Mystic Aquarium Fined by USDA for Breaking Federal Law After a Watchdog Complaint

Feds punish Mystic Aquarium for abusing beluga whales

Michael Budkie 

Photo by Will Collette. I took my grandniece to see the Belugas at Mystic

The Mystic Aquarium (aka Sea Research Foundation) has been slapped with a $12,200 federal fine by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture for animal abuse and breaking federal law, according to a national watchdog, which filed a federal complaint leading to the penalty. 

The fine document is posted at:  https://saenonline.org/news-media-news-2024/Sea-Research-Foundation-Fine-8-13-24.html 

SAEN,  a non-profit Ohio-based non-governmental watchdog that monitors U.S. research facilities for illegal behavior and animal abuse, previously filed a federal complaint with the USDA regarding multiple federal Animal Welfare Act violations from the USDA. 

The federal fine also addresses significant water quality issues that endangered the health of two other marine mammals, Jetta and Havana.  Both of these whales were receiving veterinary care for multiple issues when the water quality issues were discovered. 

The USDA fine penalized Mystic Aquarium for improper animal handling, inadequate veterinary care, and poor water quality in marine mammal enclosures, said SAEN. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Since hearing about the USDA investigation, I dropped coverage of Mystic from Progressive Charlestown. This, despite my appreciation of their marine animal rescue team that frequently uses Charlestown's beach to return healed sea creatures to their natural habitat. I think Mystic is wrong to put so much effort into making their aquarium a tourist and show-biz venue. The Beluga's in particular are very intelligent creatures and should not be cooped up in their relatively small tanks. Less show biz and more science, in my opinion.   - Will Collette

Is Flip going to go clubbing?

With Republicans, cruelty is the point

By Will Collette

Composite by Will Collette.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Charlestown’s former state Representative Blake “Flip” Filippi (R) shows up at Blue Shutters Beach for one of the Mystic Aquarium’s frequent releases of rehabilitated seals. 

Except unlike most onlookers, instead of a camera, he'll have a big club to beat the newly healed critters to death before they hit the water.

I’m not joking.

If you follow Flip on Twitter/X, you’ll notice that he’s been campaigning against the growing population of seals in Block Island Sound on the grounds that they will attract great white sharks. 

And before you can say “Jaws,” there goes tourism on Block Island where, not coincidentally, the Filippi family has large business holdings catering to said tourists.

In his own words, here is what Flip has been saying: 

From Flip's Twitter/X feed

Accompanying a photo (👉) of seals gathered on a beach, he wrote: “Lots of Block Island shark bait!”

 

He wrote another post using the same photo and said: “Whoa – this is the most chum I’ve seen on Block Island!”

 

Accompanying a ProJo article on the growing seal population and Mystic Aquarium’s marine animal rescue program, he really got into his hatred of seals, writing: 

“Rhode Island will rue the ongoing explosion of our seal population when Great White Sharks take up residence alongside them. Cull the year-round seal population before it is too late.”

He wrote another post on the same ProJo article:

“Gee – let’s see if great whites take up residence off Block Island to follow the growing seal population. How about instead we get rid of the damn seals and not have to find out.”

He also posted a phone photo of what may be a shark fin in the water, saying the photo was taken south of Block Island.

There is a smidgen of truth in Blake’s anti-seal rants. There are now roughly 200-300 seals in the waters between Block Island and Charlestown, and seals are Great Whites’ favorite food, according to scientists.

Experts say that Cape Cod is a more popular venue for Great Whites because there are even more seals there. However, just the mere presence of sharks doesn’t lead, ipso facto, to attacks on humans.

While shark attacks on humans DO occur – and get big headlines – they occur far less often than you might think.

Last year, there were 36 shark attacks in all US waters. Worldwide, 69 unprovoked bites were reported plus another 22 listed as “provoked.”

Patch cited the Atlantic Shark Institute in Wakefield saying there have been two confirmed shark fatalities in Rhode Island waters in the last 200 years. That's once a century.

In an article listing all documented shark attacks, fatal or not, in New England waters between 1751 and 2019, six are listed for Rhode Island and of those, two were fatal.

