This Portland Press Herald story exposed the Portland city government’s practice of requiring property owners to clear the sidewalks adjacent to their properties while not clearing the ones adjacent to its own properties, leaving them dangerously slippery. It includes an interactive map showing the city properties that residents had complained about. Read the full story here. Continue reading Portland can fine you for not clearing your sidewalk. So why are the city-owned ones so icy?

The name suggests some kind of macabre theatrical event, but the Anchorage Death Cafe is anything but morbid. It’s the latest chapter of the global Death Cafe movement, in which ordinary people organize free, informal meetings to “eat cake, drink tea, and discuss death.” This feature story appeared in the Anchorage Daily News on Nov. 8, 2013. Read the full story here. Continue reading Mortality and hot chocolate on tap at Death Cafe