These stories are listed in sequential order of publication and represent my work for a variety of outlets – both print and online. They include investigative reports, web-exclusives for PBS, ongoing coverage of immigration and crime beats, and book reviews. I write regular reports for Deportation Nation, and previously for Business of Detention – both of which I co-produce.
Justice Department tries to block Arizona’s immigration law, as states take note (July 2010 – PBS Need to Know)
The Justice Department is suing to prevent Arizona from following through on its new immigration law, as 20 states with similar bills take notes.
The Anti-Arizona: As states get tough on immigration, D.C. bucks the trend (June 2010 – The American Prospect)
The Justice Department is suing to prevent Arizona from following through on its new immigration law, as 20 states with similar bills take notes.
Women’s Group Works for Peace in Bosnia, Finds Itself on Terrorist List (April 2010 – PBS WIDE ANGLE)
A wave of nationalism and Islamaphobia has hit Bosnia and Herzegovina as ethnic leaders bicker ahead of a general election set for October. One of the latest victims is the renowned women’s group Žene Ženama.
Hope for Haiti: Trained in Cuba, Bronx doctor Melissa Barber drops everything to help (March 2010 – The Indypendent)
After the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, Dr. Melissa Barber received a call asking her to help treat people left injured and living in squalid conditions.
Cracked: Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ban, Texas has continued to send mentally retarded criminals to death row. Will a Mexican immigrant’s case correct this injustice? (January 2010 – The Texas Observer)
This cover story exposes how Texas judges accepted “junk science” presented by prosecutors in order to keep men who may be mentally retarded on Texas death row. At least one man has been executed, and a dozen other cases could be reexamined. Meanwhile, the state has yet to pass a law that guides judges in how to implement the Supreme Court’s ban on putting mentally retarded prisoners to death.
Research for this report was generously provided by the Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund.
One Woman’s Brave Struggle to Expose Honor Killings (July 2009 – PBS Wide Angle/Huffington Post)
“Jordan Farmer Kills Sister Over Alleged Affair,” read a recent headline from the Agence France-Presse. The 24-year-old man stabbed his sister after he became suspicious that she was having an affair. That this story became news is partly the accomplishment of an award-winning Jordanian journalist who broke the silence about honor killings with her reports for the Jordan Times. (Read more)
Maternal Mortality Gets Obama Spotlight While Aid Dollars Decline (July 2009 – PBS Wide Angle/Huffington Post)
A roomful of pregnant women waiting for their prenatal care appointments at La General Hospital in Accra, Ghana, got a treat on Saturday when President Barack Obama stopped by to compliment the hospital’s maternal health services. (Read more)
“Africa’s Turn” for Economic Growth May Continue Amid Global Economic Crisis (July 2009 – PBS Wide Angle)
Earlier this month, the G-8 pledged $20 billion to fight increasingly widespread hunger in Africa. Next week, USAID will begin emergency food assistance to 2.8 million people in Zimbabwe. But at least one economist is cautiously optimistic about Africa’s ability to maintain the modest but steady economic progress it achieved before the global economic downturn. (Read more)
Detention Retention (June 2009 – The American Prospect)
President Obama has tried to split the difference between comprehensive immigration-reform advocates and law-and-order types. But for immigrants in detention, not much has changed since the Bush era. (Read more)
Hunger Strike at Port Isabel (April 2009 – The Texas Observer)
Anywhere from 50 to 100 detainees at the sprawling Port Isabel Processing Center near Brownsville stopped eating last Wednesday in an effort to draw attention to extended detention that they say violates their right to due process. (Read more)
Outsourcing Our Wars: Halliburton’s Army Captures the Spirit of an Era (February 2009 – The Indypendent)
Review of Halliburton’s Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War. (Read more)
Grand Old Social Networking Party (January 2009 – Huffington Post)
This month, Karl Rove began using Twitter. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he sounded like a born-again social networker. If the Republican party has a future, he said, it is going to be online. “The political Web 2.0 is about networking and Democrats grabbed the lead,” he conceded. “The party that figures out where Web 3.0 goes will grab the decisive high ground in high-tech warfare.” (Read more)
Once Trusted Mortgage Pioneers, Now Scrutinized (December 2008 – The New York Times)
“We are team-oriented, highly ethical, extremely competitive, profit-oriented, risk-averse, consumer-focused, and we try as much as possible to squeeze out any ego. Hubris is the beginning of the end.” — Herbert Sandler, June 2005 (Read more)
Labor on the Move: David Bacon’s “Illegal People” Explores Ties Between Repression and Migration (December 2008 – The Indypendent)
Review of Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. (Read more)
A New Migration Policy: Producing Felons for Profit (Nov./Dec. 2009 – NACLA Report on the Americas)
Immigration officials have teamed up with the Department of Justice, federal judges, and the nation’s largest private prison company to merge immigration and criminal policy. Many undocumented immigrants now face jail time pending their immigration hearing in civil court. The resulting surge in prosecutions is staggering: About 60,000 immigrants will face charges in fiscal year 2008. (Read more – PDF)
Life’s a Snitch: Austin activist admits he infiltrated RNC protest group (December 2009 – The Texas Observer)
A well-known Austin activist fingered as an FBI informant has acknowledged that he provided information leading to the arrest and felony indictment of two Austin men who participated in protests last September at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN. (Read more)
Group’s Tally of New Voters Was Vastly Overstated (November 2008 – The New York Times)
On Oct. 6, the community organizing group ACORN and an affiliated charity called Project Vote announced with jubilation that they had registered 1.3 million new voters. But it turns out the claim was a wild exaggeration, and the real number of newly registered voters nationwide is closer to 450,000, Project Vote’s executive director, Michael Slater, said in an interview. (Read more)
Blogged Down in the Past (October 2008 - Columbia Journalism Review)
An ongoing examination of blogs devoted to the 2008 presidential campaign, and interviews with bloggers and blogger outreach coordinators from the contending presidential campaigns, reveals a fundamental difference in the candidates’ approach to the blogosphere. (Read more)
Hispanic Panic: GOP Stokes Fears of ‘Illegal’ Voters (October 2008 – The Indypendent)
PHOENIX—While both presidential candidates avoid discussing immigration reform, Republican pundits are stirring up concern about non-citizens throwing the election. (Read more)
Shack Attack (August 2008 – The Indypendent)
Record Shack speakers that once played African music onto the sidewalk across from the Apollo Theater in Harlem are now stored in a Yonkers warehouse. (Read more)
125th Street on the Line (February 2008 - The Indypendent)
While real estate developers dream of luxury high rises, many in Harlem worry that massive redevelopment of 125th Street could change their neighborhood forever. (Read more)
Redlining: Why so few Harlemites own property (February 2008 – The Indypendent)
“The reality is that African Americans have ever owned only a fairly small percentage of any property in Harlem … because Harlem was redlined.” – Michael Henry Adams, author of Harlem Lost and Found. (Read more)
Endangered Immigrant Women Find Safe Harbor (January 2008 – The Indypendent)
Safiya Allette, an undocumented Trinidadian immigrant, endured five years of escalating abuse from her husband as she waited for him to file paperwork that would allow her to become a U.S. citizen. He never did. (Read more)