Ben Berke

When UMass Dartmouth announced the sudden closure of its downtown arts campus in New Bedford last year, just three weeks before classes began, politicians and university officials were quick to point fingers.  Conflicting allegations created a confusing tangle of blame, as movers emptied two decades worth of art and studio equipment from the sprawling beaux […]

Rhode Island officials have set a goal of meeting the state’s electricity needs with 100% renewable energy by 2033, and there’s still a long way to go. Last week, the three southern New England states were hoping to procure enough offshore wind to make serious progress toward their climate goals. But Rhode Island only secured […]

Based in New Bedford, Ben staffs our South Coast Bureau desk. He covers anything that happens in Fall River, New Bedford, and the surrounding towns, as long as it’s a good story. His assignments have taken him to jails, factories, city halls, fishing vessels, bakeries, environmental cleanup sites and the homes of hundreds of interview subjects. Ben joined the bureau in February 2021 after three years in Brockton reporting for The Enterprise. His freelance work has appeared in The New York Times,…

Rent control was eliminated in Massachusetts by a close statewide referendum in 1994. But now, as many cities face a cost of living crisis, politicians in Boston are asking the state legislature for the right to cap rent increases again. In New Bedford, city councilors are wondering if they should do the same.

Half the land within Fall River’s city limits is a pristine forest that protects the municipal water supply. After a century of pushing residents out of this bioreserve, the city is inviting them back in as hikers.

The candidates running to represent Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District debated a variety of issues in a forum hosted by The Public’s Radio and The Providence Journal at the University of Rhode Island on Monday night. The biggest topic of conversation was the cost of living in the district, wh…

The death of an inmate under suicide watch reignited old criticisms of Bristol County’s jails, which for years reported the highest number of suicides of any county jail system in Massachusetts. An investigation by The Public’s Radio has since revealed that, just six minutes before Adam Howe was found unconscious in his cell, guards were responding to a previously unreported suicide attempt down the hall – exposing greater strains on the county jails’ mental health system than were publicly kn…

The candidates running to be the next governor of Rhode Island shared vastly different visions of the state’s economy in a forum hosted Thursday night by The Public’s Radio and the Providence Journal at Rhode Island College.

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