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.
Post Office Doggie
Even little dogs can get packages at the Fells Point Post Office in Baltimore, Md. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s the little tyke waiting patiently outside the postal building.
31 Days of Halloween Movies
Sean and I are watching and reviewing 31 Halloween movies in 31 days. We’re fans of the horror genre, so we’ve watched our share of the paranormal, man-eating animals, zombies, vampires, slashers, cannibals, haunted houses, exorcisms, psycho killers, maniacs, and killer musicals. This year, our selection is at random… very random. So don’t expect a slew of predictable 5 star horror flicks.
So far, we’ve reviewed The Strangers, The Walking Dead Pilot, and Night of the Comet. We love suggestions, so leave them on http://31daysofhalloweenmovies.blogspot.com/.
Here’s our rating system:
The Jack-o-lantern Rating System
0: Neither scary or entertaining.
1: Provided some scare factor but no entertainment.
2: Mild scares and entertainment.
3: Scary and over-the-top entertainment.
4: Pretty God damn scary and entertaining, a roller coaster ride.
5: Outstanding movie in a Horror Category, deserving of an Oscar or equivalent. (Double checking the doors are locked, cell phone is charged, crosses up, and a priest and paranormal team on speed dial.)
A Wrenching Night of Global Solidarity as Georgia Kills Troy Davis
Wednesday was an emotional day for supporters, family, and friends of Troy Davis, who was executed in Georgia that night after the Supreme Court decided not to intervene. He maintained his innocence until the end. There were many powerful photos from the day. Here’s a collage of photos that I put together (click photo).
Colorlines’ Kai Wright and Jamilah King also wrote an insightful post about how the case illustrates problems with the capital punishment system. I thought this post from The Atlantic by Andrew Cohen was also a good commentary on the issue.
“There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.” – Troy Davis
