Award-winning reporter with 10 years of writing and editing experience. Writing all things Rhode Island politics and environment for Rhode Island Current. Fueled by coffee, wine and great stories.
Reporting highlights
Frustrated with continued delays in expanded cannabis use regulations, cultivators are reaching into their pockets to donate to political campaigns and assert power on Smith Hill.
Rhode Island Secretary of Housing Stefan Pryor's fiscal 2025 budget request includes some familiar economic tools: the same kinds of tax incentive programs he used when he led the state's commerce department.
A battle over a proposed oyster farm in Tiverton's Sapowet Cove highlights larger controversies surrounding the industry.
Political reporting
Peter Alviti Jr., the embattled RIDOT director, is facing new criticism and one call for impeachment for his role in the Washington Bridge disaster.
The RI Board of Elections is catching, and fining, candidates for campaign finance violations more often thanks to strengthened state laws.
Brown University students are showing their organizing power in opposition to a proposed Payment in Lieu of Taxes deal with the city of Providence.
Rhode Island CD 1 campaign managers wield power over hiring and firing, political strategy and communications and a candidate's success
Rhode Island lawmakers are divided along unusual lines on a proposal to increase individual campaign contributions to candidates.
Ten years have passed since Rep. Jennifer Boylan crouched next to her son in his fourth-grade classroom, practicing what to do if someone with a gun ever entered the school. But the memory from the lockdown drill lingers in the Barrington Democrat's mind: The students huddled next to cubbies because they had no closet to [...]
Rhode Island's congressional delegation has been dominated by white men.The tide could be turning.
Environmental reporting
Over the last year, environmental regulators have kept a close eye on the Woonsocket Wastewater Treatment Facility, clocking more than 30 inspections of the municipally-owned sewage plant. What they found: at least 21 permit violations, 26 odor complaints and three occasions in which partially untreated sewage was dumped into the Blackstone River, according to court [...]
So far, the 10 electric vehicle charging stations tucked away in the corner of the 200-space parking lot at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence Inc. haven't gotten much use from the company's employees since they were installed a year ago. Still, Steven Ilmrud, Hexagon vice president of operations at the North Kingstown factory, doesn't consider them a...
Enterprise and feature stories
Rhode Island General Treasurer James Diossa has proposed creating trusts for babies born into Medicaid families as a way to close the wealth gap in Rhode Island. A funding source will be identified once the legislation is introduced within the next two weeks, he said.
A look inside operations at the Woonsocket Wastewater Treatment Facility, two months after a lawsuit alleging environmental violations.
Pawtucket native Gabe Amo has always exceeded expectations, whether on the Moses Brown School football field to the hotly contested Democratic congressional primary.
A $54 energy bill rebate might not seem like much. But for Erika Gonzalez, every little bit helps. Especially this year, with record rate hikes tripling electricity costs for her Pawtucket condo, from $60 to $180, just as her husband got laid off from his warehouse job.
Woonsocket officials still haven't provided the required documentation explaining why they needed to award a $1.7 million emergency contract for rental equipment for the regional sewage plant without first going to bid.
Women have returned to the workforce in Rhode Island at a higher rate than before the pandemic. But caregiving burdens continue to hold them back.
Business stories
Employers are struggling to meet the requirements of a state job tax credit program that calls for in-person, full-time workers.
Religion
First in a monthly series about Frederick millennials who actively participate in organized religion
Part of a monthly series about Frederick millennials who actively pursue organized religion
Part of a six-part series exploring the students and spiritual life at Mount St. Mary's Seminary
Advocacy writing
Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley and San Leandro, California were early adopters of what has now become a national movement for electoral reform. Ranked choice voting in the Bay Area has changed the political game, forcing voters and candidates to adopt to a new set of democratic rules and political strategies.
*ghostwritten* Few topics survive the gauntlet of an ever-changing, 24-hour news cycle. Even fewer remain relevant after a full week. But a full four years after the original #OscarsSoWhite tweet exploded into a burgeoning social movement, discussion of diversity (or lack of) continues to frame The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its awards ceremony.
*ghostwritten* Sojourner Truth didn't deliver her iconic " Ain't I a Woman?" address for the sake of an inspirational Instagram post. Susan B. Anthony didn't champion women's voting rights for a special museum exhibit. A women-themed happy hour was hardly the motivation for Sacagawea's dangerous trek across the country with Lewis and Clark.
Podcasts
The almighty gerrymander is back before the Supreme Court in a pair of cases in Maryland and North Carolina. Kathay Feng, national redistricting director of Common Cause, explains the significance of the SCOTUS weigh-in on the future of fair maps and competitive elections. https://www.commoncause.org/
Host Colin McGuire, a News-Post columnist, and religion reporter Nancy Lavin sat down with Imam Bilal Malik to talk about misconceptions surrounding Islam, his thoughts on President Donald Trump, and why he won't say yes if you invite him out for a glass of wine.