Clips of the Week

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.

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!

• 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.

• 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.