Berkshire Billionaire No Fan of Charity, Tells Poor to ‘Suck It In and Cope’

Warren Buffett’s right-hand man lashed out at government handouts while also praising the bailout in a speech at University of Michigan. Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman Charlie Munger and his longtime business partner Warren Buffett apparently do not see eye to eye when it comes to charity. In 2006, Buffett donated pledged 85% of his $40 [...]

Read Full Post »

World Cup: Rethinking Video Replays

This piece, which was originally intended for the Goal Post, has inadvertently confirmed one of the oldest stereotypes about The New Republic. As media critic Brendan Nyhan describes it, TNR has a tendency to elevate “the ‘surprising’ and ‘counter-intuitive’ article above all else.” Well, this was from the actual rejection email I got from a [...]

Read Full Post »

Shame on Harvard?

After spending more than three years in the English department at Harvard University, Adam Wheeler was found out. He had been expelled from my alma mater, Bowdoin College, in 2005 during his freshman year. Wheeler now, days before graduation, has been arrested for “20 indictments charging him with larceny, identity fraud and falsifying documents,” according [...]

Read Full Post »

The American Prospect: Hypocrisy for a Good Cause?

This is my third post on a topic of my choice for the Prospect‘s writing test (and the favorite of my sister, who graciously helped to copy edit my submissions). I give a Minnesotan take on the Oracle of Omaha in this piece. The first TAP test post had a green angle, the second talked [...]

Read Full Post »

The American Prospect: Learning From Greece

This is my second post on a topic of my choice for The Prospect‘s writing test. The first is here. If you had asked me last week what lessons the US can learn from the Greek crisis, I would have only said, “don’t ask Goldman for debt advice.” Then over the weekend I read an [...]

Read Full Post »

The American Prospect: Job Openings for Inspectors General

The Prospect liked my previous pieces enough that they gave me the opportunity to take a follow-up writing test. This time around, they requested that I pitch a story for the mid-term elections and write three posts that could have been featured on the magazine’s group blog TAPPED. For the blog pieces, which I am [...]

Read Full Post »

Art on Ice, With an Activist Twist

“Climate change means culture change.” That is the message Dutch sculptor Ap Verheggen is trying to communicate via CoolEmotion, a project he co-founded with the support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The first sculptures created by the project’s team of artists—two massive, stylized dogsled whips—were installed in March on an iceberg currently located just [...]

Read Full Post »

The American Prospect: Using Republicans To Pass Financial Reform

This was a self-selected Prospect article critique for my application to their fellowship program. See this post for more information. They probably won’t vote for it. But by including GOP ideas in the finance bill, Democrats can make it difficult for Republicans to effectively campaign against it. Tim Fernholz believes the best strategy for Democrats [...]

Read Full Post »

The American Prospect: Don’t Ignore Inequality

For The American Prospect‘s excellent (and highly competitive) fellowship program I had to submit two article critiques and a critique of their group blog TAPPED, among much else. This article critique was assigned, the second critique is of an article I selected for myself. I’m still waiting–with fingers crossed–to hear back from the Prospect. To [...]

Read Full Post »

Inside EPA: Coal States vs. the GAO

This was a wonky writing sample I did after my fourth interview with Inside EPA, a subscription investigative newsletter put out by the Inside Washington Publishers group. In the end, I was disappointed when the publishers decided they wanted someone with more newsroom experience, but I am still proud of the writing I submitted. States [...]

Read Full Post »