Bernice Yeung

I have a few new stories out. Beating back RSI, so this is mostly going to be a cut-and-paste job…

Through two mayors, connected island developers cultivated profitable deal

This ran as part of an 8-page section on the redevelopment of Treasure Island in the inaugural issue of the SF Public Press. Featuring stories by Jeremy Adam Smith, Christopher Cook, Victoria A. Schlesinger, Alison Hawkes and yours truly. If you like what you read, you can go to Spot.Us and support the project by donating directly or filling out a brief survey that will send a $7 credit our way. Support independent journalism, people!

Also:
Retail Stars and Rental Prospects
Bayfair Center devises a clever program to assist entrepreneurs and
recruit tenants. Plus, specialty groceries.

The Sustainable Economies Law Center Wants to Help You Share
Janelle Orsi’s Sustainable Economies Law Center seeks to promote a
more humane economy.

Profits with a Purpose
Oakland’s Sustainable Economies Law Center helps social entrepreneurs
find creative legal fixes.

Can Health Care Treat Crime?
A growing national movement seeks to connect ex-offenders with health care services. Many people say it makes financial sense. Some say it can possibly reduce crime.

Journalism Innovations III came to a close today, and I’m happy to report that the Data to Diamonds workshop seemed to really resonate (standing-room only!). Thanks again to Burt Herman (Hacks/Hackers), Jim Morris (The Center for Public Integrity), Michele Horaney (MAPLight.org) and Len De Groot (Knight Digital Media Center) for making data analysis and visualization that much more accessible (and less scary) to all us hacks.

And while we’re on the innovations tip, Hacks/Hackers is putting together a “storytelling/hacking” event called Hacks/Hackers Unite from May 21-23 at KQED in San Francisco. The idea behind the project is to build the killer storytelling app for the iPad and other tablet devices. The best efforts will be featured on KQED’s web site.

And finally, some recently published stories:

Retail Is Detail Says Noah Alper
Serial entrepreneur and Noah’s Bagels founder believes even the most miniscule things are incredibly important.
East Bay Express | April 28, 2010

Oakland Rezoning Could Make Things Easier for Business
Small groceries won’t be treated like large supermarkets, and yoga studios and stadiums won’t be lumped together.
East Bay Express | April 28, 2010

Some Lawyers Want to Keep Debt Collection Out of the Courts
The New York Times | April 23, 2010

New Conditions of Probation
In Texas, one county’s experiment in evidence-based probation reform has cut recidivism and revocations, saved money and served as a model for other jurisdictions.
Miller-McCune | May/June 2010

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I’m putting together a panel on open data and data visualization on May 1 with a spectacular lineup of speakers (folks from Hacks/Hackers, Center for Public Integrity, MAPLight and Knight Digital Media Center). It’s part of the Journalism Innovations III conference that’s running from April 30-May 2, and it’s a pay-what-you-can event that’s open to journalists and the public. Hope to see you there!

Here are the details:

“Data to Diamonds: How to Mine Data, Build Maps, and Generate Great Story Ideas Along the Way”

Saturday, May 1

3:30-4:40pm

University of San Francisco

Registration at Fromm Hall

As more data, statistics and public records become digitally available, how do we begin to tell stories based on this material in a way that is easily understandable and useful to the public? This is a hands-on, skills-building workshop that will teach reporters how to:

*Locate and access digital data while also gaining a better view of how to gain access to information that still isn’t widely available

*Find narratives among the numbers

*Combine databases with storytelling

*Create visual representations of data using free web tools

Speakers:
Burt Herman, Hacks/Hackers (moderator)
Burt Herman is founder of Hacks/Hackers, a nationwide organization of journalists and technologists, and co-founder of Publitweet, a real-time curation platform. As a bureau chief and correspondent for The Associated Press for a dozen years, he reported from Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, the Middle East and the U.S. Burt was a 2008-9 Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University.

Michele Horaney, MAPLight.org
Michele M. Horaney APR is communications director at MAPLight.org. Previously, she was manager of public affairs at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Earlier in her career, she was an editor and reporter at the Marin Independent-Journal in Novato, CA, and at newspapers in Illinois. She is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America.

Jim Morris, Center for Public Integrity’s Data Mine Project
Jim Morris has been a journalist since 1978, focusing on public health, labor and the environment. He has won more than 50 awards for his work. He directs the Center for Public Integrity’s Data Mine project, which highlights federal data sets needlessly being withheld from the public.

Len De Groot, Knight Ditigal Media Center
Len De Groot is a Digital Media Trainer for at the Knight Digital Media Center at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Previously, he was the graphics director for WSFL-TV and the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in South Florida, created and directed news graphics for print, interactive graphics for the paper’s Web site and animated news graphics and packages for a morning television news show and television station promotions.

More information about the conference (including a downloadable schedule) is viewable here.

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Did I mention that this is a pay-what-you-can event?

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Now in its third year, Journalism Innovations is the West Coast’s premiere showcase for groundbreaking journalism ideas, media innovation and community networking. Produced by the Society of Professional Journalists-Northern California, Independent Arts and Media, The University of San Francisco, and the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, Journalism Innovations is playing a vital part in shaping the next phase of the industry.

This event, combined this year with the SPJ Region 11 Spring Conference, will bring in hundreds of working journalists, educators, advocates, citizen media-makers, inventors, recruiters, students and job seekers.  Join the leaders shaping the future of news. Register today, or sponsor to gain high-profile exposure for your organization! Visit the conference website or join our Facebook group for the latest details.

Download a schedule here.

BONUS! All attendees will be registered in a drawing to win free registration for this year’s national SPJ convention in Las Vegas.

DOUBLE BONUS! RemakeCamp unconference on intersection of media & technology follows immediately after JI3 on Sunday, May 2.

