newsdesk dot org | a shareable journalism experiment

San Francisco’s Superfund struggle

By Staff Report | January 25, 2011

A legacy of toxic pollution lingers in San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard, which was once a booming hub for wartime construction efforts, but now is largely shuttered and represents a constant threat to the health of marginalized communities that live nearby. The U.S. Navy and diverse community groups are at odds over the best way to address the problem.

Voter’s quick reference to San Francisco’s mayoral candidates

A succinct listing of candidate positions and quotes on more than two-dozen key policy issues and ballot initiatives.

Office bullies target the educated: Report

Bullies aren’t just kids in the playground anymore – they are also adults in the workplace, according to a recent survey.

Pipeline foes decry Canada oil-sands boom

Environmental and indigenous groups stepped up their attacks against Canadian oil sands development as two U.S. representatives met with Canadian officials in Ottawa to discuss energy policy.

Newsdesk News

An Invitation to Journalists

By Josh Wilson | February 27, 2013

If you are a journalist, a student or an educator, the news industry’s business-model problem looms over your work and aspirations. It’s a challenge and an opportunity, but wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to deal with it at all? In this crowd-sourced era, journalists may not need a business model so much as a platform to build community around. Similar to, for example, the Wu Tang Clan. Be like a band

Please consider Newsdesk available to you for free as an open, shared platform for your own work, and as a vehicle for your community-building efforts.

Oakland Toxic Tour

West Oakland keeps fighting for cleaner air

By oaklandlocal | September 12, 2011

Two years after Newsdesk.org first examined high levels of air pollution in West Oakland, progress towards helping this community breathe easier is moving slowly. Thorny projects, including cleanups at the port and a local Superfund site, are hard to k…

Culture

Los Angeles neighborhood bears the brunt of air pollution

By Jasmine Mara | August 25, 2011

As summer temperatures rise, so do fears of asthma and other illnesses caused by all the air pollution converging on the east Los Angeles community of Boyle Heights.

Culture

Missed EPA grant stalls West Oakland brownfields cleanups

By oaklandlocal | July 29, 2011

After more than a decade of getting approved for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants to remediate “brownfields” (contaminated properties), Oakland has been turned down.

This is the first such rejection in a long time – and it will delay both…

Culture

Residential lead pollution cleanup in West Oakland will use new green technology

By oaklandlocal | June 24, 2011

Soil polluted with lead has long plagued the South Prescott neighborhood of West Oakland. But cleanup is finally getting underway.This Saturday, June 25, the community is invited to learn more about the new green technology this project will use to cle…