Clips of the Week

What a week! We produced more than 40 story packages on Election Day alone, as well as completed our great interactive map. Some of our work was widely linked to, and run by Off The Bus, Our Town, the West Side Spirit and the Queens Courier.

As Dean Shepard noted, we kept the momentum going with Cristina Alesci’s David Halberstam/FBI file scoop. The AP piece was picked up locally and around the country –  NY 1, Channel 4, WNYC, the Village Voice, the Daily Beast (Tina Brown’s new internet venture), and many other media outlets and blogs ran the report and/or linked to us.

The election coverage and Halberstam story helped fuel the News Service’s strongest month ever: more than 30,000 page views for the 30-day period ending yesterday.  Simply tremendous – and another of sign how much impact our work can have.

There are too many contributors to the election coverage to mention – suffice to say, it was a school-wide effort. Meanwhile, some of our reporters still found time to do other stories. Here are some of the latest pieces (forgive me if I’ve missed anybody – our reporters produced so much great work this week, I’m having a hard time keeping up.):

• Matt Townsend shared a byline on this Daily News Marathon story about a firefighter’s inspirational comeback.
• Claudia Cruz, who filed election dispatches from Ohio to Off The Bus, saw two magazine pieces published this week: She asked actor and filmmaker Manny Perez a few questions about his upcoming flick, “The Butcher’s Son,” for Mujer Unica, a national women’s magazine in the Dominican Republic. Writing for Elan Magazine, she profiled a Barcelona DJ who takes risks spinning world music.
• Clark Merrefield wrote about Mayor Bloomberg’s grim budget revisions for City Hall.
• Mathew Warren helped put together this nytimes.com video featuring Muslim NYU students talking about how Islam was used by the McCain and Obama campaigns.
• Collin Orcutt takes on Marbury, Iverson and the rest of the NBA in his latest Men’s Fitness blog post.
• Ben Fractenberg took on Sarah Palin in this pre-Election Day blog post for Off The Bus.

Congrats to all on a week to remember – and keep ‘em coming!

We’ve hit August, but they’re hardly the dog days for us. Here are some of the latest example of the Class of ’08’s fine work:

