Suddenly with less than a week left on the debt-ceiling countdown clock, the rhetoric has heated up, with “ticking time bomb set to rip through Wall Street next week” only one of the analogies heard on the morning news shows Tuesday.
As if there isn’t enough vacant commercial real estate on the market these days (Borders’ book stores, anyone?), the United States Postal Service plans to close another 3,653 locations, according to an advance tip from this Wall Street Journal blog post. The list of locations under study for closure is available at www.usps.gov. Now might [...]
Call it a cross between the old Al’s Morning Meeting on Poynter and #muckreads on ProPublica – but only for business stories. That’s what I hope to create – with your help – using my Twitter feed: @LindaAustin_ I’ve been contributing business-story ideas and recognizing well-done business stories as part of the Reynolds Center’s Twitter [...]
Marley Shebala of the Navajo Times drives 45 minutes a few times a year to a reservation community in her coverage area. When she makes the trek, she checks for new businesses and construction projects. She introduces herself to everyone and hands out business cards – even to those who’ve received them in the past.
Her connections in that community led her to a story about an MBA graduate who’s taking a different route. The story was recently recognized as best feature in the Native American Journalists Association’s competition.
As a budding business reporter of Ugandan origin, I find the gaps in reporting on Africa and other emerging markets a little too glaring, even at a time of renewed global interest in the business potential of those areas. In my quest to find what opportunities these new markets open up for business journalists in [...]
Gold closed at another record Friday, up to $1,602.70 per troy ounce. That means it’s probably time to polish up a new angle to the precious-metals story, since readers probably will be wondering what this means to them. It’s hard not to, with hucksters hyping the price hike at every turn. Just in the last [...]
Ylan Q. Mui of The Washington Post has a knack for unearthing off-the-beaten-path stories. “I don’t have a big secret for finding uncommon stories other than keeping your eyes and ears open!” Ylan says.
I previously featured her story about the men’s underwear index, an unusual economic indicator. This time, she’s alerting readers to the “fourth bureau,” which collects personal financial data beyond what the three big credit bureaus collect.
A number of big retailers are trumpeting plans to ease the lack of fresh produce and other healthy options in the nation’s “food deserts” following an announcement by Mrs. Obama at the White House on Wednesday. Wal-Mart and other chains have pledged to open outlets in urban and rural areas where low-income people have little [...]
