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Featured Articles

The articles here are, in my opinion, my latest and greatest works. I've chosen to showcase a set of my more recent articles that demonstrate my abilities to write in multiple genres, including hard news, feature, event coverage, long-form analysis and investigative work. This also showcases my favorite topics to write about, including the news itself, progressive politics and local solutions.

National Press Club Journalism Institute •

Local journalists have a new sourcegathering tool: Nextdoor

Taylor Cranwell once was tipped off to a possible story when he saw chatter on the neighborhood community app Nextdoor: a person may have been dangling off the side of a bridge and in need of help. Seeing the confusion, Cranwell called the local fire department and was able to determine it was simply a training exercise. 

This instance was one of the times Cranwell, a former reporter for The Zebra Press in Alexandria, Virginia, said Nextdoor helped him find sources or pitches for stories. As...
National Press Club Journalism Institute •

What creators can tell us about the state of digital news today

Nick Valencia reported at CNN as a correspondent for 13 years, covering everything from racial justice to natural disasters. Then, in June 2025, he and the network parted ways.

Instead of joining another national outlet or traditional media station, he found a different way to do the work he fell in love with: becoming a news creator. Valencia entered a cohort that the Reuters Digital News Report 2026 found is steadily becoming another common way audiences consume their news:

“Because journalism is an act of service, I wanted to meet people where they are,” he said. “What we’re doing is nothing more than a remedy to a problem that exists, and that’s the new business model.”
Photo by Me
Poynter •

A community can have local newspapers and still lack local news

After decades of working for national news media’s biggest names, Paul Miller retired to Carmel-by-the-Sea in the 1990s. But instead of spending his days soaking in the Monterey Peninsula’s stunning cliffsides, he bought a struggling local newspaper. Thirty years later, The Carmel Pine Cone is a well-funded, well-oiled machine that prints weekly and is free to the public. Miller’s Pine Cone is a shining example of one of the Golden State’s thriving local news ecosystems, and a model for small-to...
Annenberg Media •

Families left in the dark: UCSD, USC quietly sell donors’ bodies to Navy for Israeli military training

In 2021, Jeanette Volpin felt she had lost control of her life. At 101 years old, having recently lost the ability to read and drive, she told her relatives she wanted to leave the Earth on her own terms. After choosing medically assisted suicide, she donated her body to the University of Southern California’s Anatomical Gift Program. She made the decision following a career in medicine and a long...
Daily Trojan •

Letters between USC and LA officials unveil aftermath of Türkiye Conference

The day of the conference
Hours before the conference was supposed to take place, organizers learned Gurbanov would be present. Bay wrote the organizers advised that he not attend, but he did anyway. 
Then, around 50 demonstrators protested for hours both inside and outside the event, interrupting speakers and chanting before Department of Public Safety officers escorted them out of Annenberg Hall. 
Mane Berikyan, vice president of ASA, said Armenian students learned of Gurbanov’s presence in th...
NBC News •

Exclusive: Senators urge Meta to roll back Instagram Map feature that sparked uproar

Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday calling on the company to “immediately abandon” Instagram’s new Map feature after many app users voiced their privacy concerns online.The purpose of the maps feature, according to a press release from Meta, is to provide a “lightweight” method for users to connect with each other and explore local happenings by allowing people to share where they are in real time. Users can acces...
Daily Trojan •

Your roommate is a local journalist and the world already depends on her

Franklin, with his apparent penchant for analogies, joked with me that journalists are like traffic cops on the 10 Freeway. If you think a police car is nearby, you’ll probably abide by the posted speed limits or only drive slightly above to avoid a ticket. But if you find no cops in sight, you may push your luck. When a locality has journalists assigned to local government affairs, officials are cautious. But take the journalists away and … you get the idea. 
There is — don’t worry — evidence f...
The Fulcrum •

Community is Keeping this Young News Outlet Alive

In 2018, WAMU 88.5 – Washington, D.C.’s NPR member station – saved beloved local publication DCist from certain death. WAMU’s funding and support kept DCist alive and enabled it to continue serving the community with the thoughtful journalism readers had come to love. Six years later, however, WAMU announced it would shut down DCist in favor of prioritizing audio-first content. DCist then joined the thousands of newspapers and news sites that have disappeared across the United States in the last...
Daily Trojan •

Eruta Nature: from clothing to cart to coffee popup

In the mornings and early afternoons, passersby may notice a back door at Rock & Reilly’s is propped open. Inside the hallmark of USC Village life, one will find the restaurant’s long tables, classic decorations … and a coffee cart. 
This is Eruta Nature, founded by student Justin Solomon, and it opened a pop-up collaboration with the bar Oct. 21.
Solomon, a senior majoring in business administration, originally wanted to start an eco-friendly clothing business. During a leave of absence from US...
Photo by Me
Los Angeles Downtown News •

LA joins the fight: Bernie Sanders, AOC visit city on rally tour

Thousands of Angelenos and visitors attended the “Fight Oligarchy” tour, which featured speeches by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at Gloria Molina Grand Park on April 12.Stars also attended, and attendees enjoyed music by Joan Baez, Maggie Rogers and Neil Young.Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s tour is a nationwide series of rallies aimed at reigniting the United States’ voter base against what they term oligarchs in government. The April 12 rally featured hours of speeches by...
Los Angeles Downtown News •

Change at the Top: City officials, advocates react to LAHSA CEO’s resignation

The Los Angeles Homelessness Service Authority (LAHSA) was dealt a second blow on April 4 as embattled CEO Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum announced her resignation in a letter to the organization’s commissioners. Her resignation came just three days after the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to pull their funding from her agency — a whopping $300 million, about 40% of LAHSA’s budget — and create a new county agency for homelessness.In her letter, Adams Kellum cited the board’s action among her re...
Daily Trojan •

Houston, the media has a problem

It is Nov. 9, 2016, and I wake up for school at 7 a.m. after going to sleep just six hours earlier, an anxious mess. I checked my phone and confirmed: Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States. I am fearful for myself and so many others because I have heard what he says about anyone who isn’t like him: white, cishet, conservative and Christian. 
It is Nov. 9, 2024, and I am writing this article. It has been three days since I woke up to the same news: Donald Trump will be the...
Daily Trojan •

CD-14 candidate Ysabel Jurado could make history

Sixteen days before the Nov. 5 election, canvassers gathered at the Yosemite Recreation Center in Eagle Rock for a “Filamenomenon.” Speakers included Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia, Monterey Park Mayor Thomas Wong and the woman whom they hope will be the first Filipino elected to the L.A. City Council: Ysabel Jurado.
Jurado is a tenants’ rights attorney from Highland Park who supported herself financially through her education while raising her daughter, Stella, as a single mother. Sh...