H.L. Mencken, Sage of Baltimore
Sunday marked the 56th anniversary of the death of legendary Sun journalist H.L. Mencken. Here’s a video I produced featuring The Sun’s Frederick Rasmussen, who speaks on his life, work, and beer. Years before he died, he had written his epitaph, which went something like this: “If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.”
Click the photo to go to the story with video.
Tracking the Nation: A Simple Video Guide to How You’re Being Spied on Right Now
I created this video with close friend and fellow journalist Lam Thuy Vo about the evolution of electronic privacy. It was picked up by Motherboard. It was my first time drawing illustrations for video.
Did you know on any given day, an average person sends or receives 41.5 text messages, 110 emails, receives 8 mobile calls, visits 94 websites… unknowingly leaving electronic traces through mobile devices, credit cards, and laptops. Meanwhile, a person is recorded dozens of times a day by surveillance cameras… watch the video to hear and see more about our privacy laws.
Here’s How Deadly Breast Cancer is For Women of Color in the U.S.
Anyone who knows me, knows that breast cancer issue is particularly important to me, since my my mom was diagnosed back in 2005. Also, that same year I was a wire reporter (my first real journalism job) who reported and drove my mom to her chemo and radiation appointments. I had a very understanding editor. Safe to say, she’s a survivor and kick ass mom. At the end of this year, there will be more than 2.6 million survivors across the nation.
While breast cancer is widely known as a particularly heartbreaking disease, reports have shown that the impacts on women of color, particularly African American women, are especially devastating. Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than any other group of women. To address this concern, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) released three videos targeting black women as part of its outreach to women of color for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Click the infographic to go to Colorlines.com to see full version.
Graham Motion and the Art of Teaching Horses
I was fortunate enough to do a video shoot for WSJ with Graham Motion, who trained this year’s Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. The shoot took place at his training facility in Fair Hill, MD and spanned two days. I’ll post some still photos from the shoot soon.
Lost in Detention
The project I started while I was a post-fellow graduate at American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop, which was later adopted, expanded, and updated by Frontline, was released last week, and two years after the Administration announced sweeping reforms in immigration detention. “Lost in Detention” takes a look into today’s vast immigrant detention system and documents the far-rearching impact of the Obama administration’s controversial immigration enforcement policies. Much of my research and reporting was focused on FOIA requests for detention and arrest records as well as a timeline of facilities that were used by ICE since the 1980s:
The Workshop requested data going back a decade about people held by the U.S. government for deportation, including detainee names, when and where individuals were booked in and booked out of detention, and what prompted their arrest. We asked for this information in several Freedom of Information Act requests to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, part of the Department of Homeland Security, one of the nation’s largest, federal, law-enforcement agencies.
What arrived at our doorstep in 2009 was a mess of confusing and incomplete information that didn’t help us answer our original questions. After months of trying to pry data from the agency about those being detained, it was clear that the government didn’t always know where the detainees were held, how long they were detained, or how much they paid to house and feed them. In fact, our records showed that in some cases officials might not have known whether detainees were actually in custody or even if they were dead or alive.
Kudos to IRW and Frontline! Check out the documentary.
Watch Lost in Detention on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
Huber Breaker Abandoned but not Forgotten
We saw this abandoned building from the highway during a trip to Wilkes-Barre, PA. Turns out it’s the former Huber Breaker, which opened in 1895 to meet the demand for coal. Built by Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company in Ashley, PA, the company merged with the Glen Alden Company known for its “blue coal” to become one of the largest coal breaking facilities in the region. Blue coal was once a brand of anthracite, mined by the Glen Alden Coal Company and sprayed with a blue dye to differentiate itself from its competitors. With the decline in the demand for coal, the breaker shutdown in 1976. There are currently plans to build a memorial and park on the site. Here are a couple of a photos of what it looked like back in its heyday, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Picking Floor, Men Picking Rock dated 14 September 1955 Historic Photograph, Photographer Unknown; Collection of William Everett, Jr. (Wilkes-Barre, PA), photocopy by Joseph E.B. Elliot HAER PA,40-ASH,1-59
Northwest Side of Breaker, Rock Belt Line (foreground), date unknown Historic Photograph, Photograher Unknown; Collection of William Everett, Jr. (Wilkes-Barre, PA), photocopy by Joseph E.B. Elliot HAER PA,40-ASH,1-47
Men Picking Rocks, date unknown Historic Photograph, Photographer Unknown; Collection of William Everett, Jr. (Wilkes-Barre, PA), photocopy by Joseph E.B. Elliot HAER PA,40-ASH,1-62
South Side of Breaker Historic Photographer Unknown Originally taken by Glen Alden Safety Department, 18 August 1954; Collection of William Everett, Jr (Wilkes-Barre, PA), photocopy by Joseph E.B. Elliot HAER PA,40-ASH,1-49
