URI has picked up funding in this year’s statewide EC4 climate funding, continuing community work by education students like David LeClair ’26 at local sites such as Audubon Bristol. (URI Photo / College of Education)
This fall, Rhode Island’s
Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council (EC4) allocated $1.5 million
across state partners to support Rhode Island’s implementation of the Act on
Climate law, signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee in 2021.
The EC4 panel assesses Rhode Island efforts to cut
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, guiding state agencies to aid in cutting GHGs
and help strengthen the climate resiliency of local communities.
The spending
plan reflects innovations and commitments from a growing number of state agency
partners to advance meaningful climate action and invest in projects that move
Rhode Island toward a cleaner, sustainable and resilient future.
This is the first time Cooperative Extension and Rhode
Island Sea Grant have been funded in the competitive process; the College of
Education received funding last year and had 17 URI students work with
community educators across the state to highlight, improve, and create climate
literacy learning experiences for the Rhode Island public. URI also received
funding to compile beach profile data in 2025, bringing the total received in
EC4 funding to $819,312 to date.
Moderation is key - don't eat a whole butter cow in one sitting
University of Toronto
Full-fat dairy may not be the health villain it has long
been portrayed as, according to a new study finding that three daily servings
did not worsen weight, cholesterol, or insulin resistance over 12 weeks.
Researchers also observed improvements in blood pressure and nutrient intake,
raising questions about longstanding recommendations to choose low-fat dairy.
For years, people have been encouraged to choose low-fat or
fat-free dairy products to protect their hearts and manage their weight. But
growing scientific evidence suggests that full-fat dairy may not carry the
health risks many have come to expect.
A new Canadian study led by University of Toronto professor
Harvey Anderson adds to that evidence. Researchers found that adults who
consumed three servings of full-fat dairy each day for 12 weeks did not
experience harmful changes in body weight, body composition, energy metabolism,
or blood cholesterol levels compared with participants following a diet
containing little dairy.
Even more surprisingly, participants who consumed more dairy
showed improvements in blood pressure and obtained greater amounts of several
important nutrients.
The findings, published in The Journal of Nutrition,
raise new questions about longstanding dietary recommendations and suggest that
the health effects of dairy may be more complicated than its saturated fat
content alone would indicate.
Why Full-Fat Dairy Has Been Discouraged
For decades, nutrition guidelines in Canada and many other
countries have recommended choosing low-fat or fat-free milk, yogurt, and other
dairy products. The main concern has been saturated fat, which can raise levels
of LDL cholesterol in the blood.
Often called "bad" cholesterol, LDL can contribute
to fatty deposits in the arteries. Over time, this buildup can increase the
risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular problems.
Because full-fat dairy contains more saturated fat than
reduced-fat alternatives, health authorities have traditionally encouraged
people to limit their intake.
However, research examining what happens when people
actually consume full-fat dairy has produced a more complicated picture.
From an Advocates for Better Care in Rhode Island press
release in SteveAhlquist.news
ABC-RI announced the full public
launch of two free, searchable websites that, for the first time, let Rhode
Island families, caregivers, and policymakers look up and compare the
inspection history, quality trends, and ownership of every licensed nursing
home and assisted living residence in the state.
The two tools are:
Assisted Living Inspection Records:
Plain-language summaries of every Rhode Island Department of Health
(RIDOH) inspection report for licensed assisted living residences,
with links to the original reports, a map view of every facility, a
printable checklist of questions to ask on a visit tailored to each
residence, and the site in English and Spanish.
RI Nursing Home Dashboard: CMS
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) quality, staffing,
and inspection data for every Rhode Island nursing home, built from
federal data going back to 2019 and updated monthly, plus a plain-language
guide to choosing between a nursing home and assisted living and who pays
for what, also in English and Spanish.
None of this has been available to the public in a usable
form before.Rhode Island’s assisted living inspection reports exist
only as individual PDFs filed in dozens of separate folders in RIDOH’s Google
Drive, with no index and no way to search or compare across facilities.
CMS
publishes some of this on its own consumer site, Care Compare, but only as
a single current snapshot, with no historical trend data or inspection
summaries. The full underlying dataset behind Care Compare is released
nationally as a massive raw file that, in practice, is not something a family
or even most researchers can open and use. ABC-RI built both tools to take data
that has technically always been public but was never usable and turn it into
something anyone can search from a phone.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Definitely use databases to help you rule out facilities with poor ratings and add high-rated facilities to your list for consideration.
BUT before making any final decisions, I strongly urge you to GO VISIT! Go in person, WITHOUT an appointment and ask to look around. Of course, they will insist you be accompanied, and that's OK.
Consider factors you don't generally see in databases - e.g. smells, noise, crowding, interactions between staff and residents, the expression on patients' faces. You will see differences between facilities only detectable by visiting. - Will Collette
Fifteen years working as an emergency room nurse has convinced Kim Bogan that the only way to fix the American healthcare system is to tear it down and start over.
Her patients arriving for triage are sicker than ever. They can’t afford many of the prescriptions they get in the ER. And sometimes when patients die, she wonders if she could have saved them had she not been caring for five or six other people at once.
That’s why she spent the past year shuttling between 12-hour shifts at this city’s Sparrow Hospital and campaigning for Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat who made “Medicare for All” a signature issue in his congressional campaign and is now a senator-elect.
But she realizes that just because progressive candidates successfully campaigned on some form of the policy in states such as Texas, Iowa, Maine, and Michigan, it doesn’t mean Medicare for All will be an easy sell. “Nobody expected that,” Bogan said.
Medicare for All typically refers to a government health program that would guarantee Americans coverage by replacing most or all private insurance. Critics are already pointing out that, even in a blue wave as massive as the 2026 midterms, the most vocal Medicare for All champions generally won by smaller margins than more moderate Democrats.
The United States
is on the brink of losing its measles elimination status, a celebrated
distinction it has held since 2000, when the Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) determined the country had interrupted endemic transmission of the
virus.
The country's
status is being reconsidered at a meeting of a PAHO commissionin Washington, DC, starting today
and lasting through Friday.
Countries that
have eliminated measles still have occasional outbreaks, often stemming from
international travel. In these rare instances, public health agencies can
intervene before the extremely contagious virus becomes endemic.
'A loss of
achievement'
But in the United
States, measles outbreaks are both sustaining themselves and seeding new
outbreaks, creating a perpetual
state of transmission, explained epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH, director of Brown
University's Pandemic Center.
"It's just
like popcorn: outbreak, outbreak, outbreak, outbreak. All over the
country," she said. "They grow in size, and then they shrink. And
then they move somewhere [else]."
More than 5,100
cases of measles have been reportedby the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) in 2026, though it's conceivable that number could surpass
7,000 before the end of the year. In the year the nation eliminated measles,
the CDC reported just 85 cases.
So far, at least
eight people in the United States have died from measles in 2026, as well as
three last year. And for the first time in generations, congenital
measles—passed from an infected pregnant woman to her newborn—poses a serious
threat to public health.
A major clinical trial has raised new questions about how
doctors decide who should take statins to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Researchers found that using heart scans to guide treatment decisions produced
the same observed rate of major cardiovascular events as traditional risk
assessments, even though the scans led to far fewer recommendations to begin
taking statins.
The findings, presented during a Hot Line session at ESC
Congress 2026, also revealed a striking difference in how consistently patients
took their medication. Those advised to use statins based on calcium buildup in
their coronary arteries were substantially more likely to follow their
treatment recommendations.
Although the results suggest that heart scans could help
doctors make more targeted treatment decisions, the trial did not establish
that the scan approach was as effective as conventional risk assessment.
Researchers say additional studies are needed to determine whether it offers a
better strategy for preventing cardiovascular disease.
Why Predicting Heart Disease Risk Remains a Challenge
Cardiovascular disease remains the world's leading cause of
illness and death. Much of this burden comes from atherosclerotic
cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), which develops when fatty deposits known as
plaque accumulate inside arteries, restricting blood flow and increasing the
risk of heart attacks and strokes. Coronary artery disease and ischemic stroke
are two major forms of this condition.
Several common factors increase the likelihood of developing
ASCVD, including smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and elevated
cholesterol. Doctors use these factors to estimate a person's cardiovascular
risk and determine whether preventive medications are appropriate.
You know this art. But do you remember what it was actually
about?
Hidden in Plain Sight uncovers the politics inside
the songs, films, books, and images millions of us already know—and asks: What
happened to the message?
Art is powerful. It can help us recognize that problems we
experience as private are often collective. It can help us imagine
alternatives, and see new possibilities for change. That’s also why powerful
institutions work to manage culture: by suppressing some ideas, commercializing
others, stripping away context, and turning radical critique into something
safe.
