Finding real people can be one of the hardest parts of journalism, but it is also usually one of the most rewarding and moving. So don't give up. Keep reaching out, and eventually someone will reach back.
More than a decade of research in the Salinas Valley of California - one of the most thriving agriculture regions in the world - has shed light on environmental hazards and their potential health risks.
As Obamacare outreach efforts ramp up around the country, the question on everyone’s mind is "who will enroll?" But those who are especially in the know wonder if "hard-to reach" people even know about the programs available to them.
Where you live—and who you are—plays a big part in how long you’ll live. If you live in poverty in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and you're Latino, you’re twice as likely to die prematurely as someone who is white and lives in an upper-class community.
Undocumented immigrants and lawfully present immigrants who’ve been here less than five years are the largest group excluded from health-care reform. They are not eligible to purchase insurance through the state exchanges and will continue to be excluded from Medicaid....
How could legislation designed to protect people from suspected cancer-causing compounds in furniture foam fail to pass? Experts say lobbying money had a lot to do with it. Here's how I tracked the millions of dollars spent by the chemical industry to defeat the bill.
When HIV/AIDS was thought of as a White, gay disease, it was often the suffering of Black patients that helped the world realize that it could affect anyone. Today, African-Americans remain the racial group most acutely affected by the epidemic.
Interested in covering veterans' issues? Poynter News University has a webinar for you. Also, take a look at this week's handful of opportunities in web reporting and editing.
At a Planned Parenthood clinic near Salinas, farm workers who plan to have children in the near future are learning to protect themselves against pesticide exposure on the job. "This is dangerous work," said Jessica Dieseldorff, a nurse practitioner who's heading up the pilot education program.
A few months ago, I conducted a seminar on using library resources for public health reporting. It was presented to students in the UC Berkeley School of Journalism's Reporting on Public Health class.
