You can find links to my most recent work, published in The Star-Ledger, on my Google Reader page.

For those who don’t want to click a link to click a link, here’s direct links to a few of the pieces I’m particularly proud of:

Community FoodBank of N.J. hiring due to increased demand

Hillside couple caught in mortgage scam finds a potential savior

Summit support group for families with autism to expand

I’ve been amiss from this blog.

In the last five months, I have graduated from the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, worked as a freelance designer at The New York Times, moved from Greenpoint, Brooklyn to Jersey City and started as a staff reporter for the New Jersey Local News Service, which provides content to the Star-Ledger and nj.com.

You can find most of my recent work here.

Check out this piece I wrote for nbcnewyork.com.

Last Friday night, I stumbled on This is Only a Test, a new program from WFUV. The host, Rich McLaughlin, played a track by Bushwick’s The Menahan Street Band – a collaboration of artists from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, El Michels Affair, Antibalas and the Budos Band – during the show which served as a great soundtrack for my drive along Vernon Boulevard in Queens. I suggest you check both the band and the program out – on air or online.

Check out this article Arienne Thompson and I put together for USA Today.

September 19, 2008

Historical evidence weaves a tale of courtship between the stock market and presidential elections – where the former responds to the rhythm of the latter – but in an economy plagued by the subprime fallout, Wall Street might buck the trend.
The year prior to a presidential election normally courts a bull market. In the first six months of 2008, however, the markets suffered a loss greater than any presidential election year since 1940, according to data culled by InvesTech Research, a Montana-based financial research firm.

The more recent implosion of the financial sector, including the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, collapse of Bear Stearns, government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and federal rescue of insurance giant AIG, exacerbated that already instable market; the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 504 points on Sept. 15 – the biggest one-day drop since the markets re-opened six days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
The Dow closed at 11,020 on Sept. 18, down almost 20 percent from the beginning of this year. Only four times over the last 116 years has the Dow failed to hit, or come within 5 percent of, the year’s high during the three months surrounding a presidential election, according to InvesTech. “There might be a small rebound in the markets,” said long-term investor and financial blogger Eddy Elfenbein, who authors CrossingWallStreet.com, “but the American economy is in pretty rough shape.”

Even if the markets do not bounce back in time to fit the trend, America’s bruised economy may steer this November’s election to reflect another pattern: the ousting of the incumbent political party when the Dow falls between August and Election Day. “To the degree that the economy is front and center in this election – I would weigh against the Republicans – I would weigh against the party in office,” said Brett Steenbarger, a clinical psychologist and trading consultant.
Steenbarger’s assertion rings true; a falling Dow has historically spelled defeat for the incumbent political party. Only three times since 1920 has the party in power stayed in the executive office when the Dow was down between July 1 and Election Day, according to InvesTech data. In this election, however, stockbroker Chris Hildebrant feels the level of uncertainty surrounding the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, could change the tide.
“People don’t know if Obama is ready – I think that’s adding a different level of uncertainly to this election,” he said. The latest polls have Obama and McCain in a statistical dead heat, which has investors gripped by the fear of the unknown. “Uncertainty is the thing that paralyzes the market,” said Hildebrant, adding that the close election is playing into the recent market activity.
Not until this Nov. 2 will Wall Street investors know how the then president-elect intends to handle financial regulation, military spending, health care development and energy policies, but even that clarification might not be enough to move the markets in a positive direction. Newly elected presidents tend to use the first years of their term to pass legislation that may sour the economy in the short run, but help in the long haul. Nearly half of the 18 bear markets of the past century have begun between 3 months prior and 12 months after a presidential election.
No matter who wins this election, it appears that current market movements will continue well into the next presidential term. “We really need clarity on how we will get out of this, and I’m not hearing that from either candidate – just lots of rhetoric,” said Steenbarger.

Elfenbein agrees. “I’m truly hearing a lot of hot air,” he said.

In 72 days I will be a master of journalism. Until then you’ll have to satisfy your craving for sassy Irish wit here.

You’ve read, heard and watched the stories of other single mothers, now share your own.

Leave your tale of managing finances with motherhood or other cost saving tips in the comments.

I brought my camera to the Baltimore music festival, and I was allowed in the press pit for Rodrigo y Gabriela and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. I took a ton of pictures – you can find a selection of the ones I deemed the best below, and find more after the jump.

Sharon Jones

Guitar picks portrait

Rodrigo Sanchez

Gabriela Quintero

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus

Art wall

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus

Hulahoops at Gogol Bordello

Hi. I disappeared for a while, but now I’m back.

I spent the last three months shuttling between northern Virginia and southern New Jersey – working as an editorial intern at USAToday.com’s Life section by day and a barista at my sister’s coffee shop by night – as well as finishing a few neglected projects, procrastinating a few new ones (master’s capstone, what?) and listening to Kanye West’s Graduation one too many times.

A few highlights of my time at USA Today: I covered the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore with Korina Lopez, sussed out the fashion of the Jonas Brothers with Arienne Thompson and worked with Whitney Matheson on her Pop Candy blog (my self-granted title: mistress of all things RSS, Wikipedia and social networking).

This friday marks the end of my internship and my time south of the Mason Dixon line. I return to New York at the end of August, when and where I will start my final semester at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism – you can find me there, or, as always, waiting for the G train.