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!

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.

• It’s still too damn cold out, but a couple of our colleagues are helping the Sun shine (sorry, I can’t help the puns).
  Check out Fritzie Andrade’s story in the New York Sun about a chef with an unusual hamantaschen recipe and her piece about upcoming foodie events, including the always fun Ninth Avenue International Food Festival.
• Fritzie and Jessica Firger combined on a comprehensive guide to springtime family activities in the city.
• Joshua Cinelli wrote about a medical van that’s supposed to help Bronx veterans – but is stuck in a parking lot 361 days a year. Check out his story in the Norwood News.
• Eliot Caroom chronicled a raucous community board meeting for the Greenpoint Star. Eliot’s story about the fight to preserve school funding made the News Service.
• Lakshmi Gandhi covered filmmaker Mira Nair’s keynote address at the South Asian Women’s Leadership Forum for SAJA Forum.
• Cristina Alesci reported on a new gold rush for the Daily News.
• In our alumni corner, Carolyn Nardiello told New York Times readers about a deer tick extermination plan set for Shelter Island and Fire Island.

• Matt Townsend placed stories about Orchard Street’s struggles – and Hillary Clinton’s struggles – on the New York Observer’s website.
• Loren Bonner followed up on the Victory Memorial Hospital closure saga for the Brooklyn Paper.
• Linnea Covington also made the Brooklyn Paper with her profile of a local karaoke king.
• Henry Stewart and Joe Filippazzo shared the front page of the Feb. 25 Brooklyn Daily Eagle with stories about Coney Island and Gerritsen Beach, respectively.
• Stephen Bronner did a quick turnaround for amNY, covering a City Council hearing on a new wireless information system for cops and firefighters.
• Cristina Alesci’s story about picking insurance policies made the Daily News’ Your Money section.
• Barry Paddock also was busy for the Daily News, earning three contributor tags in one day, and sharing a byline on this murder story where he trounced the competition.
• Two multimedia packages from Sandeep’s class, featuring some impressive teamwork, made the news service site: Lakshmi Gandhi, Christiana Oliveira and Dana Oliver combined to tell how 1,000 more fruit and vegetable carts are coming to city streets.
• Linnea Covington, Dan Macht and Mellissa Seecharan teamed to cover a protest of a company that runs senior citizen housing in New York and around the nation.

Our alumni were hard at work, too:

• Sebastian Bednarski produced a video on some young chefs for NYpost.com.
• Angela Hill reported this very timely story about racial identity and political power for WNYC.

• Check out Dana Oliver’s story about Chinese New Year’s celebrations in Sunset Park. (PDF)
• Daniel Macht and Rosaleen Ortiz put together a multi-media piece for Off The Bus on what some voters of the future (already gearing up for the 2020 election) are thinking about during the current campaign.
• Joe Filippazzo’s neighborhood profile of St. Albans made amNY.
• Lakshmi Gandhi’s guide to a podcast interview with author Manil Suri appeared on SAJA’s website.
• Mathew Warren was part of the team that produced the New York Times’ front-page story on the arrest of a suspect in the slaying of an Upper East Side therapist.
• Eliot Caroom’s story about a controversy over a composting toilet found a home in the Daily News.
• Stephen Bronner joined Eliot in the News’ Bronx section with his story about a Valentine’s Day push to teach teens how to avoid abusive relationships.
• Cristina Alesci pointed out how credit card companies aren’t following the fed’s led in cutting interest rates in this Daily News business section piece.

Our alumni also are going strong:

• Sweet Georgia Brown! Sebastian Bednarski produced a video about Harlem Globetrotters legend Curly Neal for NY Post.com. He also put together a story on the man behind the White Flag clothing line.
• Heather Appel had the honor of writing the obituary of an extraordinary colleague at the Herald News.

• AnnMarie Costella’s story about a Brooklyn do-gooder has a great lede. Check it out in the Bay News.
• AnnMarie and Melissa Seecharan combined efforts on a companion video, which I’ve posted on the News Service site.
• Stephen Bronner’s Jersey City profile made amNY.
• Mathew Warren shared a byline on this Times pre-primary piece.
• Barry Paddock contributed to the Daily News’ Giants victory hoopla.
• Cristina Alesci scored a Daily News clip with this piece about a survey that sheds doubts on whether the Washington tax rebate plan will boost the economy.
• Joining Cristina in Monday’s Daily News business section was alum Emily Stewart, whose piece on mutual funds with low investment minimums originated in Prof. Saunder’s class.
• Sebastian Bednarski worked Fashion Week for the NY Post, producing this video.
• Dmitry Kiper wrote about GodTube.com, a fast-growing video-sharing and social-networking site with Christian content for the Christian Science Monitor.

• 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.

• Check out the latest two editions of our new NY Pulse podcast on the News Service site. The current very timely podcast about flu shots was produced by Megan Kelty, with stories reported by Carolyn Nardiello and Laura Silver. You can still catch last week’s edition about the challenges running enough phys ed classes in city schools. The program was produced by Angela Hill, with reports by Megan and Chika Osaka.
• Daniel Macht did a story about the impact of the lowest Social Security increase in several years — giving the reader a combination of real people and hard facts. The piece was published in the Queens Courier.
• Vinita Singla got two clips in Brooklyn’s Courier Life. She covered the opening of a new wing of a Williamsburg school, and reported on two students’ alternative plan for the old Domino Sugar refinery.
• Keeping with the waterfront revival theme, Cristina Alesci also made the News Service with a Downtown Express story about a glass hotel planned for the old Battery Maritime Building.
• Georgia Kral scored a solo byline on the front page of the Times’ Connecticut section this past Sunday with her fine news feature on the possible New England casino war.
• The J-School also was represented in the Times by Mathew Warren who shared a byline on this story about Gov. Spitzer’s controversial plan to grant illegal immigrants driver’s licenses.
• Heather Appel went to Japan for this great video piece about the first Power Soccer world championship, in which player compete in motorized wheelchair. She reported the story for AP’s asap service.
• Heather also found time to report and write this Daily News story about the 21st anniversary of a non-profit housing group in Mt. Hope.
• Cathy Jedruczek has been busy as a bee at BCAT (try saying that 10 times fast!), and our reward is getting to see these three fine stories: go here and click on “A Polish Empire in Greenpoint”. For the other two, go here. Cathy’s stories are titled “Prepping For Parenthood” and “Sleep Disorder Lab.”
• Dan Rivoli got right to this point with a three-word lede in this very timely health story for the Daily News.
• Marelene Peralta, writing for Newsday, outlined the debate over a proposal to cut flights at JFK.
• Danny Massey also was busy for Newsday with this piece about the unveiling of a memorial for a fallen soldier.

• Marlene Peralta got the wood (that’s newspaper talk for the front page story) at amNewYork Wednesday with her fine piece on the effects of gentrification on Latinos in Washington Heights and East Harlem.
• Cristina Alesci attended the opening of Tiffany’s new Wall St. store – but went far beyond the ribbon-cutting hoopla, and put the opening in the context of downtown’s post 9/11 rebound and the changing Financial District landscape. Her efforts can be seen in the latest Downtown Express.
• David Chiu made the Queens Chronicle with his profile of Italian-born artist and architect Matteo Pericoli, whose muse is New York.
• Nadia Zonis’ piece about efforts to restore the old High Bridge pedestrian span between the Bronx and Manhattan was published in last Sunday’s Daily News.
• Joseph Gargiulo made the News Service site with his story about the latest efforts to bring ferry service to the Rockaways. Joe supplemented his piece with video he tracked down of Mayor Bloomberg talking about the project.
• Roisin O’Connor-McGinn’s evocative story about memorials to bicyclists killed by automobile touched on many themes, ranging from public safety to art to religion. Her piece is featured in the latest Graduate Center Advocate.
• Heather Appel wrote about home day care workers’ effort to unionize for the Daily News. She and Zeyad Kasim put together a video on the issue along with the print piece.
• Heath already has lauded Danny Massey’s fine story for Newsday about the African Burial Ground Memorial ceremony. Here’s the full piece.
• Some of our reporters did good crime and tragedy reporting this week. Matt Warren contributed to the Times coverage on the Murray Hill stabbing spree. Andy Greiner covered the death of a boy struck by a car for the Daily News. Matt Sollars worked on a Daily News story about the drug arrests of relatives of a notorious cop killer.

• Georgia Kral notched a co-byline in this New York Times story about the primary election victory of the under-investigation mayor of Hartford.
• Mathew Warren shared a byline in this Times story about the evacuation of a troubled West Harlem building.
• Dorian Davis’ piece about much-rumored plans for an 800-story building in Japan made for fine reading in Architectural Record.
• Andrew Hawkins wrote a strong piece for Sunday’s Daily News about Southeast Asian immigrants in the Bronx who are quietly battling internal demons decades after leaving Cambodia and Vietnam.
• Want to eat well on the cheap — and get a little fresh air? Check out Matt Sollars’ Daily News piece about the streetcorner chefs vying for the most prized of New York culinary awards: The Vendys.
• Danny Massey broke news with his piece about an internet-based campaign to stop the annual United American Muslim Day Parade. His article, published in Newsday, spurred some debate on the cable TV gabfests. But as Ana Toro and Tanzina Vega show in their companion video piece, the protesters couldn’t rain on the peaceful parade.
• After Cristina Alesci covered a protest by tenants who live in a violation-ridden West Harlem building, she knew she wanted to stick with the story and began digging deeper. What she didn’t know was that just six days later the residents would be evacuated from their homes by the FDNY, which declared the building unsafe. Thanks to her contacts, she was able to get pictures from inside the building and managed to track one of the displaced residents to a homeless shelter, giving a human face to the story.