Thanks for Nothing

This profile of Specialist Jon Town set off a firestorm when it was published April 2007. 

While serving in Ramadi, Iraq, Town was knocked unconscious by a 107-milimeter rocket.  Though the blast left him with significant hearing loss, he was denied disability benefits after the Army claimed his symptoms came from a pre-existing personality disorder.

The article spurred 31 senators to call for an investigation and led to Congressional hearings in July 2007. 

Taking His Case to Washington

In Part II of my personality disorder series, Specialist Jon Town heads to Washington, where he tells a Congressional committee how he won the Purple Heart and was then denied disability and medical benefits.

We hear from Senator Kit Bond, Congressman Bob Filner, rock icon Dave Matthews and others who have reached out to the wounded soldier.

The article also includes interviews with Army doctors who say wounded soldiers are routinely misdiagnosed. 

The Talking Treatment

This article is a first-person look at my struggles with epilepsy — and the groundbreaking medical research that helped me get well.

This research and the treatment techniques derived from it, developed by psychologist Donna Andrews and Harvard-trained neurologist Joel Reiter, have led to critical discoveries about the nature of epilepsy which have yet to reach the public.

The product of several years of research and reporting in my own right, this article served as my master's thesis for the Columbia School of Journalism. 

Miracle or Science?

In the weird world of Utah, the line between miracle and science can indeed be a thin one. Certainly it was natural to ask that question after meeting Brooke and Bree Hansen, two identical twins as far as their friends and neighbors knew.

Only, as it turns out, Brooke and Bree are of no genetic relation whatsoever.  What are the chances, then, that the two girls would look identical?

"We're talking about one out of all the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world," said Professor Terry Schwaner, an expert in population genetics. 

Removing Blasphemy from the Sales Pitch

It was fascinating to learn the role Utah plays in national advertising, as a kind of moral bottom line that major corporations would monitor and refuse to cross.

This article tells the story of two companies that did cross that line — one by accident, the other on purpose - and the disastrous consequences both faced as a result. 

Helping Them Stand

Olympic High is a run-down continuation school just east of San Francisco, and it was heart-wrenching to watch the kids try to make it amidst the poverty and drug addiction.  Stand, a respected non-profit organization, had been reaching out to Olympic's students, until they were forced to curtail their outreach program due to budget cuts.

This article follows one of Stand's last missions at Olympic High and looks at the difference they were making in the lives of the students. 

Art of the Repulsive

There's something both horrifying and human about John Slepian's fleshy blobs.  When I met him, Slepian was fresh off an obscenity controversy at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art and on the verge of artistic celebrity in New York, facts which made him ripe for a profile.

Presented here: a look at the artist and some of his best work. 

Alien at the Office

If ever anyone explored the terrain between genius and banality, it was Lars Tunbjörk.  Tunbjörk's photos take a while to "get," but look at these pics of empty office cubicles long enough, and there is something there.

His photos had won several prizes and captured the attention of Soloarte, a prominent London-based art magazine, when the publication asked me to produce this profile of Tunbjörk for its October 2004 issue. 

Don or Don Quixote?

Of all the characters I've put on paper, Lou Marracci is perhaps my favorite.  By the time we met, he was already well-known at the Contra Costa Times (and to the San Francisco Bay Area at large) for his passionate, rambling letters to the editor.

When I suggested to my editor that I cover Marracci's latest crusade — to bring bocce ball to Lafayette, Calif. - she broke out in a warm smile.  "Sure," she said.  "Go ahead." 

Defense Begins in Trial of

Landlord Accused of Murder

It was a gruesome case: a little girl burned to death in a Brooklyn apartment building that had no fire escapes and no functioning sprinkler system.  Soon after, the landlord, Antonio Casanova, was charged with intentionally setting the blaze.

This is coverage from Casanova's murder trial. 

New York Governor's Race

Come along on the campaign trail with New York gubernatorial candidate Scott Jeffrey.  The Libertarian leader and I hit the streets of Manhattan.

I watched as Jeffrey, a kind but inept figure, bumbled his way towards an electoral conclusion that seemed all but preordained.