The first recorded fatality was a young boy killed in Bristol Harbor in 1816. The second occurred at Watch Hill in 1895.

The last incident listed was a possible attack on a surfer while returning to Moonstone Beach in 2019. He reported his leg was bloody from punctures but could not identify what caused those lacerations.

It was NOT a Great White Shark. The Institute has tagged 30 Great Whites in Rhode Island waters but no shark fatalities by ANY species of shark in 129 years.

And that’s it. When I said Flip had a smidgen of truth in his rants, maybe I was being too generous since there is no scientific or historical evidence to support his fears of a Sharknado outbreak in Rhode Island. And no reason to start killing seals en masse unless Flip thinks that would be a tourist draw.

But perhaps Blake has another reason for ranting about killing seals: maybe Filippi, like his former MAGA-nut colleague Justin Price, is planning a political comeback.

One necessary step for any 2024 Republican politician is to show how in-sync their thinking is with the GOP’s Supreme Leader, convicted felon Donald Trump.

It turns out Trump is also obsessed with sharks. Yesterday, June 19, at a campaign event in Nevada, Trump went on a tear where he linked his hatred of sharks with his equally fierce hatred of electric vehicles.

He conjured the image of being in a sinking, electric-powered boat. In his own words describing his "dialogue" with a guy he was watching on TV:

"I say, what would happen if the boat sank from its weight, and you're in the boat, and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery is now underwater. And there's a shark that's approximately 10 yards over there…

"By the way, lot of shark attacks lately, I watched some guys justifying it today. 'Well, they weren't really that angry. They bit off the young lady's leg because of the fact that they were, they were not hungry, but they misunderstood who she was. He said 'there's no problem with sharks, they just didn't really understand a young woman's swimming. She really got decimated and other people too, a lot of shark attacks.

So I said [To the guy he was watching on television], there's a shark 10 yards away from the boat, do I get electrocuted? If the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking, do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted? Or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?

"Because I will tell you he didn't know the answer. He said, 'you know, nobody's ever asked me that question.' I said I think it's a good question. I think there's a lot of electric current coming to that water. But you know what I'd do? If there was a shark or you get electrocuted, I'll take electrocution every single time. I'm not getting near the shark."

Got all that?

In today’s Republican Party, cruelty seems to be the point. After all, Trump has great plans for even crueler policies toward immigrants than we saw in his first term when thousands of children were taken from their parents. Trump had no plan to reunite those children with those parents, and at the end of his term, almost a thousand were unaccounted for.

That just one of many Trump acts of cruelty with many more to come when he becomes “Dictator for a Day” and goes after his many enemies.

The apple doesn’t fall from the tree: lest we forget, his boys Donald Jr. and Eric posed [👈] gleefully with endangered animals they killed on safari. 

That’s par for the course, given Donald Sr.’s well-documented dislike of animals, dogs in particular.

To build their MAGA cred, ambitious MAGAnuts burnish their hard right credentials through acts of cruelty.

South Dakota Governor and Trump VP wannabe Kristin Noem thought that writing about shooting her puppy Cricket in the head, killing a goat that annoyed her and calling it “life on the farm” would be good for her career. She claimed she hated both animals.

On policy matters, GOP governors work hard to show how cruel they can be to those groups that their Orange Master dislikes. 

For example, there’s Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ new law banning mandatory water and heat breaks for outdoor workers. Maybe Florida agri-business sees dead farmworkers as good fertilizer for their crops.

Then there’s Texas Governor Greg Abbott who installs hundreds of miles of razor wire on the border ignoring court orders to stop. He has ordered the kidnap of other migrants who are put on buses and sent to northern cities.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee took credit for revoking laws prohibiting child labor in her state.

Of course, this is only a tiny part of the list of cruelties that includes attacks on reproductive rights, women, workers, veterans, Medicare and Social Security, domestic aid programs, help for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression, vaccinations, books, the environment, civil rights, education, the Constitution and democracy itself.

Let’s not forget the 1.1 million-plus Americans who died due to COVID and how Republicans are trying to provoke some lone wolf assassin to kill the pandemic’s most prominent hero, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Yes, cruelty is the point and that’s why I have a strong hunch we’re going to see Flip Filippi on the ballot this November.

Thar she blows!

Manatee spotted in Quonnie

By Will Collette

Maybe Quonnie dwellers will forego their exodus to Florida this year, as Florida seems to be coming to us.

DEM spotted and photographed a manatee near a pier in Quonochontaug Pond, well over a thousand miles from its normal habitat.

DEM says they are monitoring the manatee, along with US Fish and Wildlife and the Mystic Aquarium in case it needs help.

Manatee have be spotted in RI waters in 2006 and 2016, according to DEM. They advise keeping 150 feet away and are warning boaters to use caution. In Florida, manatees are often killed or injured by boaters, not that Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration cares.

Speaking of matters aquatic, in one week, September 19, join us in celebrating international Talk Like a Pirate Day. It's a holy day on the Pastafarian calendar and a time for us all to practice talking like pirates.

Graphic by Sam Howard

The Great Charlestown Choo-choo Hoax: Take Three

CCA and friends try to re-start AMTRAK panic for the third time

By Will Collette 

I have to ask: Why are they doing this?  

Spurred on by former Charlestown consultant Greg Stroud’s blog, the CT Examiner, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) appears to be ginning up its third effort to score points by creating panic – without a shred of evidence – that the northern half of town is going to be ravaged by a new rail line. 

Before we start, Charlestown residents should know that there is absolutely no evidence, or likelihood, that the Old Saybrook-Kenyon bypass has been revived. The only recent “event” is another provocative article in the CT Examiner. If you read it carefully (difficult, since there is a paywall) you will see that they have no evidence of any such revival. What they report as “news” are things we already know. 

AMTRAK panic started in late 2016 when Charlestown was alerted by Connecticut neighbors that the Federal Rail Administration had published and mailed out a plan to revamp the Northeast Corridor that included a new “Old Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass” that would run through farms, forests, protected areas and even through the Mystic Aquarium. 

It was a bad plan – RIDOT Director Peter Alviti called it a “stupid plan” – that had no funding from the then Republican controlled Congress or the incoming Trump Administration. I supported the opposition to the plan but also noted that this plan had virtually no chance of being adopted. 

And of course, the plan died when the Federal Rail Administration signed a legally binding “Record of Decision” that excluded the Old Saybrook-Kenyon bypass. Read that Record of Decision HERE. 

Charlestown hired the instigator of the opposition, Greg Stroud of Old Lyme, CT as a consultant. His job was to monitor Amtrak and make quarterly reports to Charlestown. 

Stroud didn’t make quarterly reports, but it wasn’t surprising that he had virtually nothing to report. Read his contract HERE and his report HERE. 

Stroud also started up a news blog called the CT Examiner with money from investor J. David Kelsey. Kelsey runs Hamilton Point Investments that provides private equity for real estate development. 

Earlier this year, Kelsey put up $500,000 to launch a super PAC called CT Truth PAC. Through that PAC and through other channels, Kelsey spent $2.2 million in an unsuccessful effort to block the re-election of Democratic Governor Ned Lamont. Kelsey also serves on the board of a right-wing think tank, The Yankee Institute.  

The CT Examiner has become the CCA’s go-to source for information about AMTRAK. Based on an article they wrote in 2021, CCA Prime Minister Ruth Platner wrote a CCA blog article titled “They’re Back!” Their evidence? An oval drawn on a map by CT Examiner noting that a study was going to look at rail traffic in that circle and what can be done to improve it. 

Charlestown went nuts a second time, convinced by this “evidence” that Armageddon was coming to Charlestown. Lots of hysterical ideas floated by the CCA, including giving Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz unlimited powers and funding to do whatever it takes to fight AMTRAK, were adopted by the Town Council. 

Charlestown’s Town Clerk was directed to write letters to everyone in political power from here to Washington to demand an end to the non-existent plan. 

Council President Deb Carney took the approach of contacting the CEO of Amtrak directly to ask him if the Bypass was back on table. Answer: No. She contacted RIDOT Director Peter Alviti since he represents Rhode Island on all rail matters. He told a bi-partisan meeting of Charlestown residents and representatives that there was no plan, but that he would alert the town if there ever was. 

Deb Carney has stayed in monthly contact with Alviti to ask about any new developments and there have been none. 

I have called out Ruth Platner repeatedly to show her evidence for sounding the alarm. Crickets. CCA Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz did his bit by blocking access to the town’s files on the AMTRAK controversy. 

The “new” reports from the CT Examiner tell us what we already know: the Federal Rail Administration is starting up the study committee it said it would in the Record of Decision and the new infrastructure funding Joe Biden managed to get Congress to pass includes money for rail improvements.  

It’s no secret that Joe Biden loves trains in general and AMTRAK in particular. So do I. Taking the train from Westerly to Manhattan several times a month was one of the great perks of my last job before I retired. 

I think any sensible person who cares about the climate crisis, auto emissions or traffic congestion supports a much-improved rail system.  

But I urge the CCA and its pal Greg Stroud to stop feeding into the Great Charlestown Choo-choo Hoax. What little you gain in political support you lose by blowing your credibility on a pack of lies.

First anniversary of the Great CCA Charlestown Choo-choo Hoax

No evidence then. No evidence now.

By Will Collette

I wrote the article below on July 15th calling on the CCA and Ruth Platner to apologize for terrorizing residents in the northern half of Charlestown. 

This issue was Platner's invention of a threat that did not exist - that a sketchy, long-dead idea to run a new AMTRAK line through that area was going to happen. As Platner put it "They're Back." Except, they're not. 

In the CCA's big new campaign mailer, they depict themselves as the saviors of Charlestown, the sole stewards of Charlestown's environment and trusty custodians of the town's economy - all evidence to the contrary.

One fundamental value the CCA owes the people of Charlestown is to tell the truth. Over the past decade, Progressive Charlestown has documented - with proof - much of the crazy stuff the CCA has pulled in Charlestown. But the Great Charlestown Choo-Choo Hoax is, in my opinion their most outrageous deed.

On the July 15th anniversary of the hoax, I called for an apology. It's 3 months later and still nada. But one thing voters should bear in mind is that being a CCA-sponsored politician means never having to say you're sorry. Or for that matter, tell the truth.

Here's my article from last July:

One year ago, on July 15, 2021, CCA leader and Charlestown Planning Commissar Ruth Platner announced “They’re Back!” and set off a round of panic across the northern half of Charlestown.

Who’s back? Well, according to Ruth, the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) plans to dig up the corpse of the dead and buried Amtrak Old Saybrook-Kenyon Bypass that would have cut a swath through eastern Connecticut and Charlestown. 

Ruth made her alarming declaration without a shred of evidence and, one year later, has still not produced one scintilla of evidence that there is such a plan.

One year. That ought to be enough time for even Ruthie to come up with some sort of proof even if she has to make it up as she has on so many other issues.

The Old Saybrook-Kenyon bypass was a 2017 proposal to straighten AMTRAK’s path and lay a modern rail-bed that could handle the fast Acela trains. The existing track between New Haven and Kingston Station is old and a stretch of it from New London to Westerly runs through coastal wetlands. 

That portion of the rail route will probably be destroyed either by the next big storm or steady sea level rise. Sadly, that also happens to be the most picturesque stretch of track along the entire Northeast Corridor.

The old Bypass plan was pretty much universally opposed in the areas most affected. It would have cut through the Mystic Aquarium and taken out lots of farms, protected nature areas and historic sites. It was a bad plan though at the time, it seemed very unlikely to ever be built, given it had no funding and no support from either the newly inaugurated Trump Administration or Republican-controlled Congress.

But nonetheless, opposition organized and prevailed, leading the FRA to issue a final and legally binding Record of Decision that killed the bypass.

That was that. In 2018, Charlestown hired a consultant, Connecticut Amtrak resistor Greg Stroud, to keep watch on AMTRAK. He was supposed to give Charlestown four reports, but only gave us one, which was not all that surprising, given there was nothing to report.

Then a year ago, Ruthie decided to stir the pot with her “They’re Back!” call. The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) responded by using their 3-2 Town Council majority to give Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz virtually unlimited power, including, it appeared, the authority to declare martial law to "protect the town" from AMTRAK.

