COMING: ORGANIZED INFLUENCE - How a Powerful Union Dominates RI's State House & Bridges

COMING: ORGANIZED INFLUENCE - How a Powerful Union Dominates RI's State House & Bridges

Starting Thursday, GoLocal unveils how political donations, golf games, and bullying help to drive the power of the Laborers’ International influence in Rhode Island, impacting everything from who runs the State House to who builds Rhode Island's roads and bridges.

This series is about more than the broken bridge that impacts hundreds of thousands each day or the dumping of contaminated material in the poorest neighborhood in the state — so much more.

The investigation follows the money. GoLocal interviewed more than 25 individuals for this series — and more than 15 of them were willing to go on the record.

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Those interviewed include a former federal prosecutor, top Washington journalists, and union leaders.

The Laborers are a union that has a controversial history going back decades, with ties to the Patriarca crime family, the White House, and Rhode Island’s State House.

READ PART I HERE