A Car that Runs on Wood and Politicians that Run on Gas…

I’ve got three new stories up today. First, for Plenty Magazine, a story about a guy whose car runs on wood – turns out he’s not alone.

And, today’s news service stories: Blatant Big Money in politics two days before New Mexico’s primary and the latest in spelling bee news….

I’m back!

Wow, this really got away from me. Almost a year since the last post. 30 second update: since then the wife and I have spent a month in Central America, bought a house, put another month into remodeling, and had a beautiful baby girl!

On the work front, much of the above took me away from doing more freelance projects, but I’m now covering Colorado and New Mexico for the Public News Service and working as an editor for the other states. There’s also the occasional grant writing… My own grant project, Blue Highways, is coming together finally. We have two 30-minute pilots near completion that will hopefully be sent to public radio stations across the country by the end of the year.  Somewhere along the way I also signed with a literary agent who is currently pushing a non-fiction book proposal for me, but it’s stalled at the moment.

I’ll do my best to keep this up a bit better from now on…

Payday Lending on NPR on Friday, Feb. 2nd

When I made the trip to the Navajo Nation for the LOE story, I made a swing south to get some tape for a story on Payday Lending in the state. I did a New Mexico News Connection story on it, and after the New York Times published a story about the situation in the state, I realized the story obviously had national potential. I just had to find a way to do one better than the NY  Times. Not sure I succeeded, but I do think I put together a pretty decent story, that is scheduled to air Friday, I believe on Morning Edition, although it could be on Day to Day.

Public News Service

If it appears that my freelancing has fallen off since October, don’t be fooled. Truth is, much of my time is going to the fine folks at the Public News Service, where I’m a producer for the affiliated Colorado and New Mexico News Connection, producing stories for mostly commercial stations state-(and occasionally nation)wide. I’m busting out almost twenty news spots per month, while also helping to migrate all of PNS’ content to a new web archive and RSS feed to be launched in March. I also helped write a grant for them, but it’s already been denied (ouch).

Click here for an example of a New Mexico News Connection story that was aired nationwide. 

Navajos Oppose Coal Plant: Living on Earth

This was my first story for Living on Earth, a great show formerly distributed by NPR (they’re with PRI now), that I’d been trying to crack for almost a year. I originally pitched this story to NPR’s National Desk, and I was so convinced they’d want it that I took off driving to the story before I even heard a reply. 45 minutes into the trip I ran into a blizzard and turned around. Serendipitously, NPR rejected the pitch after all, but LOE picked it up a week later, and I was off again.

Everything fell into place on this one, and I came away with like 10 hours of sound that took a full day to weed through, just to produce a 6-minute story! I think it turned out well. Ingrid Lobet is a great editor to work with. Thanks!

Click here to listen 

Offsetting Greenhouse Gas Emissions: NPR’s Justice Talking

I pitched two story ideas to JT back in November and they accepted both. That was pretty awesome. The first was the Meth story and this was the second. I recorded all the interviews in Colorado while I was home for Thanksgiving weekend, which was a bit hectic, but I think it turned out fairly well. This was the fourth story I did for JT since August, more than any other producer for 2006, a statistic which is completely meaningless unless you happen to be me looking for something to soothe your ego (it didn’t help). Man, that was a whiny sentence.

Click here to listen. 

Hey Mom! I’m a sellout!

There’s just no way around it. Accept money to write a profile of a local realtor and that’s what you are. Promote this fact like I’m doing right here, and your soul is totally gone. In the same vein, I’ve also written a few articles for the local tourist guide for my former employer. Enjoy.

Click here to see what 4 years of journalism school gets you. 

Meth on the Navajo Nation: NPR’s Justice Talking

This was the third story I did for JT in the last six months. They are absolutely great to work with, and the folks I spoke with for this story were pretty remarkable as well. I don’t feel like it’s one of my best stories purely from a craft perspective, but it tells an important story. Hopefully some day I’ll be able to revisit this issue with some more depth.

Click here to listen.

Weekend America story R.I.P.

After many trials and tribulations, a story I’d been working on for Weekend America has bit the big one for reasons that are too boring and longwinded to get into, but the full kill fee is nice, still a shame that more folks wont know about the struggle to protect the Valle Vidal.

Aamodt Water Settlement in High Country News

This story was first assigned in May when I was still working at the paper and I turned in a first draft shortly thereafter. When a case has been around for 40 years, there’s not much rush to get a story about it into print…

Read the story here (you may have to sign up for a trial subscription)