OCT 2015 – CURRENT: Award-winning investigative reporter with the environment and workers’ rights team. Special focus on scientific integrity, climate change, the fossil fuel industry and occupational safety.
Blowout, Inside America’s Energy Gamble: An ongoing series in collaboration with The Texas Tribune, The Associated Press and Newsy, charting the boom of U.S. energy exports. My stories will focus on natural gas, a fuel once sold as a solution to climate change despite murky scientific evidence. I will also examine industry influence driving exports at the highest levels of government.
READ: How Washington Unleashed Fossil-Fuel Exports and Sold Out on Climate
The United States of Petroleum: A three-part deep dive in collaboration with the Guardian that examined a century of influence by the American Petroleum Institute, Big Oil’s most powerful lobby group. The stories examined the group’s impact on each branch of U.S. government.
READ: A Century of Influence
READ: Fueling Dissent
READ: Venue of Last Resort
WATCH: Years of Living Dangerously
AWARDS: Livingston Award for Young Journalists (national, finalist); Edward R. Murrow Award (national, winner); Editors & Publishers EPPY Award (investigative/enterprise, winner), Society of Environmental Journalists (investigative, honorable mention)
Oil’s Pipeline to America’s Schools: Big Oil’s push into K-12 education dates back to the 1940s and continues today in states like Oklahoma where an agency has spent more than $40 million on pro-oil curricula and field trips. Industry efforts are tied to marketing and public relations campaigns that include climate change denial. This story was co-reported with StateImpact Oklahoma, a project of NPR. Versions of this story appeared in the Guardian, The Hechinger Report, NPR’s Morning Edition, Al Jazeera, and Comedy Central.
READ: Center for Public Integrity (full version)
READ: The Guardian (condensed version)
LISTEN: StateImpact Oklahoma (NPR)
WATCH: AJ+ (Al Jazeera Media)
WATCH: The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper (Comedy Central)
The ExxonMobil Near-disaster You Never Heard of: A 2015 near-miss accident at the Torrance refinery was so massive it registered as a 1.7-magnitude tremor and sent industrial ash raining across parts of Southern California. The story examines the dangers of a little-known chemical used in oil refining, which threatens workers and communities. This was a collaboration with KPCC, or Southern California Public Radio.
LISTEN: Southern California Public Radio (NPR)
READ: Grist
READ: The Huffington Post
State Cutbacks, Recalcitrance Hinder Clean Air: Congress promised Americans safe air, but federal and state cutbacks combined with political pushback have weakened enforcement of the landmark Clean Air Act. This national investigation entailed more than 50 records requests to chart the decline to regulators nationwide as well as the EPA’s clashes with state officials.
WATCH: Forgotten in the South End
READ: The Huffington Post
READ: The News & Observer
READ: The National Press Foundation’s Thomas L. Stokes Award (winner)
Hot Mess: A multi-state investigation exploring inconsistencies when it comes to tracking, handling and disposal of radioactive waste from fracking in the Marcellus Shale. This story utilized public records gathered from three states and launched the Ohio Valley ReSource, a seven-station radio consortium focused on environment and energy issues.
READ: Center for Public Integrity
READ: Ohio Valley ReSource
READ: Grist
Science for Sale: A four-part series co-published with VICE News highlighting industry’s growing influence on science. Wrote and reported the final installment, which profiled two prolific journals criticized for playing down chemical risks and its ties to the industry. Also contributed general reporting and research for the series.
READ: Brokers of Junk Science?
READ: Ford Spent $40 Million to Reshape Asbestos Science
AWARDS: National Association of Science Writers’ Science in Society Award (winner); Columbia University’s John B. Oakes Award (finalist); Society of Environmental Journalists (in-depth reporting, honorable mention)
JULY 2014-SEPT. 2015: Pitched and executed data-driven projects as a reporting fellow for a non-profit dedicated to accountability journalism. Topics of interest included criminal justice and social services. Stories featured cross-platform partnerships with established media.
Housing the Unwanted: A deep dive into New York’s statewide residency restrictions for sex offenders on parole, which mean extended prison stays and questionable housing assignments. Offenders statewide are clustered in low-income areas where they fill homeless shelters, motels, and sometimes even illegal rooming houses–often on the taxpayer dime.
READ: The New York World
LISTEN: WNYC’s All Things Considered
In New York, Padlocked Jumpsuits: A records-based look at a unique and little known program in New York for inmates who expose themselves: a neon green, padlocked jumpsuit and yellow signs that read “EXPOSER.” The program, still in pilot mode, has been cleared for use on inmates with serious mental illness or those serving solitary confinement.
READ: The Marshall Project
In Pursuit of Open Records: We examined compliance with open records in New York state. We partnered with MuckRock to track and assess 344 information requests to municipal, city, and state agencies. Story highlighted barriers to obtaining public records, and included interactive elements and an animation to help readers follow the records process.
READ: The New York World
READ: MuckRock
City Struggles to Protect Vulnerable Adults: An investigation co-published with City Limits into a city agency tasked with protecting and serving vulnerable adults. Employees struggled with high caseloads and other problems that put clients at risk, sometimes fatally.
READ: City Limits
LISTEN: WNYC’s All Things Considered
Access Denied: An investigative series detailing the decline of two nursery programs for pregnant inmates in New York state. Improper denials of applicants have spurred lawsuits and correctional reform.
1. Pregnant Inmates Struggle to Gain Entry into Nursery Programs
2. One Woman’s Story, Two Nurseries
3. Records Confirm Rikers Island Nursery Little Used
4. State Can’t Find Own Records on Landmark Nursery
5. State Reverses Itself, Records Confirm Decline
WATCH : PBS MetroFocus
When Judges are Judged: A look at how judicial misconduct in New York state has largely remained under wraps, including an analysis of decisions by an agency tasked with investigating and penalizing wayward judges.
READ: The Albany Times Union
The Vaccination Debates: Using vaccination data, we highlighted school districts across New York with falling vaccination rates. We looked at how the anti-vaccination movement has fed into public health concerns over outbreaks of measles and other contagious diseases once thought to be eradicated, as well as lax enforcement by public education officials overseeing vaccination protocols.
READ: The New York World
Ambulance Coverage: Full series on the political debate over a countywide contract for ambulance service. Contractual talks highlighted disparities in ambulance service to rural areas.
1. York County Council Set to End Racing Ambulances
2. Critics Speak Out Against Ambulance Plan
3. York County Looking to Raise Ambulance Standards
4. York County Pulls Back on Plans to Overhaul Ambulance System
Mines, Gullies, & Landfills: Select environmental enterprise pieces include a delayed federal cleanup site, a protracted legal battle over a landfill, a land use plan gone stale and a couple sacked with the cleanup of a tire pit.
1. Catawba Superfund Site Threatens Local Water 30 Years Later
2. State Orders Couple to Clean Up Tire Gully
3. SC Supreme Court Hears County Dispute Over Proposed Landfill
4. NC Company Eyes Clover for Mining Operation
5. York County Group Dedicates Land, Falls Short of Preservation Goal
Cost Overruns & County Politics: A sampling of enterprise coverage that stemmed from my daily county politics beat. Stories dug into issues of municipal overspending and delayed projects as well as local legislative impacts.
1. Road Could ‘Ease’ Worst Intersection, But Some Question Price Tag
2. York Courthouse Renovation Doesn’t Meet Growing Needs
3. County Decision Blocks Municipalities from Housing Funds
4. York County Leaders Tout New Law Allowing Guns in Restaurants
5. Longtime Councilman Leaves Behind Loyal Following, Some Friction