• Rebecca Harshbarger contributed to this Washington Post A-1 story about abducted Ugandans. She’s also been writing many pieces for The New Vision, including this story about the apparent rising asthma rate in Uganda.
• Claudia Cruz also got the wood this week, notching the front page of Diario Libre with her story about the grand opening of a Mets training camp in Boca Chica, where she met Dominican President Fernandez.
• Francesca Levy made the BusinessWeek.com’s homepage with her timely story on lost luggage. Be sure to check out the accompanying slideshow.
• Kate Lurie is everywhere these days, it seems. You’ll find some of her latest work on abcnews.com, marieclaire.com and in the Daily News.
• Speaking of the Daily News, Allison Esposito helped the student reporters at Children’s Press Line assemble this story about the Sikh community’s battle again hate crimes.
• Roisin O’Connor-Mcuinn has been very busy at Time Out New York. I love this piece about the rollgate at the Jay Street-Borough Hall Station. She answers a question I’ve had for years — but I never bothered to look into, now much to my chagrin.
• Mathew Warren contributed to this New York Times subway story of another sort: the MetroCard machine foul-up that snagged thousands of credit card users.
• Emily Mayer produced this fun nypost.com video with the grabber title, “Seven Days to Sex Appeal.”
• Fritzie Andrade helped put together this lively nytimes.com video about a fledgling band promoter. It’s part of the ongoing “Breaking in” series.
• Clark Merrefield takes a literary turn in this Point Reyes Light article: He interviewed new U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan.
• Also working hard on the West Coast is Shuka Kalantari, who interviewed an Iranian musician for KPFA radio. Check out Shuka’s blog for QUEST, a science- and environment-driven KQED multimedia series.
• Danny Teigman found a sweet — or rather, sweets — story for Newsday: an Oyster Bay bakery that delivers desserts directly to customers’ docked boats.
• Come up with your own headline for this one-of-kind bank robbery story Jessica Firger wrote for The Brooklyn Paper. She also contributed this more uplifting piece about a local Little League team headed to a top tournament in Puerto Rico.
• Steve Pacer’s story about Canadian shoppers flooding Buffalo, spurred by the declining (U.S.) Dollar, has been picked up by central and northern New York radio station WRVO. You listen to his piece at the Public Radio Exchange . You’ll have to set up a free account — it’s quick and well worth the effort.
• Fritzie Andrade helped produce a NYTimes.com video about the return of the Zeppelin (not Led Zeppelin — the German airship).
• Mathew Warren shared the byline on this New York Times story about a fatal upper East Side fire.
• Jessica Firger nicely turns some phrases in this Brooklyn Paper piece about how the owner of Debbie’s Reins, an equestrian shop in Gowanus, is riding off into the sunset.
• Clark Merrefield’s latest article for the Point Reyes Light is the story of an anger management teacher with an alleged anger management problem.
• Stephen Bronner has the scoop on the city’s newest Family Justice Center in this Queens Courier article. This was a story Stephen has been trying to snag for months. His persistence paid off: he became the first reporter to get a tour of the facility and to interview its director.
• Dan Macht’s been contributing to The Telegraph’s political blog, and got to write about the much-talked-about Paris Hilton campaign video.
• If Danny Teigman comes back sporting a tan, this story may have something to do with it: He wrote a major battle-of-the-beaches takeout for Newsday on how Long Island and New Jersey shore towns are vying for visitors.
• Eliot Caroom, writing for abcnews.com/Nightline, profiled about a demographic group that’s getting hit harder than most by high gas prices: country folks with long commutes to city jobs.
• Barry Paddock did a story about a mode of transportation that’s not oil dependent: he wrote a very sweet piece for the Daily News about some Queens kids headed for the national Soap Box Derby championships.
• Allison Esposito helped the young reporters at Children’s Press Line put together a story for the Daily News about how Queens was excluded from a program that gives poor families vouchers to buy healthful foods at Greenmarkets.
• Maureen Ker’s story about the “cosplay” phenomenon — youths massing in public dressed as anime characters — made am New York, along with a gallery of her photos. The piece has been picked up by fan sites and the Florida Sun-Sentinel’s website.
• Carl Winfield wrote a news-you-can-use (but hopefully won’t have to) story for BusinessWeek.com about how to negotiate a severance package. You’ll find a companion video and story here. * Speaking of BusinessWeek.com, check out the video of Francesca Levy’s interview with the new dean of UC Berkeley’s business school.

Congrats to all — and keep ‘em coming!

Some more great news this week: The NYCity News Service took Best News Site honors at the first annual eduStyle Awards ceremony. The recognition is particularly gratifying because we didn’t enter this contest — they found us. We also beat out some quality competition: Virginia Tech and Boston University were the other finalists.

The award is another tribute to your fine work. Here are some of the latest examples:

• Claudia Cruz traveled to the Dominican town of Sánchez where she found that the government has yet to provide promised new housing for many folks who lost their homes to devastating landslides.

• Matt Townsend reports on a ban on voter registration drives at VA facilities for Pro Publica.

• WARNING: This video contains footage of people eating live octopus. If you’re brave enough, check out this unforgettable food piece Fritzie Andrade helped produce for nytimes.com.

• Allison Esposito has been working with young journalists from Children’s Press Line. She helped shape this story about a Little League for children with autism. The article made the Daily News.

• Some Queens homeowners may lose part of their backyards to a city-owned nature trail, Barry Paddock reports for the Daily News.

• Danny Teigman, reporting for Newsday, talked to Long Island golfers about Greg Norman’s flirtation with history.

• The Real World is coming to Red Hook, Jessica Firger reports for The Brooklyn Paper.

• Speaking of reality TV, Craig Thompson talked to some participants in the controversial new show The Baby Borrowers for this babble.com piece.

