Filipino-American Parol Lanterns

Aired on The California Report on December 23, 2011.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201112231630/c

Just a few blocks from San Francisco's shopping mania, the Bayanihan Community Center is filled with people engaged in a much more traditional activity -- hand-making star-shaped lanterns out of bamboo and tissue paper. During the Christmas season, many Filipino-American homes display the colorful star shaped lanterns called parols. Parols have a long history in the Philippines, but the holiday symbol isn't so well known in California. Now a community center in San Francisco is encouraging people to reconnect to this tradition, by making their own parols, and sharing them with the community.

Latinos and the "green economy" in Imperial County

Aired on Latino USA, the weekend of December 16, 2011.

http://www.latinousa.org/976-2/

In 2009, President Obama called for a New “Green” Deal… evoking Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930’s that dramatically expanded and changed America’s infrastructure. The goal of the Obama plan was to create millions of green jobs. But has that happened? And if so, has this “new deal” been for everyone?

In this piece, I revisit my reporting in Calipatria in Imperial County which sits atop abundant geothermal activity. It’s 80% Latino and has one of the country’s highest unemployment rates. But the people there hope this renewable energy resource will give it just the “green” economic boost it needs.

Salt Farmers in Mendocino

Aired on The California Report Magazine on Friday Dec 16, 2011.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201112161630/e

Bob LaMar really does take a boat 3 miles off the Mendocino Coast to harvest sea water (I know, I went with him!), and he and his wife Lora make salt and seasonings at their home salt shed in Gualala. The Mendocino coast, two total individuals, and salt. What's not to love?

Los Hilos de la Vida

Aired on Friday, November 25, 2011 on The California Report Magazine.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201111251630/c

Jesus, abortion, deportation, border issues. These are some of the stories told in quilts made by immigrant women in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley.

Curandero Chuck Garcia on Latino USA's Radio Nature.

Aired on NPR's Latino USA Friday November 4,2011.

http://www.latinousa.org/970-2/

and on The California Report magazine November 11, 2011.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201111111630/c

Chuck, who teaches classes on herbalism out of his Richmond home, let me come along on a "wildcrafting" trip in Marin County. He says he rejected the idea of becoming an herbalist like his mother and grandfather but, he says, "you can't escape who you are."

Mt. Maidu country, revisited

Aired on Living on Earth on October 28, 2011.
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=11-P13-00043&segmentID=3

A new version of the story of Mt. Maidu people working to gain formal stewardship of tribal lands.

Grapes of Wrath in Volcano, CA

Aired on The California Report magazine on Friday, October 28th, 2011.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201110281630/b

I visit a tiny Gold Rush town whose theater company staged a story written 70 years ago that is totally relevant today: The Grapes of Wrath.

Listen In at Log Cabin Ranch: Radio Diaries of Incarcerated Youth

This spring, I got to work with The Beat Within and inspirational co-teacher Will Roy. Each week we drove out to the hills of La Honda to meet with young men from San Francisco incarcerated at Log Cabin Ranch. We interviewed them, gave them a few pointers on collecting audio, and asked them to record diaries of their daily lives. They blew us away with their humor and honesty. These pieces aired in a series called Listen In at Log Cabin Ranch on New America Now on KALW. Here's the whole series:

http://newamericamedia.org/2011/09/nam-radio-log-cabin-ranch.php

Holtville Pauper's Cemetery

Aired the weekend of September 2, 2011 on NPR's Latino USA:

www.latinousa.org/961-2/

(scroll down, it's the third piece)

And on The California Report Magazine:

www.californiareport.org/archive/R201109021630/c

Pauper's cemeteries aren't new. They're where unclaimed and unidentified bodies, or those of families too poor to pay for funerals, are buried. But in the southeastern corner of California, in a small rural town called Holtville, a "John Doe" cemetery tells a larger story about the state, and nation. It's where the bodies of nearly 700 undocumented immigrants are buried -- immigrants who died trying to cross the border.

The Future of Small Town California part VI: Mt. Maidu Country

Aired on The California Report Magazine on July 29, 2011 (with a photo slideshow).

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201107291630/c

For this story in the series I headed up the Feather River to the mountains of Plumas and Lassen Counties. This story starts before towns we see on a map today even existed; before Greenville or Taylorsville, this land was filled with the villages of native Mt. Maidu people. But Gold Rush prospectors, developers and government agencies honed in on their land. Their population declined, and so did their access to the land for traditional practices. Now Mt. Maidu are now working to regain formal stewardship of their homeland.

With a reporter's notebook:

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201107291630/cx

Station-Indie "Do-si-do"

Published in the Association of Independents in Radio AIRblast, July 2011.

http://www.airmedia.org/PageInfo.php?PageID=669

I couldn't be doing my small town series if it weren't for the relationship I have with KQED's The California Report, and they wouldn't have reporting in some of the state's far-flung places without this series.

California Song: John Doe's "The Golden State"

Aired on The California Report on May 27, 2011.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201105271630/d

The Future of Small Town California Part V: Calipatria

Aired on The California Report on May 20, 2011

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201105201630/b

Calipatria is a town in California's southeast corner: Imperial County. Many of the town's residents rejoiced in April when Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a requirement that by 2020, the state get over 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. They hope the region's natural resources will lead this hard-hit county into economic recovery.

With a reporter's notebook:

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201105201630/bx

The Future of Small Town California Part IV: Avenal

Aired on The California Report evening magazine on March 18, 2011.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201103181630/d

With a reporter's notebook:

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201103181630/dx

In 1929, oil was discovered in the Kettleman Hills -- and the nearby town of Avenal was born. But by the 1960s, the oil business dried up, and Avenal struggled to find a new economy and identity. They found one, but in an industry most towns had previously shunned: a prison.

The Future of Small Town California Part III: Garberville

Aired on KQED public radio's The California Report on Friday, January 7, 2011.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201101071630/c

The Humboldt County town of Garberville is a thriving center of California's marijuana industry. For the past few decades, pot growing has gradually replaced logging and ranching as the economic engine there. We visit Garberville to learn more about the changing identity of a town underwritten by pot. Co-reported with Kym Kemp.