New Jersey needs to figure out how to remove beached whale

New Jersey beaches closed to all, except Gov. Chris Christie.

Stuck in a stand-off with the state legislature, Gov. Chris Christie allowed state government to be shut down. 

That included the state's beaches, an important part of the state's economy during the summer. 

But every problem is, at least for Christie, an opportunity in disguise, as it allowed the Governor to have the beaches all to himself. Here he is, with family members. Christie admitted to the media that, yes, he did go to the beach, but no, he didn't get any sun.

Check out the photo and ask yourself, who ya gonna believe, Trumpnik Chris Christie or your own lying eyes?

Kitty of the Week

Meet Morey

Animal Rescue RI

Morey is a sweet, adventurous kitty who enjoys the company of other cats.

He will show his affection with head butts, lots of them!

Just give this guy a chance and you will receive unconditional love and a forever friend. 

Coming to a farm near you?

House protects Alex and Ani owner’s farm concerts, progressives could have prevented it

By Bob Plain in Rhode Island's Future

Screen shot from Sakonnet Vineyards website.

Sometimes at the State House the script gets flipped and Democrats find themselves supporting freedom from regulations and Republicans find themselves advocating for local zoning restrictions. 

Such was the case in the House of Representatives last night as the Democrat-dominated chamber passed the so-called “Right to Farm” bill by a 46 to 23 vote, with many progressive Democrats voting with the majority and all Republicans voting against it.

The bill would allow farmers to host “festivals and weddings” regardless of municipal land use laws. It’s widely seen as a gift to Alex and Ani owner Carolyn Rafaelian, who also owns Sakonnet Vineyards and has been rankling her Little Compton neighbors with increasingly popular and loud summer concert series. Little Compton limits the number of concerts the farm can host and the bill would circumvent that.

“This smells like some hotshot wants to undermine local authorities by coming to us,” said Republican Rep. Anthony Giarrusso, according to the Providence Journal. While Democrat sponsor of the legislation Greg Constantino told the ProJo, “It’s not her bill.”

Progressive Dems call for Mattiello’s removal as Speaker

RI Progressive Democrats call for new House Speaker

By Capri Catanzaro in Rhode Island’s Future

The Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America (RIPDA) congratulate Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello in his latest example of conservative gamesmanship, putting the House in recess immediately after hearing that his Senate colleagues might actually put their two cents into the budget. 

Mattiello’s childish, thuggish action mimics Trump and is an embarrassment to Democrats and the state of Rhode Island.

This wildly unpopular, unprecedented, and unjustified executive order beckons the question; does Mattiello even believe in democracy? 

This latest failure of our government to govern–a direct consequence of Mattiello’s childish “I want it all” attitude–is actually a tremendous loss for everyone.” It is an outrage that the Speaker is playing games when there is a state to be run. 

The Senate and the House budgets agree on most everything, including fuzzy math, cruel and pointless Medicaid cuts, DMV closings, and other unpopular measures. 

The only true point of contention is the Senate’s acknowledgement that there is no real provision to pay for Mattiello’s venerated cuts to the car tax in future years.

You betcha!

Make CHINA great?

Marine Species Distribution Shifts Will Continue Under Ocean Warming

Changes impact local fishing communities, resource management

Shelley Dawicki, NOAA

EDITOR’S NOTE: Here is yet another example of endangered science that would be terminated under Trump’s proposed budget. And the odds are high that you will not be able to access this research on any government website in the future.

Scientists using a high-resolution global climate model and historical observations of species distributions on the Northeast U.S. Shelf have found that commercially important species will continue to shift their distribution as ocean waters warm two to three times faster than the global average through the end of this century. 

Projected increases in surface to bottom waters of  6.6 to 9 degrees F (3.7 to 5.0 degrees Celsius) from current conditions are expected.

The findings, reported in Progress in Oceanography, suggest ocean temperature will continue to play a major role in where commercially important species will find suitable habitat. 

Sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine have warmed faster than 99 percent of the global ocean over the past decade.  

Northward shifts of many species are already happening, with major changes expected in the complex of species occurring in different regions on the shelf, and shifts from one management jurisdiction to another. 

These changes will directly affect fishing communities, as species now landed at those ports move out of range, and new species move in.

UPDATED: For $1,000, you can meet Rhode Island’s most famous village idiot

UPDATE: Sean Spicer DOESN'T come out from hiding in the bushes for RI Republican fund-raiser.

By Will Collette

UPDATE: This event, which was to be held today at an undisclosed location, has been CANCELLED.  No reason was given by the RI Republican Party, hosts of the event.

WPRI reports:

"[S]tate GOP Chairman Brandon Bell confirmed to Eyewitness News on Sunday morning that the event had been cancelled."

Last January, I commented on Rhode Island’s inferiority complex and how that makes us grasp at any connection to national or international notoriety.

At that time, our local news media were going ga-ga over the appointments of Mike Flynn as National Security Advisor to Trump and Sean Spicer to White House Press Secretary.

At the time, I predicted these two would bring shame on Rhode Island, though I am hoping they may help Rhode Island get over its obsession with connection our fine little state with people and events in the larger world.

While we certainly have our share of political crazies, they don't have the ability to wreck the economy, take us to war or destroy the planet. Or sell us out to the Russians.

Mike Flynn was one of the first Trumpniks to fall in disgrace as a central figure in the Russiagate scandal that may ultimately bring Trump’s reign to a premature end.

