Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

The Children’s Defense Fund’s New York chapter is holding a one-day summit in Central Brooklyn called “Connecting the Neighborhood Dots: Promoting Solutions to Dismantle the Pipeline to Prison.” Hosted by CUNY’s Medgar Evers College in partnership with the Casey Family Programs, the day has been scheduled full of panel discussions and presentations by leaders in the children’s advocacy and juvenile justice organizations.

I will be chronicling the start of the conference and the back-to-back morning sessions that focus on the disproportionate impact of prison and the criminal justice system on specific communities in New York City, mainly in the Bronx and Central Brooklyn, and how community-based strategies can promote healthy children, families and neighborhoods.

Read and watch the full coverage here.

Sunset Park, NY – With flu season here and January/February peak times just around the corner, health providers at Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center and in hospitals and clinics throughout the city are trying to get both children and adults – including those over 65 years of age – to get their flu shot.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) named last week National Influenza Vaccination Week. Tuesday, December 9, was Children’s Vaccination Day. Thursday, December 11, was Senior’s Vaccination Day.

“[Parents and grandparents] may bring in a child for immunization, but they won’t for themselves,” said Norma Villanueva, M.D., M.P.H., the Network Chief of Child and Adolescent Health at Lutheran Medical Center.

Read the rest of the article here…

“An aged man is but a paltry thing,/A tattered coat upon a stick, unless/Soul clap its hands and sing” – W.B. Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium

“Voris, you’re like an old man” (paraphrase) – More People Than I Can Count

I have friends who would rather undergo dental work without anaesthetic than have a discussion of what images flashed across the back of their eyelids the night previous.  If you count yourself a member of this cohort, I advise you to read no further. (more…)

The pharmaceutical industry is coming under fire for allegedly hiring ghostwriters (writers who work for pay, but not a byline) to write positive reports/analysis of clinical tests on drugs with possible efficacy issues – and then recruiting notable doctors to stick their names on it. This issue has been bandied about for months and suspected for longer, but now U.S. Senator Charles Grassley from Iowa is renewing the fight.

Is the fact that this possibility has surfaced doesn’t surprise me troubling? Even before I declared my concentration in health/medicine reporting, I was aware of the corruption and rampant abuse of power by what is referred to as Big Pharma. Government deregulation and regulation on a slew of business and healthcare policy issues end up benefiting these corporate entites, whether allowing unapproved drugs and drugs with possible side effects to go on the market before they are fully vetted by the FDA or removing/weakening price caps on prescription drugs so that Pharma can charge more for less and profit from donations of life-saving drugs to Third World countries. And of course there are the deceptive drug ads that have had varying levels of regulation over the last two decades.

Journal articles are an important “first draft” introducing new developments in medicine to the public and are among the sources used by health professionals and medical reporters in their story research. Doctors and reporters already look at journal articles with a wary eye, and the likely possibility of journal articles being fabricated can be even more detrimental to the trust people place in such written work.

And that doctors would sign on to put their names on these works they haven’t written – even if they agree with what is being written – is egregious and says they condone this deceptive practice. Like the regulations placed on drug advertisements, all that would be needed is for the doctors to acknowledge that this IS NOT their work. It would be better if it were, but if this is the way they want to roll, then disclose your affiliations.

It is tantamount to plagiarism.

Once a month Sonia Diaz says she would take her sixteen-year old daughter, Kassandra Rodriguez, to the hospital due to asthma.  “It sounded like a whistle in her chest, she would start wheezing, and sometimes she couldn’t breathe,” says Diaz, 41, a mother of two. 

Along with her daughter, Diaz, and her son, Nicholas, 19, all suffer from asthma. 

As residents of East Harlem, Diaz’s family health problems are not unusual. 

In East Harlem the rate of hospitalization for asthma in children 0-14 years of age is doubled compared to children overall in New York City.  According to the NYC Department of Health in 2005, for every five children who were hospitalized for asthma in New York City, over ten children were hospitalized for asthma in East Harlem.

(more…)

Sunset Park – Prostitutes have long plied their trade along the Gowanus Expressway’s southern end in Brooklyn, coexisting quietly with their working class neighbors and largely ignored by police. But when residents began complaining in late September that men had begun soliciting sex from young girls and teachers at a nearby elementary school, the cops took fast action.

A series of morning crackdowns over three weeks resulted in 39 arrests along 56th and 57th streets between Second and Third Avenues, according to Deputy Inspector Jesus R. Pintos, of the 72nd Precinct. But the prostitution busts were only part of a larger effort that shows how local law enforcement can involve community organizations to find long-term solutions for neighborhood crimes.

