MONTEREY, California — It’s a matter of perspective, Laith Agha, one of the Monterey County Herald’s reporters, said as we drove back to the newsroom after making two unsuccessful attempts to find out more about a murder victim. I had gone with him to see how a US reporter works, and as it turned out, [...]
SALINAS, California — Believe it or not, there was a rather long power outage here in Salinas on Tuesday night that lasted almost seven hours. Salinas, located northeast of Monterey, is where my older brother works on weekdays (he drives home to his family in Los Angeles on weekends), and since this is close to [...]
MONTEREY, California — The average American journalist worries about job security, but most of them can avail themselves of packages that can help tide them over to the next job. They do not worry about getting killed, or being imprisoned for libel (it is a civil offense here, not criminal), or getting hit by a [...]
MONTEREY, California – So how does a US newsroom work? I’m pretty sure there is a great variety, but the smaller ones are represented pretty much by the Monterey County Herald. “Small,” of course, is relative: the Herald has a daily circulation of 25,000 (and 35,000 for its Sunday issue) for a population of 150,000, [...]
MONTEREY, California — On my second day in Monterey, Joe Livernois, the paper’s executive editor, took me to one of the “debates” the Herald is hosting for the purpose of choosing local candidates it will endorse in the November 4 elections. I found this unusual since not many Philippine papers endorse candidates, at least not [...]
MONTEREY, California — Before coming to the US to participate in the International Journalism Exchange (IJE), my notion of American newspapers was they were powerful, rich, and very influential entities that more or less got their way with anything. In many ways that is still true, especially when one compares the situation with the Philippines, [...]
MONTEREY, California – Before coming to the US, I had in my mind a picture of Americans being brash, rude, loud, impolite, and abrasive — the stereotypical “ugly American” that is almost universally perceived to be the norm these days. Don’t get me wrong: I have a lot of American friends in Davao City, and [...]
Kitchie (born Anna Katrina) Nadal doesn’t grab you as your usual alt-rock or pop princess. On the night I and a few other Davao City reporters interviewed her (that would be May 2), she was garbed in a plaid long-sleeved shirt (the blue-collar kind, something Bruce Springsteen would be comfortable in), jeans, wearing minimal bling [...]
“C is for cookie That’s good enough for me…” – Cookie Monster I don’t hide my love for Japanese food, particularly sushi and sashimi. In fact I call myself “Sushi Monster,” and my version of Cookie Monster’s song is, “S is for sushi, that’s good enough for me.” In a recent trip to Manila I [...]
I never met her, and the only time I heard about her was when she was declared missing last April 8, but there is a deep and profound sadness inside me at the passing of Julia Campbell, a Peace Corps volunteer who was found dead in Banaue on April 18, apparently the victim of yet [...]
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