Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Join the RI Winter Reading Challenge!
The Rhode Island Winter Reading Challenge is in full swing! Sign up by clicking the link below to create a Beanstack account to track your progress online. Every reading day logged adds another chance to win! Prizes include gift baskets, gift cards to local bookstores, Stop&Shop, Dave’s, and the Providence Performing Arts Center; and a 4-pack of Providence Bruins tickets.
Sign up here: RI Winter Reading Challenge 2026
Microbes under the snow: The hidden (and vulnerable) world that fuels spring
There's life under all that snow
By Anna Gray
 |
| New research by URI soil microbiologist Patrick Sorensen reveals the vulnerable process taking place as snowpacks shrink. |
When snow blankets the landscape, it may seem like life slows down. But beneath the surface, an entire world of activity is unfolding. “Unlike many plants or some animals, which tend to go dormant or are much less active during winter, soil microbes are actually very active under winter snowpacks,” says Patrick Sorensen, a soil microbiologist and assistant professor of soil ecology and biogeochemistry in the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Natural Resources Science.
All winter, soil microbes decompose organic matter, releasing nutrients that are critical for plants. By spring, these nutrients are perfectly timed to fuel new growth. Warming winters and reduced snow cover can disrupt this timing, allowing nutrients to wash into streams, escape into the air, or leave plants short of what they need.
Bamboo isn’t just fast-growing, it may be a powerful new superfood hiding in plain sight.
Scientists are rethinking bamboo as a powerful new superfood
Anglia Ruskin University
The first-ever academic review focused on bamboo as a food
has uncovered a wide range of possible health benefits. Researchers found
evidence suggesting bamboo consumption may help regulate blood sugar, reduce
inflammation, support digestive health, and provide antioxidant effects.
Bamboo is known as the fastest growing plant on the planet,
with some species capable of growing up to 90cm in a single day. While China
and India are the largest producers and bamboo shoots are already common in
many Asian cuisines, the findings suggest bamboo could become an important food
option for diets around the world.
After "Melania" flop and performer boycott, Trump plans Kennedy Center shutdown
Family of JFK Call BS on Trump Shuttering of Kennedy Center
Stephen
Prager for Common Dreams
On Sunday, Trump abruptly announced on Truth Social that
beginning on July 4, the performing arts center in Washington, DC, which he
recently renamed after himself, would shut down for two years for
“Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding.”
Trump said the decision was based on input from a group of
“many Highly Respected experts,” who said the center was “tired, broken, and
dilapidated” and needed to be shut down for a facelift.
However, the family of the center’s namesake said it has
more to do with the recent pullout of talent in protest after it
became the “Trump-Kennedy Center” last year and the president began asserting
control over its programming, which included the world premiere of a hagiographic documentary about his
wife, First Lady Melania Trump, this weekend.
In a post on social media, JFK’s
niece, Maria Shriver, gave what she said was a “translation” of Trump’s
comments about the center’s sudden closure.
She suggested the president meant to say: “It has been
brought to my attention that due to the name change (but nobody’s telling me
it’s due to the name change), but it’s been brought to my attention that
entertainers are canceling left and right, and I have determined that since the
name change no one wants to perform there any longer.”
Speaking as Trump, she continued: “I’ve determined that due
to this change in schedule, it’s best for me to close this center down and
rebuild a new center that will bear my name, which will surely get everybody to
stop talking about the fact that everybody’s canceling... right?”
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Trump's "Peace" Board is set to line his pockets
First get rid of the Palestinians, then let Jared Kusner build a giant Trump resort
Meanwhile, pay Trump a billion dollars!
Trump Tower. Trump Steaks. Trump University. Trump Watches. Trump cologne, candles, coins, robes, ornaments, towels, pens, gerbils, and gold-tipped suppositories. It’s hard to think of anything Trump hasn’t tried to monetize.
And now, from his premier fantasy collection, there’s Trump
UN.
Last September, while Trump was busy solving
eight wars that leaders of those countries say
never started, never ended, or had nothing to do with him, Trump
hatched a plan to line his own pockets with the misery in Gaza. He came up with
a Gaza
Board of Peace vested with magical powers to maintain order while
steering private investments to his friends and family.
