Hi all! It’s Rita Chan.I’m the senior producer for U.S. News for VICE News Tonight. You might have seen some of our team’s work this week with the coverage of the West Virginia Teacher’s strike (produced by Dave “Sure-shot” Mayers, Billie “Stacks” Brownstein, and ol’ “Icepick” Mimi Dwyer). We were literally in the room with teachers as Governor Jim Justice signed a deal giving them a 5 percent pay raise, in a rare win for labor at a time when unions are losing power and influence. We’ll see if this lights a match for others; Oklahoma teachers are already threatening to go out next, and we’re already making calls and planning to be there for that one.Our team also covered the ongoing Jane Doe sagas. Antonia Hylton, Lindsay Van Dyke, and Emily Anderson kept us on the leading edge of a story we’ve been working on for a long time and that we will continue to push on. In this case, the story was about a 14-year old girl who changed her mind after initially saying she wanted an abortion. But federal officials blocked her court-appointed lawyer and guardian from seeing her, essentially saying, “Trust us, she wants the baby.” Behind the scenes, VNT and our web team joined together to find out what was really going on. The hands-down leading journalist on this story has been Carter Sherman, and it’s been a treat working alongside her on it. And others are noting her work: Senator Dianne Feinstein even tweeted out our piece as she called for the resignation of ORR Director Scott Lloyd. (As a Cali girl, a shout-out from DiFi is a big deal.)One other big deal from the U.S. Team was our Chinese New Year / Year of the Dog special that hit the web this week. This is on my Top 5 list of favorite things I’ve been part of at Vice. The origin story for this goes back to a family trip to China in 2009. I was talking with a woman who worked there at a spa I visited, and she told me she went home just once a year for Chinese New Year. I was stunned, but it turned out all the workers did that. I’ve been squirreling away this nut for a while and took it to Tenacious Ye (producer Karen Ye) who is one of our best at tracking down characters and charming them into sharing their lives with us. Karen put together a great pitch, found the Yang family, and convinced them to let us capture some incredibly intimate moments during an epic 13-day shoot. You can nerd out on their planning doc here. When they came back, Ye, Amanda Pisetzner, Cameron Dennis and Kimmy Gorden (with a big assist from our insanely hard-working post team) masterfully wove it all together. I think it’s an incredibly personal look at the financial, familial and human repercussions of the fastest growing major economy in the world and an achingly beautiful piece about modern life in China. I’ve never seen a story make Jonah so sad, which strangely delights me.Some other VICE News stories I loved this week:Other stuff I liked this week:
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- This thread. If anyone finds audio of Shkreli crying in court please send it my way. I want to make it my text alert.
- This is a great read for a long train ride if you love weirdos, especially super smart, senior citizen weirdos who game the lottery system.
- A story I think should be getting more attention got some from Mother Jones. Whatever you think of this administration they have been extremely effective at changing the federal courts. #lifetimeappoinments. You can’t talk about criminal justice reform without considering this. Hat tip to Juliette Manske on this piece.
- Grrrr! I wish I found this guy before the NY Times did. People are endlessly fascinating.
- Not gonna lie, I was on poo watch. And I can’t believe how it ended!