In a few weeks, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will officially release the latest year’s Toxics Release Inventory. But as Reporter’s Toolbox explains, you can get ahead of the data — and possibly generate some scoops. That’s because EPA quietly releases incomplete preliminary data months earlier. Top tips on making sense of the early data, along with nine smart story leads.
Once it was mainly radio reporters who showed up with audio recording devices. But with smartphones now in virtually every pocket, many print journalists also record audio for increased accuracy and accountability. But there’s a problem — dreaded hours of transcribing. That doesn’t deter writer Steven B. Krivit, who has tips to make transcribing a breeze, in the latest Freelance Files.
This virtual course (eight Tuesdays beginning Sep 28), offered via the Social Documentary Network, is for photographers who are passionate about documenting our changing planet during these unprecedented times and want to use photography as a tool to drive social change. Instructor is Michael O. Snyder, recipient of Decade of Change Award, British Journal of Photography.
"The lions and tigers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo have tested positive for coronavirus, according to a Friday announcement from the zoo. Initial results from fecal samples have come back positive, but the zoo is waiting on final results to be confirmed with a national lab."
"Ms. Malmberg, 64, is a goat herder and a pioneer in using the animals to restore fire-ravaged lands to greener pastures and make them less prone to the spread of blazes."
"At the edge of a sandstone outcropping, Teresa Leger Fernández looks out on the Rio Chama. The river tracks a diverse landscape from the southern edge of the Rocky Mountains through rugged basalt hillsides, layers of volcanic tuff, and the red and yellow cliffs made famous by painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Here marks the genesis of New Mexico’s centuries-old tradition of sharing water through irrigation systems known as acequias."
"The recipe sounds simple: Improve drainage. Use plants, tanks and barriers to slow water. But it takes money and cooperation."
"Two journalists and an environmental activist have been beaten up by suspected illegal loggers in a forest in northeastern Romania while making a documentary about illicit deforestation, authorities said Friday."
"Construction on a 145-mile (233-kilometer) electricity transmission corridor in western Maine can continue while litigation proceeds over a 1-mile section that was leased by the state, a state Supreme Court justice ruled."
"A group of landmark giant sequoias has so far been spared by a blaze sweeping through a California national park, authorities said on Sunday."
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