NPR: Local/National Collaboration

Trains public radio news personnel in researching, reporting, producing, and editing local and regional stories.

The Austin scene

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: March 12, 2010

Even if you can’t make it to Austin for the big South by Southwest conference this week, there’s plenty going on online, including new (and free!) music, great ideas in social media and other ways to boost your business without spending a lot of cash, and innovative technologies to keep up with the kids these days. Here is some of what the public media crew is planning for the week:

EconomyStory will be hosting a panel on Saturday called Covering Big News on Small Budgets – something we think we know a little bit about by now! The panel recording will be made available online following the event.

To give a sense of what we’ll be talking about, check out this slideshow showing how public media covered some of the biggest events of the past year:

Former NPR producer’s Davar Ardalan previews SXSW Interactive in Austin with notes on speakers and activities:


PBS will be broadcasting live video interviews and updates from Austin, so you can keep up with all the panels online and on Twitter @PBS.

Austin NPR station KUT (Twitter @KUTAustin) has a comprehensive roundup of events and ideas. KLRU’s Austin City Limits is taping its first episode of the new season during the festival, with Cheap Trick in the studio on March 18. For more on music, NPR’s All Songs Considered previews the bands to watch over the next week.

You can follow all the Austin happenings on Twitter, too. All of the public media attendees will be adding their posts under the search: #pubsxsw. A list of SXSW speakers is here and I’ll be tweeting from @economystory and @laurahertzfeld. Yeehaw!

Also posted in Econstory, NPR: Aggregated Local News Feed, PBS: Video, PRX: Public Radio Archive, WNYC, Youth Radio: Youth Stories | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What’s Greek to us

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: March 9, 2010

Greece is in major debt and the ancient country is facing some very modern problems trying to get out. As a newer member of the eurozone, the European countries who have adopted the euro as their one currency, more financially stable nations like Germany and France are nervous about the implications coming to Greece’s aid.

NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff spoke with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou about what his country needs from the U.S. and how Greece got into its current financial situation.

Marketplace commentator David Frum of the American Enterprise Institute falls on the side of questioning the expansion of the eurozone. He notes that the weaker countries in the eurozone are making sacrifices to stay in the club, and this approach will not help them succeed in the long run.

These governments — and others in Europe — are accepting higher unemployment in order to defend their currency…And yet, while Spain’s socialist government has seen its poll numbers drop, neither Spain, nor Greece, nor Portugal, nor Ireland is experiencing serious public pressure to quit the euro.To the leaders of these countries, the euro means Europe, and Europe means prosperity, stability, democracy, and peace.

How will the Greek crisis affect your investments here in the U.S.? Nightly Business Report spoke with foreign exchange experts on why investors here should care.

Standard & Poors analyst Alec Young:
Europe and the UK represent about two thirds of overseas market capitalizations. So anybody that owns an international mutual fund or an international ETF, there’s a very good chance, if it’s broadly diversified, that they do have significant exposure to Europe and to the UK.

Some experts say that while Greece is having trouble and there is a threat to other struggling eurozone nations, the fears about the global economy’s stability as a whole are secondary.

NPR’s Corey Flintoff spoke with economist Joseph Stiglitz:

The Greek crisis has contributed to the general air of uncertainty in international financial markets… Greece is one of five euro zone countries now struggling with big national debts. “The major implications are for Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland and therefore in some sense for all of Europe,” says Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at Columbia University.
The problems in the euro zone could impact the U.S., too, Stiglitz says, especially if they dampen sales of U.S. exports to Europe.

Also posted in Econstory, Marketplace: Multimedia Series, NBR, NPR: Aggregated Local News Feed, NewsHour: Economic Patchwork Map, PBS: Video | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Who are you calling Shorty?

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: March 5, 2010

It’s Oscar weekend, but in the world of social media, a set of honors for a more prolific crowd went out this week – the Shorty Awards, which praise the best Twitterers on the planet. Some of the most impressive are from the world of finance, who’ve had some success in explaining the economic crisis in 140 characters or less.

The top six finance Twitterers include personal finance guru Suze Orman (@SuzeOrmanShow), debt help radio program The Dave Ramsey Show (@RamseyShow), finance blog site Mint.com (@mint), UK markets strategist Ashraf Laidi (@alaidi), LendingClub founder Rob Garcia (@robgarciasj), and finance site Bulls on Wall Street (@BullsOnWallSt).

