Clips of the Week

Here are some great stories to enjoy over the holidays:

• Tim Persinko’s article about a rising Brooklyn boxer made the Canarsie Courier.
• Henry Stewart cites some Brooklyn history to bolster his opinion piece about plans to eliminate the B-37 bus. You’ll find all the reasons he’s against scrapping the line in the Brooklyn Eagle.
• Linnea Covington has the lowdown on New York’s best empanadas for Serious Eats.
• Maya Pope-Chappell made Essance – as an interview subject. She talks about how she won two tickets to the inauguration through Sen. Schumer’s lottery. Maya will be reporting from Washington – but she doesn’t reveal whom she’s taking.
• Damiano Beltrami’s audio slideshow about how Arthur Avenue’s merchants are weathering the economic crisis and other changes is featured on the homepage of i-Italy.org.
• Sergey Kadinsky wrote a piece about Councilmember-elect Liz Crowley’s transition effort for the Queens Tribune. (I have a copy in my office – come on by for a look.)
• Igor Kosov’s story and slideshow about half-completed ghost buildings in soon-to-be-rezoned Brighton Beach was featured in City Limits.
• Jessica Firger also made City Limits with her story about an ad campaign encouraging pit bull owners to have their pets spayed or neutered. Jessica’s companion piece and video – produced by Steve Pacer – can be found on the News Service.

Our News Service had another busy week:

• Valerie Lapinski shot a video piece about a group of bikers who made their annual holiday visit to a Brooklyn nursing home.
• Tracy Chimming’s video story features interviews with Union Square holiday market merchants who are singing the blues over slow business.
• Maya Pope-Chappell, keeping with her inauguration theme, put together a print-and-video package about a Brooklyn youth marching band whose members hope Barack Obama’s big day will be their next gig.
• Maureen Ker, Vinita Singla and Adeola Oladele combined on a print-and-video package about the push to get shoppers to use reusuable bags – and Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to hit plastic bag users with a six-cent surcharge.
• Cristiana Oliveira found a food pantry that offers the hungry more than food. Clients can get free haircuts – courtesy of volunteer pantry workers from Manitoba, Canada.

Congratulations once again to the Class of ‘08 – it was a pleasure attending that inspiring ceremony.

Have a great and safe holiday – and keep those stories coming.

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!

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.

• 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).

• 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.

• 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.

• Damian Ghigliotty and Joe Hirsch contributed to the Queens Courier’s ongoing series about immigrant day laborers: Damian tells the inside story of clubs where men who left loved ones at home go after work and pay $2 a dance to wile away the loneliness. Joe profiled a 50-something laborer who is ready to return to his family in Mexico after a disappointing 12-year stint in the U.S.
  Damian also wrote a piece about voter apathy for the paper.
• Loren Bonner reported that Bay Ridge’s Victory Memorial Hospital appears on its deathbed in this story for The Brooklyn Paper.
• Matt Townsend chronicled the unlikely alliance between bike polo players and Lower East Side kids to stop a dogrun from opening in Sara D. Roosevelt Park. Check out his piece in The Villager.
• Francesca Levy also made The Villager with this look at what little kids’ Halloween costumes say about their parents.
• Dmitry Kiper profiled Gogol Bordello “gypsy-punk” violinist Sergey Ryabtsev for the latest Brooklyn Rail.
• Marlene Peralta covered the arrest of a suspect in an Upper East Side jewelry store slaying that grabbed headlines in this Newsday story.
• Danny Massey also made Newsday with this Day 2 story about the Broadway strike.
• Andrew Hawkins is the hardest working man in City Hall. Here are just a couple of his stories: One about how some pols are riding Mayor Bloomberg’s financial coattails and this piece about effort to get the city to help veterans.
• Mariel DiSibio and Georgia Kral were busy at the New York Times. Mariel wrote about the increase in cats flooding pet shelters in Yonkers and beyond.
• Georgia reported on how a Westport school has learned what a drag it is getting mold.
• This week’s podcast was sounds as a dollar, er, euro. The sad state of the dollar and its effect on New York was the topic of the show, which featured reports by Vinita Singla and Sebastian Bednarski, who also produced the podcast. Check it out on the News Service site.
• Speaking of the News Service, Joseph Gargiulo scored our first Staten Island story: a piece about a new city bus route connecting Staten Island to Bayonne.
• Claudia Cruz had a front page piece for the Manhattan Times on anger at P.S. 314 over the Dept. of Ed’s new school rating system.