• Elephants let their feet do the talking, Shuka Kalantari reports for Quest, a mutli-media science site put together by Northern California Public TV and Radio station KQED. Shuka also has been working for KPFA radio. She did a segment for Voices of the Middle East and North African about a photo exhibit called, “Not Given: Talking of and Around Photographs of Arab Women.”

• Clark Merrefield reports on a deal to preserve a 582-acre ranch in this Point Reyes Light article.

• Think New York rents are bad? Check out Carl Winfield’s businessweek.com slide show about the world’s most expensive cities.

• Damian Ghigliotty shows the value of follow up in this Crain’s New York Business article about the debut of a new law requiring owners of large stores to provide a recycling bin for plastic bags.

• Linnea Covington wrote about a band that’s bringing the Balkans to Brooklyn. Check out her profile of Slavic Soul Party in New York Press.

• Dan Macht assembled a slide show for the telegraph.co.uk showing a recreation of the Battle of Waterloo. He also did some rewrite on a story about a battle of another sort: Madonna’s alleged marital woes.

• In our alumni corner, Sebastian Bednarski produce a video for the nypost.com about well-traveled soccer superstar David Beckham.

Prescription for a steamy July day: Dress in loose clothes, drink plenty of liquids and check out these cool clips:

• Fritzie Andrade pulled together this nytimes.com video interview of All-Star Texas Ranger teammates Milton Bradley and Josh Hamilton just before Hamiliton’s Home Run Derby show.

• Barry Paddock made it into The Boss’ private suite (The Boss, in this case, meaning Steinbrenner — Springsteen doesn’t hit town until next week) as part of the Daily News’ All-Star coverage. But I’m partial to this very sweet story Barry wrote this week about a retiring postal worker.

• High oil prices mean trouble for jelly-bean eaters. Carl Winfield explains in BusinessWeek.

• Mathew Warren scored a solo byline in the Times with this story about the campaign to stop the “stop snitching” campaign.

• Lots of proof this week that all news is local. Claudia Cruz covered a news conference by Dominican President Fernandez for Diario Libre — and found a New York angle involving Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat.

• Clark Merrefield packed quite a bit of detail into this story about a vicious beating in Point Reyes, Calif.

• Back on this coast, Stephen Bronner wrote a piece about convicted sex offenders living in Queens for the Queens Courier — and included a map.

• He was joined in the Courier by AnnMarie Costella, who penned a feature on a “green” pet store.

• Jessica Firger’s story in The Brooklyn Paper about a homeless man in Park Slope got some notice from authorities, who promised to help the man get his Social Security checks.

• Danny Teigman wrote this very timely story for Newsday about steps being taken by Hempstead officials to battle the heat.

• In our alumni corner, Kate Pastor interviewed Tiki Barber for an amNY story about how the former football star and other celebrities are doing public service announcements promoting affordable housing.

• In our faculty corner, Prof. Trudy Lieberman took to our TV studio to host the debut edition of Talking Health, a new series of health-related Webcasts for journalists.

Looks like everybody has really earned the Spring Break respite. Here are the latest fruits of your labors:

• Linnea Covington wrote a very timely story about Passover cooking for The Brooklyn Paper.
• Cristina Alesci wrote a piece for the Daily News about a program that helps train high school students for the business world.
• Claudia Cruz reported on efforts to break gridlock on 181st St. for the Manhattan Times Meeting Tackles 181st St. Gridlock(PDF).
• Joe Filippazzo’s piece about the effects of record high oil prices on fishing in Sheepshead Bay made the Bay News.
• Coney Island is filled with characters and Henry Stewart found one of them: a guy who wants to bring trolley service to the area. His story made Bay Currents (PDF).
• So, what does Eliot Spitzer do next? Carl Winfield takes a shot at that question in the latest issue of The Capitol (I have a copy in my office for anyone who wants to read the article).