Trump’s Billion-dollar racket
 |
| From a plan being circulated within the White House |
Trump, who invested
his dad’s money in Middle East real estate two decades ago, claimed
last year that the
U.S. would “run” Gaza, that he saw “long term ownership” possibilities
there. His “Riviera
of the Middle East” proposal with son
in law Jared Kushner floated luxury tourism and an economic hub,
describing Gaza as having a “phenomenal location, on the sea, the best weather”
with “unbelievable” potential.
The only hitch? Someone would first need to relocate more
than two million desperately poor Palestinians who have nowhere else to go.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no
fan of international law or Palestinians, loved
the concept. Arab leaders, not so much. Palestinians, leaders of
surrounding Arab nations, and international organizations saw Trumps ‘Riviera’ as
ethnic cleansing, ripe for war crimes under international law.
Pete Hegseth toasts war-fighting manufacturing in Quonset
Hegseth touts speed and innovation in tour of Quonset Point facilities
By Christopher Shea and Laura Paton, Rhode Island Current
On his first official visit to Rhode Island Monday morning to celebrate and inspire workers at America’s shipyards and defense manufacturing facilities, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth kept about 250 of them standing around waiting for him.
Photo by Steve Ahlquist. There are lots of great
photos and video in his coverage of this event well
as in Rhode Island Current's article.
Hegseth was over 45 minutes late for a scheduled 10:15 a.m. tour of Anduril Industries’ Quonset Point factory, the third stop on his morning visit to the North Kingstown port and business park after first swearing in 40 new military recruits at the Seabees Museum and then speaking to a crowd of 3,000 employees at General Dynamic Electric Boat’s manufacturing hub. His motorcade took him past a crowd of about 100 protestors at the entrance to the memorial park that is home to the museum honoring the U.S. Navy’s elite construction battalion.
Hegseth’s visit to Electric Boat’s facility for building outer hulls and interiors for nuclear-powered submarines was closed to the press because it was in a classified area, Myra Lee, spokesperson for General Dynamics Electric Boat, said. He arrived at Electric Boat at around 9:30 a.m.
“He was originally only supposed to spend 45 minutes — he spent a lot longer speaking with our employees and crew members that were there,” Lee said in a phone interview. “He was late to everything after that.”
Sec. Hegseth celebrates ‘Bath built’ as he touts Trump administration’s offensive military strategy
Electric Boat’s hub is two miles away from Anduril, a manufacturer of unmanned submarines, where the press was allowed inside to wait in a designated area on the factory floor while employees were talking among themselves. Silence fell over the crowd when Hegseth and a wall of security officials finally arrived at 11:07 a.m. for a 25-minute tour, followed by a nearly eight-minute speech.
His morning visit to Rhode Island before heading to Maine’s Bath Iron Works in the afternoon was part of his nationwide “Arsenal of Freedom” campaign highlighting the defense industry’s “manufacturing might” and the need to cut red tape.
Donald Trump signed an executive order last April to bolster the shipbuilding industry, which faces a critical shortage of skilled workers, aging infrastructure, and limited capacity to meet U.S. Navy demand. America’s shipyards would need to substantially ramp up production in order to build another 100 or so battle force ships over the next three decades, particularly for nuclear-powered submarines, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Navy’s 2025 shipbuilding plan.
Trump on Jan. 7 signed an executive order that blocks “underperforming” defense contractors from paying dividends or buying back stock until “they are able to produce a superior product, on time and on budget.”
Hegseth told Anduril’s workers that production is “too tethered to an existing pipeline that has become too slow.”
“We don’t get what we need when we need it,” Hegseth said, before invoking the new name for the federal government’s largest agency. “I can assure you inside this War Department, we’re committed to ensuring the best of the best can run as fast as possible.”
No members of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation were present for Hegseth’s stop in the Ocean State.
Rhode Island’s U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had been invited to join Hegseth but declined because of a previously scheduled 10 a.m. engagement in Woonsocket. He joined fellow Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Gov. Dan McKee and other officials for a ribbon cutting at Millrace, a 70-unit affordable housing development with 23,000 square feet of commercial and community space in a renovated three historic mill complex. Reed had secured over $1 million in federal funds to expand affordable housing in downtown Woonsocket.
