Hurricane Harvey and You

We are not untouched by weather catastrophe

By Will Collette

This is a White House photo showing an emergency meeting on Hurricane Harvey being chaired by VP Mike Pence while Donald Trump sits all alone in Camp David. No aides. No notes, but happily no cell phone for his itchy little Twitter fingers.

As we watch any disaster unfurl on television, there is a natural tendency to think, if not say, “I’m glad that’s not us.” I’m sure most Texas Republican members of Congress thought that way when we were getting hammered by Hurricane Sandy, and certainly when they voted against federal relief for Sandy’s widespread destruction.

I doubt anyone will vote against Harvey relief. I’d like to think we’re not that small-minded. In fact, you can bet that people across New England and the rest of the Northeast are trying to figure out how to help.

Major disasters are not strictly localized events. We should see immediate effects at the gas pump, as the price per gallon goes up from 5 cents to a quarter. These increases should be temporary, but who knows for sure. Epic floods could knock out Houston area production for much longer than expected.

The damage and the loss of production may have even broader impacts on the national economy.

Charity scams

Major disasters are great opportunities. No, I'm not just referring to Donald Trump using Harvey as cover for disgraceful acts like pardoning racist former Sheriff Joe Arpaio or issuing the official order banning transgender people from service in the military.

You may start to get calls asking you to donate for Harvey disaster relief. If you get a cold call asking you to donate, DON’T! After disasters like this, there will be even more fake charities running phone bank boiler rooms to steal money from people with big hearts.

The American Red Cross always raises lots of money after disasters, but later, we often find out they did not spend the money for the purpose it was given. They are still being called to account for money they raised for Sandy relief.

My Louisiana friends said the Red Cross did little to help after Katrina, even though they got the lion’s share of the money. They credited the Salvation Army and local churches and non-profits with doing the best job.

Good Charities

Keeping track of what's important

Free Market vs. socialism

Assessing the damage

New England's Only Hard Coral Could Help Determine Extent of Microplastic Pollution

Preliminary research results have found 100 microplastic particles in northern star coral polyps. In the photo above, the northern star coral is attached to a rock and near green alga, commonly called sea lettuce, and red alga. (Frank Carini/ecoRI News)

By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI News staff

The hard coral off the shores of southern New England isn’t nearly as glamorous as its tropical counterparts — in fact, it’s barely noticed even by experienced divers — but it could play a vital role in determining the size and depth of the world’s plastic footprint.

“Coral can’t run, so it makes for a good model to see how much plastic is in a particular habitat,” said Randi Rotjan, a research assistant and professor of biology at Boston University. “My guess is that coral takes in a lot of plastic because it can’t run away from it.”

ecoRI News recently met up with Rotjan, Boston University research technician Cara Johnson and Michael Lombardi of Middletown-based Ocean Opportunity Inc. at Fort Wetherill State Park during a dive to place a substrate to collect northern star coral larvae. The substrate will be collected in six weeks and brought back to Rotjan’s laboratory to be studied.

Just saying...

Soda Doesn’t ‘Feed the World’

A new Coke ad traffics in some questionable warm and fuzzy feelings.

By Jill Richardson

Coca-Cola has a new ad in which a young girl wishes to grow a garden for the whole world. Then, as a grown woman who works for Coca-Cola, she says that she’s fulfilling that dream.

The phrase “feed the world” is one that should always be questioned, because it’s often used to promote the selfish aims of corporations that want to produce and sell as much food as possible — without regard to whether that food actually reaches the hungriest and most vulnerable people on the planet.

But, putting that aside, the sentiment is even more laughable when it’s touted by a beverage company.

State pension fund grow on high investment returns

$137 million in July alone

After posting an 11.62% return in the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2017, the Rhode Island Pension Fund has continued to deliver under Treasurer Seth Magaziner and his Back to Basics investment strategy earning 1.70% in the month of July which brings its total value to $8.15 billion.

"We are committed to strengthening the retirement system and providing retirement security for its members," said Treasurer Magaziner. "The Back to Basics investment strategy continues to provide growth when markets are strong, and is also positioning us to be more stable when markets are down."

On one side there were Nazis and on the other side there were no Nazis

Trump still came down on the wrong side.

By Helen Philpot from her blog, Margaret and Helen

Several people have asked me why I haven’t been writing. The truth is, honey, this isn’t funny anymore. 

Our President… scratch that…  the moron currently occupying the White House just equated George Washington to Robert E. Lee.  

He can’t understand why a memorial to the symbolic founding father of our country is different than a memorial to a general in an army that fought a failed rebellion against our government.

Mr. President, with no respect intended, I implore you to please step down.  You are not qualified for the position you now hold.  Quite frankly, you are not qualified to be much more than a reality TV star, a position I hold in very low regard by the way.

There is a reason that in Germany you will find no statues of Hitler, no monuments to the Third Reich, and no Chancellor of Germany suggesting there was blame for World War 2 on both sides.  

There is a reason that Robert E. Lee himself didn’t want statues honoring the Confederacy.  In his own words, “I think it wiser not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”

The best eclipse

Comparison: military service

Why are shearwaters dying?

Dead Seabirds Washing Ashore on N.E. Beaches

By TODD McLEISH/ecoRI News contributor

Walking on the beach at the north end of Block Island last month, Matt Schenck stumbled upon two dead and decomposing seabirds, which the avid birdwatcher identified as great shearwaters. While gulls of various species are commonly found dead on local beaches, shearwaters are an extreme rarity.

Except this year.

Hundreds of great shearwaters have turned up dead on beaches on Long Island and southern New England this summer, and no one seems to know why. In addition to the birds on Block Island, birders and biologists have reported dead shearwaters on Rhode Island beaches in Tiverton and Charlestown.

Shearwaters spend most of their lives far out to sea, where they soar just above the waves as they forage on small fish and other marine creatures near the surface of the water. Four species of shearwater — great, sooty, Cory’s and Manx — are typically seen in Rhode Island waters, though they seldom travel within sight of land. Most breed on remote islands in the South Atlantic.

For the second time, West Nile Virus found in sample

Public Reminded to Guard against Mosquito Bites

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) announced a mosquito sample collected on Tuesday, August 15 in Barrington has tested positive for West Nile Virus (WNV).

This is the second finding of WNV in Rhode Island this year; the first occurred in Warren on Monday, August 7. 

The remaining 92 mosquito samples from traps set on the 15th tested negative for both WNV and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE).

You can’t have too many eagles, or gold

First photos of White House renovations

BY NATALIE DICKINSON

All the terrible pre-election jokes about Donald Trump turning the White House into the Gold House are coming to life before our eyes.

The Oval Office renovations that took place during President Trump’s “working” vacation at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort are nearing completion.

It appears that Trump has brought the same kind of obnoxiously gaudy and aggressively opulent aesthetic that he decorated his Trump Tower penthouse in.

And there's a whole lot more....

Local Narragansett leader declares solidarity with protesting Pokanoket members

Brown doesn’t decide who gets to lay claim to indigenous lands

By Bella Noka in Rhode Island’s Future

EDITOR’S NOTE: Members of the Pokanoket Nation, a Native American community not federally recognized as a tribe, has claimed and occupied land in Bristol that was deeded to Brown University.

The audacity of Brown University to determine if the Pokanoket Nation is a tribe or not, based on a flawed system set up for failure by the Federal Government!

Brown University, a member of the Ivy League, is failing miserably by their students.

Green energy, Trump style