Doctors Saved Her Life. She Didn’t Want Them To.
By Kate Raphael | Photographs by Kristian Thacker This story was originally published in The New York Times on August 26, 2024. Marie Cooper led her life according to her Christian faith. She baked pies for her neighbors in northern West Virginia, and said grace before even a bite of food. She watched Jimmy Swaggart,…
Read MoreDoulas hope to regain momentum as Covid restrictions ease
(Pictured above: Camille Thomas with her husband, Reuben Thompson-Amarteifio, and their son, Cameron, in front of their home in San Jose last year. Photo by Stephanie Penn ’21) This story appeared in The New York Times on July 26, 2021. By Sarah Hoenicke Flores (’19) When Camille A. Thomas began feeling labor pains, her first…
Read MoreA successful lifeline for Natomas students is feeling the strain
This story appeared in The New York Times on March 24, 2021. By Erin Chessin (’21) and Brett Marsh (’21) The Natomas Unified School District, a diverse, low-income community on the northern outskirts of Sacramento, is celebrated for its pioneering mental health program. The program, created after a student’s suicide in 2014, dispatches rapid response…
Read MoreCookies Help Bridge Barriers in Oakland
September 30, 2020 By Shuang Li OAKLAND — When Black Lives Matter protests erupted in downtown Oakland, Alicia Wong and her husband, Alex Issvoran, knew what they could do to support the protesters — make fortune cookies. Their company, the Fortune Cookie Factory, is one of the oldest family-run businesses in Oakland’s Chinatown. They…
Read MoreStrange Bacteria Are Attacking California’s Trout Supply
When an infection was detected at a hatchery, officials, already under statewide shelter-in-place orders, moved to institute a lockdown of their own. Sept. 29, 2020 JUNE LAKE, Calif. — On a Friday in late July, Tamara Jimenez waded into one of the many glimmering lakes dotting the Eastern Sierra. Behind her, on a small beach,…
Read MoreAn Update on Project Roomkey in Tuolumne County
A pandemic program publicized by the state faced challenges in implementation. By Tessa Paoli and Nina Sparling Sept. 21, 2020 Anita Nadolsky, 59, thought she had finally caught some luck. In May she became one of several dozen homeless people in Tuolumne County to get shelter through Project Roomkey, a much-publicized California program intended to move medically vulnerable…
Read MoreAn Interview With the Health Officer for Santa Cruz
Dr. Gail Newel has taken the heat as Santa Cruz went from being one of the safest coastal counties in the state to the site of a recent surge. Aug. 10, 2020 SANTA CRUZ — On a Sunday in mid-July, Dr. Gail Newel tried to take a “Covid Sabbath.” Dr. Newel, the Santa Cruz County…
Read MoreThey’re children at risk of abuse, and their caseworkers are stuck home
This story appeared on page one of The New York Times on August 7, 2020 By Garrett Therolf, Daniel Lempres and Aksaule Alzhan TOLLHOUSE, Calif. — In February, the child abuse hotline for Tollhouse, a small community in the Central Valley, received the first of several tips raising urgent concerns about the well-being of twin infant boys. Child…
Read MoreWhen your name appears on 1A of The New York Times for the very first time…
In Stockton, a Powerful Program to Prevent Violence
July 27, 2020 Julian Balderama’s daily mission, stated starkly, is to keep a dozen boys and young men in Stockton alive and out of jail. His official job title is “Neighborhood Change Associate” for a violence-prevention program called Advance Peace. But on the streets, Mr. Balderama is what is known as an “interrupter” — he…
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