Reed, who voted against Hegseth’s appointment to lead the Pentagon last year, citing his lack of experience and past conduct, saw the secretary’s Rhode Island visit as a positive development.
“I hope the secretary comes away from this visit with a keen appreciation for the skill, dedication, and innovation of our talented defense workers and an understanding of the need to invest in our Submarine Industrial Base shipbuilders, shipyards, and critical suppliers,” he said in a statement.
Hegseth appeared to be impressed as he saw the various stages of development of Anduril’s Dive-LD autonomous submarines, which can be used for seabed mapping, establishing communications relays, and infrastructure inspection.
The California-headquartered company landed an $18.6 million U.S. Navy contract in 2024 to prototype distributed, long-range, persistent underwater sensing and payload delivery in contested environments.
“You’re on the frontlines of ensuring we stay ahead,” Hegseth said. “And every day we stay ahead is a day that we deter conflict.”
Hegseth is the third Trump cabinet head to visit Rhode Island after Secretary of Education Linda McMahon toured Exeter-West Greenwich Regional Junior High and High School last month and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez DeRemer stopped at a Cranston fire station last August.
Hegseth commended employees for showing up on the heels of the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl 60 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
“I hear there was a game on Sunday, but we won’t talk about that,” Hegseth told the crowd. “Thanks for showing up on Monday for work. That shows you’re motivated.”
After Hegseth finished his remarks, he walked off to “Got to Hurry” by the Yardbirds as it played over the factory’s speakers.
Rhode Island ‘unwelcomes’ Hegseth
The temperature outside was about 14 degrees. But the cold couldn’t keep away at least 100 protesters lining the north side of Gate Road, flanking the entrance to the Seabees Memorial Park where the Seabees Museum is located. Some passing cars honked at the protesters in the cold, which seemed to warm their spirits, eliciting clapping and cheers.
“If Minnesota can do it, so can we,” Lucy Christie of East Greenwich said in an interview about 10 minutes before Hegseth’s motorcade passed by. She held a brown cardboard sign reading “HEALTH CARE NOT WARFARE.”
“We were so upset and embarrassed about the war crimes committed by the Department of Defense and we just needed to take this opportunity to bring that up to Hegseth and his entourage,” she added.
Her husband George Christie stood next to her holding a U.S. Marine Corps flag. George said he thought Hegseth promotes “his false and fake machismo as a veteran” with little appreciation for history.
“I respect the fact that he was in the service,” George Christie said. “I don’t respect the lessons he learned while he was in the service. I don’t respect the person he works for. I believe what he needs to understand if he reads his history that it was Athens that eliminated the Persian threat, not Sparta.
“His business of degrading scouting because it tries to upgrade the lives of women and gay people is violently offensive to anybody that actually fought for this country or cared for this country, for all the people of this country, and he doesn’t and that needs to be changed.”
Dubbed “Rhode Island ‘Unwelcomes’ Hegseth,” the protest was organized by West Bay Blue Wave. Carol Schimmelpfennig of Brooklyn, Connecticut, who is in her mid-70s, said the cold couldn’t keep her away.
“Think about what these people are doing to this country, and this is how we have to show our support to come out in the cold,” Schimmelpfennig said.
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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
Trump goes nuts against Canada - again
Trump threatens to block new Gordie Howe Bridge unless Canada solves all his grievances
By Will Collette
 |
| This is the actual image Trump uses on his Truth Social website to portray himself. |
I think we're past the point of debating whether Donald Trump is nuts. We knew he was nuts before the November 2024 election when a slim majority decided to elect him anyway.
Since the start of his truly awful second term, Trump's insanity has now become part of every American's life, where every new day dawns with anticipation of some new horror.
T
Trump has been pissed at Canada for months after Canada turned down Trump's request - which then became a demand - that Canada become the 51st state. Trump told them they could either do it the nice way, or the US would take them by force.
He's pissed because Canadians then sharply cut back on buying American goods - especially bourbon - and stopped coming to the US for vacations. How dare they!
