Clips of the Week

The weather is getting cooler, but our hot streak continues. Here are some of the latest pieces:

• It’s not even Halloween, buy many of us already are beginning to think about holiday travel plans. Before sure to check out these Forbes.com pieces by Francesca Levy  about the best and worst times to fly and  how to save on holiday travel.
• Joshua Cinelli tackles the potential impact of Wall Street’s woes on public pension systems for City Hall.
• Jenni Avins’ story about a former temple that’s been reborn as a mosque made the Queens Courier.
• H’Rina DeTroy’s article about East Village anger over the slow pace of a playground rebuilding project was featured in The Villager.
• H’Rina was joined in The Villager by Matt Townsend, who wrote about a pedestrian mall improvement plan along Allen Street.
• Megan McGibney put together a video piece for nypost.com on the race Staten Islanders seem to care about most this year: the contest to replace disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella.
• Abi Ishola’s been hosting the News of the Week segment for CUNY TV’s Independent Sources, a new show, produced by Prof. Prout, about the ethnic media. Abi’s segments are usually about 17 minutes into each show. But be sure check out the full broadcasts – it’s a great way to learn more about what’s going on, and to pick up story ideas and pinpoint more potential outlets for your work.
• Annie Shreffler’s been added The Huffington Post’s OffTheBus masthead for a feature she started, called Eyes and Ears, which solicits fun election-related items.
• Barry Paddock covered a heartbreaking fatal fire story for the Daily News.
• Caitlin Drexler dished up some food-world news for Saveur’s Word of Mouth blog.
• If you missed this week’s live audio webcast of Health Pods – produced by Loren Bonner, Shuka Kalantari, and Djenny Passe-Rodriguez – check it out here.
• Vinita Singla’s timely TV piece about voter registration drives and her companion print story made the News Service.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming!

It was a great week for clips – and our News Service. Check these out:

• Vinita Singla and Megan McGibney’s News Service story about an email warning to Obama supporters to leave the T-shirts and buttons home on Election Day — or face problems at the polls — got big pickup. The New York Observer’s Politicker blog, Off The Bus and the Daily News’ Mouth of the Potomac blog linked to our piece. Similar stories have popped up online and in print in Pennsylvania, Alabama and Kentucky. This story, as we say in the business, may have legs. Our part of it started when Prof. Williston got one of the emails and handed a copy to Vinita and Megan with the three words that have spurred so much great journalism: “Check it out.”
• Everything old again is new again. There’s a push to rechristen the Crown Heights-Prospect Heights border Crow Hill, which was the area’s 19^th Century moniker. You’ll find Steve Pacer’s TV report detailing the neighborhood name game and Franklin Avenue’s revival on the News Service.
• Dwindling supplies at city food pantries have prompted one Bronx man to ride his bicycle from pantry to pantry in search of nourishment. You’ll find Cristiana Oliveira and Adeola Oladele’s TV report on the News Service.
• Jessica Simeone wrote about the opening of a new teen center in a Jersey City library for the Jersey Journal.
• Francesca Levy put together some great news-you-can-use articles and slideshows for two major media outlets. Her analysis of 20 business school websites can be found at BusinessWeek.com. She also put together a package about the U.S. cities with the most- and least-expensive rents for Forbes.com.
• Speaking of Forbes, Eliot Caroom wrote about the continuing fallout from the travails of America’s least-favorite couple: Fannie and Freddie.
• Mathew Warren shared a byline on this New York Times story about a couple’s mysterious rooftop plunge.
• Rebecca Harshbarger wrote about the screening of a documentary chronicling the post-9/11 violence against — and the resilience of — South Asian-Americans and Arab-Americans  for Queens Tribune.
• There’s a definite Yankees theme this week, much as it pains me to say (you’ll find me at Shea tomorrow, hopefully not weeping in my beer.): Collin Orcutt wrote about the unhappy October coming up for Bronx business owners who had been hoping for a post-season boost. His story made the Highbridge Horizon.
• Fritzie Andrade produced a video about the last game at Yankee Stadium for nytimes.com.
• Barry Paddock and Matt Townsend contributed to the Daily News’ coverage of the last game at the Babe’s  House.

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!

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.

• 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.