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Thursday, April 30, 2026
Tea with Tina postponed for another event
Salty drinking water could be increasing your blood pressure – people living in coastal areas are most at risk
Some Charlestown well water already affected by sea level rise
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As sea levels rise, more and more salt water tends to infiltrate global freshwater sources. I’m a public health researcher, and this raised a question for my team: Could saltwater intrusion be increasing the risk of high blood pressure worldwide?
In our analysis of existing research, we found that people exposed to saltier drinking water tend to have significantly higher blood pressure and a greater risk of hypertension. This link, as expected, appears strongest in coastal areas where seawater is increasingly contaminating freshwater supplies.
Our findings highlight an often overlooked environmental factor in cardiovascular disease that could become more problematic as climate change accelerates.
Rotavirus cases in children are rising
Parents should know there is a highly effective vaccine cut hospitalizations from the virus by 80% in 2 decades
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that almost 8 in 100 people tested for rotavirus have the virus. This is only a little higher than last year at this time, when about 7 in 100 tests were positive. However, doctors are concerned because rotavirus cases started rising earlier than usual – in January – which means more children are getting sick over a longer period of time.
Often referred to as a stomach flu or stomach bug, rotavirus infection can cause extreme diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration and hospitalization. Just like measles and whooping cough, infectious diseases that are also on the rise, rotavirus can be prevented with a safe and highly effective vaccine. But vaccination rates in the U.S. have fallen since 2018.
The Conversation asked epidemiologist Annette Regan to explain why this virus is on the rise and what families can do to protect themselves from the illness.
What is rotavirus and why is it dangerous?
Rotavirus, first identified in 1973, affects the gastrointestinal system – that is, the stomach and the intestines.
Rotavirus spreads from person to person, often when germs from poop get on hands or surfaces and then into the mouth. But a person can also become infected by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their mouth, or by drinking or eating contaminated food or water.
Rotavirus causes sudden diarrhea, vomiting and fever that can cause rapid dehydration, which can lead to death if left untreated. There is no medicine to cure the virus. Doctors can only help by giving fluids and watching closely for dehydration. Babies who lose too much fluid may need care in the hospital.
Rotavirus most often affects infants and young children. Without vaccination, nearly all children have a rotavirus infection by age 5.
The virus causes most instances of hospitalization due to severe diarrhea and is the leading cause of death due to diarrhea in children under 5. Older children and adults typically experience more mild infections, but the virus can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems and those over 65.
Trump’s Venezuela, Boat Strike Campaign Have Cost Nearly $5 Billion So Far
The cost of state-sanctioned murder
By Sharon Zhang
The Trump administration’s operations in Latin America over the past seven months have cost nearly $5 billion, finds a new analysis — enough to fund Medicaid for half a million Americans for a year.
Thus far, the combination of the military costs for the deadly raid of Venezuela and abduction of then-President Nicolás Maduro as well as the U.S.’s boat strike and surveillance campaign in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea is at least $4.7 billion, according to an analysis released on Thursday by the Brown University Watson School of International and Public Affairs’s Costs of War project.
Naval deployment is the single most costly factor, the report finds, at $3.8 billion between August of 2025 and March of 2026.
This amount only reflects public information on naval, aircraft, and Special Operations deployment, as well as costs of equipment and munitions used, pulled from the Congressional Budget Office, researchers noted. It does not reflect costs from any covert operations like potential Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) programs that Donald Trump has hinted at.
The “cost estimate would likely increase significantly” if these operations were included, the authors write. Further, the authors note that the “greatest costs may be yet to come,” as the boat strike campaign, which has killed 180 civilians so far, is set to continue indefinitely.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Managed Retreat Can be an Opportunity to Start Fresh
Sooner or later, the ocean will win
By Rep. Terri Cortvriend and Sen. Victoria Gu / R.I. General Assembly
In 2023, our state took a big step to enshrine Rhode
Islanders’ right to the shoreline: up to 10 feet above the last high-tide line.
But what happens as sea level rise pushes the high-tide line up to homeowners’
and businesses’ seawalls?
No matter how rich you are, you can't stop the ocean
Our beaches and shoreline are fragile ecosystems that naturally migrate upland as sea levels rise. But as homeowners and businesses increasingly put up rock walls and fortify their property, the beach has nowhere to go. When that sandy beach disappears, there goes one of our greatest natural assets, and the tourism economy on which Rhode Island’s economy relies erodes along with it.
Even seawalls, however, are not a permanent defense for
property in some places as sea levels rise and storm severity and frequency
continue to grow. On our coast and inland, several neighborhoods — most
recently some along the Pocasset River in Cranston and Johnston — in our state
have experienced such severe and frequent flooding that they qualified for
federal funding for buyouts. In those situations, both the government and the
property owners agree that the dangers and costs of continuing to live in those
areas are simply too high.
Planning to prevent disaster, however, is always safer and
less costly than responding to it.
“Managed retreat” is a planned effort to identify
disaster-prone areas and relocate homes, businesses, and infrastructure there
to safer places before they are destroyed.
Managed retreat can often protect other areas nearby, since
the removal of human-made structures can help reduce erosion and flooding, and
the restored area becomes a natural place for water to go.
