Feature Stories
Can you believe I got a
credit line in TIME magazine?
This
story (7/23/01) is about the development of Yucca Mountain as our
nation's nuclear waste repository. It's called Not
In Our Backyard. Check it out; my name's at the end.
Thanks to the Sacramento
News & Review for letting me link to these book reviews.
Family
affair (10/25/01) The
Corrections has everything you want to find in a novel
Metaphorically
speaking (08/23/01) Titanic expectations sink Connie Willis' Passage
Ever
written an obit? (06/14/01) Most requre A
Few Corrections.
Dead
and loving it (03/29/01) Michael Reed is cocooned against life by grief
and guilt—then something happens that wakes him up in The
Name of the World by Denis Johnson.
Reservation
of the soul (11/30/00) In The
Heartsong of Charging Elk, author James Welch poses questions that
society will someday have to answer.
Shipwreck
(10/05/00) Author Nathaniel Philbrick brings the long-submerged story
of the whaleship Essex to light in In
the Heart of the Sea.
Thanks to the Reno
Gazette-Journal for letting me link to these stories.
This
story, Home
pages, is my first freelance story to appear in the daily newspaper
in Reno. It's about how the Internet is changing the way people buy
homes. Does this mean I sold out? Say it isn't so, Joe.
Here's
a cute little story about hiking
the foothills of Peavine. I'm going to be a regular on these "Hike
of the Week" columns, so assuming the stories get posted at RGJ.com
(and that I remember to update this page), we'll eventually have a good
day-hiking resource, sort of akin to the restaurant section below. Here's
Hunter
Creek Trail and Mira
Loma Road.
Thanks to the Reno
News & Review for letting me link to these stories.
There
and back again (10/11/01) Our contributing editor leaves on a 165-mile
hike around Lake Tahoe and returns to a changed world.
Rant
issue (07/19/01) The government should stop discriminating against
unmarried, long-term couples and their families.
Washoe
County copy moguls (06/07/01) By charging more than the state allows
for copies, Washoe County may be discouraging citizens from getting
involved.
They
should call it Lake Breslow (05/31/01) The Sparks Marina is fostering
community in the Rail City--unless you want that community to include
dogs.
Big
(04/26/01) Our contributing editor went through a popular diet and exercise
program. Here's how he did. One warning, though: Watch out for the leg
press machine.
Power
play (04/19/01) California's energy dered may be inspiring environmental
and financial benefits for Nevadans.
Bars
and Clubs (03/15/01) For our annual bars and clubs issue, we checked
out 100 of them. Could this be the most comprehensive listing of Truckee
Meadows bars and clubs ever? We think so.
Broadcast
iBlast (02/01/01) Heads may not roll at KOLO, but new tech may roll
in.
Thanks to the Reno
News & Review for letting me reprint these feature stories.
This
story touched off a Secretary of State investigation of Reno City Councilwoman
Sherrie Doyle, it’s called Paying Debts.
Doyle
foible (05/10/01) My investigation of Reno City Councilwoman Sherrie
Doyle goes to the attorney general.
Jack
Mazzan spent 20 years on Nevada’s Death Row. If he’s not guilty,
then who is? We called this one Life and Death.
Jack Mazzan's case will be one to watch. As I can,
I'll link to related stories.
March
31, 2000
April
14, 2000
There
have been some developments in Mazzan's case. First, on May
7, 2000, he was released on bail. His trial has been scheduled for
Jan. 7, 2002. In September 2001, he was charged with the 1978 murder
of April
Barber. On Feb.
15, 2002, Mazzan struck a plea bargain with prosecutors and admitted
to killing Minor in exchange for not being prosecuted for the murder
of April Barber.
Did
you know that thrill rides at traveling carnivals in Nevada are not
inspected? This story, A Wheel Big Deal,
suggests that maybe they should be. I got a Nevada Press Association
Award for investigative journalism for this one.
Nevada
State Fair officials demand ride inspections
in the wake of Ferris Wheel controversy.
I
rarely post these short pieces, but my friend, Mr. Barbwire, Andy Barbano
requested this one, so here it is. It's a story about the last independent
hardware store in town, The Last of the Independents.
Hey,
check it out. This story, Desperately Seeking Susan,
which was originally published in February 1997, made Jim Romenesko's
MediaNews http://www.poynter.org/medianews/
column on the Poynter Insitute's site on Aug. 11, 2000. It was also
used for Amy Silverman's opus at the Phoenix New Times, Meet
the new boss, same as the old boss. It’s about former Reno
Gazette-Journal Publisher Sue Clark-Johnson.
I've
got nothing but the highest respect for Reno Gazette-Journal columnist
Rollan Melton, so I was pretty pissed when I heard he had a column critical
of Harrah's Casino spiked. Thanks to Willie Puchert for posting my story
Gazette-Journal
Spikes Rollan Melton Column on his site.
I
went on the road with Reno’s wildest rock ’n’ roll band,
Phat Couch. We called it Roadie For a Day.
