Feeding the Economy

The government should expand the food stamp program, not shrink it.

By Jill Richardson

I never paid much attention to the food stamp debate in Congress before. But I’m on food stamps myself these days, so I’m tuning in this time around.

Officially called SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — food stamps are one of those things that deficit-conscious lawmakers always want to cut and hunger advocates always want to increase.

Surf’s up Sunday

Skim boarding tour hits Charlestown on Sunday, June 30

By Cheryl Dowdell

Once again, right here at beautiful Charlestown Town Beach on June 30th, 2013, the North East Skim Tour is bringing its summer series kickoff to our sunny shores.

Budget priorities out of whack

RIte Care cuts could prove to be a killer

By Tom Sgouros in Rhode Island’s Future

Do you support the compromises made to put together this year’s state budget?  Would you support them if you knew they will cause people to die?  Statistically speaking, one cut is likely to cause as many as 30 deaths over the next few years.

The problem with discussions of the state budget is that they’re usually conducted in the abstract.  We talk about budget numbers and cutting a little here and moving this number into that column and it’s all rather academic and somewhat bloodless.  To make it a little less bloodless, I’d like to look at just one number and see what it really means.  And since we’re talking about blood, let’s look at the Medicaid cut.

Charlestown Shorts

Whalerock whoopee cushions, Dems want your stuff, big win on signs, fraud alert, why Lisa DeBello abstains

By Will Collette

Whalerock Hearing #4 on Wednesday

The fourth Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBR) hearing on developer Larry LeBlanc’s application for a Special Use Permit for his proposed wind farm will start at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, June 26 at the Charlestown Elementary School and will go until 10:30 PM.

I’m not going. I’ve had it. Maybe one of my colleagues will cover it. Three sessions at three hours each was bad enough - four hours? Faggedaboudit!

Besides, I know how this chapter will end – the ZBR is going to vote down the application and Larry LeBlanc is going back to Superior Court where – due to the ineptitude of the ZBR and the Town – LeBlanc stands a good chance of winning, perhaps this time for good. Unless, of course, we decide to do the right thing.

I can also tell you in advance what will happen at Hearing #4. Here goes: “blah, blah, blah, blah, I object, blah, blah, no, I object, boo, hiss, blah, blah, turbines make your brain explode, blah, blah, here’s something I read on the internet, blah, blah, fake science, blah, blah, blah.” Caution: the chairs at the school are very hard and this next meeting will be one hour longer than usual. Bring a seat cushion.

Dems want your stuff!

The annual Charlestown Democratic Town Committee yard sale is coming up on July 6. CDTC’s top fund-raiser Frank Glista is still looking for salable goods that will bring in some cash, so please contact Frank  by e-mail or at (401) 364-3723.

How civilizations fall

Unless the House sleeps on it...

Mattress Recycling Law On Track to Pass

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News staff

Sen. Dominick Ruggerio speaks about his mattress recycling
bill during a June 12 committee hearing.
(Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News)

 PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island is poised to become the second state to adopt a mattress recycling law. Last month, the Connecticut Legislature passed the nation's first mattress disposal program.

The Rhode Island bill (S621), endorsed June 12 by the Senate Committee on the Environment and Agriculture, is modeled after Connecticut’s. The producer-responsibility program brings together manufacturers and retailers to collect and properly dismantle old mattresses and box springs, which are 95 percent recyclable.

The program receives funding through a yet-to-be-determined fee paid by consumers at the point of purchase.  

OMG-PD

 Family Business

By Samantha Turner from Narragansett-South Kingstown Patch

A Family-Themed Breaking-and-Entering

When breaking into one of your properties without giving your tenant proper notice, it’s always great to take the kids along. It all began when the 38-year-old landlord called his tenant at 5 a.m. and allegedly told her to move out so he could move back in. (FYI: Rhode Island law states that tenants must be given a warning a month in advance of eviction.)

Bad air till Wednesday - take precautions

DEM plans to bust boaters hitting the bottle

Heightened DEM patrols over Fourth of July weekend to enforce law against boating under the influence

Arrest this guy for his own good

PROVIDENCE - Safe boating patrols will be stepped up on June 28 to June 30 in a joint operation conducted by the Department of Environmental Management's Division of Law Enforcement and US Coast Guard Units from Castle Hill and Point Judith.

The effort is part of Operation Dry Water, a coordinated national weekend of Boating Under the Influence (BUI) detection and enforcement. It is aimed at reducing the number of alcohol-related and drug-related accidents and fatalities, and making recreational boaters aware of the dangers of alcohol and drug use on the water.

During Operation Dry Water, marine law enforcement officers will be out in full force on Rhode Island waterways, searching for boat operators whose blood alcohol content exceeds the state limit of .08 percent.

Copar invades Charlestown (continued)

Meet the new neighbors, Part 2

By Will Collette

Randy Roberge from his LinkedIn profile

This is a continuing series on Charlestown's newest business, Connecticut-based Copar Quarries, which took over the Morrone business on Route 91. For the past two years, Copar has plagued Bradford and nearby Charlestown residents with its notorious Bradford granite quarry. Click here for more.

In Part 1 of “Meet the New Neighbors,” we introduced you to Phil Armetta whose waste disposal empire address was listed as the principal office for the Copar Quarries four month old operation in Charlestown when Copar filed its belated application for a Charlestown business license.

In today’s installment, we’ll take a hard look at Randal (“Randy”) S. Roberge who is listed on that same Copar Rhode Island corporation registration as Copar’s “Resident Agent” for its Charlestown operations.

Calling Roberge “resident agent” uses that term loosely, since Roberge actually lives in Bristol, CT. Under RI General Laws 7-16-11(a)(1), for a person to be the resident agent of a Limited Liability Corporation, like Copar Quarries of RI, LLC, that person must be “An individual resident of this state[1].”

Brush your teeth and say your prayers. Woof!

Christie stages fake Sandy recovery

Another Jersey Shore Show

When Prince Harry visited Seaside Heights, New Jersey, the authorities faked a return to relative normalcy for the Sandy-struck beach town.

By Jim Hightower

If you see things that really are not there, are you losing it? Maybe not. Maybe the ones who put the non-existent things there for you to see are to blame.

Recently, this surrealistic phenomenon of unreal “thereness” appeared in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. 

This shore town had been devastated by Superstorm Sandy last October, shutting down its boardwalk shops and rides. But in mid-May, England’s Prince Harry came to Jersey for a royal visit, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie led him to the town’s boardwalk to highlight the people’s resilient spirit and determination to rebuild.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

NGC 6902: The Butterfly Nebula 

From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day  

The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception.

With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust.

This sharp and colorful close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, installed during the final shuttle servicing mission.

Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. 

NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).

A Rotten Bacon Behemoth

If a Chinese company's bid to acquire Smithfield goes through, consumers and farmers will suffer.

Paula Deen will have to learn to eat with chopsticks. She'll need to
suck up to the new owners now that she's lost her Food Channel gig

By Wenonah Hauter

American consumers may not even notice the change if a newly proposed takeover by China’s largest meat processor of our nation’s leading pork company goes through. But the $4.7 billion transaction would certainly show up on our plates: in the form of farmer exploitation, more factory farms, and a more complicated supply chain that increases the risk of food contamination.

Green up your house

9 Simple Steps to a Carbon Neutral Home

From ENN.com

Brandon Cheshire, Owner & Chief Technical Officer at Arizona-based SunHarvest Solar, recently spoke with Sierra Club Green Home about the benefits of going solar. During the interview, they discovered that his home is not only solar powered, it’s carbon neutral. This means it’s completely energy independent and emissions-free. Here’s how he did it.

Besides installing your solar system, what other upgrades did you make?