Clips of the Week

Here are some great stories to enjoy over the holidays:

• Tim Persinko’s article about a rising Brooklyn boxer made the Canarsie Courier.
• Henry Stewart cites some Brooklyn history to bolster his opinion piece about plans to eliminate the B-37 bus. You’ll find all the reasons he’s against scrapping the line in the Brooklyn Eagle.
• Linnea Covington has the lowdown on New York’s best empanadas for Serious Eats.
• Maya Pope-Chappell made Essance – as an interview subject. She talks about how she won two tickets to the inauguration through Sen. Schumer’s lottery. Maya will be reporting from Washington – but she doesn’t reveal whom she’s taking.
• Damiano Beltrami’s audio slideshow about how Arthur Avenue’s merchants are weathering the economic crisis and other changes is featured on the homepage of i-Italy.org.
• Sergey Kadinsky wrote a piece about Councilmember-elect Liz Crowley’s transition effort for the Queens Tribune. (I have a copy in my office – come on by for a look.)
• Igor Kosov’s story and slideshow about half-completed ghost buildings in soon-to-be-rezoned Brighton Beach was featured in City Limits.
• Jessica Firger also made City Limits with her story about an ad campaign encouraging pit bull owners to have their pets spayed or neutered. Jessica’s companion piece and video – produced by Steve Pacer – can be found on the News Service.

Our News Service had another busy week:

• Valerie Lapinski shot a video piece about a group of bikers who made their annual holiday visit to a Brooklyn nursing home.
• Tracy Chimming’s video story features interviews with Union Square holiday market merchants who are singing the blues over slow business.
• Maya Pope-Chappell, keeping with her inauguration theme, put together a print-and-video package about a Brooklyn youth marching band whose members hope Barack Obama’s big day will be their next gig.
• Maureen Ker, Vinita Singla and Adeola Oladele combined on a print-and-video package about the push to get shoppers to use reusuable bags – and Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to hit plastic bag users with a six-cent surcharge.
• Cristiana Oliveira found a food pantry that offers the hungry more than food. Clients can get free haircuts – courtesy of volunteer pantry workers from Manitoba, Canada.

Congratulations once again to the Class of ‘08 – it was a pleasure attending that inspiring ceremony.

Have a great and safe holiday – and keep those stories coming.

I know better than to let my lede get bogged down with sentimental mush about graduation, so let’s get straight to business:

• Henry Stewart’s entertaining review of the not-so-entertaining (by his reckoning) revival of “All My Sons” was featured in The L Magazine.
• Linnea Covington offered a somewhat more positive review of the new Nolita bistro Lulu in her piece for New York Press.
• Jenni Avins profiled multi-talented artist Alex Kopps for Foam magazine.
• Nicole Turso’s profile of a real Queens character – a kiddie entertainer who calls him The Balloonatic – made the Queens Courier.
• Karina Ioffee also notched a byline in the Courier with her profile of a popular Jackson Heights sari tailor.
• Collin Orcutt and Michael Preston proved the value of follow up with this video piece about a high school hoops standout’s decision to attend Villanova. The video was featured on sports reporter Adam Zagoria’s blog — as was the duo’s earlier profile of the athlete.
• Ben Fractenberg’s opinion piece about the Internet, the Obama campaign and finding one’s self through a connection to others made The Huffington Post.

Our News Service was very busy this week:

• Nicholas Martinez and Brian Winkowski offered a video piece about the fight to save Admirals’ Row in the old Brooklyn Navy Yard.
• Nick Loomis and Jim Flood did a video on the revival of the growler – a vessel guaranteed to make for fresher and less expensive beer drinking.
• Geneva Sands-Sadowitz gets down to the nitty gritty of urban composting in this video story.
• Adeola Oladele’s latest video focuses on some immigrant grad students and what they want to see from the Obama Administration.
• Jessica Wakeman found a Harlem jazz club with hot music – and a great backstory — in this video piece.
• Joe Walker and Sophia Tewa profiled two young Brooklyn entrepreneurs who are recycling vinyl records into fashion accessories.
• Caitlin Drexler got the story behind Commerce Bank’s now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t transformation into TD.
• Stephen Bronner and Clark Merrefield obtained Margaret Truman’s FBI file for our latest I-Team special.
• Valerie Lapinski chronicled the latest clash between Central Park horse carriage operators and animal rights activists in this Sounslides presentation.
• In case you missed them, the final installments of this semester’s audio podcasts – Culture Shock, This Place Called Home and Health Pods — can be found here.

Okay, I promised not to lede with mawkish sentiment, but I didn’t say anything about ending with it.

I want to thank the member of the Class of ‘08 for their help in bringing the News Service to new heights, especially during this historic election year. Your energy, enthusiasm, dedication and hard work have been inspiring to me – and to the Class of ‘09, which is following your fine example.

Do not hesitate to call, email or visit any time I can be of help. If you want to drop by and just shoot the breeze, that’s fine, too – one of the great parts of working in a newsroom is when friends drop by.

So good luck and congrats to all – and keep those stories coming.

I took a week off from Clips of the Week – but our reporters didn’t rest. Here are some offerings from the past two weeks:

• Rima Abdelkader scored a scoop with this interview with the victim of a suspected Election Night hate attack. Her piece appeared on the News Service, and is scheduled to be published by In Focus, a monthly newspaper based in Southern California.
• Alana Rigal reported from the red carpet outside the Gotham Awards, and co-produced this video for the Daily News’ website.
• Henry Stewart offers some off-beat holiday gift ideas in this fun piece for The L Magazine.
• Francesa Levy has the lowdown on the most and least family friendly cities in the U.S. Check out her story and slideshow at Forbes.com.
• I’m just catching up to this fine Marathon story Kristen Joy Watts wrote for Law Times about a group of runners from Toronto who call themselves the Fatboys Running Club.
• Kate Lurie’s feature about a group of former prisoners who performed their off-Broadway show about life in a Manhattan half-way house for a grateful audience at the Greenhaven Correctional Facility merited full-page treatment in the Daily News.
• Stephen Bronner shared a byline on this Daily News story about protests at Rent-a-Center outlets.
• Matt Townsend contributed to this Daily News article about complaints over a new Burger King ad campaign.
• The city’s efforts to push its new regulation mandating chain restaurants to post calorie counts was chronicled in this video by Aisha Al-Muslim and Mirva Lempiainen. Their story is featured on the News Service.
• Cristiana Oliveira hit a Manhattan food pantry on Thanksgiving Eve, and found a huge line of folks waiting for turkeys and trimmings to take home. Her video made the News Service.
• Kieran Meadows and H’Rina DeTroy reported on the effort to force building owners to provide parking for bicycles in this video piece for the News Service.
• Mary Stachyra’s story and slideshow about the 75^th anniversary of Prohibition’s end made the News Service.
• Michael Preston and Collin Orcutt profiled an up-and-coming high school basketball star. Their video was picked up by sportcaster Adam Zagoria’s blog.
• Sergey Kadinsky’s Flushing River photo essay as featured on the Forgotten New York website.
• One of Candice Johnson’s Election Day photos made about.com.
• Three of our recent podcasts – Culture Shock, HealthPods and This Place Called Home – were broadcast Dec. 1 on radio station WHCR.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming!