Saturday, January 27, 2007

Bedbugs in the Bronx

I'm working on my first story as health reporter for the Bronx Beat - it's a service article on how to deal with bedbugs, how to know if you have them, what to do if your home is infested, who is responsible (landlord or tenant), etc. I'm having trouble nailing down a source in the South Bronx who has experienced a bedbug problem or is currently a bedbug victim and who would be willing to talk to me about it. If you know anyone, please write me at cmh2133[at]columbia[dot]edu.

(Those brackets are for protection from spammers. Please insert the correct symbols when emailing.)

Thank you!

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Sunday, January 21, 2007

Hard Questions

Two articles in the New York Times today about a recent kidnapping that sparked national attention ask hard questions about the press and about what it means to be a good neighbor.

This op-ed piece forces any journalist, or anyone who reads or watches the news, to question how we exposed these kidnapping survivors.

And this article about the guilt neighbors feel for not noticing a kidnapper and his victim in their midst must make us ask ourselves whether staying out of other people's business really is polite.

I'd be more than glad to hear some opinions on these pieces and the questions they raise.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Last semester...ever.

The spring semester (and last semester of j-school) begins tomorrow. I'll spend the day at my internship and at a lecture I'm looking forward to on Covering Race. The next day, Bronx Beat begins. That's my workshop - a student-run newspaper that covers the South Bronx. We all have a chance to be editor of the paper, which will come out every two weeks and will also be updated online. And every student covers a topical beat, like politics, education, etc. I'm hoping to cover health, religion or youth, but I think all that will be decided on Thursday. Then next week begins my seminar, Immigrant America, on covering the immigration beat in the United States, and my elective on News Editing. I turned in the first draft of my Master's Project today. The final version isn't due until March.

The weirdest thing about all this is that this is my last semester of school EVER. I guess that is unless I ever decide to go back for another Master's or for a PhD or something, but as of right now, this is it. I'm excited - I'm actually ready to get a job (and make money). But I'm trying to enjoy the freedom of being a student while I can.

I'll try to keep updating regularly, but with my internship and so many demanding classes, I might be posting links to my stories more than actually updating this. Hope you'll stick with me!

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Busy kitties & a historical home

I learned two interesting things in the past few days that could turn into story ideas...

The first one, courtesy of a distressed caller into an NPR show discussing the effects of the unusually warm Northeast, was that because of the rise in temperatures, the number of feral (wild!) cats in New York City was rising. Female cats were having more litters - the typical two per year was turning into three or four - because of the heat (pun intended). "Support your local animal shelter!" implored the representative from the Urban Cat League. "Remember to have your pets spayed or neutered," Bob Barker was saying somewhere.

And the second fun fact, according to today's NYTimes, is that my apartment building was once a turn-of-the-century hotel, a building described as "one of Broadway’s most sophisticated works." Ohh! I'd love to know more of the history of this building. It's hardly fancy, but it does have a large center staircase that leads all the way from the lobby to the penthouse. I'm learning to appreciate the building's lovely architecture as a huge, glass, ritzy apartment building, one that can be seen from a mile away, is slowly being constructed next door and overshadowing our little slice of history.