Ethan Hartley, editor of The East Providence Post, recently covered the city budget process where Mayor Bob DaSilva signed the latest tax-and-spending plan Wednesday.

Hartley said no services were cut, but he underscored that the city still raised the overall tax levy to the state-capped limit of 4% for the next fiscal year.

“Municipal budgets today are very tight,” Hartley said. “Just to get the basic services and take care of your contractual increases takes up a lot of what you have room for. And so mostly, they said it’s not a great budget, it’s not perfect, but it’s the best we can do. And they passed it.”

Hartley also talked about the giant troll that was recently erected in town, and discussed the lasting effects of the closed westbound Washington Bridge, which connects East Providence to Providence.

“Rhode Islanders are very adaptable people,” Hartley said. “We kind of assume that things are going to be bad. And so I think at this point, almost two years in, we just know what to expect and that the bridge is going to be miserable and traffic’s going to take an extra half hour to get where you want to go.”

Later in the show, Kim and Eli talked about the “Stories We Wish We Wrote.” They include:

• Which Dunkin’ is the most Dunkin’ of all? An investigation. by Beth Teitell, The Boston Globe
• Rhode Island considers ending Medicaid coverage of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss by Alexandro Castro, Rhode Island Current

• HOSPITAL MAKEOVERS: Health systems look for shot in the arm from multimillion dollar projects by Katie Castellani, Providence Business News
• New tour biz offers tastes of SouthCoast aboard a double-decker bus by Ashley Schuler, The Fall River Herald News
• Everyone’s coverage of the Dartmouth plane crash on I-195

Watch “Behind the Story” Thursdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on the WPRI 12+ TV app.

• How to download the free WPRI 12+ smart TV app

It airs on TV (Sundays at 8 a.m. on FOX Providence and 11 a.m. on The CW Providence), and will be available on demand through the WPRI 12+ app and right here on WPRI.com.

“Behind the Story” is hosted by Eli Sherman and Kim Kalunian of 12 News, along with Dan McGowan of the Boston Globe.

Ben Berke of Ocean State Media joined Eli Sherman and Dan McGowan on “Behind the Story” this week to discuss the role out of a police reform law that went into effect earlier this year.

Berke examined the Law Enforcement Officers Due Process Accountability and Transparency Act, or LEODPATA, and whether it's changed how officials handle cases of alleged police misconduct.

His reporting shows the law -- which replaced a previous version known as LEOBOR -- has struggled to deliver on some of the promises its champions touted when it passed last year.

"The experts I talked to said things like, 'this is a meaningful tweak,'" Berke said. "It's not going to really radically alter how police accountability is meted out in Rhode Island, but it might make the system more responsive than it was to really egregious cases."

His reporting also shed light on the fact that nobody was publicly posting new cases of alleged police misconduct, which is requirement under the new law.

"It didn't exist," Berke said, explaining it took him nearly two dozen emails and six weeks of work to track down the information that's supposed to be readily available to the public.

Following his report, the Post Officers Commission on Standards and Training, or POST, created a webpage with the cases currently going through LEODPATA hearings.

There are currently four cases underway, including two in South Kingstown and one in Tiverton and Westerly, respectively.

Later in the show, Dan and Eli talked about the “Stories We Wish We Wrote.” They include (not all mentioned on air):

• An Instagram poster pulled the mask off the Washington Bridge audit. Their identity remains hidden by Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
• Top RI Realtor Threatens to Call ICE on Buyer, Then Offers $20,000 to Kill GoLocal Story by Josh Fenton, GoLocalProv

• A drone, golf balls and a gun: How shoreline access tensions erupted in Narragansett by Antonia Noori Farzan, The Providence Journal
• Offshore wind’s effects on fish won’t be studied due to federal cuts by Anastasia E. Lennon, The New Bedford Light

Watch “Behind the Story” Thursdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on the WPRI 12+ TV app.

• How to download the free WPRI 12+ smart TV app

It airs on TV (Sundays at 8 a.m. on FOX Providence and 11 a.m. on The CW Providence), and will be available on demand through the WPRI 12+ app and right here on WPRI.com.

“Behind the Story” is hosted by Eli Sherman and Kim Kalunian of 12 News, along with Dan McGowan of the Boston Globe.

Philip Eil, who's the author of "Prescription for Pain," recently wrote an opinion piece for Rhode Island Current, highlighting how quickly opioids and opioid-related deaths have become a central focus in the race for Rhode Island governor.

"I was uneasy to watch this really serious, literally life and death issue, get turned into campaign mudslinging where it's about scoring points," Eil said during a taping of the show on Wednesday. "The public gaze drifts away from the real stakes of this issue, which, as I noted in my piece, is ongoing."

Incumbent Gov. Dan McKee last month slammed Democratic rival Helena Foulkes when she announced she would challenge him again in next year's primary election.

The governor's campaign launched an attack ad, accusing Foulkes of helping to fuel the opioid crisis while she was as an executive at CVS Pharmacy.

Foulkes and CVS have fired back at McKee, and Foulkes has defended her record at the retail giant, saying she worked to reduce opioid prescriptions and stem to flow of drugs going to pill mills.

Eil offered some suggestions for how candidates could talk about the issue of opioids, along with the effect controlled substances are having on Rhode Island where more than 2,000 people have died from overdoses since 2020, according the R.I. Department of Health.

"There are real things gubernatorial candidates can do to affect this issue," he said. "Public health advocates would dream of the kind of airtime that these two people, Dan McKee and Helena Foulkes, are going to have in the coming months. I just wanted to encourage them to think about the people who have lost their lives."

Later in the show, Kim and Eli talked about the “Stories We Wish We Wrote.” They included:

‘Barrington Pisser’ tells police that the videos he posted were a hoax by EastBayRI

Patients are being 'dumped' and left at RI hospitals for months, even years. Why? by Jonny Williams and Antonia Noori Farzan, The Providence Journal

Glass from the past: why are there marbles in the Blackstone? by Sofia Barr, The Valley Breeze

New Bedford man builds a thriving eBay bike shop business: Check out House of Cogs by Kathryn Gallerani, The New Bedford Standard-Times

Watch “Behind the Story” Thursdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on the WPRI 12+ TV app.

How to download the free WPRI 12+ smart TV app

It airs on TV (Sundays at 8 a.m. on FOX Providence and 11 a.m. on The CW Providence), and will be available on demand through the WPRI 12+ app and right here on WPRI.com.

“Behind the Story” is hosted by Eli Sherman and Kim Kalunian of 12 News, along with Dan McGowan of the Boston Globe.