a few popular stories from over the years
- WHY OJAI IS MOVING TOWARDS STATE WATER
(Ventura County Reporter/Ojai Valley Green Coalition — 5/18/2018
In spring 2018, this story was widely praised and shared locally via the version posted at the Green Coalition site, with links, and by the Ojai Democratic Club. In the writing I endeavored to balance the story on the fulcrum of the decision that Ojai faces, which is the question of hooking up to state water. I did my best to hold to my journalist’s prerogative of not expressing an opinion on the matter. Frankly — I don’t know the answers!
https://ojaivalleygreencoalition.com/2018/05/18/why-ojai-is-moving-towards-state-water-in-april-2018/ or https://www.vcreporter.com/2018/04/neverending-h20-story-experts-officials-debate-water-supply-in-western-ventura-county/
- THOMAS FIRE HAD TWO ORIGINS
(Santa Barbara Independent — 12/22/2017)
This story became hugely popular (for yours truly) after being published a couple of weeks after the Thomas Fire — over 40,000 hits, the editor of the Santa Barbara Independent told me — and has been prominently linked on the Thomas Fire Wikipedia page, which I think is about as close as a daily journalist working today can come to a lasting external validation of the usefulness and veracity of a story
https://www.independent.com/news/2017/dec/22/thomas-fire-had-two-origins/
- WHY SCIENTISTS ARE WORRIED ABOUT A LANDSLIDE NO ONE SAW OR HEARD
Atlas Obscura — 3/17/2017
(This was a fun story with a slightly obscure climate connection: see to learn more.)
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/landslide-alaska-taan-fjord-2015
- THE HAZARDOUS TRUTH
Ventura County Reporter — 11/19/2015
https://www.vcreporter.com/2015/11/the-hazardous-truth/
[This story won a statewide Best Investigative Reporting — 2nd Place
California Newspaper Publishers Association — 6/2016]
- THE FIRE HAD ME FULLY TERRIFIED — T.C. BOYLE ON THE THOMAS FIRE
Ojai Quarterly — Spring 2018
[This Q&A with novelist and short story writer T.C. Boyle turned into a really interesting conversation about California, writing, disaster, and ecological fate.]
- r CLIFF-JUMPERS VS. CONDORS IN SOCAL
High Country News — 7/17/2015
[Reporting from the back country on a very hot topic: the good news is the Forest Service seems to be winning this struggle over an extraordinary area crucial to the survival of the endangered California Condor.]
https://www.hcn.org/articles/cliff-jumpers-versus-condors-southern-california
- RISING RATE OF STD INFECTIONS IN CALIFORNIA TROUBLES PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS
California Health Report — 6/21/2016
[This story continues to develop: fortunately the worst of the AIDS epidemic is behind us, but serious STDs remain virulent and uncontained, and social media may be abetting their dispersal.]
- VENTURA EARTHQUAKE FAULT MORE DANGEROUS THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT, GEOLOGISTS SAY
Ventura County Star (archived) — 1/5/2014
http://www.achangeinthewind.com/2014/01/ventura-stands-on-huge-dangerous-fault-system-vc-star.html
- THE NOT-SO-SOBER JOHN MUIR — Wild Earth for Summer-Fall 2003
[link to come]
EVERYBODY LOVES WALTER
Longreads
https://latterly.org/everybody-loves-walter-dd7a45dee333/#.1hdij5bvi?Src=longreads