The CCA-3 Council majority pledged Charlestown would spend anything it needed, starting right away, to ward off this threat that Ruthie had declared.

Except there was – and is – no such threat.

Charlestown Chunks #6: Fourth of July edition

Another COVID summer, but who cares?

By Will Collette

What no one wants to hear

Rhode Island’s infection rate for COVID is more than 10 times higher than it was a year ago: around 160 per 100,000 a day compared to only 14 a day last July 4. But the actual infection rate is FAR higher, thanks to our gormless twit of a governor McKee who has dismantled state testing operations. The prevalence of at-home self-tests whose results are not included in the official infection tally also masks the true number of new infections.

But no one seems to care, especially not McKee who loves the idea that people are going around maskless while shopping in his beloved small businesses. 

It’s madness but apparently we have made an unconscious, collective decision to ignore a disease that has already killed over one million Americans or roughly the entire population of the state of Rhode Island.

You’re next, Justin

Screen shot from WPRI

Another Rhode Island right-wing nut has been busted for his role in the January 6 storming of the Capitol. Bernard Sirr, 47, of North Kingstown was arraigned on June 29 on federal felony charges of civil disorder.

Sirr works at Rhode Island’s ONLY operating nuclear reaction, the RI Nuclear Science Center on URI’s Bay campus.

According to the Boston Globe:

“Sirr works as a facility engineer at the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center. The FBI confirmed that Sirr was on leave from his place of employment from Jan. 5 to Jan. 7, 2021.”

Bet you didn’t know we have an operating nuke in Rhode Island. The last time we ran a story on it was in 2014. The nuke is only 12 miles to the east of Charlestown. It’s tiny compared to the Millstone nuke just outside of New London, around 20 miles upwind from Charlestown.

Anyway, Sirr is the second Rhode Island recently busted for Trump’s January 6 coup attempt. I am still hoping to see Rep. Justin Price hauled away in cuffs. 

Price admitted he was there and claimed to be close enough to see that the mob was being led by Antifa (he says, without a shred of evidence).

 That’s close enough to be way over the police lines at the Capitol, warranting charges based on his own Twitter claims.

Mystic Aquarium says belugas would have died anyway

In May 2021, Mystic Aquarium airlifted five beluga whales from “Marineland,” a SeaWorld-style Park in Canada, to Mystic for “research.” Two of the whales died and a third is still in critical care.

Mystic has come under sharp criticism. Friends of Animals, an animal advocacy organization, has filed a formal complaint with the US Department of Agriculture seeking a federal investigation and sanctions.

I’ve stopped running any of Mystic’s news releases and notices in Progressive Charlestown, pending an outcome to this investigation.

Mystic Aquarium, citing its own internal pathology reports, claims those reports show it is blameless because the whales would have died anyway of pre-existing conditions.

True or not, that raises the question whether anyone checked the whales before they were put through the trauma of the long flight.

True or not, there is the question of why such intelligent creatures, whose brain to body mass ratio is higher than humans, are kept in small water enclosures with windows for bratty kids to bang on. Is it ethical? Is it moral to conduct “research” on these amazing creatures?

I appreciate Mystic’s marine animal rescue program and much of the educational work they do, but I can’t support this. Neither should you.

Magaziner shareholder activism scores another win

General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, hopefully our Second District member of Congress after the November election, announced major reforms at web giant Pinterest to resolve a culture of gender and race discrimination.

Seth had filed suit on behalf of RI’s public pension fund to force a change in Pinterest’s practices and won a settlement where the company pledged $50 million for “reforms designed to protect employees from discriminatory treatment and to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

This is another example of socially-responsible investing that Magaziner introduced to push companies to not only change bad practices, but increase company value – and shareholder return – in the process.

I hope our next General Treasurer will continue these practices.

General Stanton flea market returns with new up-scale look

The new owners of Charlestown’s historical centerpiece, the General Stanton Inn, are not only bringing a new style to the Inn, but also its flea market.

You should read the nice write-up appearing in Rhode Island Monthly that describes the changes – new look, new vendors, new merchandise and a new name,  the General’s Market.

