Clips of the Week

It’s been unseasonably cold, but seasonably busy as we head into the homestretch of another action-filled semester. Here are some examples of our reporters’ latest work:

• Barry Paddock, working for the Daily News, covered the tragic death of a FDNY lieutenant killed battling a Staten Island blaze.
• The TV studio was in full swing Friday with the latest edition of Talking Health – Political Promises, hosted by Prof. Lieberman and produced by Prof. Williston. The first live hour-long video webcast from our TV studio came together with the help of CUNY TV, the J-School Tech Staff, and the following students: Lauren Bonner, Angela Donadic, Caitlin Drexler, Jessica Firger, Emily Mayer, Tuan Nguyen, Shuka Kalantari, Maureen Ker, Djenny Passe-Rodriguez, Jennifer Saavedra and Erica Sullivan.
• Our radio studio also was buzzing this week – with music. The latest edition of Culture Shock,produced by Abi Ishola, Erin O’Neill, and Craig Thompson, featured a live performance by fusion musicians Gaida and Amir El Saffar.
• Matt Townsend got taken for a ride in this fun Daily News video.
• Sarah Trefethen’s story about a Bronx pastor who established a new church made the Norwood News.
• Just in time for the long-awaited release of “Chinese Democracy,” Kaili Boyd interviewed new Guns ‘N Roses guitarist Bumblefoot. Her article was featured in am New York.
• Lakshmi Gandhi covered the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families’ Caring for Children awards ceremony for SAJA Forum.
• Sergey Kadinsky scored clips in the Jewish Press (he covered the funeral of a slain do-gooder) and the Amsterdam News (he profiled a young black Republican). I have a copy of the Amsterdam News story in my office — feel free to come on by for a look.
• Ria Julien’s piece about how changes in the state Senate might lead to the repeal of the Rockeller Drug Laws made Lives in Focus.
• Clark Merrefield’s story about Queen State Sen. Frank Padavan’s push for re-election was published in The Capitol.
• Collin Orcutt found an inspirational Marathon story for his hometown paper, The Herald Gazette of Maine.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming!

Even with the recent holidays, our newsroom has been buzzing. Here are some of the latest rewards of your hard work:

• Rosaleen Ortiz reported for the AP from Chile about a document-preservation effort to help tell the full story of those who “disappeared” during the murderous Pinochet era. Her story was picked up by MSNBC, among numerous other outlets.

• Damiano Beltrami covered the first annual New Italian American Cinema festival for i-italy.org.

• Some ethnic radio outlets fear that new Arbitron “People Meters” will lead to an unfair undercounting of listeners, Karina Ioffee reported for New American Media.

• Francesca Levy put together a story and slideshow for Forbes.com about the hardest and easiest places to sell a home in the  U.S.

• Lee Hernandez interviewed actor Laz Alonso, star of Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” for the Daily News.

• Barry Paddock is learning the art of covering the “perp walk.” He managed to get the Daily News a (denial) quote from a suspect in a vicious beating.

• Matt Townsend covered the seventh annual Tunnel to Towers Run, which commemorates the life of Firefighter Stephen Siller, who sprinted through the Battery Tunnel on 9/11. Matt interviewed Siller’s widow, who participated in the run for the first time.

Our News Service benefited from some fine work this week, as well:

• Check out Jennifer Saavedra’s TV piece about Borough Park residents’ fight against a construction project many fear will overwhelm the neighborhood.

• Jessica Firger and Emily Mayer teamed on a TV-and-print package about The Waterfalls public art exhibition.

• Steve Pacer exhibited good timing with his TV piece about the battle to preserve an East Village synagogue.

• Barry Paddock and Maureen Ker teamed on a fun article and slideshow that says a lot about kids and the presidential election.

Congrats to all – 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!

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.

• A truncated version of Georgia Kral’s capstone article on a Bronx afterschool hip-hop program got very nice play in Sunday’s Daily News.
• Emily Mayer’s multi-media piece about a photographer who snapped some eerily beautiful shots of Staten Island church interiors made the News Service.
• Mathew Warren contributed to an interesting followup on the Trump Soho construction tragedy.
• Barry Paddock was busy at the Daily News, running quotes on pieces about the Giants and the would-be Brooklyn Heights bomber.
• Here’s a story — and the story behind the story — that none of our students worked on. But it’s well worth a read, and I hope it generates some ideas and inspiration for group reporting projects we can take on here.
• This hyperlocal news tool debuted this week. I popped in some addresses I am familiar with, and even if it wasn’t spot on in all cases, it’s still pretty impressive. Give it a try.

• 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.