Jon Brien

Latest Articles

New York Times misses the mark with Woonsocket column

Rhode Island's fiscal woes have attracted plenty of national press, much of it unflattering. But if the locals have grumbled a bit about the stories, they've been forced to concede their basic veracity.
MediaWatch
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 22, 2012

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 18, 2012

The Democrats' ambitious new chairman

Last month, just a few weeks removed from his long-held post as chairman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, Bill Lynch walked into the party’s convention as a Congressional candidate and didn’t come close to securing the endorsement.
Party time
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | July 23, 2010

What now?

Representative Patrick J. Kennedy's campaigns were always about something far larger than Rhode Island's First Congressional District, which snakes from Burrillville down through the Blackstone Valley and into Newport.
Kennedy's exit rewrites the political game book.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 19, 2010

The next Scott Brown?

Republican Scott Brown's victory last month in the race for the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat has every two-bit GOP hopeful in the Northeast claiming the mantle of the pick-up truck populist.
John J. Loughlin’s suddenly high-profile campaign to oust Patrick Kennedy
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 12, 2010

Equal rites?

New England has made a pretty good case, in recent years, for America's capital of queer.
Why has Rhode Island lagged behind the rest of New England on same-sex marriage legislation?
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 10, 2009