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February 2008 - Posts

Friday, February 29, 2008 8:30 AM

Bad Deeds

The Chicago Tribune has been producing outstanding articles on mortgage fraud. Their latest, "This House Was a Steal" by Susan Chandler, begins with a memorable scene: The new buyers of a rundown graystone on the South Side showed up Jan. 9 to look at
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Thursday, February 28, 2008 8:00 AM

Homeless in San Francisco

Reporter Amanda Witherell and intern Bryan Cohen of the San Franisco Bay Guardian spent a week living undercover in the city's shelters to learn what it's like for the homeless to navigate a confusing system. Witherell's amazing "Shelter Shuffle" is
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008 8:00 AM

Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan

Six years after U.S. forces attacked the Taliban regime, Elizabeth Rubin returned to Afghanistan last fall to see how American troops are faring in the war against an insurgency that never seems to end. Her "Battle Company Is Out There" in this week's New
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Tuesday, February 26, 2008 8:30 AM

Showing the Way

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus recently hosted a "tactile tour" for young children from Atlanta's Center for the Visually Impaired. A reporter might have covered this event by telling readers what happened and providing after-the-fact quotes
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Monday, February 25, 2008 8:30 AM

Accidents Can Happen

The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La., offers us a good example of how small and mid-sized newspapers can create compelling multimedia stories. "Megan's Journey" uses text, photos and sound to show us how troubled 17-year-old Megan Theriot
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Friday, February 22, 2008 8:30 AM

Mickey's Millions

In "Mickey Goes to Washington," Jeffrey H. Birnbaum of the Washington Post shows how Washington lobbying really works. He chronicles a campaign launched by Walt Disney chairman Jay Rasulo, who in 2006 set out to persuade Congress to allocate $200 million
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Thursday, February 21, 2008 8:30 AM

Deadly Drivers

In early 2007, after a series of high profile fatalities on Maine roads involving drivers with suspended licenses, the Portland Press Herald assigned investigative reporter Kevin Wack to find the answer to one question: Are suspended drivers more dangerous
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008 8:30 AM

Uneasy in the Big Easy

Along with the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the alternative Gambit Weekly has been doing a terrific job of describing its city's plight following Hurricane Katrina. In last week's "Under the Bridge," Greg Thomas writes about spending
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008 8:40 AM

Alarming Situation

Josh Bernstein of KNXV ABC-15 in Phoenix reveals that Arizona's nine state fire inspectors often go many years without checking some of the state's schools. One town's schools hadn't been inspected in seven years, he reports in "School Fire Inspections
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Monday, February 18, 2008 9:10 AM

Eternal Valentines

"Valentines From Hearts Now Stilled," by Erika Hayasaki in the Los Angeles Times, is a narrative of love and loss set in a Philadelphia cemetery. On the Saturday before Valentine's Day, Gwen Kaminski, "a history buff whose heart had been broken," led
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Friday, February 15, 2008 7:45 AM

Threads of Evil

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has done a fine job covering the recent killings of hikers in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia. Their latest story, "Deadly Encounters With Gary Hilton" by Rosalind Bentley and Jeremy Redmon, is a chilling narrative.
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Thursday, February 14, 2008 7:05 AM

Tossing the Evidence

Ohio's police and courts routinely lose or throw away DNA evidence, The Columbus Dispatch discovered during a yearlong investigation. For their "Test of Convictions" series, reporters Geoff Dutton and Mike Wagner reviewed 313 cases and
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:30 AM

Every Victim Deserves a Story

In a city with hundreds of homicides every year, it's easy to lose track of all the victims. The Los Angeles Times and the LA Daily News, however, have made extensive commitments over the past year to telling the victims' stories. The Times' "The
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008 7:00 AM

Exposing Powerful Interests

"After Mining Deal, Financier Donated to Clinton," by Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr. of The New York Times, is a tightly woven story of international intrigue, big money and politics. It focuses on a 2005 meeting attended by Canadian mining financier
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Monday, February 11, 2008 8:30 AM

Should Sports Writers Blow the Whistle?

Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry of the Seattle Times have written an outstanding series, "Victory and Ruins," on the troubled University of Washington football team that won the Rose Bowl in 2001: An unprecedented look behind the scenes — based largely
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Friday, February 08, 2008 8:30 AM

The Gap in Bridge Inspections

Bill Dedman's "Bridge Inspections" series for msnbc.com is getting a lot of buzz and for good reason: Dedman remains one of the best investigative reporters in the business. Dedman discovered that at least 17,000 U.S. bridges went more than two years
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Thursday, February 07, 2008 9:30 AM

The Farm Meets the Subdivision

Six years ago photographer Scott Strazzante chronicled the dismantling of a family farm on the outskirts of metropolitan Chicago. Last year Strazzante revisited the same plot of land where a subdivision now stands. With "Another Country" in the Chicago
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008 8:22 AM

Nailing With Numbers

"Neighborhoods for Sale" by Dan Mihalopoulos, Robert Becker and Darnell Little of the Chicago Tribune, is a fine example of using data-mining to expose widespread corruption. Here's how they documented Chicago's shady zoning practices: In an unprecedented
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Tuesday, February 05, 2008 8:30 AM

Venezuelan Gusher

Pablo Bachelet, Tyler Bridges, Jane Bussey, Glenn Garvin and Melissa Sanchez of The Miami Herald have produced a revealing series on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, "Chávez's Grand Crusade." Chávez, flush with profits from Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.,
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Monday, February 04, 2008 8:30 AM

Just the Facts

I don't know of any news organization in the country that's giving more pure information to its readers than the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle's Web site. Its "Rocdocs" section gives readers easy access to public records such as DWI conviction
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Friday, February 01, 2008 8:30 AM

The Advertising Game

Amy Schoenfeld and Vu Nguyen of The New York Times have developed a fun graphic that looks at how Super Bowl advertising has evolved over the past 20 years. "The Super Ad Bowl: Two Decades of Players" allows viewers to scroll through a
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