How much of a difference can you make in 140 characters? The David Ramsey Show, which claimed second place in the awards reports on how listeners can learn to be debt-free and shares their stories on Twitter:

Blake: Total debt paid off by just those who got thru on the phones today on #TDRS = $876,000. Year to Date = $9,149,900

The popular personal finance blog Mint shares links to content on their main site over Twitter, like the pros and cons of offshore banking and the urban legends surrounding credit scores. But Mint also provides real-time news and advice solely on Twitter, like today’s project where they are retweeting savings tips from readers:

RT @ekmurphy: automatic savings plan helps build savings every time I get paid, not just at the end of the month when I look at what’s left

Outside of finance, but still in the realm of news in the public interest, The Diane Rehm Show @DRShow and Matt Laslo @MattLaslo of Capitol News Connection were both finalists in the news category. Washington, D.C. radio legend Diane Rehm shares inside views of her guests, like health care expert and NIH director Francis Collins, and asks listeners to answer questions on relevant news topics.

Matt Laslo at Capitol News Connection gives real-time updates from his reporting escapades on Capitol Hill. A recent adventure found him hearing about Texas Independence Day:

Did you know it’s Texas Independence Day? Me neither, until Cornyn (R-TX) started talking about it on the Senate floor.

Who are your favorite economics and news experts on Twitter? My favorites are listed here, on the @economystory bloggers list.

Also posted in CNC: Ask Your Lawmaker, Econstory, PRX: Public Radio Archive | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Under one roof, or none at all

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: March 1, 2010

The job shortage for recent grads is forcing more young people to think about alternatives to getting their own apartments after finishing college and going out into the “real world.” Often this means moving back in with their folks. But those who can move in with family are the lucky ones – homelessness has also increased with this recession.

In many countries, young people often live with their parents until they get married and start a family of their own. In this country, “moving out” has become a rite of passage, but that’s changing, as The Takeaway reports in Many Generations, One Roof: “President Barack Obama does it, and according to a study by the AARP, so do 33 percent of all 18-to-49 year olds.”

Having an extra person in the house can be more costly for parents. Smart Money magazine mentioned this phenomenon in a piece about renovations in the current economy, explaining that having a child move back into the house as an adult can necessitate expensive changes – such as redoing an attic or adding a bathroom.


And whether it’s a boomerang kid grounded by a tough job market or an aging in-law whose portfolio losses nixed her own housing plans, adults usually cohabitate best when everyone’s got some privacy. After all, who wants to bring a date home to a room that shares a wall with his parents or be woken at odd hours when Grandpa blasts his TV at full volume?

Making Sense: New England also has some tips for cheap home renovation:

But not everyone has that kind of back up plan. EconomyBeat struck a nerve this morning when it linked to a post by someone who’d turned to drugs and became homeless after losing his job.

I lived in California and worked for a startup in the tech industry. I was laid off and as a result of my depression, fell ‘deeper’ into my meth addiction as a way out. This caused me to lose my apartment, and 99% of my belongings.

And he’s not alone. Julie Rose at Charlotte’s WFAE reports on the homelessness problem in North Carolina and a survey that’s trying to get people off the streets.

There are about 6,500 homeless men, women and children in Charlotte. Advocates think some 500 of those people are chronically homeless, meaning they’ve been on the street for at least a year. But that was just a guess.

Also posted in Econstory, NPR: Aggregated Local News Feed, PBS: Video, PRX: Public Radio Archive, WNYC | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Health care reform around the country

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: February 26, 2010

It was hard to miss: The White House confab this week with the warring sides in Congress meeting over the heated issue of health care reform. National shows and local stations each weighed creative approaches to coverage:

KQED in San Francisco (home city of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has been a leading advocate of health care reform), put together a page for comments and a live blog of the event. The Sunlight Foundation provided a tool to track donations to members of congress Congressional representatives as they spoke during the summit.

Tennesee had three representatives in their delegation: – two republicans and one democrat, some open to compromise on the health care bill, and one, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who made the case as other Republicans did to “start from scratch,” as WPLN in Nashville, with Capitol News Connection reported .

Nashville is a hub for the health care industry, which doesn’t seem to be hurting as the health care reform debate continues. WPLN reported that four major health are providers in Nashville, including HealthStream, posted positive year-end financial results.

But the urgency of health care reform certainly hasn’t gone away with a few hours of debate at the White House. As WAMC in Albany, NY found, thousands of people in New York alone are at risk without some serious changes:

The failure to enact health care reform this year will lead in the next decade to approximately 13,900 premature deaths of people between 25 and 64 years old in New York according to a report released today by the consumer health group Families USA.

Similar stories are cropping up around the country. For a full video roundup of health care coverage, PBS has a collection of clips from Frontline, NewsHour and more.

Also posted in CNC: Ask Your Lawmaker, Econstory, KQED, NPR: Aggregated Local News Feed, NewsHour: Economic Patchwork Map, PBS: Video, Public Interactive | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment