Repentance in Xoxocotlán
In Mexico, everyone has the week before Easter off. A lot of people go to the beach, but some maintain centuries-old traditions of a week's worth of processions and religious events. While I was studying abroad, I documented a Good Friday procession in a small town in Oaxaca, a particularly beautiful southern state, in this audio slide show.
A reformed man
When I was 18, I wrote about an inmate tour guide in the governor's mansion who participated in a cult murder in the 1980s. A lot of people were very upset about this story for a variety of reasons. The governor's office thought it was bad press. Some people were shocked that this man gave tours to fourth graders. Others said I was a monster for exposing him to public attention after all these years. For me, the story is a testament to the potential for anyone to change for the better. The tour guide was paroled about a year after this story ran.
Bruised by the border
Some immigrants and refugees develop post-traumatic stress disorder. They've left their countries, often because of dire circumstances, traveled here in sometimes dangerous ways and started from zero in a new place. Others who are deported are torn from the lives they established in the U.S. and dropped off in unfamiliar cities. This article was part of the 2009 Daily Nebraskan endowment project on mental health. It was one of the first articles for which I did interviews in Spanish. The reporting trip to the Arizona-Sonora border was one I'll never forget.
A four-year institution?
Rooted in controversy
One of my longer projects has been my college's in-depth report on social change in Bolivia. I wrote an extensive article on coca for the report's magazine and accompanying website, both of which are still in production. The coca leaf is sacred in Andean culture and is a source of livelihood for many, including the single mother in this picture. With extensive chemical treatments, the leaf can also be processed into the drug cocaine. Click "Rooted in controversy" for a private link to the article.
This story examines my university's four-year graduation rate and compares it to peer institutions. Having just entered the Big Ten, we have new expectations to meet. This was the final project for my NewsNetNebraska reporting class. It includes an article, a photo illustration, a video and a podcast, all made by me.
Sentencing not the end for killer, victim's family
When I interned at the Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune, the cops/courts reporter took a week of vacation and I got the chance to take over her beat. It was hard to sit through this sentencing. The whole situation was tragic: two young men, not much older than myself, killed another while attempting to rob him. The victim's children were left without a father and the criminals saw the prime years that were ahead of them disappear into prison time.
One of my longer projects has been my college's in-depth report on social change in Bolivia. I wrote an extensive article on coca for the report's magazine and accompanying website, both of which are still in production. The coca leaf is sacred in Andean culture and is a source of livelihood for many, including the single mother in this picture. With extensive chemical treatments, the leaf can also be processed into the drug cocaine. Click "Rooted in controversy" for a private link to the article.
Stimulus money funds clean coal
A strange house that stood alone in a student parking lot caught my attention, as did the garbage art in the yard. I used to park in that particular lot pretty often and curiosity was gnawing at me, so I wrote a story about the house and the pair of characters that lived in it. The odd legends and overall vibe of the place still crack me up. This was also one of my first stories to get picked up by the Associated Press. Of everything I've written, this little article is still one of my favorites.
The back-story on this article for the Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune is that it is the product of an absolutely disastrous press conference where I learned the value of humility in reporting. U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited Bismarck to announce stimulus funding being awarded to a local power cooperative. At the press conference, it was apparent that no one understood what the power cooperative was going to do with the money, but no one wanted to look dumb. Reporter after reporter lobbed random questions about energy-efficient windows and whether liquid coal was the future. Chu got frustrated and snapped at a reporter that the Nobel Prize for liquid coal was given in 1931. The press conference didn't last much longer. When everyone starting leaving, I pulled aside the president of the power cooperative and asked him to explain his project to me as if I were a ninth grader. My straightforward article was the only one that made much sense the next day. The power cooperative put it on its website and it was also included in a report to Congress about stimulus projects.
A strange house that stood alone in a student parking lot caught my attention, as did the garbage art in the yard. I used to park in that particular lot pretty often and curiosity was gnawing at me, so I wrote a story about the house and the pair of characters that lived in it. The odd legends and overall vibe of the place still crack me up. This was also one of my first stories to get picked up by the Associated Press. Of everything I've written, this little article is still one of my favorites.
