Democrats announce their endorsed candidates for 2012

New leadership for Charlestown

By Will Collette

If you mosey over to the newly redesigned website of the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (still under construction, BTW), you’ll see their announcement of the slate of candidates who will be running on the Democratic ticket.

Reflections on the Fourth of July

The Revolution was not won by a debating club

By Will Collette

We celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, cookouts and days at the beach. It’s a great holiday that drives home the point that it really and truly is summer.

The fireworks are stand-ins for an important historical fact: this holiday marks the day we signed the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, fully committing the American people in the 13 Colonies to armed insurrection and revolution against King George III and the British government.

Show us your South County!

The 11th annual South County Photo Contest, sponsored by the South County Tourism Council, is now taking entries, with a deadline of 5 p.m. August 8.

Photography should capture the essence of Charlestown, Coventry, East Greenwich, Exeter, Hopkinton, Narragansett, North Kingstown, Richmond, South Kingstown, Westerly and West Greenwich, during spring, summer, winter and fall, showcasing the compelling people, places and activities of South County.

Prizes, totaling over $1,000, will be awarded to the top eight photographs. Get the entry form here or visit the Council’s website here.

Presentations will be made during a press conference and reception on Thursday, August 16, 2012, 6 p.m., at the South County Museum.

Try this weird experiment

click to enlarge

by Fake Science








Also, don't miss the video trailer for the upcoming book, Fake Science 101, below the break.

In only four days, you're in for a treat

You will be truly amazed by the Charlestown Dems July 7 tag sale

Rev. Harold Camping predicts you will feel better if
you spend lots of money at the CDTC's tag sale on July 7

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (CDTC), of which I am a proud member, is gearing up for one of its world-renowned tag sales on July 7, starting at 8 AM on Old Post Road near the corner of Genwood Drive.

I looked in Frank Glista's garage earlier this week and it is literally packed to the rafter with goodies for the sale. And, believe me, not all of it is junk.

I've also seen the great collection of jewelry that Cathy Collette has collected - at the last two sales, Cathy has coordinated the special jewelry table that, to my surprise, has turned out to be one of the big hits of the sale. Cathy has shaken down just about every member and friend of the Committee to put together a first-rate collection of very nice costume jewelry.

And, at this tag sale, you'll get a chance to meet the Charlestown Democrats' slate of candidates. There will be a special table where you can sign the Nomination papers for these candidates to ensure they get on the November ballot.

YUM: Pesto

Editor's note: we've harvested the scapes from our garlic during the last couple weeks and I'm an extreme lover of good pesto sauce so I couldn't resist publishing this for you.

Garlic Scape and Basil Pesto

Photos and text by KARA DiCAMILLO/ecoRI News.org contributor

garlic scapes

For the past few weeks at local farmers markets, I’ve seen garlic scapes, and since it’s been a hot week here in Rhode Island, I thought I’d make a simple recipe that requires few ingredients and little prep time.

Scapes are essentially the stalk of garlic and, while they are snipped off the bulb and often sent to the compost pile, they are actually edible.

The great thing about pesto is that it can be used for a variety of purposes, such as marinating chicken or fish, or over salad greens or pasta, and it has a beautiful green color. Keep in mind that it is very garlicky, so you might not want to eat it for lunch at the office or before a meeting. I decided to mix mine with basil that I had growing in the garden and served it with spaghetti.

CRAC’s not the only town commission with late or missing records

Many town commissions lag on posting their records

By Will Collette

As Deputy Dan would put it, Charlestown has a moral, ethical and legal
obligation to abide by the Open Meetings Act

One reader commented on my article about the Open Meetings Act violation committed by the Charter Revision Advisory Committee (CRAC) that this might not be an isolated problem.

Well, that commenter might have read my mind because, in the course of responding to a request for more information from the Attorney General’s Office, I noted that there may be eight additional town commissions with tardy or missing records. That went out in a June 25 e-mail, cc’d to Town Clerk Amy Rose Weinreich.

Since then, some but not all of the deficiencies have been fixed. Just as CRAC Secretary Maureen Areglado was able to instantly produce the missing CRAC minutes, apparently so did some of those other delinquent commission.

Here’s a run-down:

Afghanistan's Corrupt Oligarchy

DonkeyHotey/Flickr

The brothers of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's incompetent, impossibly vain, and dishonest president, have amassed astonishing fortunes.

