Lobbyists prove influential in RI energy debate
At least $400,000 has been spent on lobbying this year by corporations with a stake in the debate as lawmakers hash out deals between power developers, energy suppliers and labor unions.
That's double the amount spent on such lobbying in 2005. That was before Governor Don Carcieri set a goal of providing 20 percent of the state's electricity needs through renewable resources.
Some Rhode Island lawmakers, including Senator J. Michael Lenihan, an East Greenwich Democrat, say work by lobbyists helps them make an educated vote on complicated legislation.
But others, such as Rep. Laurence Ehrhardt, a North Kingstown Republican, object to what they say are closed-door compromises and last-minute deal-making.
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Zapping elderly brains with electricity improves short-term memory — for almost an hour
LONDON - To read this sentence, you hold the words in your mind for a few seconds until you reach the period. As you do, neurons in your brain fire in coordinated bursts, generating electrical waves that let you hold information for as long as it is needed. But as we age, these brain waves start to get out of sync, causing short-term memory to falter. A new study finds that jolting specific brain areas with a periodic burst of electricity might reverse the deficit—temporarily, at least.
The work makes “a strong case” for the idea that out-of-sync brain waves in…