I hope it works out for them.

Bad beach water

💩We’re only a couple of weeks into official summertime and we’ve already had a couple of local beach closures for unhealthy levels of e-coli in the water. The first closure was at Camp Watchaug on the Pond, run by the Westerly YMCA. The second was Ninigret Park Beach.

Both closures were temporary and the beaches were re-opened. While we could blame animals and birds for the closures, humans also add run-off from septic systems and bad hygiene habits by swimmers. I’m talking to you, kids at Camp Watchaug – no swimming for you if you poop in the pond!

You can check for beach closures HERE.

California dreaming

The Coast Guard House's version

Seems that the Boston Globe is trying to stir up a fight between Rhode Island and California….over calamari.

According to the Globe, Monterey, CA is calling itself the “Calamari Capital” for its large squid catch (45 million pounds compared to Rhode Island’s 28 million) and haute cuisine way of preparing and serving it.

And all that is great. I like seafood in general and squid in particular, especially since it’s both sustainable and relatively inexpensive. I love Rhode Island’s version and I’m sure Monterey’s versions are great, too. I’ve eaten a lot of California seafood and can’t recall ever having had a bad meal.

Squid is a major part of Rhode Island’s maritime economy, so I hope this little rivalry stirs up more interest among shoppers and diners. Mangia!

Turkey Talk

Dunkin turkey (Brooke Bourget)

A wild turkey has been hanging out at the Dunkin Donuts on Route 3 in West Greenwich, attracting a lot of attention and a sharp scolding from DEM.

Turkeys do that. We’ve had several summers where we’ve been visited by a lone turkey, almost always a young Tom who has apparently been booted from his flock by the senior Tom.

They hang around, usually minding their own business and being cute. Our visitors usually strut into our woods, presumably to eat or sleep – I don’t want to disturb so I don’t follow.

But the turkey at the Dunk has stirred up some public debate with one side saying the bird will die from eating crap and others saying that donuts will give it lots of body fat to make it through the winter.

DEM has weighed in authoritatively:

Here's a young turkey who spent the summer with us getting
ready to fly off our deck (photo by Will Collette)

"Rhode Islanders should never intentionally feed turkeys – feeding wildlife is illegal in Rhode Island not only because of this risk to turkeys, but it can also lead to conflicts between humans and wildlife, increase the risk of disease and lead to unsustainable populations of wildlife. Feeding turkeys, either directly or indirectly, can cause turkeys to become tame and can lead to bold or aggressive behavior around humans."

Well, I don’t feed the turkeys and do accept DEM’s superior knowledge about how to treat our wild neighbors. I like having them around and love watching them. The last thing I want to do is damage their health. But lighten up, DEM...turkeys will do what turkeys want to do.

Charlestown Chunks #4: Lawyers,. guns and COVID

All the local news that doesn't fit into a regular-sized article

By Will Collette

Sparsely attended "rally" of Fat White Guys Against Sensible Gun Control (screenshot from Scott McKay's twitter site). That's our state "Senator" Elaine Morgan to the right (of course) wearing a Deborah Birx scarf. She also spoke.

GUNS

It's never too early to teach your child how to fire a machine gun

As the General Assembly nears the close of its session, it seems likely that some new gun control measures will be enacted. They won't be enough to stop our outrageous gun violence, but they will be steps in the right direction. They will also infuriate right-wing gun nuts (see photo above). 

Nice to see Sen. Elaine Morgan, the Trumplican who represents the northern half of Charlestown had the guts to defy logic,  decency and the vast majority of voters to put gun rights ahead of innocent gun violence victims.

Her two local Trumplican colleagues, Blake "Flip" Filippi and Mad Dog Justin Price, have largely stayed out of the limelight. That's hard for Flip to do since he started mainlining publicity upon his entry into politics even though he not only supports gun rights but also illegal armed private militias. 

I suspect Justin Price is hiding in a cave with a small arsenal of automatic weapons waiting for the FBI to show up with an arrest warrant for his participation in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

COVID

You need to stop saying the pandemic is fading or listening to anyone who says that it is. The pandemic is NOT going away. 

In Rhode Island, our infection rates are higher than they were a year ago and there are two new variants that are even more contagious than the Omicron BA 2.12.1 variant that has been infecting so many of your friends and family. 

The two new variants – BA.4 and BA.5 - are even more adept at evading antibodies to re-infect those who have had COVID already or break through those who are fully vaccinated. But getting fully vaccinated and masking up are still your best protection from landing in the hospital or dying. 

But that’s something many fully vaccinated adults aren’t doing. Instead, they are treating COVID like it’s gone and are going to big events, restaurants and taking long trips unmasked. My nephew Chris and his wife both got sick from COVID after an unmasked trip to a California wedding – a super-spreader event. Chris says he and the others were guilty of “magical thinking” that they were safe when they weren't. 

Guardian columnist Brigid Delaney says the pandemic has undergone “social death” where, though it is still all around us, nobody wants to talk about it anymore. 

Some alarming new research shows that even mild break-through cases can lead to “long COVID” effects. A new article in Fortune magazine states that studies are showing long COVID in COVID survivors at rates ranging from 10% to 80% with the most recent estimate at 23 million people. The article does a great job at laying out the effects and symptomology of long COVID. 

It’s been said before that just because we’re done with COVID doesn’t mean COVID is done with us. 

Other than knowing the infection rate is high, we don’t really know how many people are getting sick. Our vapid Gov. Dan McKee (right) has effectively dismantled the state testing system, plus most households now have home testing kits. 

There is NO mechanism to get home-test positive readings counted. Thus, all reported case statistics are grossly undercounted. And that’s without considering those who had asymptomatic COVID and didn’t use a home-test. 

A new survey of cases in New York City by researchers at CUNY indicated the real number of people with COVID is actually thirty times higher than the official count. 

McKee has been a leading voice of denial in Rhode Island telling people the pandemic is over and to go out and spend money in restaurants. COVID be damned. 

His approach epitomizes Rhode Island’s major problems: lack of leadership. A third top-ranking Health Department official, interim department director Dr. James McDonald, has resigned. Dr. McDonald took over when Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott resigned a few months ago after clashing with McKee over COVID policy. Tom McCarthy, former executive director of COVID-19 response, also resigned, explicitly blaming McKee for politicizing COVID response. McDonald said he was leaving for family reasons: to care for his very elderly parents. 

It’s not known who’s left on the Health Department bench to replace McDonald. Maybe McKee has a veterinarian crony from Cumberland who needs a job. Or maybe he just doesn’t give a shit. 

Ritacco released on bail

Speaking of corrupt politicians, on June 1, former Westerly Democratic Town Committee chair Bob Ritacco was formally charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault.

Both charges are capital offenses in Rhode Island that carry the potential for a life sentence. 

He was released on a $20,000 surety bond. 

These rape charges result from an alleged rape that took place almost exactly one year ago. 

This is not Ritacco’s first time under a legal or ethics cloud. CLICK HERE for more. 

Shoreline access bill passes House 

Here's the fence bill co-sponsor and full-time hypocrite Rep. Blake "Flip"
Filippi erected - illegally - in from of his own beach front property on
Block Island (Block Island Times photo)

The full House voted unanimously to pass H8055, the bill produced by the shoreline access commission. While that’s good news to local activists like Charlestown’s Scott Keeley, the compromise bill may face a harder sell in the state Senate. 

The bill would ensure people can walk along the beach freely up to six feet above the high tide line. It doesn’t address how you actually get to the beach. Parking is restricted or expensive all over the coast. 

Beach property owners, ranging from fake fire districts to out of state owners to beachfront business owners – such as bill co-sponsor Blake “Flip” Filippi – have notoriously blocked public paths to the beach. In 2015, Filippi erected a fence across the entire beach in front of one of his properties (see photo above). 

Alex Nunes at Rhode Island’s The Public’s Radio reports that despite the unanimous vote in the House, there is no Senate version of the bill and the bill is not a priority for the Senate leadership. 

Nunes quotes an e-mail from Senate spokesperson Greg Paré that the bill “is not a focus at this time” and the Senate has “not had hearings on it or conducted any of the necessary diligence on it at this point.” 

