@AP
journalist (ret), reported from, led coverage of ~100 countries & numerous wars. Virginia Tech, U Maryland-Munich. Husband, Dad. Author of Target: Facebook
I am retiring at the end of September after more than 40 years as a journalist, 39 with
@AP
. It's been wonderful. I worked overseas for 25 years, 7 in Oregon. Thanks to everyone I interviewed.
I wrote thousands of stories at
@AP
. This is probably my last one, unless I do one tomorrow. Sayonara. It's been a great ride.
#wine
#wildfires
Inside scientists' mission to save America’s wine industry from climate change
Minor anniversary: 38 straight years with
@AP
today. Amazing. And that's not counting two earlier temp stints in Cheyenne and LA. Very grateful for all that I have experienced, or for most of it anyway.
34 years of continuous service with
@AP
today. It's been amazing. Here I am in the Tegucigalpa bureau, a year after I got hired. That is a Telex machine that I used to file dispatches, with some Telex tape peaking out of the trash can. Times have changed.
#TBThursday
@AP
bureau in Kansas City, Mo., in the late 1980s. At the terminal is newswoman Sally Buzbee (now
@washingtonpost
executive editor). From left: Assistant Chief of Bureau Mercer Bailey, newsman Tim Curran, unidentified newsman.
Firefighters using air assets were battling a fire near Salem, Oregon this evening. I even left watching the
@usopen
to go out and make some photos.
What a great team. Ricardo Mazalan (l), Jim Anderson and Vivian Sequera during our coup coverage in Venezuela. Jim had ordered the
@AP
bureau evacuated of non-essential personnel amid reports the building was going to be attacked by a mob. We stayed and kept filing.
Bartender’s name was Cassidy. I asked her if her parents were Grateful Dead fans. Yep! She said she was named for the song
@fat_man_rocks
@GratefulDead
4 billion people see news from
@AP
every day. 243 locations worldwide in 96 countries; unrivaled 50-state footprint with a reporter in every U.S. statehouse. 2021 output: 440,000 stories, 1 million photos, 82,000 news & sports videos, more than 23,000 hours of live video.
A gripping account of the
#Lahaina
fire as it happened, by
@clairegalofaro
@Sedensky
, with feeds from a few of us other
@AP
reporters.
They were alone in a fight to survive. Maui residents had moments to make life-or-death choices
Wow. Is Oregon putting its money where its mouth is, on being a "green" state? New report raises questions. “The state exposes Oregonians to climate and health risks, economic costs, and financial losses.”
37 years ago this month. I was a lowly paid (but delighted to have the job) local-hire AP reporter/photographer in Nicaragua when what became the biggest story in the world at the time landed in my lap.
Last night I saw a man lying motionless on a tennis court. I could tell it was serious and went to him quickly. With a buddy who's an Afghan war vet we gave CPR. The man's alive in hospital, though unconscious. I learned CPR at training for war correspondents. Thank God.
Two old friends. Peter Morgan and me in 1986, while on long-range patrol with a Sandinista Irregular Warfare Battalion in Nicaragua. And in 2023, while walking around Manhattan yesterday.
“I personally couldn’t continue to provide tithing money to a church that would allow young children to be abused and not do anything to prevent it.” Stellar reporting on horrible situation, by
@MikeRezendes
of
@AP
Forty years ago I got my first real break in journalism. I had spent all my savings earned on a seismographic oil exploration crew in Wyoming as I looked for a job at a daily newspaper in CO, AZ, NM and Texas. Down to my last pennies, I slept in my car before a job interview at a
The Journalist vets of Central America has learned that photographer Murry Sill has died. Lots of people respected him. Here is his photo of photographer Harry Mattison trying to save photographer Olivier Rebbot after he was mortality wounded in El Salvador. RIP Mr. Sill.
Texas daily. I washed my face and shaved in the courthouse bathroom the next morning. Luckily, I got the job. Persistence paid off. It wasn't the first time nor the last time that it did. I hope everybody else reaches their dreams.
Come on
@AP
! It’s time to come up with a fair contract proposal for
@APNewsGuild
. Better wages and parental rights for those who are the force behind the world’s best news organization.
“The big lie is that the 2020 election was stolen,” says Oregon's secretary of state. “The lie is still impacting the operations of our elections workers, nearly two years later.”
#Election2022
#orpol
Reagan told Gorbachev: In the US we have freedom. A crowd can gather outside the White House and shout "Down with Reagan!" Gorbachev replied: In Russia we also have freedom. A crowd can gather outside the Kremlin and shout "Down with Reagan!" (Old joke from the 80s).
Historical note: 40 years ago my Mom's cousin Vera Watson participated in the all-women's climb of Annapurna. Team leader raised funds by selling "a woman's place is on top" T-shirts, which were hugely popular. Vera died but her memory lives on.
