Denise Civiletti
Denise Civiletti, copublisher of RiverheadLOCAL.com with her husband Peter Blasl, is a lawyer, journalist, news junkie, digital media maven and the proud mother of two Riverhead High School graduates (2010).
To send Denise an email, click here.
Denise Civiletti
Has NY given up on trying to control COVID?
The man with all the answers last spring has become a man watching a frog slowly cook to death in a pot of water that's being gradually heated to boiling — and doing nothing much to turn down the heat. The best he can come up with is “Hey, I warned you.”
Denise Civiletti
This year, survival should be at the top of everyone’s Christmas list
It only takes one infected person — who may be asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic — at a holiday gathering to infect everyone who attends. That scenario made too many Thanksgiving dinners spreader events. And the hospitalizations and deaths data for the month of December tell the rest of the story. Don't become a statistic in the post-Christmas/New Year's surge to come.
Denise Civiletti
Social distancing, spatchcocking and other reasons why this Thanksgiving is different
Thanksgiving will be different at our house this year — starting with a change of venue, because social distancing won't work at our house, built when "cozy" was good. And that's just the beginning.
Denise Civiletti
Transparency? I call bullsh*t. People deserve access to local COVID data and straight answers
After confusing official reports of spiking COVID infection rates in Riverhead, I sought the town-level data. What I got was a bunch of baffle-gab and bullsh*t and a state official essentially telling me to take a hike.
Denise Civiletti
‘Open’ is not optional — it’s the law
The situation our district finds itself in right now — failed budgets, failed bond votes, upset and angry parents, dejected children — isn’t somebody else’s fault. It’s a direct result of the persistent lack of candor on display at every carefully scripted board meeting — of the board and a series of superintendents being consistently unwilling to give people straight answers to straight questions about subjects that are, in fact, the people’s business.
Denise Civiletti
Local news matters: Do your part to save it
If your community is important to you, it’s time to recognize the value of the people who work to ensure transparency in its governance, who work to help your community celebrate its successes, cope with its failures or mourn its losses — your local news providers.
Denise Civiletti
Let’s Talk Race: New live talk series on racism from RiverheadLOCAL
Racism lives, in our town and across the country. It’s time we confront the beliefs we hold in our own hearts and start having some serious conversations, however uncomfortable they may be, about how to bring about the change that’s needed to solve the problems we face — together.
Denise Civiletti
Coronavirus has killed nursing home residents at an alarming rate, yet state officials kept public in the dark
Coronavirus has been silently ravaging nursing homes and adult care facilities across New York State, killing residents at an alarming rate — which, until this week, has largely been shielded from the public by state and local officials.
Denise Civiletti
We need your help.
This isn't how our 10th anniversary was supposed to be, but life, news, — and a pandemic — happened.
Denise Civiletti
To err is human — to really screw things up requires a Facebook algorithm
Stuck with the unintended consequences of Facebook's profanity filter algorithm.