Clips of the Week

Even with the end of Daylight Savings Time, there still aren’t enough hours in the day for all the reporting our staff is somehow managing to do.

We added 14 election-related stories to the News Service this week – including pieces that were picked up by Off The Bus (via Lives in Focus), am New York and the Queens Courier.

I won’t list them all here, but you can check out our stories on our nearly ready-for-prime-time election site. The interactive map, featuring our massive audio vox pop spanning the city, is almost completed, thanks to the hard work of our first-semester reporters, Interactive I profs, Russell Chun and Drew Geraets.

The map hasn’t quite gone live yet, but due to a technical quirk, many of the individual posts are on the web – and the Village Voice has noticed. The Voice’s post on our project has been picked up by several local blogs.

Much more of our election coverage, of course, is yet to come.

Here are some of the non-election pieces our reporters somehow found the time to work on this week:

• Mathew Warren helped assemble this NYtimes.com video about an Iraq war veteran adjusting to his new life as a student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
• Dan Macht’s article about the thaw of the municipal bond market found a home in Crain’s New York Business.
• Barry Paddock contributed to this Daily News story about two brothers killed in a Brooklyn shootout with cops.
• AnnMarie Costella’s review of a provacative exhibit by the British artist Bansky made The Villager.
• Jessica Firger’s fun talker about how some pet shelters ban black cat adoptions around Halloween became a Page 3 story for am New York.
• Linnea Covington’s feature on the latest frozen yogurt boom (Pinkberry, anyone?) made New York Press.
• Last week, you read Collin Orcutt on the NFL. This week, he takes on the NBA for Men’s Fitness.
• Sergey Kadinsky wrote a couple of local profiles for the Queens Tribune. I have copies in my office – come on by for a look.
• In case you missed the live audio webcast of Culture Shock, produced by Abi Ishola, Erin O’Neill and Craig Thompson, you can check out the show here.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming.

There’s no “I” in team — but there is one in “clip.” I’m not even sure exactly what I mean by that, but I happily noticed that teamwork played a role in some of this week’s work. Here’s a sampling:

• Dan Macht found a great local angle to the story of the week (and likely beyond). He wrote a piece for Crain’s  New York Business about the impact Lehman Brothers’ fall could have on charities and foundations. Dan gave himself a head start: he began researching and pitched his article before the bankruptcy was official. Rosaleen Ortiz snapped an eerie nighttime photo of Lehman’s headquarters to go with Dan’s story.
• Barry Paddock and Matt Townsend also worked the Lehman story, talking to shell-shocked employees for the Daily News.
• Matt contributed to a local primary story package for City Hall that also included pieces by Joshua Cinelli and our Class of ‘07 pal Andrew Hawkins.
• Francesca Levy shows — and tells — what kind of digs a million bucks will get you in cities around the world in this story/slideshow package she put together for Forbes.
• Mathew Warren scored a solo byline and some prime real estate in the Times’ Metro Section with his fun takeout on circus and sideshow performers who bring their acts to clubs and private parties.
• Walking along 41st Street just isn’t the same anymore. Valerie Lapinski captured that spirit and more in her radio story about the closing of “Rent.” Her piece was featured on WNYC.
• Rebecca Harshbarger weaves some great information and images into her first-person piece for The New Vision about the Seven Wonders of Kampala.
• Here are some amazing numbers: One man, 20 cannoli, six minutes. Megan McGibney hit Little Italy for this fun nypost.com video piece on the annual cannoli-eating contest
• Sarah Trefethen witnessed lots of pie eating when she headed upstate to cover a boating festival. She focused, of course, on the local angle: The South Street Seaport Museum’s W.O. Decker took Tugboat of the Year honors. Her story and photo made Downtown Express.
• On his first day out for the Daily News, Stephen Bronner covered a dramatic rescue story.
• Speaking of the Daily News, Lee Hernandez scored a clip with his interview of actress Dania Ramirez, who spoke about the upcoming season of “Heroes.”

Congrats to all — and keep ‘em coming!

Many of the internships are wrapping up, but the clips just keep coming. Here’s a sampling of the latest:

• I can guarantee that not one word of Henry Stewart’s review of “Henry Poole is Here” will be used as a blurb in any future advertisements. Check out his very entertaining piece in the L Magazine. He also said a lot in very few words in this blog item — sounds like a full-blown story waiting to happen.
• Linnea Covington, writing for New York Press, offers a short, but image- and information-packed review for the enticingly titled play, “Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell.”
  
• Jessica Firger found a hipster friendly doctor in Williamsburg who offers E-mail, video and IM consultations — but will occasionally make an old-fashioned house call. You’ll find her story in The Brooklyn Paper.
• Shuka Kalantari hosted the latest edition ofKPFA Radio’s “Voices of the Middle East and North Africa,” and contributed a segment about the late Palestinian poetMahmoud Darwish. She also started a companion blogf or the show.
• Dan Macht put together a piece about McCain’s and Obama’s reactions to the Russia-Georgia conflict for the Telegraph.co.uk
  
• Francesca Levy wrote about the world of for-profit universities owned by publicly held corporations for BusinessWeek. Check out her video interview with the new dean of the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland
• Barry Paddock contributed to today’s Daily News front page story about heroism amid tragedy in Queens.
• Damian Ghigliotty reports for Crain’s New York Business that unemployment in the city is down – even as unemployment claims are up.
• Meanwhile, in a glimmer of sunny economic news, the hotel business on Long Island is doing well, Danny Teigman found for Newsday.
• Mathew Warren contributed to this New York Times talker about MetroCard ethics (which may be an oxymoron these days.)

Congrats to all — and keep ‘em coming. (But make sure to enjoy what’s of summer, too).

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.