Meanwhile, I just posted a slew of new TV pieces to the news service site, including stories by:

• Abimbola Ishola (About a proposed solution to traffic problems in East New York)
• Emily Mayer (On challenges faced by women boxers)
• Megan McGibney (On the Staten Island sushi boom)
• Tyler Mitter (On the increase in organic food sales)
• Adeola Oladele (On how the weakened dollar is hurting folks abroad who rely on money sent from the U.S.)
• Steve Pacer (On a new bar that’s trying to buck the economic odds)
• Djenny Passe-Rodriguez (On efforts to landmark a Chelsea building that may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad)
• Jennifer Saavedra (About confusion encountered by seniors trying to navigate the Medicare Part D prescription plan)
• Anna Limontas-Salisbury (On a Brownsville businesswoman who specializes in personalized party favors)
• Vinita Singla (On the downtown in business faced by Spa owners in Brooklyn)

Check out their great work!

Speaking of video… Be sure to watch alum Chika Osaka’s very lively piece for Reuters (I’m sorry, that’s Thomson Reuters, now) on Tokyo’s cross-dressing maid cafe.

• Claudia Cruz was busy in two states, heading to her old stomping grounds of Ohio and filing three pre-primary story packages for Off The Bus. Check out her work, here, here and here. She also found time to file an article – in English and Spanish – for the Manhattan Times about a first-of-its-kind study of spending habits of Dominicans in the U.S.
• “Busy” Barry Paddock also was hard at work. He contributed to several Daily News stories, including covering a murder at his local supermarket ! He also scored his first Daily News solo byline with this light, bright and tight Page 2 story about a Fay Wray scream-a-like contest at the Film Forum. An expanded version of Barry’s live-in piece about an author who turned his job at Chelsea specialty foods store in a book was picked up by Chelsea Now.
• AnnMarie Costella’s story about a new controversy surrounding Harry Houdini’s death made the Daily News.
• Maureen Ker took a run of the mill wire piece about a medical study on acupuncture and fertility, and gave it a local angle – and a (very cute) human face. Her story – complete with a picture of a happy mom and her newborn daughter – was published in am New York.
• Jessica Firger’s story about a bunch of clowns with a serious message made Beyond Race magazine’s website, along with one of her pictures.
• Exhibiting some good street reporting and teamwork, Roisin O’Connor-McGinn, Rosaleen Ortiz, Annie Shreffler and Mathew Warren hit Chinatown the day after a much-ballyhooed raid on peddlers of counterfeit designer good. They found some hawkers who were still doing business. The team’s multi-media package can be found on the News Service.
• Clark Merrefield’s story about the battle to unionize part-time workers at the Lower East Side Tenement museum also can be found on the News Service.

Speaking of the News Service… check out our new News Map. Special thanks to Drew Geraets, Joe Filippazzo and Dana Oliver for making it happen.

• In our alumni corner, Tanzina Vega’s feature about Colombian party buses in NYC not only made the New York Times’ Sunday paper, it also was the day’s most emailed Metro section story.

• Claudia Cruz’ walkup to the Florida primary – focusing on Miami’s Hispanic community – made The Huffington Post.
• Linnea Covington’s article about an entrepreneur bringing a taste of Trinidad to Wall Street found a home in Downtown Express.
• Barry Paddock is on a hot streak at the Daily News. He scored his second front page story.
• Our alumni are having a big impact as well. Check out Heather Appel’s multi-media package for her new gig at the Herald Examiner — it’s the piece headlined, “Last to abolish, first to apologize”.
• Doaa Elkady scored a Crain’s New York Business clip with her story about Little India merchants being squeezed by rising rents.
• Danny Massey also made Crain’s with a story about how different businesses are using creative recruiting methods to attract talent.

• Our Team New Hampshire — Eliot Caroom, Joshua Cinelli, Claudia Cruz, Lakshmi Gandhi, Daniel Macht and Matt Townsend rocked the Granite State, contributing print pieces, pictures, slideshows and videos to offthebus.com, an off-shoot of the Huffington Post. (Their fine work, by the way, is the latest product of a relationship forged with Off the Bus at Prof. Jarvis’ October Networked Journalism conference.) Check out results of one wild weekend — including Joshua’s video of the Bill O’Reilly-Obama aide tussle.
  • Paulites Raid Their Piggybanks To Support Ron Paul
  • Obama Takes Subtle Jab At Hillary In NH
  • Kucinich Attacks ABC News And Decries “Dittos”
  • Bay Buchanan, Tom Tancredo Shill For Romney
  • Off the Candidate Track: Voices from Plymouth, New Hampshire
  • Steelworkers Sold on Edwards
  • One Latino Voter For Obama
  • Michelle Obama Poaches Voters From Rival Camps
  • Chewing the Fat at Munce’s
• Loren Bonner proved the value of follow-up in this piece for the Brooklyn Paper about the effect of Victory Memorial Hospital’s turmoil on moms-to-be.
• In just his second day out, Barry Paddock scored the wood (front page story) for the Daily News, contributing to this piece on the surging Giants.
• Barry’s neighborhood beat piece about a dispute over a community garden in East Harlem made yesterday’s paper.
• Maureen Ker also notched a Daily News clip by reworking her live-in piece about a Flushing fortune teller.
• Chika Osaka had a TV piece about bringing French to public schools and Megan Kelty had one about using laser surgery to battle a serious eye problem suffered by diabetics – both among the latest additions to the News Service.
• Heather Appel went far beyond the general findings in a report on infant mortality and turned in this great story for the Daily News.
• In the you-saw-it-here-first department. Remember our Election Day photo project? Check out this New York Times link.

• Our graduation speaker Angela Hill was busy until the very end of the semester, placing an article in the Hunts Point Express about plans to turn a small island off the Bronx into an environmental study center. She also wrote a story about a Queens jump rope competition for the Daily News.
• Tanzina Vega, Matt Sollars and Ana Toro touted their fine multi-media capstone projects on the Brian Lehrer TV show on Wednesday. You can also check out their work on the News Service site.
• Tanzina notched a New York Times clip with her solo byline story about a young man turning his life around – along with an accompanying slide show.
• Mathew Warren also made the Times by contributing to the Ground Zero construction accident coverage.
• Eliot Caroom wrote a piece for The Hunts Point Express about an anti-gay hate attack on two men – going beyond a paint-by-numbers crime story.
• Loren Bonner, writing for the Brooklyn Paper, chronicled the latest chapter in Victory Memorial Hospital’s fight for life.
• Matt Townsend wrote about community opposition to a liquor license application for a hotel slated to rise on E. 5th St. Check out his story in The Villager.
• Our latest podcast focuses on the shrinking music club scene – and features our own Ben Levisohn’s band. Tyler Mitter, Adeola Oladele and Jennifer Saavedra contributed reports.
• Claudia Cruz wrote about the rock ‘em sock ‘em roller derby revival for the Manhattan Times.
• And, appropriately ending on a holiday note, Shuka Kalantari made the pages of Chelsea Now with her story on Operation Santa.

• Jego Armstrong and Sebastian Bednarski covered a conference on crime and politics at John Jay.
• Khadijah Cole found a whole new ball of wax at Madam Tussauds.
• Marlene Peralta profiled a Brooklyn community fixture who knew the charms of Williamsburg long, long, long before the hipsters arrived.
• If you missed it last Friday, you can find a truncated version of Angela Hill’s 20-20 piece at ABC, Soldiers Who Turn to Drugs and Alcohol.
• Our latest podcast tackles various aspects of the real estate market in New York. Emily Mayer, Megan McGibney, Marlene Peralta and Cristiana Oliveira contributed reports.
• Georgia Kral contributed to a New York Times report about a lawsuit filed against an elite private hospital in Connecticut, stemming from a patient’s suicide.
• Claudia Cruz made the pages of the Manhattan Times with her story about Hannukah celebrations in Washington Heights (PDF).
• Vinita Singla wrote about the hipster Bingo scene (PDF) in Williamsburg for Courier Life Publications.
• Cristina Alesci chronicled the complaints of Bronx tenants in some of the many buildings in the borough recently bought by an investment group. Her story made the Highbridge Horizon.
• Clark Merrefield’s piece about a Lower East Side youth program being booted from its space was published in the latest issue of The Villager.