Rhiannon Fionn

coalashchronicles:

It’s been a while since I wrote these two articles for Charlotte’s Creative Loafing — the city’s alt-weekly newspaper, but not a whole lot has changed on the coal ash-regulation front since then. So, in light of Duke Energy’s announcement that it plans to close two coal plants in North Carolina, I thought I’d share the links again.

Both of these stories are about the company’s two unlined, high-hazard coal ash ponds that drain into Mountain Island Lake, the main drinking water source for about a million people.

“Is coal ash poisoning Charlotte’s drinking water?” — Sept. 7, 2010

“FAIL: Government oversight remains ‘grossly inadequate’ in coal-ash waste control” — Sept. 13, 2011

coalashchronicles:

I’m new to the photography website 500px and noticed it’s storytelling option, so I thought I’d give it a try with a story that I know very well. Let me know what you think!

Winning.
<3 

"At least Bank of America got its name right. The ultimate Too Big to Fail bank really is America, a hypergluttonous ward of the state whose limitless fraud and criminal conspiracies we’ll all be paying for until the end of time. Did you hear about the plot to rig global interest rates? The $137 million fine for bilking needy schools and cities? The ingenious plan to suck multiple fees out of the unemployment checks of jobless workers? Take your eyes off them for 10 seconds and guaranteed, they’ll be into some shit again: This bank is like the world’s worst-behaved teenager, taking your car and running over kittens and fire hydrants on the way to Vegas for the weekend, maxing out your credit cards in the three days you spend at your aunt’s funeral. They’re out of control, yet they’ll never do time or go out of business, because the government remains creepily committed to their survival, like overindulgent parents who refuse to believe their 40-year-old live-at-home son could possibly be responsible for those dead hookers in the backyard."

Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail — Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

Society of Professional Journalists president, John Ensslin, speaks to the Greater Charlotte chapter on Jan. 27, 2012.

He discussed the state of the society, Occupy Wall Street, ethics, membership, Quill magazine — a society publication — turning 100 and more.

(Source: youtube.com)

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I’d like to offer a little insight into my Creative Loafing coverage of Occupy Charlotte. It probably won’t surprise readers to learn that my conscious decision to cover the movement from the inside out rather than the outside in, as most traditional journalists would do, has raised eyebrows.

My goal was simple: Give the occupiers’ voices the same weight as mainstream journalists give the voices of the entities the occupiers rail against — government and big business organizations that have established platforms and seemingly endless resources with which to share their views.

Why I chose to cover Occupy Charlotte from the inside out — Creative Loafing

Civil rights attorney George Daly piped up during the meeting saying that the basics of the ordinance changes are “already covered by existing law” and that, “You don’t need this ordinance. What is happening here is that you’re letting fear run the agenda. You’ve defined protesters as potential evil. You’re making an enemy out of peaceful people out of fear.”

…

Later in the day, the city released its re-re-updated DNC ordinances, which are linked in the article.

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Charlotte officials didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet for Walkupy, a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters currently walking from New York City to Atlanta, visiting Occupy sites along the way.

After the group arrived here Saturday night, Bank of America security guards nabbed two of them for reportedly demonstrating on private property. Now, the Walkupiers are stuck in the Queen City for a couple of days, awaiting the release of friends from the clink. The two arrested are being held on $500 bond, and one of the members of the group is saying the whole deal was one big misunderstanding.

Walkupy arrests: What really happened? — Creative Loafing

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Popular e-book titles cost the library $25 to $38 per copy, $7 to $18 for older titles and as little as $4 for paperback romance novels, Raymond says. That’s more than the library pays for physical books. “We get a pretty steep discount,” she says, adding that the library is able to loan books, on average, about 100 times over a five-year period before reordering.

As it does with physical books, the library must purchase several copies of an e-book because of copyright considerations, which is why you may have to wait in line for a popular title. For example, if the library has three copies of an e-title, it is only legally able to loan out three copies at a time, even though the titles are in a digital format. “I know it seems silly,” says Raymond, “but it’s the publishers who are demanding that.”

Love the convenience? Hold on. You’ll still be waiting to check out popular titles. — Creative Loafing

Occupy Charlotte officially breaks up with itself — Creative Loafing