By Jim Hightower

Our national leaders' rationale for investing so much money and so many boots on the ground in that awful war in Afghanistan was that we'd leave behind a stable, popular government to assure peace and prosperity for all.

That was 11 years ago. Now that America has begun withdrawing from Afghanistan, what are we actually leaving behind? Answer: a despised and corrupt oligarchy.

'Hot' Goods, and Rap Sheet as Love Note

By Abigail Crocker

That's not exactly what they mean by 'hot' goods:Johnston Police reported this week that they solved an apparent theft case after finding more than $27,000 of jewelry and other items in a microwave oven that had been stashed in an outdoor shed. A Johnston man reportedly admitted to helping himself to the items after spending the night at an apartment, then asking the resident to give him a ride to a friend's house. When the woman discovered her wallet and jewelry missing, she at first called the suspect to ask him about it, to which he replied: "The police are going to need a warrant to check my friend's house."

In fact, the residents of the home signed a consent to search request, which allowed officers to search the property — where they found the microwave and the items inside it.

Charlestown lags behind other South County towns

Finishes in the bottom half of statewide rankings

By Will Collette

I reported last week that Charlestown’s rating in the annual GoLocalProv.com rankings of Rhode Island’s Best Communities had slipped by five positions from 14^th place to 19^th place.

We lost the most amount of ground because of the cost to live here – 32^nd out of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns. We also lost ground because of our low ranking for “arts and culture,” and “restaurants and bars.” It’s not that the ones we have aren’t good – in my opinion, they’re just fine – but we just don’t have much in these two categories.

Our ranking would have fallen further, except the Chariho School system rose in the state rankings to 3^rd place in the state.

Now that all of the towns have been reviewed, we can also compare Charlestown’s ranking to other South County communities. Unfortunately, we don’t do very well.

Boss Gentz painted himself into an environmental corner

Product Stewardship is pure common sense, except to him...He called it "onerous"

By Will Collette

One of Rep. Donna Walsh’s top legislative priorities, right up there with the economy and ethics, is the environment. 

She has covered the full spectrum of environmental problems ranging from groundwater protection to open space, toxic waste to tick bites. And for her work, she has received accolades and awards from most of Rhode Island’s environmental organizations.

Among her major environmental initiatives is “product stewardship.” Product stewardship means requiring the manufacturers and sellers of problematic products to be responsible in some significant way for what happens to those products after consumers are through with them.

One Weak Domino

Other countries have problems, but Greece's are an encyclopedia of bad behavior.

quapan/Flickr

By Donald Kaul

The stock market keeps going up and down like a yo-yo. I thought you'd like to know why.

It's Greece.

Oh, not totally — there are other miscreants involved — but pretty much everyone agrees the Greeks are the first and foremost cause.

This is because years and years ago the finest minds of post-World War II Europe devised an economic system that made all European nations hostage to the political stability and good economic judgment of its weakest member: in this case, Greece. That's like going mountain climbing with your safety rope tied to the town drunk.

Lively action at first skim-boarding competition in Charlestown

Organizers hope to do a training camp at the next event

By Will Collette

Photos courtesy of Cheryl Dowdell

It was a nice finish to a new Charlestown event that had a very tense beginning. 

On June 23, Charlestown hosted its first skim-boarding competition under the auspices of the North East Skim Tour (NEST) along a sparsely used stretch of Charlestown’s town beach property, the Town Beach Annex near the Breachway.

Your Sunday Funnies

Your Progressive Charlestown staff enjoys several cartoonists specializing in political humor and commentary, occasionally posting articles with a teaser panel and link to cartoons we like. We've done this throughout the week but now we've decided to streamline our daily offerings by combining our cartoons in one Sunday Funnies article.

We'll also add other short national issues pieces here instead of in separate articles. That will reduce our daily article count and make it easier for people who don't share our views on national issues to skip them. As always, we appreciate any feedback you have.

Not Obama by Tim Egan
Read the rest of this cartoon, published by Cagle Post, here.

Support the bravest doctors and nurses in the world

Doctors without Borders has a challenge grant – so your donation gets doubled

By Will Collette

Cathy and I support Doctors without Borders. They are our top favorite relief charity because they simply go where they are needed to provide medical care to the afflicted. 

They don’t care about ideology, religion or the grave danger they face. This has put Medecins Sans Frontieres in all the world’s worst war zones, where they attempt to save lives regardless of which side of the conflict the wounded align. Think Dafur, Somalia, Libya, the Bosnian conflict.