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September 2008 - Posts

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 5:52 AM

Targeting Illegal Immigrants, Hitting Others

As Ohio considers legislation to crack down on illegal immigrants, Jill Riepenhoff, Stephanie Czekalinski and Todd Jones of The Columbus Dispatch examine what happened after other states enacted similar laws. Here's an overview from their wide-ranging,
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Monday, September 29, 2008 5:52 AM

The A.I.G. and McCain Gambles

For a long time, Gretchen Morgenson has been one of my favorite business writers. Morgenson has a knack for writing clearly about complex subjects, and she does it again with "Behind Insurer’s Crisis, Blind Eye to a Web of Risk" in Sunday's
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Friday, September 26, 2008 6:38 AM

Twittering Ike

While the financial storm on Wall Street dominates the headlines, residents along the Gulf Coast in Texas are still struggling through the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. The reporters there who continue to produce great stories while working and living
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Thursday, September 25, 2008 5:02 AM

Roots of the Banking Crisis

In an exceptional Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story, "Loans Came Easily, Then Fell Apart," Cary Spivak and Daniel Bice report that low-income, inner-city residents were sucked into the housing bubble. For example: While earning a salary of $21,000 a year,
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008 5:56 AM

Ohio Election Showdown

Usually stories about problems with state voting systems make my eyes glaze over with technicalities. But in the September issue of Cleveland Magazine, Erick Trickey's "Are We Ready?" succeeds in making the topic informative and fun at the same
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008 5:34 AM

Railroading Taxpayers

I'm from Long Island. I've had a few beers with Long Island Rail Road workers, and I know that some take advantage of generous work rules. But nothing prepared me for "A Disability Epidemic Among a Railroad’s Retirees" by Walt Bogdanich in The New York
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Monday, September 22, 2008 5:42 AM

Who's Driving the Bus?

"Dozens of Felons Driving School Buses" by Larry Higgs and Paul D'Ambrosio of the Asbury Park Press is a fine example of watchdog journalism. Dozens of school bus drivers with criminal convictions transport children to class each day, many with the state's
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Friday, September 19, 2008 5:54 AM

Living with Autism

Dan Collison of NPR has produced a beautiful series about what it's like for families with autistic children. "The Autism Chronicles" profiles single mother Amy Thompson as she struggles to raise two children, including 6-year-old Kollin,
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Thursday, September 18, 2008 5:59 AM

American Road Trip

The St. Petersburg Times is running a fast-paced series, "Detours: A Country in Search of Direction," based on a neat idea. With the election approaching, they sent reporter Ben Montgomery and photographer Chris Zuppa on a road trip from St.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008 6:29 AM

Finding Sarah Palin

When John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate, few people besides Alaskans or hard-core political junkies knew anything about her. For the next two weeks the press struggled to fill in the biography of this mystery
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 5:19 AM

Lehman's Last Days

"Ultimatum by Paulson Sparked Frantic End," by The Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon, Dennis K. Berman, Susanne Craig and Carrick Mollenkamp, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the collapse of Lehman Brothers. One of the most tumultuous weekends
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Monday, September 15, 2008 5:19 AM

The Rescuers

We're seeing some excellent news stories about two disasters last weekend: the train collision in Los Angeles and Hurricane Ike in Texas. Robert J. Lopez, Garrett Therolf and Scott Gold of the Los Angeles Times use a narrative style in "Heroism and
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Friday, September 12, 2008 6:03 AM

Presidential Issues

A remarkable collaboration of graduate journalism students from around the country called the News21 Project has produced "What's at Stake: Election 2008," an excellent guide to some of the big issues in this year's presidential sweepstakes.
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Thursday, September 11, 2008 5:40 AM

Family Ties

When The Plain Dealer's Sandra Livingston and Joel Rutchick tried to investigate questionable ties between two Cleveland construction companies, a lawyer representing the firms left them a voice mail message: "I would advise you once again, the company
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 5:53 AM

The Back of the Bus

Last month we recommended a great ESPN story about John Challis, the teen battling cancer who inspired thousands of people with his positive attitude (along with a big hit in his last baseball game). This time I want to highlight a very different
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Tuesday, September 09, 2008 8:31 AM

The Well Connected

Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Times and Cheryl W. Thompson and Mary Pat Flaherty at the Washington Post have written excellent investigations into abuses of power. Pringle's "Union, Charity Paid Thousands to Firms Owned by Official's Relatives" tracks
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Monday, September 08, 2008 5:01 AM

Where the Terrorists Roam

Dexter Filkins' "Right at the Edge" in Sunday's New York Times Magazine is a courageous and important investigation of Pakistan's chaotic Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where Taliban and Al Qaeda forces freely operate. Filkins
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Friday, September 05, 2008 6:03 AM

Problems with Probation and Parole

In an outstanding series, "Law and Disorder," Doug Pardue and Glenn Smith of The Post and Courier examine South Carolina's broken probation and parole system. They engage, and probably enrage, readers by describing horrific crimes committed by repeat
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Thursday, September 04, 2008 5:26 AM

Broken Trusts

In January we highlighted a Boston Globe story, "Courts Strip Elders of Their Independence," produced by eight Northeastern University students overseen by journalism professor Walter V. Robinson. Five of Robinson's students have created another
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Wednesday, September 03, 2008 5:56 AM

Gutting out Gustav

Bravo to the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and all the other journalists who braved Hurricane Gustav to continue reporting the news. Although the Times-Picayune couldn't turn out a paper edition because of Gustav, it kept publishing hurricane stories,
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Tuesday, September 02, 2008 5:20 AM

Marching on Meds

"The Battle Within" by David Olinger and Erin Emery of The Denver Post reveals that the Army is deploying injured troops to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at times overruling doctors' classifications of soldiers as "nondeployable." This helps the Army
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