Selected Clips

Local Journalism: Documents Reveal 73-Year-Old Injustice

This piece appeared in the Half Moon Bay Review.

Tsunematsu Kuwahara was 44, a farmer, and — like most individuals detained in the months after the attacks on Pearl Harbor — Japanese. On March 28, 1942, a deputy sheriff and an FBI agent appeared on his doorstep in Pescadero and took him into custody under suspicion of being a “dangerous enemy alien” . . . (more)

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Humor: Belinda’s Private Equity-Immersion Daycare

This piece appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. 

Welcome to the online home of Belinda’s Private Equity Immersion Daycare, a Silicon Valley institution. Our philosophy is simple: kids who can properly manage debt-to-income-ratios are more likely to reach their full market potential as adults . . . (more)

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Essay: My Pregnancy Rebellion

This piece appeared on Salon.com.

I did a bad, bad thing the other day: Visibly pregnant, I went to a beauty salon and had my hair dyed. That may not seem like a big deal to those unfamiliar with American pregnancy culture, but to see the faces of the other women in the salon you would have thought I had walked in the door with a joint and a half-empty handle of vodka . . . (more)

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Investigation: Gas Drilling and Property Rights

This article was published by ProPublica.

As the shale gas boom sweeps across the United States, drillers are turning to a controversial legal tool called forced pooling to gain access to minerals beneath private property–in many cases, without the landowners’ permission.

Forced pooling is common in many established oil and gas states, but its use has grown more contentious as concerns rise about drilling safety and homeowners in areas with little drilling history struggle to understand the obscurities of mineral laws . . . (more)

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News With a Sense of Humor: Bears in Lake Tahoe

This article appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev.—In hot pursuit of a notorious burglar along the shores of Lake Tahoe this year, Carl Lackey organized a night patrol to catch the perp. His tools included a fire extinguisher, pepper spray and two dogs that respond only to commands in Russian.

“These dogs were bred to hunt,” says Mr. Lackey, 45 years old.

Mr. Lackey’s nemesis: a 700-pound black bear dubbed Bubba.

The bear has been a longtime target for Mr. Lackey, a biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife. Recently, his quest search took on greater urgency . . . (more)

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Digging Deeper: Toxic Sites in Silicon Valley

This article appeared in the Bay Area section of the Wall Street Journal. 

EAST PALO ALTO—Silicon Valley is home to one of the nation’s heaviest concentrations of toxic-waste sites. The costly effects of the region’s tainted industrial past can be seen in this city’s eastern outskirts.

Here a residential neighborhood sits 2,000 feet from a toxic-waste site once used as a chemicals-processing plant run by Romic Environmental Technologies Corp . . . (more)

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Spot News: Nabbing Counterfeiters

This article appeared in the A section of the Wall Street Journal. 

SAN FRANCISCO—Fisherman’s Wharf here has long been one of the West Coast’s major tourist destinations. Federal officials said Tuesday it also served as a major hub for the sale of counterfeit designer goods.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Justice said they charged 11 people with trafficking in counterfeit items that were allegedly smuggled from China and offered for sale through eight Fisherman’s Wharf shops     . . . (more)

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