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Rhode Island health officials are blaming dating apps, such as Tinder and Grindr, for a spike in syphilis, gonorrhea and HIV cases in the state. Syphilis cases have spiked 79%, while gonorrhea has risen 30%, according to data from 2013 and 2014. New cases of HIV increased by 32%. "These data send a clear signal that despite the progress we have made in reducing STDs and HIV over the years, there is more work to do," state health director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said in a statement. Officials say the spike there follows a national trend. "High-risk behaviours include using social...

Washington — An alliance of Asian American groups on Friday filed a federal complaint against HarvardUniversity, saying that school and other Ivy League institutions are using racial quotas to admit students other than high-scoring Asians. More than 60 Chinese, Indian, Korean and Pakistani groups came together for the complaint, which was filed with the civil rights offices at the Justice and Education departments. They are calling for an investigation and say these schools should stop using racial quotas or racial balancing in admission. "We are seeking equal treatment regardless of race," said Chunyan Li, a professor and civil rights activist,...

Twenty-seven senators want President Obama to block federal agencies and contractors from asking job applicants about prior criminal convictions. The senators, including 26 Democrats and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), want Obama to take executive action to "ban the box," referring to a question on job applications that asks if an applicant has any convictions. "We ask you to require federal contractors and agencies to refrain from asking job applicants about prior convictions until later in the hiring process," they said in a letter to Obama on Monday. "This policy would eliminate unnecessary barriers to employment for all job...

The fallout from the “Deflategate” report released Wednesday remains very much up in the air (sorry), with most informed opinion pointing to at least a several-game suspension for quarterback Tom Brady. The media coverage of the report has focused largely on the highly-qualified language of its conclusion (“more probable than not” that Patriots staff cheated, and that Brady “was at least generally aware”), rather than on the far more damning details of the report. Patriots (and Brady) apologists like to point to this language as an indication that the report doesn’t meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard of proof,...

Happy International Workers Day, the perfect occasion to write about Bernie Sanders, an actual Socialist running for President. The jokes fairly assemble themselves, mostly along the lines of: Sanders is far from the first Socialist presidential candidate, he’s just the first to admit it. You may assemble your own snarky rejoinders as the cranky 73-year-old gears up a challenge to Ms. Inevitability, Hillary Clinton. But once the chuckles fade, it is worth noting that Sanders brings some wild cards to the table. None of them suggest strongly that he will be the nominee, but they do suggest that he could...

Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he is not convinced Hillary Clinton will be the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Clinton faces a primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and potentially Chafee himself. When asked about Clinton being pushed further to the left, Chafee brought up the scandals surrounding the Clinton Foundation and lack of accomplishments. “I would argue that between what’s happening internationally in her tenure as Secretary of State, no real accomplishments, and now these new allegations coming out about the Clinton foundation and the book coming out next week. These are real,” Chafee said.

Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee said Thursday on CNN that he's running for the Democratic nomination for president, just a week after announcing he formed an exploratory committee, his most definitive statement he's made toward formalizing a 2016 campaign. "Yes, that's why I'm running. Because I feel strong about where we're going as a country," Chafee told CNN's "New Day" on Thursday, when asked why he's been so critical of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Chafee was asked by CNN's John Berman in the context of having not formally declared his presidential campaign. Chafee spokeswoman Debbie Rich said Chafee did...

America’s First Mass St. Brendan (Naomh Breandán) and the whale by Honorius Philoponus from "Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis" (1621)America’s First Mass | John Buescher | Catholic World ReportWhen was it, where was it, and who said it? When and where was the first Mass offered in America? No one living today knows the answer to this intriguing question. But we can summarize what we do know about the first Masses in various parts of the New World.Some legendary accounts of the life of St. Brendan, who was a priest, say he set off in a small boat on a...

Lincoln Chafee, a former governor and senator from Rhode Island, says he's exploring a run for the 2016 Democratic nomination. On a new web site, Chafee, who served as an independent as governor and a Republican in the United States Senate, says he's concerned about "international instability, especially in the Middle East and north Africa." "Throughout my career, I exercised good judgment on a wide range of high-pressure decisions, decisions that require level-headedness and careful foresight," he added. "Often these decisions came in the face of political adversity. During the next weeks and months I look forward to sharing with...

