Too Young to Vote, But Not Too Young to Engage
The Obama campaign headquarters were bustling five days before the election and two high school journalism students I brought there to report for their school paper were enthralled. They came […]
Renters Still Facing Foreclosure Evictions; Help Arrives, But Is It Enough?
Last week, I wrote about Cook County (Chicago) sheriff Tom Dart angrily suspending evictions of renters from foreclosed buildings; since many of these renters were dutifully paying their rent and […]
Chicago Sheriff Stands up for Renters
Losing a home to foreclosure is a nightmare, causing at least one person — Carlene Balderrama of Massachusetts — to commit suicide in recent months. Seeing all the money, work, […]
A Green Job Renaissance?
Even decades after de-industrialization and outsourcing decimated the once-solid, well-paid, empowered blue collar union workforce of the Midwest, jobs are still being lost by the hundreds or thousands as industries […]
Alaska’s Pebble Mine Vote the Same Old Catch-22: Jobs or Environment
Much attention has been on Alaska politics lately thanks to John McCain’s choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, not to mention Sen. Ted Stevens’ resounding […]
Native Alaskans See Walrus Harvest Disappear with Sea Ice
The effects of climate change have wreaked havoc with Arctic weather conditions that while always extreme and highly changeable, could be read like a book.
Dirty Coal Takes Communities’ Breath Away
The brick smokestack towers above Chicago’s mostly Latino Pilsen neighborhood burns coal to provide electricity for much of the city while puffing out plumes that sometimes mix beautifully with the […]
Employment as Crime Prevention
With the hottest, often most violent, month of summer still to come, Chicago has logged record numbers of killings of public school students this year, with at least 30 teens […]
New Orleans Voices
During my recent reporting in New Orleans for a story for Amnesty International on the continuing homelessness and displacement crisis, we saw the stark irony of 42,000 vacant homes, many […]
Down and Out in the Big Easy
“Homeless outreach!” calls out Mike Miller as he ducks through a busted wall to climb the steps of an abandoned house in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood. Torn drywall hangs in […]
Another Day in the Lower Ninth Ward
Sweat pours down Reginald “Trigger” Smith’s face as he cleans out a storage unit squeezed next to three FEMA trailers on his lot in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of […]
Making Food Deserts Bloom
Finding fresh produce in low-income neighborhoods can be a struggle, but community efforts are striving to fill the void.