But meanings can be reclaimed.
Look again. Recover the story. Imagine more. And follow the
series as we explore how culture can help us build the power and possibilities
for a better world.
You’ve heard it at sporting events. Political rallies.
Fourth of July celebrations.
But listen to the verses.
A young man is sent to Vietnam. He comes home. He can’t find
work. The country that used him for war has little use for him now.
Born in the U.S.A. is a song about war, class, and
abandonment. And somehow, it became a “patriotic” anthem, dismissing the
original intent of the piece.
How does that happen?
You know this one too. Fun. Catchy. Impossible not to sing
along with.
But listen closely.
You put in the hours. Someone else takes the credit. You
make the money. Someone else gets rich.
Forty years later, millions of people still know exactly
what she’s talking about.
Millions of people know these works. Far fewer remember what
they were actually saying. And sometimes, the forgetting does political work.
In this series, we’re going to take some of the songs,
movies, books, and images millions of people already know—and look again.
Some of these stories will be familiar. Some may surprise
you. And some may make you hear or see something you’ve encountered a hundred
times in a different way.
Through the series, we’ll ask what happened to the
message—and what it can still tell us about power, liberation, and the world we
might build.
The Message Didn’t Disappear. We Stopped Hearing It.
You don’t always have to ban a dangerous idea.
You can take away its context. Leave out the inconvenient
parts. Turn the critique into entertainment. Put the rebel on a T-shirt. Sell
the anger back to the people who felt it in the first place.
And after a while, the work becomes so familiar that we stop
hearing what it’s saying.
Take Pink Floyd’s Money. A song about greed. About a culture
that treats wealth as a measure of human worth. Today, it can sit comfortably
inside celebrations of wealth and business success.
Or Fortunate Son. A song about class privilege—about the
children of the powerful escaping war while working-class people fight it. Now
it can play almost anywhere as a burst of generic American rebellion.
The sound remains. The target gets blurry.
That doesn’t mean the art has failed. It means there’s
another struggle over the art.
Who gets to tell us what it means?
Sometimes, They Just Leave Out the Verses
Everybody knows This Land Is Your Land. For generations,
children have sung it as a simple celebration of America.
But Guthrie wrote verses that many people never learned.
Verses about private property. Poverty. People going hungry.
In one, a sign says:
Private Property.
And Guthrie answers:
The other side didn’t say nothing.
This land was made for you and me.
Suddenly, the song is asking something much more difficult:
Who gets to own the land? Who gets excluded? Who gets to
make the rules?
The song survived. So did the question.
The part that disappeared was the connection between the
two.
Grand
Construction Projects: Trump is focused on gold decorations, marble
columns, triumphal arches, and massive ballrooms, prioritizing them over
issues like healthcare, inflation, and housing.
Historical
Parallels: Similar to Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Ceaușescu, and Louis XIV,
these projects aim to impress, dominate, and create a personal legacy
through monumental architecture.
Threat
to Republican Ideals: By turning the White House and DC into symbols of
his personal power, Trump challenges the founders’ vision of a modest
republic where government serves the people, not glorifies a ruler.
Trump is trying to get his construction projects done before
Democrats can stop him when they take control of Congress in two months after
last night’s spectacular victories. There’s an urgent reason for that, from his
perspective.
Monday afternoon, on the eve of the midterm election, Trump
stood at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and delivered his closing
argument.
But instead of talking about healthcare, inflation, housing
costs, education, or the challenges working families and farmers are facing as
the result of his and the GOP’s policies, he went off on an extended, rambling
rant about fountains, marble, the “arch,” and his other construction projects.
And, repeatedly, about Corinthian columns.
As Barack Obama noted last week, Trump has an obsession with
gluing gold-painted decorations to the walls of the Oval Office; Obama called
it “arts and crafts.” He’s covering things with gold trim, gold gilded picture
frames, elaborate ornamentation, and even regilding monumental statues in DC.
He’s torn down the White House’s East Wing, is building a massive ballroom, is
ripping up an historic DC golf course, and wants a triumphal arch.
What’s going on here?
Just ridiculing this as “arts and crafts” misses an
enormously important aspect of what Trump’s up to; this isn’t simply the vanity
of a former real estate developer who likes shiny stuff.
