From The Other McCain we get the following. Finally: ‘Suspect of Interest’ Reportedly Identified in Brown University Shooting
After six days of double-talk and obfuscation, at last authorities in Rhode Island claim to have gotten a clue about the killer.
Might be updates after the press conference.
Infrastructure is still interesting. Well, it is interesting to me anyway.
The Washington Bridge in Rhode Island crosses Seekonk River from Providence to East Providence. It carries Interstate-195. Due to the problems uncovered in an inspection, the westbound span of the bridge was closed on December 11, 2023. (That is not a typo; the bridge has been closed more than a year.) There is a "rush" effort to demolish the impacted portions and get a contract to replace the bridge.
As Grady points out in the first video, this is basically a win. Sure, it would have been nice to replace the bridge without it being under emergency conditions, but the bridge did not fall down. No one was injured or killed. Usually when I write about bridges, it is because something has failed catastrophically.
This first video is from Practical Engineering. This Bridge’s Bizarre Design Nearly Caused It To Collapse. This video goes into the design of the bridge (it was a 1950s bridge built to coexist with a historic bridge.) How the design decisions made inspections difficult, and what eventually happened. It is a 20 minute video.
This is a video from YouTube channel Casey Jones - Professional Engineer titled Broken for Years! - Washington Bridge in Rhode Island. Casey Jones has some issues with the folks in charge of bridge safety in Rhode Island. This is a video that covers some statements by RIDOT, as well as analysis of vibration and movement patterns in the bridge. Is RIDOT lying to people? You judge. It is a 19 minute video.
I'm shocked that people would swindle homeowners based on all the hype - from government and elsewhere - around solar power. NBC 10 I-Team: Several Rhode Island solar panel companies under investigation. OK, so I'm really not that shocked.
From rooftop solar installations that cause massive roof leaks, to deceptive sales tactics, it seems a lot of solar companies are scamming the public.
“People started doing their taxes, and they noticed that some of the promises they were made, or some of the things they were led to believe about the tax benefits of solar turned out to be a little misleading,” [Steve Provazza, the chief of the Attorney General’s Office Consumer Unit] said. “They were surprised they did not receive a larger tax return, or a check from the federal government, as they had been promised by the solar panel sellers.”
The article focuses on one company, but it is not the only company under investigation for these kinds of issues.
Other problems include...
Math is hard, and taxes are harder, but one thing should be clear to anyone. If you don't pay taxes you can't get a tax break.
“There are some taxpayers that because of their low income status don’t pay taxes or may not have to pay a lot of taxes,” [Attorney General Peter] Neronha said. “If you don’t have a tax bill you can’t get a credit, and that is not very well explained if it’s explained at all.”
