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| Clay Bennett |
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Where are the quahogs?
New commission plans to get to the bottom of that
by Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
A new joint legislative study commission looking into the reasons for the decline of Narragansett Bay’s quahog population is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday.
Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Julie Rose
In 2022, more than 17.7 million quahogs were harvested from the bay and the rest of the state’s coastal waters, according to an annual report from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) — a 9% increase from the year prior.
To vax, or not to vax
CDC faces dilemma over new Covid booster for all
A small percentage of Americans got the most recent covid-19 booster shot, and even fewer probably realize the federal government is preparing to recommend yet another shot as early as Tuesday.
Until a week or two ago, William Schaffner read that indifference as a sign the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should advocate vaccinating only those most at risk from the virus.
But then Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, changed his mind.
Members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices won him over to the argument that the vaccine be recommended for all Americans above 6 months of age, he said in an interview.
Not all vaccine experts see it quite as Schaffner, a nonvoting liaison representative to the ACIP, does.
“I don’t plan to get it myself,” said Paul Offit, 72, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He’s had two boosters and got covid last year.
Another vaccine might increase his protection against mild infection for a few months, but like most Americans’ immune systems, his is already familiar enough with the virus to protect him from serious disease, Offit believes.
Some of Schaffner’s scientific colleagues argue the government should be recommending the shot only for frail, older, sick, and immunocompromised people.
Over 95% of the U.S. population are already covid-immunized through vaccination, infection, or both, and the risks of serious illness for healthy younger people are not great.
Everyone is likely overexposed to BPA – EU
If you're using plastic, you're likely above acceptable health safety levels.
Douglas Fischer, Environmental Health News
Our exposure to a common plastic additive
linked to breast cancer and obesity likely exceeds health thresholds set by
governments worldwide.
The European Environment Agency, citing updated research data,
said the new findings raise "significant health concerns" for the
entire European population – and, by extension, anyone who comes into frequent
contact with plastic.
The agency cited a study that found every
single participant of a biomonitoring study was likely exposed to the chemical
above safe health thresholds. The participants came from 11 European countries.
The chemical, bisphenol-a, or "BPA," makes plastics hard and is found in a variety of products, from reusable water bottles and plastic food containers to sports equipment.
It is also a key
ingredient in epoxies and resins, including canned food liners. And that
grittiness you feel when you rub a thermal paper sales receipt between your
fingers? That's BPA.
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Seth takes on Tommy Tuberville
Magaziner condemns Sen. Tuberville for undermining US servicemembers and national security
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| For more cartoons by Nick Anderson, CLICK HERE |
“Since February, the Alabama Senator has blocked more than 300 qualified officers in the military from receiving the promotions that they have earned, and from assuming the posts that our country needs them in.
“No one is happier with the Senator from Alabama’s antics than Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and our nation’s other adversaries. By undermining our military, he is doing their dirty work for them.
Pizza this Saturday with CRU at the Breachway
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Shoreline access foes get tossed out of federal court
Federal court judge dismisses challenge to RI shoreline access law
by Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
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So declared U.S. District Court Judge William Smith in his Sept. 19 opinion dismissing a legal challenge to the state’s newly inked shoreline access law. Smith ultimately sided with state Attorney General Peter Neronha, who sought to have the lawsuit thrown out.
Smith’s reasoning, as laid out in a nine-page opinion, was three-fold: the group of coastal taxpayers who filed the complaint failed to prove individual members had been harmed by the law; the state agencies named as defendants are the wrong group to sue; and federal court is not the right place to hear a challenge to the state’s constitution.
“Defendants move to dismiss the Complaint on two grounds, and both can be reduced to an argument that Plaintiff seeks the wrong relief from the wrong defendants before the wrong court,” Smith wrote.
Neronha applauded the opinion in a statement on Wednesday, reiterating his pledge to protect residents’ constitutional right to access the shore, as clarified by state lawmakers earlier this year.
The new law, signed by Gov. Dan McKee in June, attempted to resolve a decadeslong dispute over where to draw the line in the sand, allowing public access to the beach anywhere 10 feet landward from the high tide or “wrack” line.
Weeks later, a group of shoreline property owners known as the Rhode Island Association of Coastal Taxpayers (RIACT) sued Neronha and other state agencies, contending the law amounted to an unconstitutional “taking” of their property and asking for a judge to immediately stop them from enforcing the law.
More disease-carrying local bugs found
Take precautions
The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) are announcing that one mosquito sample collected Sept. 12 from a trap set in the Boy Scout Camp Sandsland on Block Island has tested positive for Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) virus.
A mosquito sample from Westerly has tested positive for West Nile Virus (WNV) also collected Sept. 12. RIDOH State Health Laboratories confirmed the findings after testing 147 mosquito samples collected from traps set statewide by DEM on Sept. 12. Testing on these samples at the Rhode Island State Health Laboratories is not yet complete.
DEM and RIDOH appreciate the Boy Scouts of America’s responsiveness in closing its camps in Glocester and Block Island for the remainder of the season after discussions with state health officials.
Last week, DEM announced that it has temporarily closed state-owned recreational areas in Glocester, including the George Washington State Campground, Durfee Hill and George Washington Management Areas, and Pulaski State Park until further notice to protect the health and safety of visitors and staff.
To date, Rhode Island reports six positive EEE virus mosquito samples: five in Glocester and one on Block Island, one EEE case in a mammal (a donkey in Glocester that was announced Sept. 7), and 12 WNV findings: six in Westerly, two in Barrington, and one each in Cranston, Johnston, Richmond, and Tiverton.
Not from out there?
NASA report finds no evidence that UFOs are extraterrestrial
Chris Impey, University of Arizona
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| NASA’s UAP study team and newly appointed director of UAP research represent growing efforts to study and declassify UFO-related data. AP Photo/Terry Renn |
In part to move beyond the stigma often attached to UFOs, where military pilots fear ridicule or job sanctions if they report them, UFOs are now characterized by the U.S. government as UAPs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena.
Bottom line: The study team found no evidence that reported UAP observations are extraterrestrial.
I’m a professor of astronomy who has written extensively on astrobiology and the scientists who search for life in the universe. I have long been skeptical of the claim that UFOs represent visits by aliens to Earth.
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Representative Megan Cotter: RI needs new path for forest stewardship
Exeter wildfire sparked new initiative to improve forest management
On September 13, Representative Megan Cotter (Democrat, District 39, Exeter, Richmond, Hopkinton) held the first meeting of her Special Legislative Commission to Evaluate and Provide Recommendations on Proper Forest Management for Fire Prevention.
Representative Cotter provided the following op-ed to explain her new commission:
“54 percent of Rhode Island is forested, which is
impressive considering it’s the second-most densely populated state in the
nation. It’s also quite a resurgence; by the mid-1700s, settlers’ agriculture
had reduced tree cover in the area to just 31 percent, down from 95 percent
before their arrival a century earlier.
“While Rhode Island has long recognized the value of
forests, establishing its Forest Commission back in 1906, today we
are not giving forest stewardship the priority it deserves.
“This is evident in the increasing frequency and
severity of forest fires. In April, 350 acres were scorched by a wildfire that
began in Queen’s River Preserve in Exeter. Fortunately, no one was
hurt and no homes caught fire, thanks to the great work of many local
firefighters, but it was Rhode Island’s largest forest fire since 1942. And it
was less than a week after another fire burned more than 150 acres at the Big
River Management Area in West Greenwich. Several smaller forest fires also
burned that week, fueled by dry conditions and dead wood.
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