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January 2008 - Posts

Thursday, January 31, 2008 8:30 AM

Presidential Picks

USATODAY.com has developed a fun way to help readers learn about the presidential candidates as Super Tuesday draws near. Its "Candidate Match Game" lets you answer eleven questions about your opinions on the Iraq war, immigration, health care, gay
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:45 AM

Warming Cold Cases

Matt Hanley of the Aurora Beacon News is producing a nice six-month series on unsolved local murders. The fourth installment, on the 1979 killing of 19-year-old Kathy Halle, was published on January 20. Here, North Aurora Sgt. Steve Van Loan explains
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008 8:30 AM

Dangerous Trucks

The Los Angeles Times has followed up its outstanding series on U-Haul, "Danger in Tow," with Louis Sahagun's "Unsafe Trucks Stream Out of L.A.'s Ports." About 16,000 truckers serve the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, and many are struggling independent
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Monday, January 28, 2008 9:47 AM

Curse of the Warlords

In "Rape of a Nation" on Media Storm, photographer and videographer Marcus Bleasdale offers an extraordinary look at the deadliest conflict since World War II. Bleasdale uses a mix of video, graphics and photos to show how war and greed have
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Thursday, January 24, 2008 10:14 PM

Life Underground

The January issue of the American Journal features a beautiful and haunting photo slideshow by Christian Abraham about life in the Pennsylvania coal mines. Abraham's "Standing the Test of Time" follows the workers as they descend into the
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Thursday, January 24, 2008 9:30 AM

The Reporter Who Wouldn't Give Up

Ever since security guard Lebrew Jones was convicted of the brutal murder of New York City prostitute Michaelanne Hall in 1989, reporter Christine Young has questioned his guilt. Young, who first came across the case as a journalism student and now
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008 8:30 AM

Young Journalists Expose an Outrage

Eight students at Northeastern University, overseen by journalism professor Walter V. Robinson, have produced an outstanding article for the Boston Globe, "Courts Strip Elders of Their Independence." The students reviewed hundreds of guardianship cases
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008 8:50 AM

Failing the Disabled

In 2000, Oregon closed its notorious Fairview Training Center for the "feeble-minded" and replaced it with community-based programs. But in a troubling special report, "After Fairview," Michelle Roberts of The Oregonian shows that the community-based
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Monday, January 21, 2008 8:30 AM

He Is Legend

It's hard to resist a good adventure story, especially when it's set in an exotic location and the objective is the stuff of legend: the last survivor of a unknown Indian tribe in Brazil. Monte Reel provides a fine example of the genre in the Washington
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Friday, January 18, 2008 9:30 AM

The Guatemalan Connection

The Web site of the Bay Area News Group, which includes the Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times, reaches a wider audience for its fascinating series on Guatemalan immigrants by running versions of the stories in English and in Spanish. Staff
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Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:30 AM

Song of Grace

Bill Reiter of The Kansas City Star has written a lovely article, "Virginia Tech Band Replies to a Terrible Day With a Song of Beauty," on how the school's marching band responded to last spring's shootings in which band member Ryan Clark was killed.
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008 8:30 AM

The Death of a Basketball Player

Wright Thompson of ESPN has written a powerful narrative about a former college basketball star who disappears into the wilds of Brazil. "The Last Days of Tony Harris" follows Harris as he plays his last days for a Brazilian team and runs from
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008 8:30 AM

A Silent Epidemic

Every year, nearly a million American families experience a miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death. Yet, as Julie Sullivan shows in her Oregonian special report, "When a Baby Dies," these families often suffer in silence as friends and acquaintances
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Monday, January 14, 2008 9:00 AM

Children on Drugs

Last week PBS' Frontline ran a powerful story by producer, writer and director Marcela Gaviria about the steep increase in psychiatric medicines that children are receiving. "The Medicated Child" explores the possible impact on kids of
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Friday, January 11, 2008 9:00 AM

Hospital Losses

Patients regularly leave a Denver hospital with their health improved but their belongings missing, Deborah Sherman of KUSA TV reports. Sherman's "Denver Health Saves Lives but Loses Patients' Valuables" reveals that Denver Health Medical Center
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Thursday, January 10, 2008 9:00 AM

The Fire Next Time

The most popular kind of smoke detector does a poor job of alerting people to slow-burning fires, reports Bob Segall of WTHR-TV 13 in Indianapolis. Segall's "Deadly Delay" series reveals that the ionization smoke detectors used in 80 percent
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008 8:30 AM

A Story of Innocence

The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, has given us a great example of how newspaper Web sites can produce videos that are as compelling as any seen on television. "Dail: Life Unbarred" tells the story of Dwayne Dail, who spent 20
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Tuesday, January 08, 2008 8:30 AM

To the Brink

"Pam's Story," by Mary K. Reinhart of Arizona's East Valley Tribune, is a compelling series about a bipolar mother and son. The first half of the series is disturbing: When the son, Zack, asks his mother, Pam, to join him in a suicide pact, Pam sees it
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Monday, January 07, 2008 8:30 AM

To Live Again

"Losing Chuck, Finding Sallie," by David Tarrant of The Dallas Morning News, is a nicely written account of Sallie Stratton's quest to learn the fate of her husband, Chuck, an Air Force pilot who went missing in action during the Vietnam War. When
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Friday, January 04, 2008 7:45 AM

Juvenile Injustice

Juvenile crime rates have fallen since the 1990s, when 48 states made it easier to try young offenders as adults. Now the tide may be turning toward rehabilitating teens rather than locking them up. To help readers sort through these highly charged issues,
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Thursday, January 03, 2008 8:30 AM

News Gem of the Year

We think the best journalism of 2007 was The Washington Post's comprehensive and sustained coverage of the conflict in Iraq and its repercussions. Steve Fainaru’s “Private Armies” series shined a much-needed spotlight on the more than 20,000
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Wednesday, January 02, 2008 8:30 AM

Best Gems of 2007

When we sat down to create the Top 10 News Gems of 2007, we ended up with an initial list of more than 40 favorite stories. We had a hard time deciding among the many outstanding examples of journalism from magazines, broadcast outlets, Web sites and
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