NJ Spotlight news is launching a new multimedia series called Under the Dome an In-Depth series of State House reporting on New Jersey's government its Governor legislature and how it all operates with a focus on three areas that are arguably the most essential to people living here affordability accountability and accessibility for more on the project I'm joined by NJ Spotlight news founding editor John Mooney John welcome uh great to see you as always just saw a little bit of Brenda's reporting what's the hope and the goal of this whole project well we were selected we're one of about a dozen sites Nationwide news sites uh that were selected uh for this project that really aims to look more closely at state government um in in their respective state in in our case obviously uh out of Trenton and and the state as a whole with an attention that it hasn't state government doesn't necessarily Nationwide get a lot of news attention these days as a ecosystem shrinks and so the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is supporting this through grants um and in our case we already do a lot of coverage as Brenda's showed we already do a lot of coverage at state government but it gave us an opportunity to do more in-depth pieces that really look at how they work how they impact or how agencies impact local communities local businesses local residents so we'll be doing analytic you know more analysis stories we'll be doing explainer stories profile of prominent people we just ran a today of the governor um and and it will be a regular thing um I mean it's all multimedia right we expect to see this in different form all different forms it will be on broadcast we'll have a podcast called Hey NJ uh we'll be doing a lot of Outreach through social media for folks what are their questions for us to be asking you know this is so audience input this is an opportunity for viewers readers to say here's what I want to know about the inner workings of of State government yep under Under the Dome at NJSpotlightNews.org and we'll be publishing believe me you'll see a lot of reminders on this and I think it's exciting it's it gives it a different look a different way to get at some of these real issues that do impact this is a really critical time for state governments right needless to say I mean yeah you mentioned that the the ecosystem is shrinking but also certainly when there are more eyes and ears on a government body the actors tend to behave differently so how does that fact in just given the whole political climate the polarization the divisiveness yeah and we not to mention we also have an election uh coming up with our governor and and the entire assembly so I think bringing attention to these issues you know does serve the public very well and and our Watchdog role is only Amplified through this project is there a landing page where folks can go to find this and and what other types of issues within the state government umbrella are going to be covered there is a landing page uh which will if it is isn't already will be up as we as certainly as we populate it we had our first two stories today one was on how covid money has been spent uh billions of dollars um and also the piece I mentioned on the governor governorship uh we have planned a piece on school funding and how much how that's derived topic right big big topic uh we'll be doing something on the 988 mental health hotline how that works you know what are the you know what are the components of that and um I mentioned you know the the podcast will be you know I think a big favorite uh where John McAlpin and and Maddi Ference will be sitting down weekly and sort of summing up uh the news of the week and also the work we've done and how we did the work um and I it's it's a very exciting project I think um all right so you can check out the podcast uh the landing page for all of these stories Under the Dome on NJSpotlightnews.org with stories from John Mooney the rest of our reporters um digital pieces multimedia series that'll be ongoing for the next two years actually it's two-year project so um there will be lots of opportunities for viewers and readers to have some input on it as well all right thanks John Mooney thanks for coming in thanks Bri this program is made possible in part by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting a private Corporation funded by the American people