Email: jessie.biele@patch.com

Phone: (703) 297-0887

Hometown: East Patchogue, NY

Birthday: July 7

Bio: I was born and raised on Long Island. I graduated from Purchase College-SUNY in 2008 with a B.A. in Journalism and Women's Studies, where I was one of the founding members of The Brick, Purchase's online news Web site run by disgruntled journalism majors after we found out we lost the funding for our department's newspaper. After graduating, I returned to Long Island and worked as a freelance reporter for The Long Island Advance, a community newspaper covering 10 towns on the Great South Bay. After two years of freelancing in my community, I was then hired as a staff reporter at Johnlor Publishing in Sayville, New York, writing for The Suffolk County News and the Islip Bulletin. I am currently a student in the weekend master's degree program in Public Communication at American University.

Your Beliefs 

At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.

Politics 

How would you describe your political beliefs? Although my political stance is pretty liberal, I tend to vote for the person who I believe would do the best job in listening to his or her constituents and initiating changes.

Are you registered with a certain party? I'm a registered Democrat.

Religion

How religious would you consider yourself? (casual, observant, devout, non religious) I was raised Roman Catholic, but now I don't affiliate myself with a specific religion. I'm open to new ideas.

Local Hot-Button Issues

What do you think are the most important issues facing the community?

Improving transportation along Route 1, BRAC, and cell phone tower construction in Mount Vernon.

Where do you stand on each of these issues?

I support the construction of a cell phone tower in Mount Vernon - it's just a matter of where it would be. There are certain areas where I lose cell phone reception, and if there's an emergency, how would I call for help? I support the revitalization of Route 1 and I believe that it's a great location for new businesses, especially since you get traffic from people going down to Richmond and points south. I'm a big believer in supporting local commerce and I truly feel that buying local is the best way for a resident to support their community. As for BRAC, I don't have a definite stance on it yet.