1997

Lost in the system
February 21
Robert Bansky dropped out of middle school, spent his nights huddled for warmth in dumpsters or on heating grates in downtown Providence. He died at 46, of acute alcoholism and hypothermia. Jody Ericson joined the debate on how Bansky, representative of so many struggling indigents, had been forsaken by the federal government.

Not only did the system fail Bansky, it may have worked against him. Last summer, the Social Security Administration sent out form letters telling more than 600 substance abusers in Rhode Island that on January 1, their Social Security Income would end. Less than two weeks after the cutoff date, Bansky was dead . . . Say social-service advocates, economic loss is one of the most powerful motivators for people to act desperately. As Dale Simpson, director of development at the Cranston-based drug treatment center CODAC, explains, "If you take a person who is struggling with drug addiction and add more stress, they can fall apart. You're talking about people just on the edge of survival."

On the inside
February 28
Funny how, a day before the Providence Journal-Bulletin was sold to Dallas mogul A.H. Belo, 631,121 shares of Journal stock were transferred to company executives. Steven Stycos tracked what happens to journalistic independence when a newspaper begins to have to answer to business higher-ups.

The announcement of the sale [of the Journal] resulted in an immediate 38-percent rise in the share price of Journal stock. As talk of the sale raised controversy, Journal-Bulletin reporter Brian Jones decided to investigate. He discovered nothing illegal, he says. Despite Jones's conclusions, on January 21 [Journal chairman and COO Stephen] Hamblett decided to kill the story Jones had written. Journal publishers hadn't done anything wrong, the publisher explained, and their reputations would suffer from a story examining the possibility of insider trading.

Sexual politics
April 11
In late March, the ABC news program 20/20 aired a segment by John Stossel that claimed Brown let politics get in the way of evidence at its sexual assault hearings. When another odd case against the university came up, Jody Ericson investigated what exactly goes on behind the gates on the Hill.

It appears that the case may have been dismissed for political reasons. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the alleged rapist told the woman that his father was a "generous contributor" to Brown. He was represented before the University Disciplinary Council by Martha Sharp Joukowsky, the wife of Artemis Joukowsky, a well-known and extremely influential fund-raiser -- and benefactor -- for Brown as well as the university's vice chancellor. And the alleged assailant was also well known to the administration as a relation of an influential, and extremely rich, foreign monarch.

Model behavior
June 6
The ads are tempting -- "Make money modeling," they say, "Beginners wanted" -- but local modeling agencies are rank with scams and schemes. David Andrew Stoler gave a firsthand account of life within the local modeling scene.

I took a seat in one of five metal folding chairs in between a middle-aged woman and a girl of 17 who had, shocking as it may seem, even more makeup on than any of the women I had seen so far. Her mother accompanied her. A woman handed everyone an information packet, then asked us to fill out the personal info card in the back of it while she set up a presentation. "Mom," the girl next to me demanded, "it says, `school or college.' " "Put `school,' " her mother replied.

Mystery man
June 13
In February, Roger Williams freshman Bryan Nisenfeld disappeared from the school's picturesque Bristol campus. School administrators and police took almost a week to begin looking for him, at which point Bryan's whereabouts were as unknown as his motive for -- or method of -- leaving. Jody Ericson wrestled with the mysteries behind Bryan's disappearance.

There is no doubt that a man named Bryan Nisenfeld existed. In fact, if he is alive, he turned 19 last week, the day after his father held a vigil for him outside Roger Williams. Bending in the breeze, the shrine of posters [his father] planted gave the impression that when Bryan left, he took almost 20 years' worth of expectations with him. Maybe those expectations were part of the problem. Maybe Bryan had grown tired of being Bryan.

Entre nous
October 24
Though Rhode Island statute 11-10-1, that which made illegal both anal and oral sex in the state, was finally repealed just this year, it made consensual sex acts illegal for more than 100 years. Marshall Miller analyzed how the statute affected Rhode Islanders.

Jorge Lopes was charged with sexual assault after a woman accused him of forcing her to submit to vaginal, anal, and oral sex. Lopes said the sex was consensual, and the jury believed him. They returned verdicts of "not-guilty" on all four counts of first-degree sexual assault. However, Lopes was found guilty . . . of committing an abominable and detestable crime against nature. And after the state Supreme Court upheld the decision, he was given a 10-year suspended sentence with 10 years probation, which means Lopes is now on probation.

Broken homes
December 19
While the Downcity renaissance keeps grabbing headlines, many parts of the city are still suffering from the scourges of abandoned buildings and empty lots. Richard P. Morin found the city's development plans for other areas lacking.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why well-maintained houses appear among abandoned and dilapidated ones. "There is no systematic approach to neighborhood renewal in this city," says Asata Tigrai of Project Basic, a tenants advocacy group. "So what you get is a renovated house next to an abandoned one. And who is going to want to buy a house when it is standing next to an abandoned one?"

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