Jessica Velez
Jessica Velez is a business reporter at the South Bend Tribune who follows how commercial decisions, development projects and city policy reshape everyday places and companies. Her coverage links boardroom moves and government actions to the physical changes on main streets, industrial sites and emerging neighborhoods, with attention to both numeric impact and lived detail. She moves between city hall, construction sites and storefronts, treating business news as a map of what is being built, shuttered, financed or fought over. The through‑line in her work is a focus on deals and projects at the point where public power, private capital and local businesses meet.
City policy, data centers and land use tools
Velez spends substantial time on how city officials use executive orders, committees and new entities to manage development pressures and distressed property. She has detailed a mayoral executive order that bars city staff from signing nondisclosure agreements tied to data center projects, explaining how the directive limits confidentiality arrangements and reshapes how city departments engage prospective developers.
Her reporting on the Common Council Utilities Committee’s meeting about Beck’s Lake and data centers shows her attention to agendas, procedural steps and the specific sites under discussion. In covering the push to create a land bank in response to numerous blighted properties, she tracks why officials want a new tool, what kinds of properties are at stake and how the mechanism would work in practice.
Across these stories she treats business development as part of governance, emphasizing orders, meetings and policy instruments as much as the companies behind them.
Development projects, housing and construction setbacks
Her work on major development and housing projects explains both plans on paper and what happens when they go wrong.
In a story on the Stadium Flats apartment complex fire near Four Winds Field, she reports the destruction of a building under construction, the absence of injuries, the evacuation of nearby residents and the estimated three‑month delay to the construction timeline. Her coverage of the Woodfield Crossing neighborhood shows similar depth, laying out how a former mobile home park is being redeveloped into a mixed‑income community led by Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County. She specifies the scale of the project, describing nine acres of affordable housing with townhomes, cottages, single‑family homes and duplexes, and notes the planned split between Habitat families and market‑rate buyers.
In reporting on the city’s statement after law enforcement raided a fieldhouse developer’s home, she follows how authorities respond when a high‑profile project collides with a legal investigation, keeping the focus on the development and municipal reaction rather than criminal speculation. Taken together, these pieces show a reporter who treats housing and large projects as business stories grounded in site conditions, unit counts, timelines and the official response when plans falter.
Main street openings, venues and community commerce
Velez frequently chronicles new gyms, restaurants, shops and events, framing them as changes in local consumer and retail landscapes.
Her article on Crunch Fitness replacing an Ashley Furniture store on Grape Road explains how the health club chain is moving into a vacated big‑box space and what equipment, classes and amenities the new gym will offer. She has covered CAVA’s expansion with a second Mediterranean‑inspired restaurant at Eddy Street Commons, situating it within a sequence of openings that includes an earlier location on Grape Road and noting specific opening dates. In a photo‑driven piece on Briar’s Edge Bookery in Granger, she focuses on the interior of the independent bookstore, highlighting vintage titles, local authors, craft supplies, reading nooks and other details that define the customer experience.
A similar visual treatment at Mad Dog Gourmet Burgers & More shows wall decor, branded elements, menu items and merchandise, capturing the character of a small food business through images and tight captions. She also reports on community‑facing initiatives such as the Tribune’s Community Choice Awards, guiding readers through nomination and voting windows and positioning the awards as a way to recognize local favorites. Her coverage of a Fourth of July celebration hosted by Venue Parks & Arts outlines food, crafts and fireworks as part of a family‑friendly event, again treating civic programming as a facet of the local commercial and cultural ecosystem.
Corporate finance, credit pressure and business disputes
Beyond street‑level commerce, Velez reports on larger corporate and financial stories with clear attention to risk, ratings and legal outcomes. In her coverage of S&P Global’s downgrade of AM General from B‑ to CCC, she summarizes the ratings agency’s view that the company’s capital structure is unsustainable, notes underperforming JLTV A2 production and deliveries, and explains expected cash flow deficits and looming debt maturities. She reports that S&P lowered both the corporate rating and issue‑level rating on senior secured notes, and describes a negative outlook tied to operating challenges and refinancing difficulty. Her story on the dismissal of South Bend Chocolate Company’s lawsuit against the regional airport similarly follows the legal process and final ruling, naming the plaintiff and venue and marking the case’s conclusion.
Across these pieces, she brings the same clarity to balance sheets and court decisions that she brings to zoning and construction, treating financial downgrades and litigation as consequential business developments rather than abstract legal or market news.
4 more business journalists.
Aaron Karp
Aaron Karp is distinct for connecting airline networks, airport infrastructure, air cargo and policy. He is a senior editor at Air Transport World and has covered aviation since 1999. He has also worked as an editor for cargo-focused and daily aviation publications. His real beat is how airlines and airports respond to growth, regulation, trade conditions, sustainability pressures and technology changes. He covers route planning, network development, airport capacity, infrastructure, cargo flows, trade lanes, safety, air traffic control and future technology. He reports through news, features, opinion pieces, briefings and podcasts. He uses data, executive insight and industry conference reporting to explain market changes. His work links cargo metrics and trade policy to carrier strategy, and connects infrastructure and sustainability decisions to resilience, costs and long-term growth.
Adrienne Roberts
Adrienne Roberts is a business journalist at the Detroit Free Press who covers how policy, regulation and corporate decisions affect Michigan’s cannabis market, jobs, universities and health systems. She has a sustained focus on cannabis taxes, licensing, sales, product rules, consumer safety and local tax revenue. She also reports on unemployment, worker protections, corporate settlements, hiring, higher education, student safety, housing, data centers, health care access and economic forecasts. Roberts joined the Detroit Free Press in 2020 after covering automotive retail, dealers and labor issues for The Wall Street Journal. She explains complex business and regulatory changes with data, legal detail and on-the-ground voices. Her stories focus on practical effects for workers, students, consumers and communities, showing both the numbers and the people behind them.
Alex Bronzini-Vender
Alex Bronzini-Vender is a business reporter who focuses on how economic forces and corporate decisions shape specific communities and industries. He covers business for the Washington Monthly, writing reported pieces at the intersection of commerce and public life. His work reflects the magazine’s emphasis on linking markets and money to power, policy, and everyday experience. He treats business not as balance sheets and deals but as choices that affect local realities. In “Fear and Loathing in Palo Alto,” he uses a city tied to the tech sector to examine how a powerful industry influences a community. He grounds his business beat in on-the-ground consequences rather than treating corporate and financial developments in isolation.
Alex DeMarban
Alex DeMarban stands out for tracking major energy projects over time while showing how economic shifts affect local businesses. He reports for the Anchorage Daily News on business, oil and gas, and general assignments. His coverage focuses on Alaska LNG, long-haul energy projects, mining, ports, transportation infrastructure, and the everyday businesses that keep the state running. He examines financing, tax legislation, labor agreements, regulatory approvals, timelines and costs, and connects government and corporate decisions to workers, communities and consumers. He also reports on restaurant closures, grocery stores, breweries, meaderies, parking and trade disputes. His past coverage includes an open-pit mine near the proposed Ambler road, federal port grants and competitive elections. He reports through dollar figures, project details, public records, business owners and affected workers, showing how policy and resource development play out on the ground.