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Who passed voter ID?

Two months ago Hans von Spakovsky of the conservative Heritage Foundation, de facto apologist for a new wave of conservative-inspired voter ID laws, appeared on PBS NewsHour to defend the cause.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | May 16, 2012

Was Clarence Spivey wrongfully convicted of rape 40 years ago?

‘The truth has to come out’
The young woman, just 18 years old, was standing at the driver's side door of her blue Volkswagen in the parking lot of St. Joseph's Hospital in Providence on a clear and wintry Saturday evening when a young black man approached from behind and put a knife to her throat.

By: JAMES ROBINSON | May 11, 2012

SLIDESHOW: Transcripts from Clarence Spivey's trial

‘The truth has to come out’
Spivey’s account of how the police arrested him was at odds with the official version; the pants he was wearing figured prominently in the trial.

By: PHOENIX STAFF | May 09, 2012

The quiet push to decriminalize marijuana possession in Rhode Island

Pot is not a crime
The often frustrating push to get a workable medical marijuana regime up and running in Rhode Island has received plenty of ink in recent years. But the state's pot politics don't end there.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 18, 2012

Matt Jerzyk goes to City Hall

From activist to insider
Not long after helping David Cicilline win election as mayor of Providence nearly a decade ago, Matt Jerzyk, then a ponytailed activist and budding political operative, made a decision that has come to define his place in the rough-and-tumble world of local politics.

By: DANIEL MCGOWAN | April 18, 2012

Local heroes of 2012

In this 15th annual edition of the Providence Phoenix 's Best issue, we highlight people and organizations who are doing exceptionally good work — local heroes who often labor behind the scenes, but are changing their communities for the better.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 11, 2012

Who killed Daddy Black?

On September 28, 1932, thousands of mourners crowded the streets of Providence to say goodbye to Arthur "Daddy" Black, the legendary Number King of Rhode Island.

By: GEORGE P. HASSETT AND ROBERT CVORNYEK | March 28, 2012

I was a teenage Gramlich

How I conquered monetary policy, macroeconomics, and the giggles
I can't say I ever intended from a young age to spend my 18th year mastering Washington Consensus–era monetary policy to recite in stuttering, rote cliché before a panel of mildly curious economic policymakers who filled out the payroll at Alan Greenspan's Randian fiefdom.

By: JIM NEWELL | April 04, 2012

Can Anthony Gemma’s feel-good wonkery and pent-up rage beat David Cicilline this time?

Jekyll and Hyde
There is a strange duality to businessman Anthony Gemma's all-but-official Congressional campaign.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | March 21, 2012

Silencing Occupy

Big protests are planned. So is suppression.
Get ready for the protests. Get ready for the warm American spring — and maybe a hot summer and fall.

By: LANCE TAPLEY | March 14, 2012

Can manufacturing save the state's economy?

Making It in Rhode Island
As the economy coughs its way toward something resembling recovery, politicians and economists are pointing to a surprising elixir: manufacturing.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | March 22, 2012

The power of texting

Mobile phones and alternative currencies are changing how the whole world pays for everything
Money — crispy banknotes and jangly coins — is as old-fashioned as, well, mechanical typewriters.

By: JEFF INGLIS | March 02, 2012

RISD’s hockey team turns the dick joke into high art — OK, low art

Go Nads!
The third period has just begun and the Nads, the Rhode Island School of Design's club hockey team, is losing 2-0 to a squad from Emerson College.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 15, 2012

Mega Up Yours

Your files could be forfeit in the government's attack on Megaupload. Can the Entertainment industry take down cyberlockers entirely?
This week, some 50 million users may begin to permanently lose whatever it is that they stored on Megaupload.

By: WAYNE MARSHALL | February 01, 2012

The battle over internet piracy

Rhode Island's congresional delegation splits over the issue burning up the netroots
The Internet is angry. Perhaps you've heard.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 18, 2012

Medical marijuana 2.0

In a tough political environment, the movement weighs a tricky reinvention
The medical marijuana movement has always had to be nimble.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 11, 2012

What's next for Occupy Providence?

After the park, a search for phase II
It was only a week ago that members of Occupy Providence huddled in a pedestrian tunnel on a rainy afternoon and voted 36 to 11 to leave Burnside Park, if and when the city opens a daytime shelter for the homeless.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 28, 2011