The campaign began with getting the offenders off the streets. In what Inspector Pintos described as “precinct-based enforcement,” officers arrested 21 johns – the term used to describe the predominantly male clientele of prostitutes – and eight prostitutes.  They also arrested nine others for related crimes of car theft (cars used by those arrested) and drug use or sales. Five vehicles were also confiscated at the scene.

Within days, the only signs that illegal activity had taken place were used condoms and other debris scattered on the sidewalk.  The Brooklyn D.A.’s office lent several hands to deal with that. Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes assigned individuals sentenced to community service hours in the neighborhood to assist the precinct in sidewalk clean-up.

To maintain the quality of life in the area and prevent the problem from simply relocating, police increased surveillance.  First they installed Sky Watch – a surveillance tower that extends via mini-crane atop an NYPD car, traveling between high crime areas in the city – along the main intersection on Third Avenue and 56th Street during the two weeks following the arrests.  Precinct officers were also assigned to conduct regular sweeps of the problem corridor, making arrests when necessary.

For residents and schoolchildren, the effect of the changes was immediate. “Where did the prostitutes go, Mommy?” one grade-schooler asked her mother on the way to school a week following the first arrests.  The grateful mother shared the story with Deputy Inspector Pintos at the monthly Community Council meeting. Says Pintos, “We’re making headway, but we’ll continue to monitor the problem.”

Others are trying to help those arrested in the busts. The Red Hook Justice Center, in collaboration with the 72nd precinct, is offering first-time offenders an alternative to trials and jail.  Instead they have to attend “Project Respect,” often called the Brooklyn John School. The six-year-old program puts offenders face-to-face with former prostitutes, videos of sexually abused children and images of the diseases inflicted on them.

EPIC (Ending Prostitution In our Communities) and “Saving Teens at Risk” are two programs targeting prostitutes above age 21 and younger girls, respectively. They offer educational and rehabilitative services to help these women find other options and to deal with the issues that originally caused them to turn to the streets.  Kings County DA statistics note that 80 to 90 percent of the women prostituting themselves have been sexually abused.  The U.S. Dept. of Justice says that girls enter prostitution at an average age of 13.

According to Gerianne Abriano, Bureau Chief at the Brooklyn D.A.’s office, “the vast majority [of offenders] that come to Red Hook go through these programs. Anyone with a prior record, we try to get them drug [or other] treatment. [And as for] the prostitutes, they tend to be the most accessible. We have good results with them.”

Some residents in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood have already chosen their president: Daniel Dory, a local 23-year-old who previously served as unofficial “mayor” of their street.

Danny, as everyone calls him, has trisomy 21 Down Syndrome, where each gene has an extra chromosome.  But his outgoing and independent personality, combined with a love of life and all the people in it, make him a natural friend and leader.  They also challenge commonly held public preconceptions about what someone with this most common of genetic conditions is capable of achieving in life.

Sarah Palin’s nomination as the Republican vice presidential candidate promised to broaden that awareness.  As Americans met  the Alaska Governor and her family, including her newborn son Trig, who has Down Syndrome, Gov. Palin declared that if she and John McCain were elected, families of special needs children would have “a friend in the White House.”  In that large and tight-knit community whose voices often go unheeded, such promises have sparked contrasting feelings of hope and circumspection.

“As a mother, your heart goes out to her because even in this day and age, it’s hard,” said Mary Dory, Danny’s mother and a nurse for almost 30 years at Beth Israel Medical Center in Brooklyn.

In the 1980s and 90s, Ms. Dory and her husband’s efforts to find strong school services for their son were helped by doctor’s referral and the word-of-mouth among supportive parents in Brooklyn’s Catholic school network.  Last year, Danny graduated from Bishop Ford High School in Park Slope and is now at the nonprofit Guild for Exceptional Children in Bay Ridge, where he has occupational therapy and works at businesses throughout Brooklyn, earning a small stipend.

But in the public school system, it is more difficult to find similar programs. Mei Fung Zhang knows this from personal experience. She spent the last 10 years helping her brother and sister-in-law find programs in their Sheepshead Bay neighborhood to challenge and educate their now 17-year-old daughter, Lily Zhu, who also has trisomy 21 Down Syndrome.

“She started special education classes when she was two [and] she learned a lot in elementary school, especially when she had [a bilingual] paraprofessional” said Mrs. Zhang, referring to the teaching aides for children with special needs. But now Lily is enrolled in a program where students of different grade levels learn the same material together. “ She’s learning things she already knows, like third grade level math,” said her aunt.

