Tomaquag Museum receives $445,000 federal grant for new museum building

National Endowment for the Humanities award will support construction of a new space for the Tomaquag Museum

U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressmen Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo today announced $444,282 in federal funding for the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum, Rhode Island’s only Native-led museum.  

The grant, administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will support the construction of a new permanent home for Tomaquag Museum at the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston campus.

“The Tomaquag Museum is the only museum in the state operated by Native people and one of the best small museums in the entire country,” said U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, which oversees NEH funding.  

Reed recently brought the head of NEH to Rhode Island to meet with Tomaquag Museum officials.  “They have an incredibly diverse collection of artifacts old and new and a tremendously talented, dedicated staff that highlights Southern New England Indigenous traditions, heritage, history and culture.  The Tomaquag Museum is a place where history comes alive and so it’s fitting that it continues to expand and grow and reach wider audiences.”

"Independent contractors" often aren't independent at all

Biden DOL Finalizes Independent Contractor Rule to 'Help Protect Workers'

JESSICA CORBETT for Common Dreams

Democrats in Congress and unions were among those applauding on Tuesday as the U.S. Department of Labor announced its final rule to provide guidance on when employers can treat workers as independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

"Misclassifying employees as independent contractors is a serious issue that deprives workers of basic rights and protections," acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. "This rule will help protect workers, especially those facing the greatest risk of exploitation, by making sure they are classified properly and that they receive the wages they've earned."

Welcoming the rule—set to take effect in March—the Teamsters said on social media that "it's long past time for American employers to recognize and respect their employees, to stop exploiting loopholes to pay workers less and deprive them of benefits, and to honor every worker's right to organize and collectively bargain a union contract."

Economic Policy Institute (EPI) president Heidi Shierholz highlighted that the rule rescinds a Trump-era policy and, like Su, stressed how "employer misclassification of workers as independent contractors robs workers of labor rights and threatens their economic security."

Check the evidence

By Mike Luckovich

 

That's statutory rape

Focus on right now, not the distant future

Stay motivated and on track to your long-term health goals

Kaitlin Woolley, Cornell University and Paul Stillman, San Diego State University

The fresh flavors taste good now – a here-and-now reward
that’s more motivating than potentially avoiding health
problems in the future. kajakiki/E+ via Getty Images

It’s a familiar start-of-the-year scene. You’ve committed to a healthier lifestyle and are determined that this time is going to be different. Your refrigerator is stocked with fruits and veggies, you’ve tossed out processed foods, and your workout routine is written in pen in your daily planner.

Yet, as you head out one morning, the tantalizing aroma of fresh doughnuts wafts through the air. How can you resist the call of this sugary treat and stick with your healthy choices?

Conventional wisdom, grounded in years of research, suggests that the best way to resist unhealthy choices is to think about the long-term consequences. For example, you could consider how the added sugar from eating too many doughnuts can lead to diabetes and obesity. Thinking about these long-term consequences, the argument goes, should help you avoid indulging right now and better stick to your goals.

However, in our combined 25 years of experience investigating people’s self-control behavior and motivation, we have learned that, in the heat of the moment, people often overlook distant outcomes, diminishing the effectiveness of strategies focused on the long term.

In response, we propose three approaches, backed by recent research, to help you stick to healthier habits.

Rhode Island Has No Clear Plan to Reach 2030 Climate Mandates

Can we get there from here?

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

With less than six years left on the clock until 2030, Rhode Island lawmakers are headed back into their legislative chambers with no clear plan to achieve the state’s next big climate mandates.

State officials celebrated a bit of a jubilee earlier this year, when the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management released its latest greenhouse gas inventory showing the state achieved a 20% drop in emissions compared to 1990 levels. The decrease was double what is required in the Act on Climate law, legislation that passed in 2021 that enshrines the state’s emission reduction goals into state law.

But the victory is temporary; DEM noted in its report that the 2020 data is skewed by the COVID-19 pandemic, when the public drove much less due to government-mandated shutdowns across Rhode Island for many businesses, and is no indicator of future reduction trends.

“The big message is, we are not on track,” said Timmons Roberts, professor of environmental studies and sociology at Brown University, on the state’s latest emissions inventory. 

The Garbage of 'Lesser of Two Evils' Discontents

"Biden is not evil. Trump is truly evil."

ROBERT REICH in Robertreich.Substack.Com

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he
shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:–
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully
execute the Office of President of the United States,
and will to the best of my Ability, preserve,
protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  
- US Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 8

Some people tell me they hate Trump but don’t particularly like Biden. They say Biden is too old, or he’s not doing enough to stop Israel’s bombing of Gaza, or he’s caved to Big Oil, or he isn’t tough enough.

So they tell me they’re not going to vote next November. Or they’ll vote for a third-party candidate.

Maybe you know someone like this. Or you yourself fall into this camp.

Here’s what I tell them: By not voting or voting for a third party, they’re actually casting a vote for Trump.

Some respond by saying that Trump may be a curse, but they’re sick and tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.

Wrong. Biden is not evil. Trump is truly evil.

Easy cure

Madeline Horwath 

Compare Trump's and Biden's economic vision

 

We've finally learned how to talk to chickens only to find they're all Trump supporters

Cross-Species Communication: Humans Crack the Chicken Clucking Code

By UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND 

A cartoon by Pedro Molina.

A University of Queensland-led study has found humans can tell if chickens are excited or displeased, just by the sound of their clucks.

