I have spoken with undocumented immigrants, ridden blind horses, and learned stories of refugees. Below is a sampling of my work. Click on an image to learn more about the story and access links to read the story online or download the print version. Or if you'd prefer to just get the hits, you can download three clips here. Listen to audio I've recorded and watch videos I've produced at the bottom of the page.
This story won the 2017 Cleveland Press Club's award for the Best Magazine Feature in Ohio.
On a late summer day in 2015, I found myself skimming a list of top football recruits in the country, hoping to find a Cincinnati-based athlete with an interesting story. That's when I saw the name Prince Sammons, listed as a 6-7, 275 pound defensive end. A quick search led me to an article in The Cincinnati Enquirer about Prince being a water boy for his high school team before turning into a force on the field. The article also briefly mentioned the death of his parents in Nigeria and subsequent journey to America and, eventually, adoption by a young couple in Morrow, Ohio. Immediately, I thought there had to be something more to the story.
After meeting Prince and his father Brandon, they agreed to let me shadow Prince for the entire football season. From September until late November, I attended every one of Prince's games, watching from the sidelines and acting as a fly-on-the-wall in the locker room. I spent as much time with Prince and his family as possible, going to school events, family dinners and cookouts, and charity auctions. Brandon and his wife Betsy opened their home to me on numerous occasions and we spoke for countless hours. Eventually, Prince opened up to me to. I ended up interviewing more than 30 people to understand the complicated subjects in play with this story, from AAU basketball to Nigerian culture to child trafficking. The result is a story that I'm proud of and one that I hope does Prince's story justice.
PARA UNA VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL DE ESTA HISTORIA, HAGA CLIC AQUÍ.
As the national conversation about immigration grew louder following the 2016 election, I wanted to take a local look at the issue. Terms like Sanctuary City had been lobbed around and rhetoric was becoming more divisive, but there were too few people talking to those actually affected. So I sought out immigrants, from citizens to undocumented immigrants to those deported, to tell their story.
In the process I met Maribel Trujillo Diaz, a mother and wife who was deported to Mexico after more than a decade living in the region. I met the Avila family and listened as a father relayed how he has never once exceeded the speed limit for fear of a ticket resulting in his deportation. I spoke with a longtime Cincinnati resident who was born in Mexico and now fights for the rights of immigrants.
This is their story.
Illustration by Megan Scherer
This story originated with a summary judgment of more than $500 million dollars. When I heard the figure, which is believed to be one of the largest judgments in Kentucky state history, I looked into the case. What I discovered was a family dispute more than 30 years in the making. Money and power ripped apart a powerful Kentucky family and I wanted to understand how.
I reported this story by poring over thousands of pages of court documents. (The case was more than a decade in the making, so there was plenty of material to discover.) Then, I consulted lawyers and family members and learned about the not-so-pretty business of animal rendering.
The result is a detailed account of how money and power can dissolve relationships.
After being engrossed by coverage of the global refugee crisis in The New York Times, I thought that there had to be some way to localize the story. My lingering thought was, basically, who is responsible for resettling the refugees when they arrive in a city? Turns out, at least in Cincinnati, that responsibility falls to a small team within Catholic Charities Soutwestern Ohio. As I was planning the April feature package, which examined Cincinnati's religious identity, I thought explaining how this religious organization works in conjunction with the federal government would make for an interesting angle. So I met with the team at CCSWO, spoke with a resettled refugee, and learned about the painstaking process of refugee resettlement.
(Also, yes, I did manage to work a Fugees lyric into the headline.)
The collision between Pete Rose and Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star Game is an iconic baseball moment. With the All-Star Game coming to Cincinnati again in 2015, I interviewed the main characters behind the play. In total I spoke with nine players and one umpire, and their recall of the play was remarkably similar. Save for a few scant details, they didn't remember a thing about that game, except for that collision. They shared their memories of the events that preceded and followed those 10 seconds.
Cincinnati has a tortured history with professional soccer teams. More than a few franchises have left as quickly as they arrived, but FC Cincinnati was determined to break the spell. With that history in mind, I came into this piece skeptical of their chances. But after talking with the general manager and head coach, I came away impressed by the organization. They have serious financial backing, a household name on the sidelines, and a hungry fan base. If FC Cincinnati doesn't work, soccer in Cincinnati might just be doomed.
The idea behind this piece was to take a snapshot of a variety of neighborhoods within the city limits of Cincinnati. So I submitted public records requests, analyzed census data, and calculated information from surveys in an effort to explain the statistical realities of different neighborhoods as opposed to their public perceptions.
