Breaking news: Looks like Charlestown will put purchase of LeBlanc property before the voters

Changes to Town Council agenda – a sign of open-mindedness to buying Whalerock land?

By Will Collette

Overnight, the Town posted changes to the Town Council agenda for next Monday night. They added a 5 pm Executive Session, which had not been posted before, and they added this intriguing item under “New Business” for the 7 pm public meeting

8.a.   Discussion and potential action regarding the method of funding and the authorization of the Town Clerk and Board of Canvassers to hold a special referendum for the potential land acquisition of AP 17 Lot 186 for an amount not to exceed $2.7 million

AP 17, Lot 186 is the undeveloped 81 acre site where developer Larry LeBlanc is currently proposing to build the Whalerock wind turbines and a mixed development of housing that would include affordable units.

OMGPD

Seaside Shenanigans

Posted by Elizabeth McNamara Narragansett-South Kingstown Patch

#SummerProblems

As we transition to the Rhode Island summer mindset, many of us are retraining our brains to be more cognizant of where to load up on ice cream and Del’s, how to expertly avoid beach traffic … and how to hide that you’re checking out beach bodies from your significant other. 

A 21-year-old Providence woman allegedly caught her boyfriend checking out her friends at the beach and reportedly assaulted him for his wandering eyes. According to reports, the boyfriend was sporting a few fresh scratches as well as a handprint across his face. She was charged with domestic simple assault.

Improper Beach Etiquette

I'll never be able to look a potato in the eye again - picked produce is still alive!

Cabbage circadian clocks tick even after picking

Daily cycles help vegetables fight off hungry caterpillars

By Cristy Gelling in Science News

Cabbages with jet lag are less nutritious and more vulnerable to insect pests.

Fruits and vegetables have an internal clock that can be reset by a daily cycle of light and dark, but storing produce in darkened refrigerators could disrupt this natural rhythm, researchers report June 20 in Current Biology.

Plants, even after being cropped from the stalk, are much more responsive to their external environment than we give them credit for, says Janet Braam, a plant biologist at Rice University. “When we harvest them they’re still metabolizing,” she says. “They’re still alive.”

Green is a matter of life or death

Green Buildings Will Sustain the Future Health of Billions

From: Amber Arneson, Guest Author, Clean Techies, More from this Affiliate 

By 2050, the world's population is expected to hit nine billion. And, by that year, scientists have projected that 80 percent of the world's population will live in urban environments. In the United States alone, research indicates that people spend 90 percent of their time indoors, as noted in a TriplePundit article.

Unfortunately, buildings can have concentrations of some pollutants that are two to five times higher than typical outdoor concentrations, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These pollutants can come in the form of aging infrastructure, portable air conditioners, poor ventilation or other forms.

TOMORROW...great stuff cheap!

For more information, click here.

Enviro News Wrap

Obama’s Climate Plan; Shell in the arctic; the growth of renewables, Natural Gas Greenwash, and more

BY ANDERS HELLUM-ALEXANDER ·

GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:

• It was great to hear President Obama wax poetic about climate change last week - but a lot of his climate plan involves things he is already doing and it seems that he hopes that Congress can somehow pass meaningful legislation, good luck with those lame ducks. Even if Obama successfully rolls out his plan, he needs Congress to support him with impactful legislation, like a national carbon tax. Coal has become the black sheep in the climate change debate and is feeling the pain from Obama’s speech. The oil industry will hopefully get everything they deserve, I hope their industry burns like the lungs of children in America’s cities.

Privacy

“Just because you’re paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you”

To see more cartoons by Andy Singer, click here

By Will Collette

Right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in a state of shock but vowing “we will never let the terrorists win,” we surrendered an extraordinary amount of our civil liberties, especially the right to privacy, radically changed our way of life, spent billions of dollars on bad wars and marginally useful surveillance technology.

We passed the misnamed Patriot Act, misnamed because its provisions would have made the patriots who founded this country want to start a second Revolution. And we never admitted that, for the suicide deaths of the four 9/11 hijackers, Al Qaeda got far, far more than they had ever dreamed of.

Twelve years later, we’re now starting to look back and ask, “OMG, what have we done?” Yep, that’s the right question. And the follow-up question is what can and should we do to restore those freedoms that we voluntarily gave up to “do our bit” in the ridiculous “Global War on Terrorism.”

Privacy issues are now all around us, at every level. Even here in Charlestown, it shows itself in the concerns some have over the imminent installation of red light cameras to bust drivers who run through one of our four Route One red lights. It came up last year, when Charlestown Town Councilor Deputy Dan Slattery (CCA Party) proposed a tax relief program for distressed homeowners that would require applicants to turn over all of their private financial information to the town and publicly tell their reasons for needing tax relief in a public setting[1].

On the CCA Party's approved curriculum

It’s Time Corporations Flew Old Glory Instead of the Jolly Roger

Instead of gaming the tax system to boost corporate profits, American business leaders need to start investing more in this nation.

By Scott Klinger

The swashbuckling pirates of olde amassed private fortunes by raiding ships and stealing them. Once they captured a ship, they would replace its flag — which represented one of the world’s sovereign nations — with the Jolly Roger. By flying the skull and crossbones, pirates proclaimed that they were out for their own benefit and theirs alone.

Many American corporations are following this pirate tradition. Their crews aren’t sword-wielding ruffians, but high-priced lobbyists and accountants. They fight for, win, and then exploit loopholes in the tax code that allow multinational corporations to take profits earned in the United States and legally shift them to tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and Luxembourg.

Seth Klaiman appointed as director of Langevin’s District office

Seth has been a frequent visitor to Charlestown

Seth with our Senator Cathie Cool Rumsey

WARWICK, R.I. – After serving as the District Director for Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) for more than 12 years, Warwick resident Ken Wild announced his retirement today. Wild has led the Congressman’s Rhode Island staff since he was first elected to Congress in 2000.

“All good things must come to an end, but this is a tough goodbye,” Langevin said. “Since my very first days in Congress, Ken has provided the highest possible level of service to me, the office and the constituents of the 2^nd Congressional District. He has been a trusted advisor through thick and thin, lending his thoughtful perspective while always keeping the best interests of my constituents in mind.”

Oh Say Can You See Through the Frackers’ Big Lie?

The surge in fracked gas is headed for export and won't boost the nation's energy independence.

By Jim Hightower

Big Oil’s frackers are wrapping their shameless profiteering in our flag.

In shale fields across the country, you’ll see fracking rigs festooned with Old Glory, and they even paint some of their rigs red, white, and blue.

This ostentatious patriotic pose is part of the industry’s cynical PR campaign to convince you and me that its assault on our health, water, air, and economic future should be mindlessly saluted, rather than questioned.

The Modern Movement for Civil Rights

Congress must act to correct the Supreme Court's many wrongs.

By Julian Bond

The racial picture in America has improved remarkably in my lifetime, so much so that a black man has been elected and re-elected President of the United States — an unthinkable development just a few years ago.

But paradoxically, Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 convinced many that all racial barriers and restrictions had been vanquished and we had entered racial nirvana across the land.

Charlestown moves up in the rankings.

From the top of the bottom half to the bottom of the top half

By Will Collette

This may come as a shock to those who believe Charlestown is the direct center of the universe, but even among our 39 municipal peers in Rhode Island, we’re ranked only in the middle of the pack. GoLocal has just released its 2013 rankings of RI Best Cities and Towns. Last year, Charlestown came in at #19, after finishing in 14^th place in 2011.

Well, good news for us, Charlestown has moved up two slots in the new 2013 rankings to #17 best among RI’s 39 cities and towns.

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It’s not your imagination…there ARE a lot more mosquitoes out

DEM says heavy June rains led to large mosquito population

PROVIDENCE - From June to October, the Department of Environmental Management traps mosquitoes on a weekly basis for testing at the RI Department of Health Laboratory to determine the presence of West Nile Virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE). Trapping began this year on June 10.
According to DEM's mosquito abatement coordinator Alan Gettman, PhD, last week was the third week of trapping for this season. Dr. Gettman said that more mosquitoes were caught in traps last week than ever before in the past 21 years of mosquito trapping. The huge increase in mosquitoes is due to the substantial rainfall Rhode Island had in June; more than nine inches of rain had fallen by mid-June in the state.