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September 2007 - Posts

Sunday, September 30, 2007 2:02 PM

Remembering the Victims

Violence is so common in our cities that sometimes it's easy to become numb to its horrors. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has found a way to break through that numbness with its valuable "Not Forgotten" project. The "Not Forgotten" Web site
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Friday, September 28, 2007 8:30 AM

A Lifesaving Series

For several months, Patricia Callahan and Maurice Possley of the Chicago Tribune have been producing a terrific investigative series, "Hidden Hazards: Kids at Risk", focusing on deadly toys, car seats and cribs. The series puts a human face on the victims,
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Thursday, September 27, 2007 8:31 AM

Pigskin Profiles

I've seen two wonderful profiles recently about football heroes whose successes have been hard won. In "Hiding in Plain Sight," Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated unravels the mysterious life of Randy Shannon, the University of Miami's head football
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007 8:30 AM

Imperiled Ecosystems

Dinah Voyles Pulver, environment writer at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, is producing a finely crafted occasional series, "Our Natural Treasures: Are We Losing Our Way?" Four of the seven projected installments have appeared since January, focusing
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007 12:12 AM

Brian's Story

Loyal News Gems readers will recognize the name Brian Summers. For nearly two years Brian has been sending me terrific suggestions of great journalism to highlight on this blog. Brian is now taking on a more formal role with News Gems as a co-author.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007 8:30 AM

Walk a Crooked Line

The best way to beat a DUI arrest in Washington State? Flash a police or corrections-officer badge. That's what Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found by filing more than 1,000 public disclosure requests and plowing nearly
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Monday, September 24, 2007 8:45 AM

Bringing the Wars Home

Ben Montgomery of the St. Petersburg Times has written a haunting tale, "In Times of War, Plant City Bares Its Soul," about a Florida town's losses in our nation's wars. The town, Plant City, embodies the best of American patriotism, but the price has
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Friday, September 21, 2007 6:30 AM

Squeezing the Customer

Despite record-breaking profits, property insurance companies are paying less than promised to their customers when catastrophe strikes, David Dietz and Darrell Preston report in September's Bloomberg Markets. Dietz and Preston's "The Insurance Hoax" reveals
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Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:30 AM

A Phenomenal Story

This Seattle Times series began with a sports editor's coin flip to decide who would write a single column about a coach's daughter fighting cancer. Jerry Brewer won the flip, and since then the column has grown into a moving account of a family's faith
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Wednesday, September 19, 2007 8:30 AM

Slipping Through the Cracks

Clay Carey of The Tennessean has written an eye-opener on failures in the state's criminal justice system that have allowed more than 150 prison escapees to remain free — even after repeated contacts with law enforcement. The failures are so widespread
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 8:30 AM

Dangerous Trade

We've all probably heard by now about U.S. companies that import dangerous toys and other products from China. Now Russell Carollo of The Sacramento Bee reveals that U.S. companies export equally dangerous goods to other countries. His story last week,
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Monday, September 17, 2007 8:50 AM

Odes to Joy

The photographers of The Minneapolis Star Tribune have created a terrific multimedia project on a subject dear to all of our hearts: happiness. The audio slideshows in "The Pursuit of Happiness" by Kyndell Harkness, Renee Jones Schneider,
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Friday, September 14, 2007 8:30 AM

Who Shot the Mayor?

Earl Swift of The Virginian-Pilot has written a true-life murder mystery that probes the shooting of former Norfolk Mayor W. Fred Duckworth 35 years ago. Swift's "The Duckworth File" starts with the finding of Duckworth's body near a busy street
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Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:45 AM

Attack Prevention

While Congress debates whether to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, James Ridgeway of Mother Jones is taking a close look at where the United States is most vulnerable. His seven-part "Homeland Insecurity" series examines what has been done and still
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007 8:30 AM

Spying on Mrs. King

Persistence paid off for David Raziq and Mark Greenblatt of Houston's KHOU Channel 11, who worked for more than a year and a half to force the FBI to respond to their Freedom of Information Act request for the agency's files on Coretta Scott
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007 8:30 AM

Big Mistakes

The Palm Beach Post has featured two stories recently about mistakes with terrible consequences. "When Shaken Babies Grow Up" by Christine Evans shows us the world of Michele Poole, whose 13-year-old daughter Gabriela was damaged forever when her father
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Monday, September 10, 2007 8:45 AM

Embedded vs. Independent

To embed or not to embed, that's been the question for American news organizations attempting to cover the war in Iraq. Two stories in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune on Sunday show the strengths of both approaches. As embedded reporters, the
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Friday, September 07, 2007 8:00 AM

Man on the Run

For 15 years, California officials couldn't find businessman Norman Hsu, who was supposed to serve up to three years in prison for grand theft. Chuck Neubauer and Robin Fields of the Los Angeles Times, however, were able to locate Hsu, who was raising
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Thursday, September 06, 2007 8:30 AM

Nuclear Nastiness

The impact of the Cold War on tens of thousands of American workers is still a hot topic in the pages of the Rocky Mountain News. The newspaper's excellent "Rocky Flats and Nuclear Weapons Workers" project has investigated the long-term health effects for employees
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Wednesday, September 05, 2007 8:30 AM

Where Boats Go To Die

This weekend CBS' "60 Minutes" updated one of the most powerful stories I've seen on how the global economy affects workers. "The Ship Breakers of Bangladesh," produced by Michael Gavshon and reported by Bob Simon, takes us to the shores of one of
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Tuesday, September 04, 2007 8:30 AM

Working Heroes

On Labor Day, the Chicago Tribune featured strong stories about two people who contribute greatly to their workplaces in different ways. "An Exceptional Worker" by Barbara Rose profiles Desmond Wallace, a bagger at a Chicago grocery store who shows exceptional
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