Accidental Gov. Dan McKee has not committed one way or the other, but that’s par for the course for him. 

To become law, bills must pass both houses of the General Assembly and then be signed by the Governor. The General Assembly plans to adjourn in a couple of weeks. 

Animal Rights group calls for federal investigation of Mystic Aquarium

Free these intelligent creatures from the taunts of children

Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN), a national animal welfare group with a history of successfully challenging animal abuses, filed a formal complaint with the US Department of Agriculture over the mistreatment leading to death of beluga whales at the popular Mystic Aquarium. 

We reprinted an excellent piece by Charlestown’s Cynthia Drummond in EcoRI last April on the deaths of beluga whales at the Aquarium. 

After Cynthia’s article ran in EcoRI, I cut back Progressive Charlestown’s coverage of Mystic Aquarium, including their events, seal releases in Charlestown and other news, pending a change in policy by the Aquarium. 

In my opinion, Mystic made the classic organizational mistake of taking on too much by those importing sick belugas from Canada. More belugas, more ticket sales. 

Belugas are remarkable, intelligent marine mammals. But none of these wonderful creatures whose intelligence rivals that of humans should be kept in watery cages unless there is a genuine medical reason why they can’t be released into the wild. 

I have long admired Mystic’s marine mammal rescue program that has saved, healed and then released hundreds of seals and sea lions usually from Charlestown’s beaches. 

As much as I have loved watching whales in the wild, watching them in a tank is just plain sad.HEALTH 

Million dollars to Tomaquag 

When the Champlin Foundation of Providence announced its new grant awards, one grant really stood out: a million dollar grant to the Tomaquag Museum to help it build “a comprehensive, four-building campus on 18 acres of rural University of Rhode Island land in South Kingstown” to honor the history and culture of Rhode Island’s indigenous people. 

I wish this project could have been built in Charlestown, perhaps in Ninigret Park. But Tomaquag’s partnership with URI makes a lot more sense. 

If this project had been proposed for Charlestown, it would have faced bloody resistance from the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), the town’s professional Indian fighter attorney Joe Larisa and a death struggle with Planning Commissar Ruth Platner. All are committed to maintaining institutional racism in Charlestown largely centered on the Narragansetts. 

Tomaquag Executive Director Lorén M. Spears said this about the Champlin grant: 

“Support and enthusiasm for our campaign continues to grow, and this gift from Champlin further underscores the momentum we have for elevating the stories of Indigenous people and engaging more Rhode Islanders in exploring, understanding, and honoring that legacy.”

Jonnycake Center forms another partnership

In the last Charlestown Chunks, I wrote about a new partnership between Wakefield’s Jonnycake Center and Wood River Health Services to provide food, nutrition and services to pregnant women, babies and small children. 

The Independent reports another partnership, this time between the Jonnycake Center and the Westerly Credit Union to help low-income households with trashed credit rebuild their credit rating, using $500 micro-loans. 

Having a decent credit history is one of those things you don’t appreciate until you lose it and find you can’t rent an apartment or get a car loan. 

Those who receive the micro-loan will get credit counseling and home finance education and will be expected to pay back the loan in one year. The idea is to show a pattern of reliability to help lift credit scores higher. 

Said Jonnycake Center director Kate Brewster, “The credit union wanted to do more for the community at the time the Jonnycake Center identified the housing problem for rentals for low-income individuals and families… Without a good credit score, they may be unable to qualify for housing in a tight market where rentals are scarce anyway.” 

Save Spanish 

In my youth, an anarchist friend of mine used to tell me “petitioning the government is like pissing in the wind.” Though that’s still mostly true 50 years later, there are some petitions worth signing. 

Alex Korus has started up a Change.org petition to try to save K-12 Spanish-language classes at Chariho as the district cuts back after voters twice defeated their proposed budget. 

Alex makes the sound argument that this will hurt students’ ability to compete for college admissions. He notes it’s easier to learn languages when you’re young – I can certainly attest to that. Then there’s the fact that Spanish is the largest second-language in the US spoken by almost 42 million people. 

Support Alex and his fellow Chariho Middle Schoolers by signing the petition HERE.

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