Sean Spicer, on the other hand, has become a national joke and a symbol for the bizarre alternative universe that is Donald Trump.

But that hasn’t stopped Rhode Island Republicans from continuing to grasp at that connection to fame as Spicer is the main feature at their July 2 fund-raiser. Minimum donation is $1000.

Who’s knows? Maybe Mike Flynn will do a surprise drop-in.

I even got an invitation to go (seriously):

Self-inflicted Wounds

How the Democratic Party Damaged Itself by Attacking Public Education

By Diane Ravitch

Mark Naison and I agree. When the Democratic Party joined the campaign to impose high-stakes testing, accountability, and privatization, it attacked a key element of its own base. 

He says it began with Bill Clinton’s advocacy for standards, testing, and accountability. Then, the Democrats threw their support behind George W. Bush’s disastrous No Child Left Behind. Then Obama brought in Arne Duncan to bribe the states with $5 billion for the disastrous Race to the Top program, which demoralized teachers, made them scapegoats, and closed thousands of schools in impoverished communities while favoring privately managed charter schools. 

I argued in The New Republic that the Democratic Party paved the way for Betsy DeVos and her crusade to replace public schools with anything other than public schools. Charters under private management are the gateway drug leading to vouchers to replace public schools.

Mark wrote that Democrats have no one to blame but themselves.

Charlestown voter list shows more registered voters than eligible adults

Secretary of State Gorbea wants to clean up voter rolls

EDITOR'S NOTE: According to the 2010 US Census, Charlestown had 6,278 residents aged 18 and older. The Census Bureau has also said it estimated population declines in Charlestown since the 2010 Census was taken. The actual number of residents 18 and up is probably now closer to 6,000. Yet, somehow, Charlestown's registered voters at the time of the Financial Town Referendum a month ago was 6,451. I wish Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea luck in cleaning this up.   - Will Collette

Secretary of State Nellie M. Gorbea announced key measures that will clean up Rhode Island's voter rolls. 

"When I ran for Secretary of State, I told Rhode Islanders that having clean voter lists was critical to preserving the integrity of our elections and ensure that elections are fair, fast and accurate. We've been hard at work implementing state of the art technology and new systems. 

"Today, I am announcing measures that are cleaning up our voter rolls in full adherence to the protections of state and federal law: (1) vigilant maintenance of our Central Voter Registry, (2) membership in the multi-state Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), (3) updates through the US Postal Service Change of Address system, and (4) voter updates through our online voter registration system. I hope to add Automatic Voter Registration to these measures as well."

Before you go swimming

From Fake Science, Donald Trump's ONLY source for science information.

Religious mistakes?

Can wind turbines survive hurricanes?

Offshore Wind Faces Stiff Test From Hurricanes

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

As new offshore wind farms are built off the Northeast coast, a new report suggests that the current models of wind turbines may not withstand the most powerful of hurricanes. 

The study, by the University of Colorado Boulder, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the U.S. Department of Energy, is intended to help the budding offshore wind industry as it expands into hurricane-prone regions, such as the East Coast.

“We wanted to understand the worst-case scenario for offshore wind turbines, and for hurricanes, that’s a Category 5,” said Rochelle Worsnop, lead author and a graduate researcher in the University of Colorado's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC).

Current design standards require offshore wind turbines be built to withstand 112-mph winds. Using computer-generated simulations, researchers found that portions of Category 5 hurricanes can reach up to 200 mph. Turbine blades also can be stressed by sudden and powerful shifts in wind direction, called veer.

Eat your broccoli!

New anti-diabetes substance found in broccoli

BY: MARGARETA GUSTAFSSON KUBISTA, University of Gothenburg, Sahlgrenska Academy

Researchers have identified an antioxidant – richly occurring in broccoli – as a new antidiabetic substance. A patient study shows significantly lower blood sugar levels in participants who ate broccoli extract with high levels of sulforaphane.

“There are strong indications that this can become a valuable supplement to existing medication,” says Anders Rosengren, Docent in Metabolic Physiology at the University of Gothenburg.

The publication in the journal Science Translational Medicine builds on several years’ research at Sahlgrenska Academy and Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Gothenburg, and the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University.

The objective was to find new medications against type-2 diabetes by addressing an important disease mechanism: The liver’s elevated glucose production. The classic drug metformin works by doing just that, but often causes gastric side-effects and can also not be taken when kidney function is severely reduced, which affects many with diabetes.

The return of “junk insurance”

The Crappy Coverage Solution

By Phil Mattera for the Dirt Diggers Digest

If Congressional Republicans succeed in enacting either the Senate or the House bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they will have carried out one of the most brazen bait and switch moves in the history of U.S. public policy.

They and Donald Trump campaigned on the idea that Obamacare exchange premiums were rising uncontrollably, yet neither of the bills does anything to address that problem.

They did not vow to repeal and replace Medicaid — Trump, in fact, promised not to touch it or Medicare or Social Security — yet that is what the bills would in effect do, both for the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and traditional Medicaid.

It’s been widely noted that the Republicans seem preoccupied with repealing the taxes the ACA imposed on high earners to help pay for the cost of expanding coverage.

Yet less attention is being paid to the other giveaway in the bills: the repeal of the ACA’s employer mandate.

This provision should be called the Wal-Mart Windfall Act, because it would allow large low-road employers to avoid ACA rules that oblige firms with 50 or more full-time employees to provide health coverage or else pay a penalty.