Trump himself endorsed the deal in 2017, saying:
We share a commitment to continue to strengthen our ties for the benefit of our mutual prosperity and security. We look forward to our cabinets following up on today's meeting with further discussions in their respective areas of responsibility. Our countries deserve our full commitment to increased economic growth, which we will deliver. The partnership between the United States and Canada will continue to be unique and a model for the world.
@realDonaldTrump
As everyone knows, the Country of Canada has treated the
United States very unfairly for decades. Now, things are turning around for the
U.S.A., and FAST! But imagine, Canada is building a massive bridge between
Ontario and Michigan. They own both the Canada and the United States side and,
of course, built it with virtually no U.S. content. President Barack Hussein
Obama stupidly gave them a waiver so they could get around the BUY AMERICAN
Act, and not use any American products, including our Steel. Now, the Canadian
Government expects me, as President of the United States, to PERMIT them to
just “take advantage of America!” What does the United States of America get —
Absolutely NOTHING! Ontario won't even put U.S. spirits, beverages, and other
alcoholic products, on their shelves, they are absolutely prohibited from doing
so and now, on top of everything else, Prime Minister Carney wants to make a
deal with China — which will eat Canada alive. We’ll just get the leftovers! I
don't think so. The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being
played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup. The Tariffs Canada
charges us for our Dairy products have, for many years, been unacceptable,
putting our Farmers at great financial risk. I will not allow this bridge to
open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given
them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness
and Respect that we deserve. We will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY. With all
that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this
asset. The revenues generated because of the U.S. Market will be astronomical.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
6.9k
ReTruths
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Rhode Islanders report challenges with cost of living, access to affordable housing and nutritious food
Why Rhode Islanders are unhappy
Brown University
Those are among the key findings from the seventh R.I. Life Index,
an annual statewide survey on well-being created by leaders at Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Rhode Island and the Brown University School of Public Health.
The survey captured how Rhode Islanders perceived their
well-being in 2025 and added to a growing set of data the index has been
collecting since before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the results
released on Wednesday, Feb. 4, there was virtually no improvement in 2025 in
persistently low scores for how Rhode Islanders perceive their health and
well-being.
The overall score stood at 57 on a scale of 0 to 100, with
higher scores indicating more positive perceptions. That’s unchanged from the
previous year but down six points since 2021 and stuck at the lowest level
since the index began collecting data.
Monday, February 9, 2026
McKee goes all in on fossil fuels with executive order [possibly] delaying renewable energy and plastic industry CEOs standing behind him
Looks like he's written off the Green vote
“Governor McKee continues to pin the blame of escalating energy prices on the very tools that serve to protect Rhode Island ratepayers from volatile supply costs and rising delivery costs,” said Emily Koo, Rhode Island Program Director for Acadia Center. “It is a glaring omission to report the costs of clean energy while ignoring all of the cost savings, one of the primary reasons for undertaking the energy transition in the first place. I would be surprised if the local businesses featured at tomorrow/today’s event have not themselves leveraged energy efficiency and solar to lower their energy usage and stabilize their energy supply costs – these are best practices, and they benefit all ratepayers.”
Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee is
responding to the climate denialism and dangerous energy policies of the Trump
Administration not by pushing back against fossil fuels and
championing renewable energy, but by embracing the logic coming out of D.C. and
advancing policies that undermine Rhode Island’s historic 2021 Act on Climate legislation.
Rhode Islanders received a preview of Governor McKee’s new
direction (which is not, truthfully, all that new) in his FY2027 Budget
proposal. As Acadia Center [pointed
out in a
recent press release:
“At a moment when federal clean energy support is eroding, Rhode Island should be doubling down on the tools still firmly within the state’s control. Instead, Governor McKee’s FY 2027 budget sadly mirrors the short-sighted policies of the Trump Administration, cutting renewables and energy efficiency and delivering what would be a major blow to Rhode Island’s clean energy economy.”
Read Acadia Center’s analysis here: Acadia
Center responds to severe clean energy rollbacks in Governor McKee’s proposed
FY2027 budget
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