Hogan, who recently started covering the capital city, attended a board meeting last week that erupted into chaos. Multiple members called for the school board president to step down, while residents aired their frustrations about the dysfunction.

“This is not how school board meetings normally go, including in Providence,” Hogan said.

The internal strife comes as Providence is in its first school year since regaining control of the school district, which had been under state control for nearly seven years. Hogan said the board now oversees a host of important decisions involving budgets, personnel and policy.

But it didn’t appear to Hogan that those issues were a high priority at that meeting.

“For a community looking for answers about what the future will look like, what the school board will do, the majority of this meeting did not serve to answer those questions,” Hogan said.

Later in the show, Dan and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote,” including (not all mentioned on air):

• Flock camera review, Morley Field reopening among Greenman’s first priorities as Pawtucket mayor next year by LuzJennifer Martinez, The Valley Breeze

• Two RI towns got their BearCats amid order surge fueled in part by ICE by Marc Reynolds, The Providence Journal

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

Tim White, who covers the criminal justice system, has been tracking a developing story in Cranston, where police raided the former home of a notorious drug dealer that they suspected was being used as a stash house.

The stash-house theory didn’t pan out, but police nonetheless arrested one man for illegally selling marijuana and abusing a pit bull. Two other men were also charged with animal cruelty.

The home was formerly occupied by Jasdrual “Josh” Perez, who’s currently serving time in prison for running a multistate illegal narcotics operation based in Providence. The Cranston home is owned by his mother, who’s the sister of Providence Police Col. Oscar Perez.

The mother is now renting out the home, and Oscar Perez said he didn’t know the man arrested for dealing drugs. According to a police affidavit, detectives were examining whether people in Josh Perez’s orbit were trying to pick up where he left off in the drug trade.

“Narcotics detectives will tell you that their investigations are like whack-a-mole,” White said. “Josh Perez was … a kingpin in fentanyl dealing. There were going to be other people that filled that vacuum because unfortunately, the demand is still there and other people want a slice of that pie.”

White also discussed another case receiving attention this week involving former Central Falls Municipal Court Judge Joseph Molina Flynn, 43, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion.

Federal prosecutors said Molina Flynn, who worked as an immigration attorney, was ripping off clients to pay for personal expenses. He has agreed to pay more than $83,000 in restitution and must repay the government between $550,000 and $1.5 million.

“Molina Flynn himself was a real success story,” White said, explaining how he immigrated to the United States as a child, attended college, taught law and served as a municipal judge.

“His whole world collapsed because he was taking advantage of the very people that were like him when he came here at 9 years old,” White added. “It’s just a fascinating story.”

Molina Flynn faces more than 20 years in prison. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 17.

Later in the show, Kim and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote,” including (not all mentioned on air):

• Expert warns true crime can exploit real people and history by Dan Medeiros, The Herald News
• Providence whistleblower hotline leads to four investigations in first year by Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

• Smiley lists carriage house for rent for $5,500 a month by Colin Hogan and Wheeler Cowperthwaite, The Providence Journal
• Newport’s $20M harbor plan complicated by ownership mistake by Philip Cozzolino, The Newport Daily News

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

Nancy Lavin has been tracking the issue for months and most recently reported on the city’s contract with a new company to operate its wastewater treatment facility.

Meanwhile, the city is still trying to figure out what to do with its sludge incinerator, which has long been a source of controversy.

The facility serves a regional need but has also been a source of pollution, lawsuits and frustration for local officials and residents. Efforts to build new sludge-treatment facilities elsewhere have also sputtered.

“It seems like overall, no one is going to want to have any kind of sludge treatment in their community,” Lavin said. “And we’re going to need one somewhere.”

City officials have long promised to close the controversial sludge incinerator, but Lavin said it could take some time because of existing agreements the city has with other communities that would have to be wound down.

“If you have lived there for 50 years and every seventh day it stinks — that’s terrible stuff,” Lavin said.

Later in the show, Dan and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote.” They included:

• With Morales’s win, rent control is on the table again in Providence by Steph Machado, The Boston Globe
• How hearing loss shaped two RI football players’ paths by Eric Rueb, The Providence Journal

• City Council to vote on ordinance restricting Flock use by Anastasia E. Lennon, The New Bedford Light

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