Rhode Island Report The Boston Globe

St. Mary’s Home for Children in North Providence has been in the news since January when the state's Office of the Child Advocate released a scathing report about conditions there. Our own Amanda Milkovits has been following the story ever since. She’s recently talked with a family whose grandchild has been a resident there for a year. They say things there have not changed. Tips and ideas? Email us at rinews@globe.com.

Every year, Rhode Islanders read the same book as a part of the Reading Across Rhode Island program.
This year’s selection is Solito- a memoir by Javier Zamora. It tells the true story of Javier’s journey from El Salvador to The United States as an unaccompanied nine-year-old. Javier joins Ed in the studio, along with Maureen Nagle, education chair of Reading Across Rhode Island. Tips and ideas? Email us at rinews@globe.com.

When reporters are working on important stories, they often use Rhode Island's Access for Public Records Act, or APRA. It gives them the ability to ask for government emails, data sets, or other documents. But APRA isn’t perfect. So, there’s a bill before the General Assembly to make it stronger.

Ed talks with Colleen Cronin, a reporter who covers environmental issues for ecoRI, and John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, to learn more. Tips and ideas? Email us at rinews@globe.com.

It’s been a little over a year since Stefan Pryor became Rhode Island’s housing secretary, as housing affordability remains one of the top issues facing Rhode Islanders. So what is he doing about it? Steph Machado sat down with Pryor to find out. Tips and ideas? Email us at rinews@globe.com.

For RI restaurants and food businesses, the overall cost of doing business is going up, and the closure of the Washington Bridge that carries Interstate 195 into and out of Providence has made matters worse. How are these companies going to survive? Alexa Gagosz talks with Kate Roberts, the owner of Easy Entertaining in Providence, to see how she’s coping. Tips and ideas? Email us at rinews@globe.com.

Teenagers spend tons of time on their smart phones, and often they don’t stop even when they’re in class. To address that issue, some Rhode Island schools make students put their phones in locked pouches. Our own Steph Machado just finished a segment for Rhode Island PBS about this growing trend. She joins us in the studio to talk about what she learned. Tips and ideas? Email us at rinews@globe.com.