Great story on psilocybin by
@lwhitehurst
Magic mushrooms for PTSD therapy? Vets find it helps. It’s getting bipartisan backing.
@AP
story and photos.
After my dog devoured the leather on one of my
@LLBean
boots and I tweeted the damage, the company said send it back for repair. Cost around $17. It just came back. Thanks! Well done. Great service.
Too many guns? Too many angry or unstable people with guns? Just wondering. This is the 3rd case in a few days of people being shot just for mistakenly showing up at the wrong place.
@GregRenoff
@Skynyrd
Oh man. This is the first I’ve heard that Gary passed. Sad. A very nice man and great musician. I interviewed him and his wife Dale in their cabin in Wyoming 40 years ago.
1/X Winter 1983. I was living in Jackson, Wyoming, and stringing for the
@CSTribune
. I'd heard that
@Skynyrd
guitarist Gary Rossington was living nearby. To avoid being entirely broke, I got day jobs via the state employment commission. One day the job was to break up ice
Tear gas, banned in warfare but used against civilian protesters, has no federal oversight of safety or production. Oregon senators want changes. My
@AP
story.
Kayaking in Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Pretty big workout going against the wind and sometimes the tide. Great to be in nature. Photo by Zoe.
Ex-
@AP
bureau chief
@jstraziusoICRC
, whom I worked with for years in Africa, uses his journalism chops as an
@ICRC
spokesman to describe, with excellent detail, the Mariupol rescue mission. via
@msnbc
The legendary journalist Walter Mears had a hand early in my career. As AP’s executive editor, he pushed for me to be transferred from Honduras to Nicaragua, where there was a war and no English-language writer. I was a lowly paid local hire. I was wowed when years later I got
When I researched and wrote about bourbon for an
@AP
article recently, it didn’t affect me at all. I gained no interest in bourbon. Not.
@FredMinnick
was a big help with the story and his enthusiasm, I must say, is infectious.
I am sad to learn that one of my favorite editors has died. Goodbye, Marcus. You made some of my stories sing! I always loved talking with you. Longtime AP correspondent, editor Marcus Eliason dies at 75 (from
@AP
)
I now have a great view from my
@AP
office in the bunker of the Oregon State Capitol.
#orpol
#orleg
(New TV that gets the view from the top of the building.)
I had planned to report on an Oregon-related story today but instead wound up writing about a volcano in Hawaii. That's a big part of why this job is so interesting!
Where's the button on the computer that will write your story for you after you've conducted the interviews and done the research?
#JournalismIsNotACrime
So, someone I Interviewed for one of the stories I did (from Oregon) on erupting Mauna Loa sent me this photo he took last night of the volcano. Very cool! Clouds add drama.
My Baba and me, probably in the early 1980s. I wrote recently about how she escaped Sevastopol as a teenager as the Red Army shelled the area around the docks amid a panicked crowd. Months earlier, she and her family had to flee their home in Odessa.
Great hike to Green Lakes yesterday in the Three Sisters Wilderness. That's South Sister behind me, the third-highest peak in Oregon. Photo by
@zoeselsky
5/X interview was done, we went outside and I made a photo of Gary, Dale and their baby daughter. I didn't have a ride back to town, so Gary pointed to his pickup truck and said, "Hop in. I'll give you a lift." (Probably not an exact quote.) What a nice, down-to-earth man.
Tremendously proud of my
@AP
colleagues, whose Ukraine war reporting was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.
#Oregon
Capitol correspondents show off their socks that have patterns of carpets in the Senate, House and governor’s office. The Senate won.
#orleg
#orpol
#journalism
Throwback Wednesday. Protesters besiege the Oregon State Capitol on 12/21/2020. Rep. Mike Nearman was expelled from the Legislature for letting protesters into the COVID-closed capitol, where they battled with police. That pitchfork conveys negative intent, IMO.
#orpol
#orleg
Wishing the very best to
@AP
colleagues working around the world this holiday season, including in some tough places, and to journalists everywhere who are trying to inform the world and right wrongs,
My photo of Dad in the family’s Paris apartment, in 1973. Me there, 50 years later. RIP, Dad. You had a great run as a father and as a Cold War warrior.
Oregon appears to be the only state in America with a gun safety initiative underway for the 2022 election, according to
@GiffordsCourage
, an organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence.
@AP
story via
@washingtonpost
Just shot this pic. A voter drops off a ballot in Salem, Oregon, as her dog checks out the situation. Nice to have the sun peep out to light up the autumn trees for this moment after it rained ALL day. Photo available on
@AP_Images
soon.
#Election2022
@AP
It was a privilege to hear from two legendary
@AP
stalwarts yesterday in back-to-back Zoom chats,
@Kathygannon
and
@titimesquita
. These two woman are amazing and the best. They've got some great stories to tell from deep experiences in the world's wild places.