General Assembly passes Tanzi-Sosnowski bill to give SK firefighters tax credit

If Charlestown starts now, we can get this done next year

The General Assembly approved legislation sponsored by Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski and Rep. Teresa A. Tanzi to allow South Kingstown’s all-volunteer firefighting force to use a break on their district fire taxes to recruit and retain members.

“The Union Fire District has worked tirelessly on recruitment and retention efforts in recent years,” said Senator Sosnowski (D-Dist. 37, South Kingstown). “And this bill will really help to support that goal, by implementing a policy that is not only a necessity, but one that shows the firefighting community how much we appreciate the time they give and the sacrifices they make to keep the district safe.”

The legislation (2024-S 2633, 2024-H 7838) which will allow the Union Fire District of South Kingstown to grant district fire tax exemptions or abatements to current and retired firefighters and their spouses.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Charlestown has the same recruitment and retention problems as South Kingstown. To get credits for our brave firefighters, the town must first enact it and then get the General Assembly’s approval, as South Kingstown just did. This is a tax reform that’s long overdue.  – Will Collette

“We are very fortunate in South Kingstown to have an all-volunteer force of firefighters who provide excellent service to our residents,” said Representative Tanzi (D-Dist. 34, South Kingstown, Narragansett). “However, in recent years it has become more difficult for them to recruit volunteers. Allowing the district to grant tax exemptions will give them another important recruitment tool and show our community’s appreciation for the work that they do protecting us.”

'I'll Take Up Arms If He Asks': Violent Supporters Rush to Trump After Guilty Verdict

What about you, Justin Price? Elaine Morgan?

JULIA CONLEY for Common Dreams

As supporters of Donald Trump flood right-wing platforms with threats against the jurors and judge following guilty verdicts Thursday in his criminal case regarding hush money payments, fears are growing that the influence the Republican presumptive presidential nominee has over his supporters will soon lead to violence.

"Until and unless he accepts the process, the extremist reaction to his legal troubles will be militant," Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Reuters.

Former state Rep and MAGAnut Justin Price
took part in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Will he suit
up if Donald issues the call to arms? 

The former president gave no sign of accepting the legal process Friday as he held a press conference at Trump Tower, repeating claims that the case had been "rigged."

Shortly after a New York jury announced its verdict in the case regarding documents that were falsified to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniel just before the 2016 election to keep her from publicizing an alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump, right-wing websites like Gateway Pundit, Truth Social, and Patriots.Win saw an uptick in violent posts from users.

One commenter called for "someone in NY with nothing to lose" to "take care of" New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, while another on Gateway Pundit directed a threat at any and all opponents of Trump.

"Time to start capping some leftys," said the user. "This cannot be fixed by voting."

The reaction is a direct result, said Ware, of Trump's "insistence that he is being mistreated."

Din-din

Waylon Bacon 

Trump's definitive policy on how to handle drug dealers

Representative’s proposal to include green space in bond added to budget bill

Cotter works to save conservation funding 

Megan got more done in this past legislative
session than her predecessor Justin Price (MAGA)
did in 6 years. Price says he plans to run this
year to defeat her because she's
"hanging out with the wrong people"

Rep. Megan Cotter’s legislation to amend the proposed “green bond” that will be put before voters in November has been added to the amended budget bill approved by the House Finance Committee Friday. The bill will come before the full House for a vote Friday, June 7.

The Finance Committee added funding for several land conservation programs to the green bond to appear on November’s ballot: $5 million for the Agricultural Land Preservation Committee for farmland protection, $5 million to the Department of Environmental Management to bring the state open space program funding back to historic levels, and $3 million to DEM’s Division of Agriculture and Forest Environment to fund forest and habitat management on state property.

In the past, the state has usually funded all three of these programs through green bonds. At this point, that previous funding has been allocated, so without their inclusion in the proposed bond, the state would be cutting off further support.

Millions of current smokers became addicted when they were teens

Advertising STILL targets the young

Jon-Patrick Allem, Rutgers University

Research shows nicotine exposure results in long-term
changes to the brain. 
smartboy10/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

About 37 million children ages 13 to 15 around the world use tobacco, according to a 2024 report from the World Health Organization.

In 2023, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product in the U.S., with 7.7% of middle school and high school students reporting e-cigarette use. Cigarettes were the next most common, with 1.6% of middle- and high school students saying they had consumed them in the past month.

Research shows that most people who use tobacco start in childhood.

I am a public health researcher who studies the different ways in which corporations influence adolescent health, with current projects focused on identifying sources of exposure to tobacco marketing among adolescents and young adults.

Over the past decade, I’ve researched ways in which tobacco companies market to children and young adults.

Yes, finally, masks DO work, and on more than COVID

Masks really DO work

Trish Greenhalgh, University of Oxford; C Raina MacIntyre, UNSW Sydney, and David Fisman, University of Toronto

When a Texan farm worker caught bird flu from cattle recently, social media was abuzz with rumors. While bird flu is not a human pandemic, scientists and policymakers the world over are keen to prepare as best they can for when such a pandemic emerges – a tricky task, given that science is messy, policy must be pragmatic and people’s values don’t always align.

It’s time for masks to enter the chat. At the beginning of a pandemic caused by a novel or newly mutated virus, there may be no vaccine, no firm knowledge about how bad things will get and no specific treatment. Slowing transmission until more is known will be critical.

Getting most people to wear a mask could nip the outbreak in the bud, preventing a pandemic or lessening its impact. Wearing a mask is inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as lockdowns.

But do masks work? A review of masks and respirators, that looked only at clinical trials, concluded that there was not enough evidence to assess whether mask wearing reduces the risk of spreading or contracting respiratory diseases. However, we disagree with that.

The review, by the not-for-profit Cochrane Collaboration, failed to influence recent guidance issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in response to the troubling news of bird flu transmission to humans. The CDC recommended well-fitting respirators – along with overalls and safety goggles – for anyone working with potentially infected cattle until the bird flu threat subsides.

URI and Rhode Island Energy partnering to propel research on renewable energy, energy alternatives, sustainability

URI cuts a deal with energy utility

Editor's Note: Since 2000, PPL has committed at least 40 violations resulting in fines of over $205 million. Nearly all involved air or water pollution. Here is a break-down of PPL's violations from the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker:

Often programs like the one involving URI are ways that law-breaking corporations "green-wash" their problems by appearing to do good deeds. However, in most cases, the profits from the illegal acts far exceeds the fines companies pay and the "contrition" payments they make.

As a general rule, I think organizations like URI should do a little due diligence to prevent themselves from doing business with criminals.   - Will Collette

University of Rhode Island President Marc Parlange and Greg Cornett, president of Rhode Island Energy, Friday announced a strategic partnership that will propel important research in renewable energy, energy alternatives, and sustainability. The partnership brings together researchers at URI and the PPL Corporation, a Pennsylvania-based energy company composed of Rhode Island Energy, LG&E, Kentucky Utilities, and PPL Electric Utilities, which serves 3.5 million customers in four states.

Republicans solve the PFAS problem

Heil

 

Grants available for resilient infrastructure

Apply by July 26

The @RI_InfraBank  released the 2024 Request for Proposals for MRP Action Grants. Grant funds will help local communities restore & improve resiliency of vulnerable coastal habitats, river & stream floodplains & infrastructure.

Apply by July 26 https://riib.org/work-with-us/r

equest-for-proposals/

What a Five-Year Study Reveals About Binge-Eating Disorder

Constant cravings

By MCLEAN HOSPITAL 

In the United States, binge-eating disorder is the most prevalent eating disorder. However, previous studies have presented conflicting views of the disorder’s duration and the likelihood of relapse.

A new five-year study led by investigators from McLean Hospital, part of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, revealed that 61% of individuals continued to experience symptoms of binge-eating disorder 2.5 years after being diagnosed, and 45% still exhibited symptoms after five years. These findings challenge earlier prospective studies that suggested quicker recovery times, the researchers noted.

Hurricane forecast points to a dangerous 2024 Atlantic season, with La Niña and a persistently warm ocean teaming up to power fierce storms

June 1 could see the start of the worst hurricane season in US history

Jhordanne Jones, Purdue University

The U.S. is in for another busy hurricane season.
Here are hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia in 2017. NOAA

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1, and forecasters are predicting an exceptionally active season.

If the National Hurricane Center’s early forecast, released May 23, is right, the North Atlantic could see 17 to 25 named storms, eight to 13 hurricanes, and four to seven major hurricanes by the end of November. That’s the highest number of named storms NOAA has ever forecast for a hurricane season.

Other forecasts for the season have been just as intense. Colorado State University’s early outlook, released in April, predicted an average of 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes and five major hurricanes. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts anticipates 21 named storms.

Mageau mimics cartoon to defend his Mango Master

Uses Tom Tomorrow script to condemn Trump verdict

By Will Collette

This week's cartoon by Tom Tomorrow ran in Daily Kos today, the same day the Westerly Sun reprinted a letter Charlestown's most vocal MAGA, Jim Mageau, wrote to the Providence Journal (third from the top) a few days ago.

It's not unusual for Mageau to write wacky letters or to use fake facts and flawed logic to defend his perfect spiritual master, the Donald. It is unusual for Mageau to use almost exactly the same talking points that are so expertly skewered by a cartoon.

For a great laugh in these troubled times, I invite you to check out Mageau's letter and compare it, frame-by-frame, with this Tom Tomorrow MAGA send-up:

For more cartoons by Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERECLICK HERE.

By the way, I think it is worth pondering Mageau's (and Tom Tomorrow's) MAGA argument:

Think! It isn't Donald Trump who is accused of subverting the "Rule of Law"! If it can happen to Trump, can it happen to you and me? If Trump is disqualified or something more sinister happens to him, who will speak for you and me?

I recognize that if I was running for high public office and I cooked my company's books to pay off a porn star I had sex with so it wouldn't hurt my election chances, than yes, I'd be right to worry about prosecution too. 

As Mageau observed, "What happened to the once active and proud ACLU that once led the fight to protect our civil rights?"

Then and now

For more cartoons by Jen Sorenson, CLICK HERECLICK HERE