PORTFOLIO OF WORK
My work reporting from the Middle East for the Associated Press has been published in newspapers around the world, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. Domestically, I have covered urban policy and government in metro Boston and local news in San Francisco. These are some of my favorite clips from my decade+ of journalism.
BAY BRIEFING: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE GILROY SHOOTING SO FAR
San Francisco Chronicle
Felton Amos had just finished eating dinner with his family at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday night when he heard what he thought were firecrackers.
“Everybody just ran, panicked,” he said. Amos pushed his family to the ground as shots rang out nearby.
SAN FRANCISCO LOOKING TO GUARANTEE MENTAL HEALTH CARE
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco clearly has a mental health and drug addiction crisis. We’ve all seen mentally ill homeless people wandering into traffic or screaming at nobody in particular. Others struggle with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues in a more private way.
CAUSES OF MORTALITY: OUR PERCEPTIONS VS. REALITY
Healthline
Understanding health risks can help us feel empowered. Death, as the old adage goes, is one of only two certainties in life (the second being taxes).
But when it comes to what actually kills us, are we really correct in our assumptions? As it turns out, no.
CARR FIRE’S HORRENDOUS TORNADO CAPTURED IN NEWLY RELEASED VIDEOS (VIDEO)
San Francisco Chronicle
Videos released Wednesday by California fire officials show the massive fire tornado that tore through Redding on July 26 as the Carr Fire entered the city. The tornado was 1,000 feet in diameter at its base — about the size of three football fields — and “surprised many highly experienced firefighters,” according to a report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.
COPD: FACTS, STATISTICS, AND YOU
Healthline
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a leading cause of death in the United States, affecting 16 million Americans and millions more who don’t know they have it.
It’s characterized by increasing breathlessness, with symptoms developing slowly. Though there’s currently no cure for COPD, it’s often preventable and treatable. The most common cause is smoking.
ISRAELI HACKERS RELEASE ARAB CREDIT CARD DETAILS IN CYBER ATTACKS
The National
Tit-for-tat cyber attacks between Israeli and Arab hackers escalated yesterday, as a shadowy Israeli group released the details of 4,800 Arab credit-card holders and tried to launch attacks on the websites of the UAE Central Bank and the Arab Bank Palestine.
MORE SUBDIVIDED VILLAS TO BE DEMOLISHED IN ABU DHABI
The National
Until about a month ago Majed Ali Mahmoud was living in a flat large enough to accommodate his family of six.
Now the Palestinian accountant shares a cluttered one-room flat with his wife and four children. His water comes from a hose snaked through his villa from a tap outside. And two giant holes where walls used to be are now covered by doors, a wardrobe, and other makeshift partitions.
UNPAID WORKERS ON STRIKE AT DH7BN REEM ISLAND PROJECT
The National
More than 400 employees on a Reem Island construction site have stopped work on a Dh7billion development nearly three months after they were last paid their monthly salary.
The labourers began the strike on Monday, stalling work on the Tameer Towers project on the 6.5million square-metre island.
ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN STONE STRUCTURES REVEALED BY GOOGLE EARTH
The National
In the 1920s, Royal Air Force pilots flying airmail routes from Cairo to Baghdad noticed something bizarre in the lava fields of Syria, eastern Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Dotting the bleak, barren desert landscape, hundreds of kilometres from anywhere, were thousands upon thousands of elaborate stone wheels, measuring up to 70 metres wide and visible only from the sky.
RALLY CONDEMNS ATTACK AT GAY YOUTH CENTER
Boston Globe | AP
Reeling from the worst attack ever aimed at homosexuals in Israel, members of the country’s gay community and their supporters rallied yesterday in the heart of Tel Aviv a day after a masked gunman killed two people at a center for gay youth and escaped.
EAST JERUSALEM LAGS BEHIND WEST AS SCHOOL BEGINS
San Diego Union-Tribune | AP
Thousands of children in Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods were kept out of classrooms on the first day of school Tuesday because of Israeli government neglect, activists and human rights groups said.
The Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem lack more than 1,000 classrooms needed to accommodate schoolchildren, according to the report issued by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Ir Amim, an Israeli nonprofit that promotes coexistence in the city.
TARANTINO EAGER TO SEE JEWISH REACTION TO NEW FILM
San Diego Union-Tribune | AP
Quentin Tarantino says the most important part of his first-ever visit to Israel is to gauge the Jewish audience’s reaction to his latest boundary-breaking film.
“Inglourious Basterds” tells the fictional story of a band of World War II-era Jewish-American soldiers turned vigilantes, who slaughter and scalp Nazi soldiers as retribution for the Holocaust.
BURNT BARN SITE ON WATERTOWN’S WASHBURN STREET HAS MESSY HISTORY
Watertown TAB
A massive blaze that destroyed a vacant building in a residential neighborhood last week is just the latest chapter in a long and tangled history for the site.
The property — composed of two lots at 30 rear Washburn St. and 53 rear Franklin St. — has a long history of industrial use and has been the focus of environmental efforts to clean up contamination since the 1990s.