“The summer-only training does nothing and she’s going to graduate high school soon.  We are looking for programs [that provide] job training and social benefits,” said Mrs. Zhang.

When it comes to the presidential election, Mrs. Zhang says her family has been pretty apathetic, but she wonders how the country could afford any additional services for students.

“I hope the government or the education department can do more for hoever wins the election,

“I think it’s great that [Trig Palin is] in the public eye,” said Mary Dory.  “It’s going to make people more aware, more educated and less judgmental.  I don’t really know if it’ll do anything for education programs, though.”

Others are even less optimistic. In a September column in the Phoenix New Times, editor Amy Silverman, the mother of a 5-year old girl with Down Syndrome, writes that Gov. Palin’s promises are not realistic for many reasons.

“There’s never enough funding … but worse, the whole system is so poorly managed you practically need a Ph.D. in public policy (or another parent who’s already been though this, or a lawyer, or all three) to help you get services,” Mrs. Silverman wrote.

“All you need to do is drive to the center of any large city in America and watch homeless schizophrenics push shopping carts to see the effects another social conservative — Ronald Reagan — had on another disenfranchised group, the country’s mentally ill.”

Neither presidential candidate stood out for Danny Dory although he did vote, exercising a right that the National Disability Rights Network has been actively promoting “I don’t like what I’m seeing on TV,” Danny said. “It is going to be a battle between them, but I don’t care who wins or who is president.  I just want a president.”

For the last 20 years World AIDS Day has been observed on December 1st in an effort to spread awareness and remember the nearly 25 Million people lost to the disease worldwide. Events occur globally and world leaders are encouraged to take the time to address global initiatives for prevention and care for AIDS and HIV infected patients.

Housing Works is a non-profit group in New York that attempts to simultaneously fight AIDS and homelessness. For the last 14 years they have organized a 24 hour vigil where hundreds of volunteers read the thousands of names of those New Yorkers who have died of AIDS. Five podiums were set up around the park in City Hall and names were read from books as thick as the Oxford Dictionary. The names were read simultaneously making it difficult to hear any one individual name, but making it easy to understand AIDS is not over.

This was a particularly somber year for the event as this past June the Mayor and the City Council voted to cut $6 million dollars from the city’s budget for prevention and care. Dennis Weakly, an event organizer, read an hourly statement, imploring the state, city, and federal governments to do more.

“Until all people living with HIV have the services and respect they deserve, we will stand before you, as I am standing here now. Every World AIDS Day, every December 1, we will read the names of those we have lost to AIDS to honor their memory and to call the world to action. Today we remember. For all of them. For all of us.”

Gregory Martin, lost a cousin to AIDS. He has been attending the vigil since she died, and every year he is still surprised by how many people have been lost to the disease.

Housing Works Client and AIDS activist Diana Williams says the treatment she receives now is much better than when she was first diagnosed. She worries still that people think the AIDS epidemic is over in the US and would like to see more education around the disease. “I don’t want my name to be read on that list someday, I already have to read my daughter’s name,” she said.

I’ve been a runner for most of my life. I’m not fast; I’ve never won a race–but I love to run. For years, I’d start my days with a five-mile run. The benefits of running are life-long.

But between the demands of grad school and a sidelining due to a foot injury, I haven’t had a good run for at least two months. And, yes, eight pounds later–I’m freaking. So I need to run faster!

Starting tomorrow, Monday, I hope to start running again at least three days a week. I need to amp it up with new music. Any runners out there want to share? I love drums and a crescendo.

Here are my top-four favorite running songs for this week:

Johnny Appleseed – Joe Strummer

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Journey From A to B – Badly Drawn Boy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Bruises – Chairlift

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Here Comes the Night – Van Morrison

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

When I traveled home for Thanksgiving I came down with what seemed like a cold, but progressed swiftly into a respiratory illness. Fortunately, I went to the Wellness Center at the Graduate Center. There, I was seen by the new nurse practitioner, Adraenne Bowe, F.N.P. This is Ms. Bowe’s first academic year at the GC and based on my experience, she exceeds expectations.

At first, when I called, the receptionist gave me a run-around about not having any appointments available for the rest of the month. So I just showed up and amazingly, I was able to see the N.P. in less than 10 minutes. Not only that, but she was very competent, caring and able to prescribe the medicine I needed. In fact, she had the drugs on hand and because the GC gets meds for a discount, I only paid $10. Now I’m feeling much better and am thankful for having that resource. I highly recommend it.