This is the story of how more than 20 statehouse reporters fooled me into believing I had a hot-breaking story – for the second time in a month. Last week I posted that a personal essay of mine was accepted by the Columbia Journalism Review and appeared on the CJR Web site. My essay touched [...]

The Columbia Journalism Review finally came to its senses and realized it can’t survive without my work. …Sorta. On Wednesday, a personal essay of mine was featured on the CJR Web site. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell will be named Sen. Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate, a high-ranking source in the administration told the Patriot-News. [...]

I had a story on the Pennsylvnia Cable Network (PCN) in the Patriot-News two weeks ago. Here is some extra information that didn’t make it into the Sunday story. More than 10 million Pennsylvanians in 3.3. million homes on 150 cable systems can watch PCN. PCN has a $4.5 million operating budget and a 34-person [...]

My last day in Harrisburg for came at the end of last month, with the close of my lease with the International House Aug. 30 and the end of my post-graduate internship with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association (PLCA). I came home with lots of experience, dozens of great references, and a pile of clips. [...]

This ran for the Patriot-News of Harrisburg on Sept. 7 Next year, retiring state Rep. Jerry Nailor won’t have to listen live to the drum of the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s debate, which is lengthened by camera hogs, he said. “There are a handful of legislators who say, ‘I am for motherhood and apple pie, and [...]

KYW News radio Harrisburg bureau chief Tony Romeo kindly agreed to show me the rough ropes of radio reporting and production on Monday. Below hear my report – with his lede – and the script – with much credit to Tony. [audio:http://christopherwink.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Morganelli-Wink.mp3] The Democratic candidate for Attorney General today challenged the way his incumbent opponent [...]

This brief ran online Thursday for the Patriot-News, prepping for yesterday’s front page story: Some college presidents who recently asked for a national dialogue on the 21-year-old drinking age say the focus of their effort has been lost. Some 123 university and college chief executives, including 15 in Pennsylvania, signed on to the Amethyst Initiative, [...]

Front-page story for the Patriot-News: This isn’t about lowering the drinking age. That’s what Dickinson College President William Durden will tell you. This is about watching parents follow their freshman sons and daughters into dormitories with beer in tow. “We have a societal problem towards the attitude of alcohol that we have to fix,” Durden [...]

This on Page One of today’s Patriot-News: Erich Scherfen developed a love for flying early. Growing up in New Jersey, he would play outside and watch airplanes fly toward John F. Kennedy Airport. After military service, he became a commercial airline pilot. Today, the Gulf War veteran is fighting to keep his professional life in [...]

This Web brief for the Patriot-News, officially filed one minute after Associated Press Harrisburg correspondent, PLCA president, and Pennsylvania Capitol legend Peter Jackson filed his own to the wire: A Gulf War veteran and his wife say they’ve been unfairly placed on a federal list that limits their commercial flight access. To fight back, the [...]