Historians will tell you that there’s a long and disturbing
history of brutal authoritarian leaders, particularly fascists, being obsessed
with architecture, massive construction projects, and remaking capital cities
in their own images.
And now Trump’s doing it to America and few people seem to
realize its importance.
— Adolf Hitler was obsessed with architecture; he spent
countless hours with Albert Speer planning the transformation of Berlin into
“Germania,” a gigantic imperial capital with buildings designed to dwarf
anything built by previous civilizations. His proposed People’s Hall would have
a dome nearly 1,000 feet high: Hitler wanted buildings so massive that ordinary
human beings would feel insignificant standing before them, buildings that
would last like the monuments of ancient Rome.
— Benito Mussolini did the same thing in Italy, demolishing
historic neighborhoods in Rome to construct grand avenues and massive
government buildings; he was deliberately invoking the architecture of the
ancient Roman Empire, saying his fascist regime was the rebirth of Rome’s
long-lost “greatness.” Future generations, he said, would see his buildings and
remember his name and its imprint on the Eternal City.
— Joseph Stalin, who called himself a communist but ruled
like a fascist, planned an enormous Palace of the Soviets featuring a gigantic,
larger-than-life statue of Lenin.
Affordable RI
celebrated a successful November 3 general election, with all four of its
priority candidates winning their races: Megan Cotter in House District
39, Nelly Burdette in Senate District 17, Veronicka Vega in House
District 49, and Zakary Pereira in House District 22. In addition to
supporting the election of Amy Santiago in House District 7 in the
primary.
The four victories reflect growing support for leaders who
put affordability, economic fairness, and opportunity at the center of their
campaigns. Together, these candidates are committed to addressing the rising
cost of living and making Rhode Island a place where working people can afford
to live, raise a family, and build a future.
Long COVID—or new-onset symptoms or worsening health
conditions after SARS-CoV-2 infection—can lower quality of life. Finding a way
to prevent it would be a welcome relief for those worried about the long-term
effects of the viral infection.
A study published last week in the Journal
of Medical Virology finds that US COVID-19 patients prescribed metformin, a
medication that treats prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, within six days of
COVID-19 infection were less likely to develop long COVID or die.
“Metformin prescription within the week following documented
SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a 53% reduction in LC/D [long COVID or
death] over 6 months in this primarily Omicron-infected sample,” wrote the
authors, led by researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical
School.
Never in the history of my Presidency have I sent anything quite like this to my supporters. Dear Will, this is your only warning. What I’m about to share with you is emotional - PREPARE YOURSELF.
When the cameras are gone and the noise of the day finally fades, it stops being a backdrop for press conferences and power plays.
It becomes what it was always meant to be: a quiet, living garden right beside the White House.
And last evening, in what could be my final 4 weeks as President, I took some time to reflect on the last 10 years we have shared as I strolled alongside the rose bushes.
Here's what the White House under Trump actually looks like:
The "Sacred" Rose Garden has been paved over and now looks like the patio at Mar-A-Lago
Your faith in me still humbles me more than I can put into words.
From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, I have always been able to count on your support.
From an unproven, underdog political candidate to the leader of our nation's GREATEST movement in history, you have always stood by my side.
Even when it would have been easier to write me off.
For the past decade, the Radical Left has done everything in their power in an attempt to destroy the MAGA coalition.
They came for me, my family, friends, and above all: my supporters.
People like you, Will.
When the chips were down, you stared evil straight in the face and never flinched.
You put your career, family, and even LIFE on the line to continue supporting me, and I will never be able to thank you enough.
Every single day I wake up, I pray and thank God for his blessing of being able to be your President.
And every night I go to sleep, I pray for the opportunity to spend one more day fighting to make America Great Again.
And in the Rose Garden late last evening, I made one final prayer before leaving:
That my supporters will keep their trust in me one final time and help see the rest of my mission through.
As you read my message, the Radical Left all across the country are rallying. From our cities to the countryside, dangerous socialists and communists are preparing to destroy our Republican Majorities in the House and the Senate.
I refuse to go quietly and allow the Radical Left one final victory.
After everything we have built - after the strength we restored, the borders we secured, the voices we gave back to forgotten Americans - we cannot stop when we are so close to Making America Great Again.
Here, in the Rose Garden, I’m not asking for your support as President. I am asking for your support as a fellow American who will do anything for his country.
I am asking for one more show of faith. One more offering of trust.
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