Alex Johnson – Journalist at Large

An analog journalist in a digital world

Posts Tagged ‘msnbc-com

Reporting: Hundreds of millions in Katrina funds remain unspent

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Destroyed Louisiana home/AP fileFive years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed more than 200,000 Louisiana homes, the state program established to help families rebuild still hasn’t paid out more than three-quarters of a billion dollars and has come under fire from a federal judge for discriminating against black homeowners.

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com and Kiran Chawla/WDSU)

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August 20, 2010 at 12:20 pm

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Portrait of stabbing suspect emerges

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My profile of serial stabbing suspect Elias Abuelazam: Quiet and friendly — until he would explode:

“Abuelazam grew up in a well-to-do Christian Arab family in the city of Ramle, Israel, where former neighbors and acquaintances described him as a shy, quiet geek who fell in with the wrong crowd. They said he eventually fell prey to drugs and ‘criminal elements,’ which led his single mother — his father is reported to have died when Elias was very young — to send him to the United States, where many relatives now live. He arrived sometime around 1995.”

Full post (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com)

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August 13, 2010 at 9:48 am

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Reporting: Branded! Public schools court corporate sponsors

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Hempfield High School softball fieldSchools across the country are dropping their resistance to advertising, selling the rights to name their facilities to local businesses as education budgets fall further behind in the stagnant economy.

That’s why field hockey and lacrosse players at Hempfield High School in Landisville, Pa., practice and compete on Heart of Lancaster Hospital Turf Quad. At Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., the baseball team plays at SmileMaker Dental Field. At Wilson High School in West Lawn, Pa., the basketball teams compete at Discovery Federal Credit Union Gym.

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com)

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Written by Alex

August 6, 2010 at 6:33 am

Follow me on Facebook

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If you’re no fun and would rather keep track of just my professional writings and recommendations, you can “like” my Facebook work fan page: Alex Johnson – msnbc.com. (This is for those of you who don’t like borderline SFW weird cops stories and such.)

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August 5, 2010 at 1:39 pm

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Reporting: Arizona immigration law has echoes across U.S.

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Arizona officers on Thursday began enforcing the state’s new immigration law — what’s left of it, anyway. In the small town of Fremont, Neb., they’re not even bothering.

Arizona and Fremont are at the forefront of the movement by state and local governments to get tough with illegal immigrants, rather than rely on the federal government’s efforts to address the problem. But they are learning that simply passing a law is far from enough.

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com)

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July 29, 2010 at 10:02 am

Reporting: Utah close to determining whether state resources used in immigrant list

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Utah officials said they were close to identifying the possible source of a mysterious list purporting to identify 1,300 illegal immigrants, acknowledging that a state employment database compiles all the information cited in the document — a database available to more than a thousand state employees.

UPDATE 8 p.m. ET: Utah officials now say they have found evidence the state Workforce Services Department database was breached and will turn the evidence over to the attorney general’s office.

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com with KSL-TV)

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Written by Alex

July 15, 2010 at 10:49 am

Original reporting: He did the right thing; now he faces deportation

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It’s called Section 287(g), and it means local police can enforce federal immigration laws. That’s why an illegal immigrant from Mexico faces deportation after he did the right thing and called 911 to report a dirty cop.

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com)

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May 26, 2010 at 7:20 am

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Reporting: U.S. split over Arizona immigration law

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Arizona’s tough new immigration law has brought calls for boycotts of the state, but similar measures are in the works in at least 12 other states.

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com)

Interactive: Reaction around the world

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May 13, 2010 at 8:44 am

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Reporting: In adult films, condom question twists plot

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California’s efforts to mandate the use of condoms in adult videos shot in the state has divided the pornography industry and made allies of seemingly strange bedfellows — a leading AIDS organization that says it doesn’t care about the morality of porn and a former adult actress who has made it her mission to shut down the industry.

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com)

Written by Alex

April 30, 2010 at 6:39 am

Reporting: New ways of counting leave U.S. Census behind

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India’s massive census, the biggest under way in the world, could mark a turning point away from door-to-door surveys toward real-time database-driven counting. That could leave the United States far behind.

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com and Shereen Bhan/CNBC-India)

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April 9, 2010 at 9:20 am

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