Charreada for Texas Highways

An edit of my charreada project with photos and text appears in the March issue of Texas Highways. Warmer weather and a new year for charrería in central Texas is right around the corner.

Austin Plane Crash for USA Today

Yesterday morning Joseph Stack flew his Piper Dakota plane into the Echelon I office building in north Austin.  It appears that Stack wrote a 3,000 word anti-government manifesto and set his own house on fire before driving to a Georgetown airport where he flew less than 30 miles to the building that housed offices of the IRS.  Read the story here.

Monroe Shooting for the NYT

Drove to Homer, Louisiana last week for an NYT story about a police shooting. Two white officers were cleared by a grand jury in the death of 73-year-old African-American Bernard Monroe, Sr. Reporter Campbell Robertson did a nice story summarizing the legal case as well as the mood in Homer. You can read it here.

POYi Sports Action

One of the singles from my charreada story took third place in Sports Action at the 67th Pictures of the Year International competition.

Last year, I was sitting in the audience watching the judging live.  I had just been laid-off and wondered if I would ever make it outside of newspapers.  

One year later, I watched the commentary from Austin via webcast, biting my nails to the stub.  The road ahead is still a long one, but it's great to know that competing at this level doesn't end with the staff job.

Seantrel Henderson for the NYT

Seantrel Henderson, a 6-foot-8, 340-pound left tackle from St. Paul, Minnesota, is considered by most analysts the nation's top high-school football recruit this year. Henderson has verbally committed to USC, but will not sign a letter of intent until USC appears before an NCAA infractions committee at the end of this month.

Read the story by Thayer Evans about his last week of recruitment which involved a limousine, a Miami club, pro-football players, and a hair appointment.