Everybody shops, but the retail beat is about much more than going to the mall. We asked Ylan Q. Mui, who covers consumers and the economy at The Washington Post, to explain how and why.
Pulitzer winners David Barstow and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab headline this session at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference: Cracking Corporate Corruption at Wal-Mart. The duo’s investigation into corruption in the world’s biggest retailer won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.
The shrieks from roller-coaster cars and the splashes of flume rides are as much a part of the summer ambiance as the play-by-play of a baseball game and the whine of mosquitoes. And if you’re looking for a colorful story premise on just about any beat – technology, health care, personal finance, retail sales and [...]
A rash of headlines about hotel-related accidents and deaths makes one wonder if “staycations” will be gaining in popularity, and a look at safety concerns in lodgings and other vacation-related venues might be an interesting and informative twist on your summer tourism coverage. Recent reports of carbon-monoxide related deaths in the same room of a [...]
With yet another conference scandal stinging a government agency — this time it’s the Internal Revenue Service in the hot seat for spending millions on a jamboree for some of its workers — the contrarian in me has been wondering what would happen if all federal, state and local agencies curbed conference and travel activity. [...]
“Is your refrigerator spying on your eating habits?” That’s a headline I’m half expecting soon, as wave after wave of headlines about government surveillance emanate from Washington, D.C., and beyond. And as citizens reel from fresh news that their leaders are tuning in to cell phone conversations, or planning to collect DNA from people not convicted [...]
The farm bill limping along in Congress is back in the news again. The Senate is expected to pass its version of the legislation next week and then the bill would go to the House of Representatives. Studying the massive, five-year bill (an extension expires Sept. 30) is a big project, but you can likely [...]
Business writers sometimes encounter the summer doldrums, when there’s a lull in big corporate news, regulatory affairs and other drivers of financial news. By contrast, my ideas log is experiencing a touch of spring fever, with so many good story pegs hitting my desk and so little time to pursue them. So here – better short [...]
Food safety concerns have made news in recent days, from reaction to a Chinese conglomerate’s bid for the Smithfield meat processor to the halting of some grain shipments after genetically modified wheat was discovered growing illegally in Oregon. With those events in mind, and with summer often a season of tainted-food headlines anyway, you might want [...]
June is designated by some entity or another (I couldn’t determine which) as National Camping Month, and if you’ve got a touch of spring fever yourself, an outdoorsy angle might be just what you need for a fresh-air look at some of your region’s leisure-economy drivers. It’s hard to beat camping and boating stories for [...]
