Writing
I discovered my love of writing and reporting halfway through my college career, when I began writing stories for one of Colgate University's two weekly newspapers. There was the Maroon, the original and more traditional school newspaper, and the News, an upstart tabloid with more of an edge and a chip on its shoulder from being Number Two. I wrote for the News.
When an editor's position opened up at the News, I jumped at the chance to fill it. I loved the challenge of tracking down stories and the camaraderie of putting the paper together, a process that typically took five or six of us all night, a couple of pizzas and many bottles of beer. We'd talk and work the night away while listening to the university radio station, and finish up around dawn the next day, just in time for the courier to arrive to take the pasted-up pages to the printer. Then we'd stumble, bleary-eyed, to the cafeteria for breakfast before catching a few hours of sleep. The next morning, I'd grab a freshly-printed paper off a stack in the bookstore on my way to class and wonder how we ever got the thing out at all.
I've never had as much fun at a real job as I did working for the News, but researching and writing each of the series of stories shown below recaptured some of that same excitement. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed reporting and writing them.
Recent stories
Between September, 2009 and May, 2011, I had the pleasure of reporting and writing for Circle of Blue, an "international network of leading journalists, scientists and communications design experts that reports and presents the information necessary to respond to the global freshwater crisis."
You can see a list of all of the stories I wrote for Circle of Blue here, or read selected stories using the links below (these links will open the stories on Circle of Blue's website in a new browser window):
Water Demand is Flash Point in Dakota Oil Boom
– September 15, 2010
Fracking Regulations Vary Widely from State to State
– August 31, 2010
Michigan Says It’s Ready For Next Drilling Boom
– August 3, 2010
Block Those Flying Fish: Great Lakes Politicians Pressure Illinois, Washington on Asian Carp
– March 1, 2010
Asian Carp Threat Prompts Protest Near Lake Michigan Shore
– February 7, 2010
Asian Carp Knocking at the Great Lakes’ Door; Michigan Attorney General Seeks To Slam It Shut
– January 8, 2010
Towards a Blue Economy: Michigan’s Freshwater Future
– January 2, 2010
Congress, Michigan Legislature Asked to Fix Leaks in Great Lakes Compact
– November 23, 2009
America’s Water Supply: Scarcity Becoming Endemic
– October 12, 2009
Older stories
These are links to stories from my newspaper days that I've archived here: