2010 Judy Pasternak – “Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed,” by Judy Pasternak, was released in September 2010. Pasternak investigated the toxic aftermath of uranium mining on Navajo Indian land for the material used in atomic bombs in the 1940s. Radioactive dirt contaminated drinking water, playgrounds, and homes. The poisoning of the land and ...
Mark Feldstein’s book reveals blackmail and bribery among the shady tactics used by muckraker Jack Anderson. The book’s focal point is the clash between the columnist and President Richard Nixon. A review in The New York Times called the book a “clear-eyed biography” of Anderson which portrays politician and reporter as the “King Kong and Godzilla of sleaze, paranoia, and dirty tricks.” ...
2010 The Chicago Reporter – As police pinned Derrick Reed to the hood of a squad car, one thought raced through his mind: “Oh, man. I’m going to go away. I’m 17 now.” The East Garfield Park teen’s coming-of-age story isn’t filled with school dances or football-team tryouts. Rather, the day that shaped his adolescence was Nov. 30, 2009. (Read ...
2010 SUE STURGIS – When a billion gallons of coal ash broke loose from a holding pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s power plant near Harriman, Tenn. in December 2008, registered nurse Penny Dodson was living nearby with her 18-month-old grandson, Evyn. Like most of her neighbors, Dodson never gave much thought.. (Read the 5-part series in Facing South) ...
2010 TODD MELBY & DIANE RICHARD – Their radio documentary No Brother of Mine offers an unflinching look at U.S. sex offender policy that reaches beyond the headlines and into the lives of real people. Award-winning independent producers Todd Melby and Diane Richard dare to humanize men that society demonizes: convicted sex offenders. Melby and Richard were granted extraordinary access ...
2010 ANAND GOPAL — Anand Gopal’s article in The Nation exposed how innocent people were killed in U.S. military raids on homes in Afghanistan; others disappeared following the raids. Conducted at night, these raids are even more feared and hated than Coalition air strikes. Gopal also investigates detainee abuse in secret jails on US military bases in Afghanistan. He reports ...
2010 JOHN KAMAU – Kenyan Journalist John Kamau unearthed archival documents that for the first time revealed just how land initially occupied by white settlers in colonial Kenya was transferred to politicians and their allies shortly after the country became independent. These unjust land practices have had a lasting impact in Kenya, contributing to political violence after the 2007 elections. ...
2010 TREVOR AARONSON — Trevor Aaronson traveled to rural India to investigate the reasons why more than 200,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves in the last decade. Published in Columbia City Paper, The Suicide Belt examined how loans used to buy expensive, genetically modified cotton seeds are trapping subsistence farmers in a cycle of debt that ends in shame and, ...
2010 MAC McCLELLAND – In the April 2010 issue of Mother Jones, Mac McClelland reports on refugees who are documenting cases of human rights violations, torture, and genocide in Burma. She also turned her research into the book For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question: A Story from Burma’s Never-Ending War, published by Soft Skull Press. ...
2010 MARITES VITUG — Shadow of Doubt: Probing the Supreme Court, by Marites Vitug, is the first book to lift the veil off the elusive Philippine Supreme Court. It looks at the inner workings of the Court, the least scrutinized of the three branches of government, including how the Justices arrive at decisions and the dynamics between the Supreme Court ...