APF Staff

Lee van der Voo has been signed by Palsgrave Macmillan to do a book based on her APF research, “Sharecroppers of the Sea.”The working title for the book is “The Fish Market.”

Good News for Science and Environmental Writers A newly endowed fellowship for science and environmental writing is being established this year under a gift by the Cissy Patterson Foundation, of Washington, D.C. The gift of $500,000 will allow the Alicia Patterson Foundation to designate a journalist with an environmental or science writing project as the annual Cissy Patterson fellow. The Alicia Patterson Foundation’s fellowship program is now in its 50th class of fellows. Journalists receiving an Alicia Patterson fellowship receive $40,000 yearly to pursue an independent project of vital interest. Fellows complete four reports, which are distributed through the Patterson foundation and through the Investigative News Network. Cissy Patterson was the publisher of the Washington Times-Herald. Her niece, Alicia Patterson, was the founding publisher and editor of Newsday. The board members of the Cissy Patterson Foundation established the fellowship in recognition of her career in promoting serious journalism. Applications may be downloaded at www.aliciapatterson.org or by writing to the Alicia Patterson Foundation at 1100 Vermont Ave. NW Suite 900, Washington, DC 20005. The annual deadline

The Daily Beast The Louisiana Nazis Who Courted Steve Scalise 1-03-15by Jason Berry Kenny Knight and Howie Farrell, the two men at the heart of the Steve Scalise scandal, were well known in Louisiana politics as longtime operatives of Duke’s Holocaust-denying hate machine. In 1989, a newly registered Republican in Louisiana named David Duke won his only election by a fluke. That year, a state representative in Metairie, an affluent Jefferson Parish suburb just across the line from New Orleans, vacated his seat to become a judge. The off-year special election into which Duke threw himself drew little media notice at first. Duke, who touted himself as a pro-life fiscal conservative, was known as an ex-Klan leader; he eschewed overtly racist language and instead pointed to crime in the city, criticizing affirmative action and minority set-asides. He landed in a runoff with John Treen, a silver-haired homebuilder, GOP stalwart and brother of the state’s first Republican governor, Dave Treen, who had left office in 1983. Media coverage failed to probe the depth of Duke’s ties

The National Association of Science Writers honored Hillary Rosner (APF’11) with its Science in Society Award on Oct. 1. The award was for a story, “The Color of Bunny,” that appeared in 2012 in the High Country News and in the APF Reporter and was based on Rosner’s APF project on evolution. The awards committee noted that the article “describes Rosner’s field trip with University of Montana biologist Scott Mills, in which the biologist gathered data for his field study of how the semi-annual color change in snowshoe hares may be affected by climate change.” Of Rosner’s article, the judges said “This totally engrossing and engaging report from the field artfully describes efforts to better understand a biological phenomenon critical to animal survival, namely seasonal camouflage….While the story focuses mainly on a local, Montana-forest-dwelling population of snowshoe hares it also serves as a springboard for a broader-lensed discussion regarding conservationist ideas for dealing with climate change’s coming impact on ecosystems.” The full press release is here: http://www.nasw.org/2013-science-society-award-winners You can find her full APF Reporter article

The New York Times featured a book review on 2007 Fellow Miriam Pawel’s recent book “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez.” You can read the full review here: Miriam Pawel review.