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — The new director of Rhode Island's health insurance exchange is making a case for keeping the state-run marketplace, as some lawmakers are calling for its demise. HealthSource RI has served as a model among the state-run marketplaces. Most other states use the federal exchange. Director Anya Rader Wallack says Rhode Island can use the state exchange as a tool to innovate and control health care costs in ways it couldn't if it switched. Gov. Gina Raimondo supports keeping the program in Rhode Island. But some say it isn't worth it. A group of lawmakers, led by...

Weeks after the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl victory the DeflateGate scandal continues to rumble on in the background. According to ESPN’s Outside the Lines, a Patriots locker room attendant attempted to introduce an unapproved special teams ball into the AFC Championship game. The attendant, identified by ESPN as Jim McNally, is said to have been in charge of the officials’ locker room at Gilette Stadium since 2008. He is alleged to have handed a ball, which wasn’t officially approved for kick-offs, field goals and punts to an official during the first-half of the Patriots’ 45-7 victory over the Colts.

State legislators around the country have introduced more than 200 bills aiming to nullify regulations and laws coming out of Washington, D.C., as they look to rein in the federal government. The legislative onslaught, which includes bills targeting federal restrictions on firearms, experimental treatments and hemp, reflects growing discord between the states and Washington, state officials say. “You have a choice,” said Kentucky state Rep. Diane St. Onge (R). “To sit back and not do anything or say anything and let overregulation continue — or you have the alternative choice to speak up about it and say, ‘We know what...

**SNIP** He handed the bank teller a note, which asked for a donation to be made to his church, according to documents filed in court. Rhode Island police believe that the former professor, who currently lives in a Boston suburb, is responsible for a similar heist at a bank in Providence. According to the Providence Journal, a middle-aged man robbed a Citizens Bank in November, telling the clerk who handed over $3,000, 'Thank you, this is for the church.' The Post reports that while waiting to be arraigned for the incident on New Year's Eve, Gibbons told another man who...

The Supreme Court of Rhode Island has unanimously ruled that that the constitutional rights of two Catholic Providence firefighters were not violated when they were forced to drive a fire truck in a gay pride parade despite their religious objections to the homosexual lifestyle. Prior to the 2001 Providence gay pride parade, Roman Catholic firefighters Theodore Fabrizio and Stephen Deninno were assigned by the city to drive a fire truck in the parade. Although the two men asked city officials to to be reassigned in light of their religious objection to homosexuality, their request for reassignment was denied. After 10...

Ever heard of "RhodeMap RI"? It's HUD's attempt to introduce social equity in Rhode Island. Rhode Island won a $1.9-million grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2011. With that grant, the state developed RhodeMap RI. The result is social engineering at its best. The plan calls for residents to live in "growth centers," densely packed urban centers that are going to be "futuristic, clean, prosperous." That's what the plan says. Sounds like another public housing project to me. Can anyone say "Cabrini Green?" RhodeMap RI is meant to identify "infill and development" areas that are...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has issued a statement regarding her support for President Barack Obama’s Immigration Accountability Executive Actions he ordered on Thursday. “I stand with the President on executive action, because throughout our rich history, Baltimore City has welcomed hard-working individuals from across the world whose unique talents, energy, and perspectives have strengthened our growing economy and diversified the fabric of our neighborhoods,” Rawlings-Blake said. “For far too long, a dysfunctional system has held many new Americans back, undermining our deepest values as Americans and our greatest aspirations for prosperity.” She goes on to say, “I strongly...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – A controversial policy aimed at identifying and deporting undocumented immigrant criminals that has long been opposed by the city of Providence will come to an end Friday when President Barack Obama signs his executive order overhauling the nation’s immigration policy. Part of the president’s sweeping action is to replace the Secure Communities program, an initiative that asks local law enforcement agencies to run the fingerprints of accused criminals against federal immigration databases. During a primetime speech Thursday, Obama said his new Priority Enforcement Program will focus on deporting “felons, not families.” “This Secure Communities, the name...

When it came time for the US Senate to vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) “clout” did not have much of an impact on fellow Democrat senators. In fact, 35 of the senators who voted against the project were given campaign cash by Landrieu since the 2008 election cycle. Take a look here at the list of senators who don’t seem to acknowledge Landrieu’s “clout.” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) $10,000 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (R-CT) $5,000 Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) $10,000 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) $7,000 Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) $10,000 Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) $3,500 Sen....