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New satellite-based AI approach reveals ocean currents in unprecedented detail
A good use for AI?
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| GOFLOW temperature gradient computed in the Gulf Stream region in the Atlantic Ocean. (Credit: Luc Lenain/Scripps Institution of Oceanography) |
A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience describes an artificial intelligence-powered technique that can measure ocean surface currents over broad areas in greater detail than ever before. Among the co-authors is Nick Pizzo of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.
Called GOFLOW (Geostationary Ocean Flow), the approach uses
AI to analyze thermal images from weather satellites already in orbit. Because
it relies on existing satellites, no new hardware is needed, marking what
researchers describe as a major advancement in ocean observation.
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| A side-by-side comparison of ocean surface velocity and vorticity fields in the same region, showing GOFLOW (a) alongside AVISO (b). While the AVISO map is built from a 10-day average, the GOFLOW map is built from hourly data, revealing greater detail. (Credit: Luc Lenain/Scripps Institution of Oceanography) |
The study was co-led by Luc Lenain of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego and Kaushik Srinivasan of University of California, Los Angeles. Co-author Roy Barkan of Tel Aviv University and Pizzo are also alumni of Scripps. The project was supported by grants from the Office of Naval Research, NASA, and the European Research Council.
More evidence that mRNA vaccines - hated by Bobby Kennedy Jr. - kill cancer tumors
How mRNA cancer vaccines still destroy tumors when a key immune cell is missing
By Marta Wegorzewska, Washington University in St. Louis
Edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed
by Andrew Zinin
The advent of mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in 2020
changed the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the Nobel Prize–winning
technology is being adapted to fight cancer, with mRNA vaccines in clinical
trials for melanoma, small-cell lung cancer and bladder cancer, among others,
opening the door to new ways of preventing and treating the disease.
Scientists assumed that one specific immune cell subtype was
required for mRNA vaccination to activate the immune system. But researchers at
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis show in a new study in
mice that even without these cells, the mRNA vaccine still triggers strong
cancer-killing responses. That's because, they found, a cousin to this subtype
of immune cell can also stimulate anti-tumor immune activity—an unexpected
finding given that this related subtype is not involved in responses to other
vaccines.
The findings are published in Nature,
offering a deeper understanding of how the immune system responds to mRNA
vaccination and guiding the optimal design of a cancer vaccine.
Amazon drives up the prices you pay
Coercive Price Fixing
By Philip
Mattera, director of the Corporate
Research Project of Good Jobs First for the
Its Prime subscription system was designed to make customers
focus on the benefits of free shipping and overlook the fact that the prices of
the products were not much of a bargain.
Now the giant e-retailer is facing allegations that it not
only abandoned the low-cost approach but actually conspired to raise the prices
charged on its own platform as well as those of its competitors.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta brought a price-fixing lawsuit against Amazon in February and has just provided new details of the alleged conspiracy in a motion filed in state court in San Francisco.
The
document claims that when a competing platform is offering a product at a price
lower than it is charging, Amazon demands that the supplier intervene to get
that price increased: “Vendors, cowed by Amazon’s overwhelming bargaining
leverage and fearing punishment, comply—agreeing to raise prices on competitors’
websites (often with the awareness and cooperation of the competing retailer)
or to remove products from competing websites altogether. The scheme is neither
subtle nor complex. It is price fixing, and it should be immediately enjoined.”
The pressure exerted by Amazon is said to be a part of a
system called Can’t Realize a Profit, or CRaP, in which it cuts off orders from
suppliers that don’t comply with the company’s demands.
What is notable about the California AG’s motion is that it
include details on specific vendors that were said to have gotten caught up in
the price fixing. For example, it quotes an email from GlobalOne Pet Products,
a producer of premium pet treats, to the big pet supplies website Chewy urging
it to coordinate a price increase with Amazon.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
In hearings, RFK Jr claims no responsibility for measles spread
Dems tell Bobby Junior to man up
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| AOC is sick of his bullshit |
His testimony capped off a busy week on Capitol Hill, where
he made seven appearances.
Kennedy was there to discuss the proposed 2027 HHS budget,
but after failing to appear in front of lawmakers for many months, during which
Kennedy made broad changes to national recommendations for childhood vaccines,
appeared shirtless in promotional videos with Kid Rock, and withheld millions
of Medicaid funds from “blue” states like Minnesota and California, Kennedy
found himself facing questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
During his opening statements to both committees, Kennedy
focused on nutrition, food dyes, and the chronic disease epidemic, Make America
Healthy Again (MAHA) topics that are seen as less controversial than
anti-vaccine rhetoric that could punish Republicans during upcoming midterm
elections.
But senators repeatedly pivoted to two issues Kennedy
couldn’t shake: the punishing costs of prescription drugs, and the ongoing US
measles epidemic.
‘I have nothing to do with the measles outbreak’
Throughout the Finance Committee meeting, Kennedy said he had nothing to do with large ongoing measles outbreaks across the country, and implied it was rising international rates of the virus seeding outbreaks in the United States.
Meet with Charlestown's state Rep. Tina Spears
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