After maneuvering their way through the dense crowds of onlookers hoping to witness the convoy carrying Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Beena Sarwar (at left), Class of 2006, and Absar Alam, Class of 2005 were rewarded with an interview atop her truck. Bhutto returned to Pakistan on October 18 after almost nine years of self-exile. Read more
Washington Post reporter Salih Saif Aldin was recently killed in Iraq while covering a story for his newspaper. More than 100 Iraqi journalists have died since the start of the Iraq war. New York Times reporter Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi, Class of 2008, talks about the danger of covering a nation in battle, especially for Iraqis who work for the international media. Read more
Thirty years ago, the commissioner for Major League Baseball barred Melissa Ludtke — then Sports Illustrated reporter and 1992 Nieman Fellow — from the locker room during Game 1 of the 1977 World Series. Read more
Ayelet Bechar’s award-winning documentary will be screened on Sunday, Sept. 30, at the Boston Palestine Film Festival. The film follows the plight of two married Palestinian couples who are not allowed to live together legally in Israel because of its new Law of Citizenship. Read more
EXPOSÉ goes inside an extraordinary investigation that unearthed hidden court records to reveal evidence of multiple victims of child sexual abuse, raising questions about some of the most cherished institutions in Idaho Falls. Dean Miller, Class of 2008, is the managing editor of the Idaho Post Register, the paper that ran an investigative series revealing years of alleged pedophile abuse by local Boy Scout leaders. Read more
Cecilia Alvear, Class of 1989, recently attended a screening of highlights of Ken Burns "The War," and I found it "stunning, moving and sadly incomplete. Alvear notes that Burns managed to leave the half million Latinos that fought in World War II out of the PBS documentary. Read more
Aboubakr Jamai, the former publisher of the independent weekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire and member of the Class of 2007, spoke passionately about the need for change in Morocco’s press at an event co-hosted by the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press. A frequent palace critic, Jamai was sued for defamation at home. Read more
After 25 years at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jim Boyd — Class of 1980 — has begun a new venture where hard news and opinion meet: he's Minnesota Monitor's new editorial mentor. Charged with helping shape the vision and scope of the site's coverage, he'll be working to improve the writing and news sense of its journalistic fellows. Read more
John William "Jack" Kole died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington County after an apparent heart attack. He was Washington bureau chief for the Milwaukee Journal from1970 to 1989, and press secretary for Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) until retiring in 1997. Read more
Anthony Day, a longtime editorial page editor of The Los Angeles Times who helped transform the paper into a respected voice in national affairs, died Sunday at a hospice in Santa Fe, N.M. He was a member of the Class of 1967. Read more