Clips of the Week

Hard to believe we’re entering the final month of the semester. Here are some of the latest results of our reporters’ continuing hard work:

• Joshua Cinelli wrote an article for City Hall about local efforts to boost the economy by luring more foreign investment.
• We all know quitting smoking saves lives and money – Francesca Levy offers a state-by-state look at the dollars kept by kicking the habit in this article-and-slideshow package for Forbes.
• Heather Chin reaped the benefits of hopping on a breaking story with her video piece about the New York Times hoax edition distributed last week. Her video accompanies an article put together in short order by the News Service class.
• Joe Filippazzo’s News Service story about Bobby Fischer’s FBI file was picked up by El Nuevo Herald, and got many blog links.
• Karina Ioffee profiled a popular sari tailor for the Queens Courier. (Note: as of this writing, the link seems to be broken. I’ll check into it.)
• Sergey Kadinsky wrote about incumbent Assemblymember Marge Markey’s reelection for the Queens Tribune (I have a copy in my office – feel free to come by for a look.)
• If you missed our latest podcasts during the week, check them out here: Health Pods, produced by Loren Bonner, Shuka Kalantari, and Djenny Passe-Rodriguez; and This Place Called Home, produced by Linnea Covington, Celina Fang, and Tyler Mitter.
• Collin (Hoops) Orcutt predicts great things for the Lakers in his latest Men’s Fitness blog post.
• Busy Barry Paddock shared a byline on this Daily News story about a drunk driving tragedy.

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.

I got word yesterday that we’ve received a Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence award in the Best All-Around Independent Online Student Publication category for Region 1, which covers Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Central/ Eastern Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Long story short, we have a shot at the SPJ’s national award in this category come September.

The well-deserved recognition is a tribute to all your hard work and dedication, which also can be seen in this latest batch of clips:

• Rebecca Harshbarger reported on the controversy over redeveloping the Bowery for The Villager.
• Joe Filippazzo’s piece about a split in a Manhattan Beach civic group made the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
• Dan Macht noted the 20th anniversary of the Campaign Finance Board for City Hall News.
• Linnea Covington’s profile of musician Shara Worden found a home in the Brooklyn Paper.
• Mathew Warren contributed to this New York Times congestion pricing story.
• Kate Lurie’s story about seemingly recession-proof pet pampering made Chelsea Now. Kate also notched a Daily News clip with her story about a program that aims to keep troubled teens out of juvenile lockups.
• AnnMarie Costella also made The News with her story about Brooklyn librarians and parents banding to fight RIF program cutbacks.
• Annie Shreffler’s been working on a cool poetry project for WNYC.
• In our alumni corner, Heather Appel’s slice-of-life feature about a Passaic store graced the front page the Herald News.

• 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.

• 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.

• Joe Filippazzo’s piece on the state of fishing in Sheepshead Bay made the latest Brooklyn View.
• Joe also was busy for amNY, offering this neighborhood profile of Little Neck.
• Mathew Warren contributed to several New York Times stories this week, including this breaking news piece on the Trump Soho construction tragedy.
• Barry Paddock pounded the streets for the Daily News, reporting on the padlocking of a notorious Chelsea club and interviewing the mother of a slain good Samaritan.
• I inadvertently omitted this piece last week from our Team New Hampshire round up. We’ve compiled the work on the school’s website.
• In our alumni corner, David Chiu scored his first people.com byline with this celeb piece.
• Marlene Peralta did some great work — and showed some great versatility — at the New York Times Institute, producing the daily podcasts and hosting the Spanish edition; producing photo slide shows; contributing to video projects and writing a profile.

• Dmitry Kiper’s article about the latest exhibits at P.S.1 enlivened the pages of the Queens Chronicle.
• If you haven’t seen Sebastian Bednarski around much lately, that’s because he’s been very busy producing videos for the New York Post’s website. Here are just a couple examples: a quirky marathon story; and a tribute to Jam Master Jay.
• Joseph Gargiulo’s profile of a local entrepreneur made the News Service site.
• Danny Massey did a followup story for Newsday on the federal investigation of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
• Heather Appel’s story about efforts turn a forgotten Bronx park – once a dumping ground for animals sacrificed in Santeria rituals – into condos, found a home in the Daily News.
• Matt Townsend’s story about one man’s successful quest to bring a Starbucks to Riverdale also made The News’ Bronx section.
• Craig Thompson’s article on the Blip Festival, a geek electronica extravaganza can be found in Chelsea Now.
• Katherine Lurie also made the latest Chelsea Now with her coverage of a GMHC panel discussion on issues affecting HIV-positive African-American men. It’s paired on the news service with a video by Ana Toro that focuses on local black churches stepping up the fight against AIDS.
• Joe Filippazzo’s story about Sheepshead Bay residents’ efforts to turn a vacant lot into a park made the front page of the Brooklyn Eagle.
• Vinita Singla’s story about controversy about trees being planted in Brooklyn managed to make a literary allusion without invoking Betty Smith or Joyce Kilmer. It’s in the latest Courier Life here (PDF).

• TiVo Alert: Set your DVRs for 20-20 tonight at 10 p.m., Channel 7. The story Angela Hill spent her summer working on as part of her Carnegie Corporation-supported internship with ABC’s Brian Ross Investigative Unit airs tonight. For a print preview, check out Angela’s piece on abc.com. The topic: Soldiers and Drugs.
• Loren Bonner scored a byline in The Brooklyn Paper with her followup piece on Victory Memorial Hospital’s fight for life.
• Vinita Singla also made pages of The Brooklyn Paper with her story on the impending sale of a particularly noisy Williamsburg bar.
• Vinita also combined with Joe Filippazzo, Tyler Mitter and Daniel Teigman to turn a Craft assignment into a clip with this holiday shopping story for Our Town.
• Also showing the J-School spirit of cooperation were Tanzina Vega and Mathew Warren, who both worked on this tragic story for the New York Times.
• Carolyn Nardiello scored a solo byline in today’s Times with her poignant, personal piece about family trips past to Long Island’s northern shore.
• Francesca Levy chronicled a dive bar’s planned move from the east side to the west side of W. 14th St. in this article for Chelsea Now.
• Matt Townsend offered a sobering look at rising milk and food prices in the latest edition of The Riverdale Press.
• Dorian Davis reported on the raucous City Planning Commission hearing on Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion plan in this Architectural Record article.
• Kate Pastor offered a look at some of the legal wranglings involving the Columbia plan in a story for City Limits.
• Our latest podcast explores at how the city’s older set is embracing the net. Khadijah Cole produced the podcast, with reports by Abimbola Ishola and Anna Limontas-Salisbury.
• Joe Hirsch looked at the conflict between some usual allies over the fate of the Bronx’s Oak Point rail yard. Check out his piece in The Hunts Point Express.
• Danny Massey published an article in Crain’s New York Business about the growing demand for techno-savvy advertising creatives. He also was busy for Newsday with this followup story about the lawsuit filed by the ousted principal of a Brooklyn Arabic language and culture school.
• Heather Appel was equally ubiquitous, publishing a piece in amNew York about a new online registry of accessible apartments for people with disabilities, and contributing to the Daily News’ coverage of the ongoing transit fare saga.