69% odds of getting 8 inches or more of snow and mess
And it could be worse
By Will Collette
Last Wednesday, it looked like Charlestown would have yet another messy weekend, but no Snowmaggedon. Since then, the storm track changed and the bad weather seems to be developing into the dreaded "Bomb Cyclone (bombogenesis)" traditionally know to us as a very nasty Nor'easter.
The National Weather Service forecast for Charlestown shows a slightly higher snowfall range of between 10 inches and 18. First flakes are slated to fall tomorrow afternoon with the bomb hitting tomorrow night and all through Monday. Wind gusts could hit 55 mph.
Temperatures are forecast to be at or above freezing during parts of the storm. That could lead to wetter, heavier snow than we had during the last storm a couple of weeks ago. Wet, heavy snow tends to lead to more power outages and to smashed mailboxes.
We're New Englanders so we know how to handle this, right? As long as we've got enough Wonder Bread and milk, we're OK. Fingers crossed.
U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner paid an unannounced visit to Rhode Island’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility this week. On Tuesday afternoon, he issued a statement after inspecting the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, in Central Falls, which holds detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service as well as ICE. It reads, in part:
“As with other inspections I have conducted of ICE and Border Patrol detention facilities, my focus was on assessing the condition of the facility and the ability of detainees to have basic needs met including access to legal counsel, due process, medical services, and nutrition.”
The statement is conspicuously light on details. It makes no mention of what Magaziner saw while inside the facility, or whether the basic needs of the ICE detainees held there are, in fact, being met. (As of the last publicly-disclosed head count in November, there were 110 ICE detainees there, and the population remained over 100 throughout 2025.)
Still, the visit made Magaziner a leader among Rhode Island’s congressional delegation. Members of Congress have statutory authority to make unannounced inspections at ICE facilities. But, though ICE has dominated headlines during Trump’s second term for all manner of scandals and abuses, and although the Wyatt has remained in steady use by the agency, Magaziner appears to be the first among our state’s four delegates to inspect the facility during Trump’s second term.
So I reached out to the other three to see what their plans were. Here’s what the responses were:
A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo said he plans to visit “soon,” though she did not specify when.
A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Jack Reed said Reed “has visited Wyatt and other similar facilities in other states before and plans to visit Wyatt again.” He did not specify when Reed had last visited Wyatt.
A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Whitehouse “has visited Wyatt in the past and will likely do so again.” She confirmed that he had not visited during Trump’s second term.
One year after taking charge of the nation’s health department, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hasn’t held true to many of the promises he made while appealing to U.S. senators concerned about the longtime anti-vaccine activist’s plans for the nation’s care.
Kennedy squeaked through a narrow Senate vote to be confirmed as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, only after making a number of public and private guarantees about how he would handle vaccine funding and recommendations as secretary.
Here’s a look at some of the promises Kennedy made during his confirmation process.
The Childhood Vaccine Schedule
In two hearings in January 2025, Kennedy repeatedly assured senators that he supported childhood vaccines, noting that all his children were vaccinated.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) grilled Kennedy about the money he’s made in the private sector from lawsuits against vaccine makers and accused him of planning to profit from potential future policies making it easier to sue.
“Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it,” Warren said during the Senate Finance Committee hearing. “Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in.”
Warren’s statement prompted an assurance by Kennedy.
“Senator, I support vaccines,” he said. “I support the childhood schedule. I will do that.”
Days later, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, declared Kennedy had pledged to maintain existing vaccine recommendations if confirmed. Cassidy, a physician specializing in liver diseases and a vocal supporter of vaccination, had questioned Kennedy sharply in a hearing about his views on shots.
“If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations without changes,” Cassidy said during a speech on the Senate floor explaining his vote for Kennedy.
A few months after he was confirmed, Kennedy fired all the incumbent members of the vaccine advisory panel, known as ACIP, and appointed new members, including several who, like him, oppose some vaccines. The panel’s recommendations soon changed drastically.
An old adage tells us that pressure can burst a pipe, but pressure can also make a diamond. It’s a soothing creed for life’s tumult. It applied most directly to me during my past life as a sometimes-boxer by suggesting that the fighter with less talent (me in my youth) can win by smothering their opponent, throwing punches in high volume, and making their foe uncomfortable. Pressure, this pugilistic advice goes, is the best way to expose the fragilities of adversaries.
The analogy applies to the current war on science, now a year old. My academic colleagues and I feel overwhelmed by the never-ending subversion from the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement. We are collectively flummoxed, without a plan of action, and vulnerable to every body blow from an emboldened challenger. The worst consequences of the war on science are not the direct ones, like the funding cuts and the attacks on DEI and free speech. Rather, the most harm comes from the stress imposed by President Donald Trump's health and science leadership, who have nevertheless revealed enormous flaws in the process of science — ones that we could have fixed many moons ago and must fix today if we want science to survive.
In reflecting on the war on science, we should note that there is no silver lining. We shouldn’t accept the notion that the goals of science’s opponents are anything but to maim our scientific machine. Any appeal to the movement’s desire for improved well-being is delusional at best, and is more likely nonsense. We shouldn’t force ourselves to extract meaning from an ordeal. However crude it may sound, “This sucks” is an appropriate response.
But in the midst of our rage, we must confront some major flaws in modern science that have been weaponized against us. And they come to light through the answer to a disquieting question: Why does the public seem largely indifferent to the attacks on science?
URI offers tools to meet Rhode Island’s resilience and emergency management needs: CHAMP predicted flooding on Wellington Ave. in Newport during a 2022 nor’easter.
In a new paper in the Journal of Coastal and Riverine Flood Risk, a team from the University of Rhode Island discusses the novel application of Homeland Security exercises to evaluate emergency managers’ use of their simulation support tools to improve response to major coastal storms such as Hurricane Katrina.
They ran their models based on Hurricane Henri, which hit the northeastern U.S. in 2021, but the paper was inspired by a 20-year lookback at Katrina and the damage it wrought on New Orleans. User feedback and observation data were used to inform real-world activation protocols and guide ongoing development of CHAMP (Coastal Hazards Analysis, Modeling, and Prediction).
For one of the paper’s lead authors, Samuel Adams, a marine affairs Ph.D. candidate in URI’s Marine Affairs Coastal Resilience Lab — and also URI’s Emergency Management Director — considering the impact of Katrina is not only an academic exercise, it’s personal.
A native of New Orleans, Adams came to Rhode Island for college, but says, “NOLA will always be home.” His parents’ home was so damaged, he was there for a week after the storm dealing with their house while the city was evacuated. Adams was working as a firefighter and EMT at the time in Bristol, R.I.
“That experience was the primary catalyst that led to my career in emergency management, and ultimately inspired me to pursue my Ph.D. in this area,” Adams comments. “I looked around me and knew there had to be a better way.”
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is recruiting for critical summertime positions like lifeguards, park rangers, and other key staff to work at state beaches, parks, and campgrounds.
If you like being outdoors and want to make a positive impact on your community and our environment, DEM has hundreds of seasonal employment opportunities across its divisions.
"DEM relies on hiring a robust seasonal workforce each year to manage parks, beaches, and other facilities," said DEM Director Terry Gray. "Working outside at some of the state's best destinations, gaining professional development experience, and having the opportunity to work with people from around the world are just a few of the many perks of joining our team.”
Full-time lifeguard positions are available at all state swimming areas, including surf beaches such as Roger Wheeler and Misquamicut, non-surf beaches such as Goddard Memorial State Park, and freshwater beaches such as Burlingame Campground and Lincoln Woods State Park. Lifeguard pay ranges from $19.75 to $21.00 an hour based on experience and position level. Lifeguards hired by May 22, 2026, can receive a one-time, $500 sign-on bonus as well as a $500 retention bonus if specific requirements are met.
The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA’s) Center for
Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) is refusing to review Moderna’s
application for approval of a new flu vaccine. The decision comes after the FDA
previously indicated support for the company’s phase 3 trial of its mRNA flu
vaccine.
Moderna’s study included more than 40,000 adults age 50 and
up and was intended to help the company get approval to use the vaccine in that
age-group. In a press release,
Moderna said the FDA determined that the company’s study was not “adequate and
well-controlled” because the comparable vaccine used in the trial did not
represent the “best-available standard of care” in the United States at the
time of the study.
Neither federal rules for how drug studies must be designed,
nor the FDA’s own guidance for flu vaccines, refer to the use of
"best-available standard of care” in selecting comparator vaccines.
Previous correspondence from the FDA to Moderna expressed a preference for the
company to use a higher-dose vaccine for older adults as a comparator but
stated, “We agree it would be acceptable to use a licensed standard dose
influenza vaccine as the comparator in your Phase 3 study.”
The study followed a well-established framework for flu
vaccine trials, according to virologist Angela Rasmussen, PhD, of the
University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “The trial design they used is
essentially the trial design that every single flu vaccine has used,” she tells
CIDRAP news.
Refusal could undermine confidence in FDA
In an interview with The
New York Times, Moderna’s president Stephen Hoge, MD, expressed surprise
and confusion about the decision, noting the FDA’s earlier support for the
company’s study plan. The company’s mRNA vaccine has been accepted for review
in the European Union, Canada, and Australia. Moderna has requested a meeting
with the FDA to understand the basis for their refusal.
With an upcoming FIFA World Cup being staged across the nation, 2026 was supposed to be a bumper year for tourism to the United States, driven in part by hordes of arriving soccer fans.
Policy stances from the Trump administration on everything from immigration to tariffs, along with currency swings and stricter border controls, have seemingly proved a turnoff to travelers from other countries, especially Canadians – the single largest source of foreign tourists for the United States. Canadian travel to the U.S. fell by close to 30% in 2025. But it is not just visitors from Canada who are choosing to avoid the United States. Travel from Australia, India and Western Europe, among others, has also shrunk.
We are expertsin tourism. And while we don’t possess a crystal ball, we believe that the tourism decline of 2025 could well continue through 2026. The evidence appears clear: Washington’s ongoing policies are putting off would-be travelers. In other words, the tourism industry is in the midst of a “Trump slump.”
Fewer Canadians heading south
The impact of Donald Trump’s policies are perhaps most pronounced when looking north of the U.S. border. According to the U.S. Travel Association, Canadian visitors generated approximately 20.4 million visits and roughly US$20.5 billion in visitor spending in 2024, supporting about 140,000 American jobs.
The economic impact of fewer Canadian visitors in 2025 affects mostly border states that depend heavily on people driving across the border for retail, restaurants, casinos and short-stay hotels.
Winter-sun states, such as Florida, Arizona and California, are facing both fewer short-stay arrivals and an emerging drop-off in Canadian “snowbirds.” Reports indicate a noticeable increase in Canadians listing U.S. properties in Florida and Arizona for sale and canceling seasonal plans, threatening lodging, health care spending and property tax revenue.
Economic and safety concerns
Economic policies pursued by the Trump administration appear to be among the main reasons visitors are staying away from the U.S. Multiple tariff announcements – pushing tariffs to the highest levels since 1935 – along with tougher border-related rhetoric and an aggressive foreign policy have contributed to a negative perception of the U.S. among would-be tourists.
Meanwhile, exchange rates and inflation have further affected some aspiring travelers, especially Canadians. The Canadian dollar was weakened in 2025, making U.S. trips more expensive. This disproportionately affected day-trip and shopping-driven border crossings.
Families detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas wave signs during a demonstration on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. Brenda Bazán/Associated Press
On January 20, ICE agents
detained a five-year-old child just outside his home in Minnesota. The child
was used as “bait” to try to draw family members out of their home.
A widely circulated photo of the boy being apprehended, with
his Spiderman backpack and fuzzy little animal ears on his winter hat, may
become an
indelible image of ICE’s cruelty.
The Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) alleges that ICE was conducting a targeted
operation against the boy’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias. Yet he and
his son had entered the country via an official crossing point. They have
an active
asylum case and there was no order of deportation against them.
Zena
Stenvik, the local school superintendent, reports that this was the fourth
child detained by ICE in that community alone. A 10-year-old fourth grader and
two 17-year-olds were also taken.
Since then, more children have been abducted. On January 22,
ICE agents detained a 2-year-old
girl and her father, Elvis Joel Tipan Echeverria, in south
Minneapolis. Like Arias and his son, Echeverria and his daughter are asylum
seekers without an active order for deportation.
On January 29, two brothers in the second
and fifth grades were detained with their mother. She also has a
pending asylum case.
Violence towards children is nothing new for the Trump
administration. During Trump’s first term, more than 5,000 immigrant children were forcibly
separated from their parents. These children were
held in dirty, crowded, chain-linked cages and only provided foil sheets to
serve as blankets. In December 2024, Human
Rights Watch reported that as many as 1,360 children had still not
been reunited with their parents.
Rep. Megan L. Cotter has filed legislation to
help older Rhode Islanders stay in their homes by allowing deferment of their
property taxes.
The legislation (2026-H 7567) would apply statewide and would be available
to those 62 or older and those of any age who are permanently totally disabled
or are disabled veterans.
Under it, the payment of property taxes on
single-family homes owned and occupied by those who qualify could be deferred
until the property is disposed because of the death of all owners or otherwise
sold or transferred. The deferred amount, which would be subject to a 6% annual
interest rate, would constitute a lien on the property and would be added to
its final tax bill.
“For most people, a home is their largest asset, an
investment in their physical and financial security for life,” said
Representative Cotter (D-Dist. 39, Exeter, Richmond, Hopkinton).
“Unfortunately, staying in that home can become unaffordable when people retire
or become disabled. Allowing property tax deferment would provide another
option, similar to a reverse mortgage, that would give homeowners more
opportunity to age in place and remain in the home they love for the rest of
their lives.”