• This week’s NYPulse podcast tackles a disturbing rise in hate crime. Chika Osaka produced the show and contributed a report. Jego Armstrong and Djenny Passe-Rodriguez also reported pieces. Check out the NYPulse on the News Service.
• AnnMarie Costella found a great story pounding her Maspeth beat: anger over plans to put a 27-foot-plus cell phone tower — disguised as a flagpole — atop a residential building. AnnMarie did some digging and learned that in Arizona, cell companies have been know to try to disguise the towers as cacti! Her piece made the Queens Courier.
• Damian Ghigliotty joined AnnMarie in the pages of The Courier with his contribution to an ongoing four-part series about day laborers.
• Erin O’Neill proved a double threat for the Greenpoint Star with her stories on an unsolved murder and the latest community v. developer clash over plans for the old Dominos Sugar refinery.
• Vinita Singla also covered the Dominos controversy in a follow-up story for Brooklyn’s Courier Life papers.
• Tanzina Vega scored a solo byline in the Times with her first contribution to the Neediest Cases series.
• Georgia Kral notched a solo byline of her own in this Times piece about a push in New Haven to put a time limit on public makeshift memorials for crime victims.
• Dan Rivoli contributed to this Daily News story about the tragic death of marathoner Ryan Shay.
• Laura Silver earned a full-page treatment in the Daily News for her profile of an inspiring young woman from Kosovo who’s making her mark in New York and beyond.
• Mariel DiSibio interviewed filmmaker Hope Dickson Leach for Independent magazine.
• Danny Massey got local reaction to the Pakistani crisis in a Newsday article. He also wrote about a would-be robber who messed with the wrong bodega owner and got caught, well, red handed.

• Check out the latest two editions of our new NY Pulse podcast on the News Service site. The current very timely podcast about flu shots was produced by Megan Kelty, with stories reported by Carolyn Nardiello and Laura Silver. You can still catch last week’s edition about the challenges running enough phys ed classes in city schools. The program was produced by Angela Hill, with reports by Megan and Chika Osaka.
• Daniel Macht did a story about the impact of the lowest Social Security increase in several years — giving the reader a combination of real people and hard facts. The piece was published in the Queens Courier.
• Vinita Singla got two clips in Brooklyn’s Courier Life. She covered the opening of a new wing of a Williamsburg school, and reported on two students’ alternative plan for the old Domino Sugar refinery.
• Keeping with the waterfront revival theme, Cristina Alesci also made the News Service with a Downtown Express story about a glass hotel planned for the old Battery Maritime Building.
• Georgia Kral scored a solo byline on the front page of the Times’ Connecticut section this past Sunday with her fine news feature on the possible New England casino war.
• The J-School also was represented in the Times by Mathew Warren who shared a byline on this story about Gov. Spitzer’s controversial plan to grant illegal immigrants driver’s licenses.
• Heather Appel went to Japan for this great video piece about the first Power Soccer world championship, in which player compete in motorized wheelchair. She reported the story for AP’s asap service.
• Heather also found time to report and write this Daily News story about the 21st anniversary of a non-profit housing group in Mt. Hope.
• Cathy Jedruczek has been busy as a bee at BCAT (try saying that 10 times fast!), and our reward is getting to see these three fine stories: go here and click on “A Polish Empire in Greenpoint”. For the other two, go here. Cathy’s stories are titled “Prepping For Parenthood” and “Sleep Disorder Lab.”
• Dan Rivoli got right to this point with a three-word lede in this very timely health story for the Daily News.
• Marelene Peralta, writing for Newsday, outlined the debate over a proposal to cut flights at JFK.
• Danny Massey also was busy for Newsday with this piece about the unveiling of a memorial for a fallen soldier.