Policy Analyst, Frontier Group
Started on staff: 2016
B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, University of Kansas
R.J. focuses on data privacy issues and the commercialization of personal data in the digital age. Her work ranges from consumer harms like scams and data breaches, to manipulative targeted advertising, to keeping kids safe online. In her work at Frontier Group, she has authored research reports on government transparency, predatory auto lending and consumer debt. Her work has appeared in WIRED magazine, CBS Mornings and USA Today, among other outlets. When she’s not protecting the public interest, she is an avid reader, fiction writer and birder.
When buying a car, it’s easy to wind up spending thousands more than you intended, especially if you’re at a dealership with tricks up its sleeve. But thanks to a new proposal from the Federal Trade Comission, buying a car may be about to get a lot easier.
Buy now, pay later apps give consumers the flexibility of paying for purchases in installments, but that convenience comes at a cost. Besides being unregulated and full of fine print, these companies have one ultimate goal: get you to buy more stuff, and go into debt to do it.
Consumer Reports' new analysis of over 800,000 auto loans might make you rethink getting a car loan through a dealership. And it should make us all ask: is a transportation system that requires people take on so much debt really that functional?
15 years of zombie dominance at the U.S. box office may reveal a lot about the real threats that keep us up at night.
Our democracy as it currently exists is far from perfect, but in 2018, states and cities across the country pushed forward with a number of policies intended to make our government more representative, our elections more democratic, and our right to vote easier to exercise.
