating the court’s order.

But not so much the Trump White House. In what appears to be a sloppy but serious error, the administration released a document to Congress that MSNOW’s Carol Leonnig and Jacqueline Alemany reported on yesterday. They write, “In a January 2023 'progress memo' reviewed by MS NOW, Smith’s office discussed the possible motive after the FBI discovered that Trump held on to many documents related to his businesses.” Although the document isn’t publicly available, it sounds like the sort of reports agents and/or prosecutors might prepare for supervisors. This one contains some fascinating details.

The document was released as part of a regular document production DOJ has been making to Congress in support of the Republican inquiry into Smith. House Judiciary Democrats put it like this: “This particular production contained a memorandum detailing non-public information about the classified documents Trump stole when leaving office. The newly produced materials offer a startling view of evidence gathered by Special Counsel Jack Smith during his investigations into the criminal activity of President Trump, even as DOJ continues to suppress Volume II of his final report.”

First, is the hint at motive. Why did Trump do something so obviously criminal, and not do it particularly well? Why did he lie to DOJ officials when asked to return classified material they had learned was still in his possession? What was so important to the former president? 

Motive is not an element of the crimes Trump was ultimately charged with (indictment ironically still available on the DOJ website). There were 32 counts of Willful Retention of National Defense Information, along with some related counts and a conspiracy to obstruct justice. The lead charge, 18 U.S.C. § 793(e), provides as follows:

Leave Ninigret, Trustom Pond et al. alone, dammit!

Wildlife Refuges on Trump’s Hit List 

By Gina-Marie Cheeseman

Trustom Pond. Photo by Will Collette

The Trump administration has wildlife refuges in its sights. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service head Brian Nesvik launched a review of the National Wildlife Refuge System and the National Fish Hatchery System. The review will look for “refuges or hatcheries established for a purpose that no longer aligns with the mission. It will also look for operational funding and the workforce.

The NWRS has 573 refuges on more than 96 million acres of land and five Marine National Monuments on 760 million acres of submerged lands and waters. Half of FWS employees work for the NWRS. The NFSH stocks over 122 million fish per year. President Theodore Roosevelt created the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge off Florida’s coast as the first unit of the NWRS.” Congress created the NFHS in 1872 to help the production of fish for food. 

Wildlife refuges are places set aside to protect wildlife and their habitats. The NWRS and the NFHS protect 700 species of birds, 220 species of mammals, 250 species of reptiles and amphibians, and more than 1,000 species of fish. Wildlife refuges welcome more than 67 million visitors per year, generate over $3 billion in economic activity, and support more than 41,000 jobs.

And then he disappears

Charlestown Democrats announce April events

 

C-Town Dems News

April 2026

Mark Your Calendars…

Tuesday, April 7th Vote on the Chariho school budget   The Chariho District Financial Referendum will be held Tuesday, April 7, 2026 from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM   All Charlestown voters can vote at: Charlestown Town Hall, Council Chambers 4540 S County Trail, Charlestown RI  02813

Saturday, April 4th

Thanks to everyone who came out for March's Tea with Tina.   Join Tina this Saturday, from 10 AM – 12 noon at Caf Bar.   Tina will be joined by Andrew Kettle, Chief, Charlestown Ambulance Rescue. They'll be discussing HB 7485 which aims to improve ambulance services by requiring insurance to reimburse for care even when no transport to a hospital occurs. This legislation supports community paramedicine and "treatment in place" models, aiming to lower costs and improve care access, particularly in rural areas. All are welcome, no RSVP necessary.

Wednesday, April 8th Keith Hoffman, candidate for Attorney General of RI will be attending our regular committee meeting.* 6 PM in the Charlestown Police Station 4901 Old Post Road *Note this is one week later than usual due to scheduling conflicts.

Call for Volunteers Your Charlestown Democratic Town Committee needs you! We are looking for active participants who want to help support Democratic candidates and causes. If interested, send us a note. to info@charlestowndemocrats.org. Please consider joining us!

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The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee manages the affairs of the Democratic Party in the town of Charlestown, RI subject to RI Election Law, State Party rules and its own bylaws. We meet the first Wednesday of every month at 6:00 PM at the Charlestown Police Station. Any Charlestown registered Democrat is welcome to attend.

P.O. Box 1088, Charlestown RI 02813 Visit our social accounts charlestowndemocrats.org