When: April 30-May 2

Where: University of San Francisco campus.

How much: Sliding scale. Register online today!

– via Society of Professional Journalists — Northern California.

SPJ Presents…

“Your Views on Local News”

A Town Hall Forum

Community members will have a chance to discuss their views about the local news with a dozen leading figures in journalism, education, business and politics at a town hall meeting produced by the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, on Thursday, March 25.

“Your Views on Local News – A Town Hall Forum” will take place from 5:30-7:30 pm in the Koret Auditorium of the main San Francisco Public Library in Civic Center. Admission is free.

We’ll discuss how the current crisis in the news industry creates opportunities for the public to help shape new kinds of journalism that contribute to a vibrant democracy. The conversation will explore strategies and business models for ensuring robust and reliable news coverage in a changing economic, technological and social environment.

Participants will include:

- Craig Aaron, senior program director, FreePress

- Mark Adkins, president, the San Francisco Chronicle

- David Callaway, editor in chief, MarketWatch.com

- Sandy Close, executive director, New America Media

- Paul Connolly, senior vice president, the TCC Group, manager of the Challenge Fund for Journalism

- Ron Dellums, Oakland mayor and former congressman

- Glenn Frankel, Pulitzer Prize-winning Stanford professor and former Washington Post London Bureau chief

- Lisa Frazier, publisher, Bay Area News Project

- Dr. Dina Ibrahim, assistant professor for Broadcast and Electronic Communications, San Francisco State

- Pat Kenealy, managing director, IDG Ventures SF

- Barry Parr, media analyst and entrepreneurial publisher, Coastsider.com

- Venise Wagner, Journalism Department chair, San Francisco State

Sandip Roy and Hana Baba of public radio station KALW-FM will moderate. The program will be recorded and broadcast by SFGTV, San Francisco’s government channel.

An overdue update…

As of January, I’m contributing to the Small Business Monthly of the East Bay Express. Some recent stories:
Joel Makower Q&A: Use Your Checkbook and Your Trash Can

Arizmendi Q&A: Running a Business With 26 CEOs

Neighborhood Revitalization Through Retail

Shoplifting? Or Organized Retail Crime?

I’m also doing a little writing for Shareable.net, and my first piece for the site is about the quiet revival of Throwing Muses via community-supported music.

In late January, I went to NYC as a Guggenheim Symposium Fellow via the John Jay College Center on Media, Crime and Justice, where I met a slew of amazing journalists and fascinating practitioners. As part of this fellowship, I’m putting a story together about probation for Miller-McCune magazine that’s slated to run in the May/June issue. John Jay also runs The Crime Report, and I have a story on the site this month.

And while we’re on the topic of what lies ahead, at a time where California public university tuition is reaching new highs, I’m working with investigative reporter Peter Byrne and Sacramento News & Review’s R.V. Scheide to look at where the University of California has chosen to make its financial investments. We’re funding this project via Spot.Us.

Later this month, I’ll be participating in a multimedia storytelling seminar via the Knight Digital Media Center for independent journalists—audio slideshows and digital mapping, here I come… And next week, I’m heading back to Los Angeles for Session 2 of the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

For the California Endowment fellowship, I have a story in the works that looks at the intersection between parolee health, public health and public safety (yes, a topic I’ve been chipping away at for a while now), and I spent the day with a chronically ill parolee who was released from San Quentin at 7am last Monday. I’ll post a link to the story here, so y’all come back again soon, y’hear?

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A couple recent print/online stories:

EAST BAY EXPRESS
Credit Card Issuers Say ‘I’ll See You In Court’

NEWSDESK
AIDS Cases Surge in California Prisons
(I wrote this story while participating in The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.)

I’ve also been working as a fill-in producer for KQED Public Radio’s Forum with Michael Krasny and recently worked on these programs:

KQED PUBLIC RADIO: Forum with Michael Krasny

Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009
Sanctions on Iran

Monday, Dec 14, 2009
Alameda Schools’ Controversial Anti-Bullying Plan

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SPJ NorCal’s looking for a few First Amendment rockstars. Check out this call for nominations, due January 9, 2010.

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The James Madison Freedom of Information Awards recognize Northern California organizations and individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of freedom of information and expression in the spirit of James Madison, the creative force behind the First Amendment.

The awards are presented at a ceremony in March during National Freedom of Information Week near the anniversary of Madison’s birth.  Eligible for nomination are Northern California journalists, citizens, media organizations, or community groups which, during 2009, have defended public access to meetings, public records, meetings or court proceedings or otherwise promoted the public’s right to know, publish and speak freely about issues of public concern.

Award Categories (awards may not be given in every category):
Professional Journalist, Nonprofit Organization, Source/Whistle Blower, Career Achievement, Citizen, Public Official, Educator, Cartoonist, Legal Counsel, Student Journalist, Electronic Access, News Media.

* The Professional Journalist and Student Journalist awards recognize journalists who have been involved in fights for access to records, meetings or court proceedings, who have made exceptional use
of public records in their reporting or who have promoted education on FOI issues through stories, editorials or other advocacy.

* The Public Official award is given to a governmental official who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to keeping public records or meetings public, or otherwise has taken exemplary leadership on FOI or First Amendment issues.

* The Beverly Kees Educator Award recognizes extraordinary efforts by educators to cultivate a devotion to the values of freedom of information.

* The Norwin S. Yoffie Career Achievement Award is named in honor of a stalwart supporter of the chapter’s Freedom of Information Committee, who died in November 2000 after many years of distinguished service to SPJ and the cause of freedom of information.

Deadline: Jan. 9, 2010

Apply here.

Questions: Please contact Mark Conrad or Rebecca Bowe at spjnorcalfoi@gmail.com.
Please include “James Madison Awards Question” in the subject line.

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