Professor Joerg Henning from UQ’s School of Veterinary Science said researchers investigated whether humans could correctly identify the context of calls or clucking sounds made by domestic chickens, the most commonly farmed species in the world.

Study Methodology and Findings

“In this study, we used recordings of chickens vocalizing in all different scenarios from a previous experiment,” Professor Henning said.

“Two calls were produced in anticipation of a reward, which we called the ‘food’ call and the ‘fast cluck’.

“Two other call types were produced in non-reward contexts, such as food being withheld, which we called the ‘whine’ and ‘gakel’ calls.”

The researchers played the audio files back to test whether humans could tell in which context the chicken sounds were made, and whether various demographics and levels of experience with chickens affected their correct identification.

Older Americans Say They Feel Trapped in Medicare Advantage Plans

The cost of private coverage for gaps in Medicare coverage

Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Health News 

In 2016, Richard Timmins went to a free informational seminar to learn more about Medicare coverage.

“I listened to the insurance agent and, basically, he really promoted Medicare Advantage,” Timmins said. The agent described less expensive and broader coverage offered by the plans, which are funded largely by the government but administered by private insurance companies.

For Timmins, who is now 76, it made economic sense then to sign up. And his decision was great, for a while.

Then, three years ago, he noticed a lesion on his right earlobe.

“I have a family history of melanoma. And so, I was kind of tuned in to that and thinking about that,” Timmins said of the growth, which doctors later diagnosed as malignant melanoma. “It started to grow and started to become rather painful.”

Timmins, though, discovered that his enrollment in a Premera Blue Cross Medicare Advantage plan would mean a limited network of doctors and the potential need for preapproval, or prior authorization, from the insurer before getting care. The experience, he said, made getting care more difficult, and now he wants to switch back to traditional, government-administered Medicare.

But he can’t. And he’s not alone.

Michael Flynn has a bad rep despite what Jim Mageau claims

Putting him on a pedestal tarnishes ours.

By Philip Eil, Rhode Island Current

Late December tends to be so sleepy for news, that at some point, the space between Christmas and New Years became known as “dead week.” But an uproar surged across Rhode Island screens and airwaves in recent days. And for those of you just returning to your desks, here’s a recap. 

The hubbub began on Dec. 20 when Boston Globe columnist Dan McGowan reported that the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame had voted to include former National Security Advisor – and Middletown native – Michael Flynn in its 2024 class. Outrage ensued. 

Six members of the hall’s 25-member board resigned (a number which, per Providence Journal reporting, later grew to eight). And others around the state voiced their disapproval in tweets, columns, and letters to the editor. 

On Dec. 26, the story made the New York Times, which is always an event in the smallest state. Then, on Friday Dec. 29, honorary state Historian Laureate Patrick Conley weighed in with this statement. 

Speaking as the hall’s past president and “Volunteer General Counsel” Conley talked about a lot of subjects: the hall’s history, its funding, its “extensive website,” the nine other inductees in the 2024 class, the barrage of letters it received about Flynn’s induction, the hall’s long history of induction ceremonies undisturbed by protest, and, eventually, the board’s decision to “defer Flynn’s induction to a more peaceful and rational time and a more secure place.”

What he did not talk about was Flynn’s conduct or say that the induction wouldn’t happen at all. In a single sentence, Conley dismissed concerns about Flynn’s felony conviction for lying to the FBI. 

The board “accepted as true the grant of clemency from the president of the United States asserting that no crime was actually committed and the fact that charges against Flynn were dropped by a weaponized Department of Justice,” he wrote, without mentioning that other Trump pardonees include murderers and war criminals. 

Conley’s statement was disappointing. But given his record of commentary – his eagerness to defend awful men, his tendency to fire back at critics, his apparent impatience for left-leaning protests – it wasn’t surprising. 

And if you do look closely at what Flynn has done, it becomes clear how colossally inappropriate the hall’s choice was, and how further misguided Conley’s efforts are to defend, defer, or do anything short of rescind it. (In 2022, the University of Rhode Island’s board of trustees wisely revoked an honorary degree Flynn received in 2014.) And if Conley and the hall aren’t willing to explore why Flynn is so unworthy of induction, I will. 

Flynn’s outrageous behavior falls into roughly three categories.

The red state way

Republican reason for refusing to work together on border issues

We used AI and satellite imagery to map ocean activities that take place out of sight, including fishing, shipping and energy development

On guard

Jennifer Raynor, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Many commercial fishing boats do not report their positions
 at sea or are not required to do so. 
Alex Walker via Getty Images

Humans are racing to harness the ocean’s vast potential to power global economic growth. Worldwide, ocean-based industries such as fishing, shipping and energy production generate at least US$1.5 trillion in economic activity each year and support 31 million jobs. This value has been increasing exponentially over the past 50 years and is expected to double by 2030.

Transparency in monitoring this “blue acceleration” is crucial to prevent environmental degradation, overexploitation of fisheries and marine resources, and lawless behavior such as illegal fishing and human trafficking. Open information also will make countries better able to manage vital ocean resources effectively. But the sheer size of the ocean has made tracking industrial activities at a broad scale impractical – until now.

A newly published study in the journal Nature combines satellite images, vessel GPS data and artificial intelligence to reveal human industrial activities across the ocean over a five-year period. Researchers at Global Fishing Watch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing ocean governance through increased transparency of human activity at sea, led this study, in collaboration with me and our colleagues at Duke University, University of California, Santa Barbara and SkyTruth.