Kevin Heldman reports in Capital New York about the origins of a murderous Albanian crime syndicate: Tirana, Albania. He traveled there to meet their crew members, and has filed the first part in a series. He tracked down one of the crime syndicate’s former enforcers to a town two hours from Tirana: “He worked primarily as muscle and as a driver for ...
FairWarning’s investigation of the billboard industry and its regulators finds illegal, poisonous, tree-clearing practices: “Robert J. Barnhart was a crew chief for a billboard company, and a soldier in a war on trees. Trees were the enemy if they spoiled the view of a billboard. On days of an attack, Barnhart, 27, would arrive by dawn at Lamar Advertising Co. ...
(Mongolia) – As Daniel Grossman reports for Public Radio International’s The World: “Mongolia’s nomadic herders make up roughly half the country’s population, but their traditional lifestyle is seriously threatened by climate change. ..Grossman recently met with a family of nomads who are being affected by the changes and an American scientist who’s chronicling them.” The sudden hot spells and cold ...
“‘Don’t tell anybody.'” It’s a common phrase for victims of sexual abuse in Pakistan to hear from their mothers. … “[I]f a mother learns that her husband is sexually molesting her daughters, she has nowhere to turn because there is little to no state assistance for battered women in Pakistan if they chose not to live with their husbands. … ...
Reporting for Newsweek/Daily Beast, Brendan Brady finds A deadly Thai insurgency has Buddhists scrambling for guns: “HuaHui, a long-bearded villager, exemplifies the kind of self-appointed power that the militia system offers Buddhists. At the entrance to his restaurant, he sits behind a makeshift bunker, holding an M-15 assault rifle. He keeps a cache of weapons on hand, along with special bullets ...
2012 Tracie McMillan – The New York Times likes her new book, “The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table.” From the Times review: “The news Ms. McMillan brings about life on the front lines is mostly grim… She names names… [Her] book is lighted from within by anger at the poor food options many in ...
2012 Christopher Ketcham – The cover story for the January 2012 issue of Harper’s Magazine is “Stop Payment!” which discusses efforts to rally homeowners to fight back and file lawsuits, if their mortgages were packaged for sale as financial products. Leading the efforts, and Ketcham’s story, are the people behind the National Homeowners Cooperative and the website Protect America’s Dream. Ketcham ...
Oakland Local – A continuing series of stories exposes the city’s Building Services division’s unfair treatment of property owners. The department is supposed to tackle blight and enforce housing codes, but in so doing, has caught fire for “imposing excessive fines, allowing inspectors to intimidate and threaten property owners.” It has also angered property owners for its “frequent use of prospective liens ...
Sarah Favot, Kirsten Berg and Jenna Ebersole for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting – The application of Massachusetts law passed to crack down on juvenile “super predators’’ has produced profound inequities. “One 16-year-old went looking for pot at a Brookline High School graduation party, then shot the guest of honor in the chest when he got a racial slur instead. ...
Colin Woodard – Portland, Maine – An investigative profile of Maine’s governor, written for The Portland Phoenix, explains how an improbable candidate and the Tea Party movement combined to win Paul LePage state-wide office. “[Paul] LePage’s actions in his first year in office suggest that his poverty-to-power experience has led him to see the world from the top down, and that ...