Here’s
a fun bit of hyperbole. It just seemed fitting for the Y2K hysteria,
and it’s called Gimme Shelter.
Locals
got a bit excited when Oil-Dri wanted to mine kitty-litter clay in pristine
desert. Here’s the scoop, Mine Games.
This
is a story about wild horses, a symbol of the Old West. This one’s
called All the Pretty Horses.
This
story about the 1998 Reno Championship Air Races was especially poignant
because the pilot featured, Dick Roberts, died the day the story came
out. It’s called A Day at the Races.
OK,
I defy you to write an provocative story about potholes. Here’s
my effort, it’s called Mean Streets.
This
story shows how quick the issues can change. It was written in the summer
of 1998, and it's about why the death penalty is no longer a political
issue Killings.
Flood Of Controversy, told the real story of
how government shortsightedness cost taxpayers hundreds of millions
with the Flood of 1997.
Three Strange Days, pits man and machine against
the Black Rock Desert in the assault on the World Land Speed Record
and the speed of sound.
Bowled Over, a story about the Reno-Sparks
Convention & Visitors Authority.
Grave Decisions, what happens when we die.
Working On The Railroad,the effects of the
Union Pacific/Southern Pacific railroad merger on Reno.
OK,
you know-it-alls, here’s the Reno City
Quiz .
An
organ donor activist and professional ice skater wants to get her hands
on your organs in Have A Heart
This
one’s about the Truckee Meadows Heritage Trust’s efforts to
save Reno’s historic Mapes Hotel Inside The
Mapes.
Burning Man 1995
Burning Man 1996
Burning Man February 1997 .
Burning Man 1999.
Thanks
to Bill Barker, here’s a
Schwa link.
z
San Francisco put up this Burning Man
editorial that ran in the RN&R.
Restaurant Reviews
Dateline: Reno
Don
Dondero’s photography collection Dateline:
Reno includes photos of John F. Kennedy, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe,
Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, John Wayne, Dan Blocker, Lorne Greene, Michael
Landon, Frank Sinatra and many others.
Family News
Click
here for news about the family: Amy,
Dan, Kathleen and the latest addition, Hunter Cole O’Brian.
Investigative Links
Search Engines
There
is nothing more useful than a good search engine. I use Google as my
home page. Try it, you’ll like it. www.google.com/
AllInOne
is the grandaddy of all search engine pages at www.allinonesearch.com.
If it isn’t here, it probably doesn’t exist.
Savvysearch
is on the AllInOne page (as is Metacrawler) but AllInOne takes forever
to load, so I like to keep this one for when I’m going to do several
deep searches in a row. www.savvysearch.com
Handy Investigative Links
Investigate
Nonprofit Groups: www.nonprofits.org/
Securities
& Exchange Commission, check out Edgar: www.sec.gov/
Government
Locator Page: thomas.loc.gov/
Corpwatch:
www.corpwatch.org
Journalistic
Resources: www.markovits.com/journalism/
Freedom
of Information Center: www.missouri.edu/~foiwww/
Hardcore Investigative Links
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know some of this stuff was legal.
Some of these searches are expensive, some are free.
Here
is a link from Corporate Investigative Services:
home.hiwaay.net/~pvteye/source.html .
Dig
Dirt, Inc.: www.pimall.com/digdirt
Advance Research, Inc.:www.pimall.com/digdirt
You’ve got to do a bit of exploring to find out exactly how bizarre
Buckley & Associates’ page is: www.wespy4u.com
Nevada Government Links
Reno
City Government: www.reno.gov
State
Of Nevada: www.state.nv.us
U.S. Government Links
www.geocities.com/Pentagon/3076
Publications Links
Electric
Nevada: www.electricnevada.com
Reno
News & Review Editor Jimmy Boegle's Sparks Tribune columns: www.geocities.com/jiboegle
Nevada
Alt Net: members.aol.com/nvaltnet
Reno
Citizen: www.renocitizen.com
NevadaWeb:
www.nevadaweb.com
Editor
& Publisher: The great thing about this page is that it links to all
of the world’s 2,227 (and growing) web-based newspapers. emedia1.mediainfo.com/emedia
Association
of Alternative Newsweeklies: aan.org
Alternet:
www.alternet.org
Institute
for Alternative Journalism: www.igc.org/igc/gateway/index.html
Investigative
Reporters & Editors: www.ire.org
Links
to six Lake Tahoe/Carson City papers: www.tahoe.com
Las
Vegas Review-Journal: www.lvrj.com
Las
Vegas Sun: www.lasvegassun.com
The
Reno Gazette-Journal: www.rgj.com/news/index.html
Nevada
Appeal: www.tahoe.com/appeal/index.html
Shayne’s Links
Shayne Del Cohen of Nevada Press Women recommends these sites.
This
site gets you into the federal archive system with links worldwide:
www.nara.gov .
This
is a directory of directories:
www.history.la.ca.us/history.
Shayne
says this one will tell you more than you want to know:
www.gpo.gov. My question is: Is there any such thing?
Anybody else have any
suggestions?
