Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/index.php?s=Haley+Walker)
E-mail: walkerh4@msu.edu
Haley’s stories on Echo
Haley Marie Walker joined the Great Lakes Echo staff in August 2009. Walker is from St. Augustine, Florida, where has worked Drift Magazine, Close-Up Media Wireless News Service, The Collective Press, and the St. Augustine Record. Throughout her career, she has held positions as editor-in-chief, environmental staff writer, freelance writer and photographer.
Last year’s tart cherry loss has inspired a flurry of activity to explore federal crop insurance to protect Michigan growers.
People feel more productive and healthier in green buildings, according to an MSU study. But some researchers say buildings made airtight for energy efficiency could trap gases that pose health problems.
A couple weeks ago Echo marked its first anniversary. The evolution has been fast, the learning curve steep. It’s hard to find the time to stop and take stock of what’s been accomplished. But here’s a good excuse:
Environmental news stories written for Great Lakes Echo and other publications of Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism are among those recently recognized at the 2009 Region 4 Mark of Excellence Society of Professional Journalists contest. Among the Echo winners:
Online In-Depth Reporting
First Place: Cleaning Coal – by Sarah Coefield, Elisabeth Pernicone, Yang Zhang and Rachael Gleason
Third Place: Public Pools, Public Health – by Haley Walker, Alice Rossignol and Emma Ogutu
Best Independent Online Student Publication
Second Place: Great Lakes Echo
Online Feature Reporting
Third Place: Lake Huron sinkholes – by Sarah Coefield
Recognition of the Knight Center’s print publication, EJ Magazine:
Non-Fiction Magazine Article
First Place: Food Not Waste: Three Decades at the Center of a Movement – by Haley Walker
Second Place: When Grass Isn’t Green: Marijuana farms on public lands aren’t kind to the environment – by Andrew Norman
Best Student Magazine
Second Place: EJ Magazine
Recognition of the Knight Center’s television production efforts:
Television In-Depth Reporting
First Place: The Night Shift – by Sarah Coefield, Mary Hansen, Marla Kalmbach, Lou D’Aria
Here at the Knight Center we’re proud not only of these quality reporting efforts, but of the diversity of media they represent.
A new federal grant program to raise the competitiveness of specialty crops may give apple growers a boost.
It supports conservation, innovation and promotion. That includes marketing, research and ways to promote sustainability.
I have been groomed to be an “organic food snob.”
I munched on whole grain bread with organic peanut butter and jelly, organic apples and grapes as a 5-year old in the cafeteria. I had organic carrot cake for every birthday until I was 16 and trips to the local farmers market in my family were made more frequently than trips to any major supermarket. So, today I guess that it is understandable that I feel very comfortable spending a significant part of my income buying groceries with the organic label on it. I am not ashamed to admit that I have driven across Lansing, Mich. for an hour looking for organic bananas and raspberries, which are not always available at the conventional grocery store here.
More than a decade ago, Maplewood, Minn., officials began creating rain gardens whenever they rebuilt streets.
The shallow basins collect rainwater that washes pollutants into lakes and streams.
When the number of people having trouble feeding themselves and their families increases, and the services that are instituted to help them, suffer at the same time, what I call “an equation of desperation” is created. Food isn’t really a commodity, and if it isn’t available, there certainly aren’t replacements. I mean, hell…the stuff has generated wars and caused people to do outrageous, unspeakable things. So, while we may not be to that point yet in the United States, could it get there if the system that was put in place to prevent food hardship fails? The 2010 Food Hardship report by the Food Research and Action Center recently reported nearly 20 percent of all people have trouble feeding their families on a daily basis.
Help Echo turn the Great Lakes basin on its ear and shake up journalism.
Perhaps the greatest change you’ll notice in this Echo redesign is that reporters will ask for your help, tell you about reporting challenges and empty their notebooks of those odds and ends that otherwise never quite become stories.
But expect us to stick with the Echo core concept: We’re a news community that transcends political borders and is defined by a global resource. Check out how we intend to do an even better job of that.
By Haley Walker, Alice Rossignol and Emma Ogutu
Maintaining a pool to be healthy and safe is not easy. And Kevin Hoard would know. As a certified pool operator at Michigan State University, he’s had 70 hours of official pool maintenance training. “It updates us on the current codes, concerns and disease prevention,” Hoard said. “It makes sure we’re in compliance with the law.”
But not all pool operators are trained like Hoard.