There have been a lot of snow days in the D.C. Metro area. That should come as a suprise to nobody, given the weather we’ve had.
Here’s a roundup I helped compile last week on the snow days in each county. I reported on Frederick and Howard counties.
College Park drops age for elected office to 18
BY ZACH C. COHEN
zach.cohen@washpost.com
The Washington Post
Feb 13 2014
The College Park City Council voted this week to allow 18-yearolds to run for public office, opening up the opportunity for students at the University of Maryland to seek council seats or the mayor’s office. Under the new rules, adopted in a 5 to 3…read more…
You can also read the online at The Washington Post, my first clip for the education section.
(This blog post has been updated.)
Washington’s favorite cephalopod, the National Zoo’s female giant octopus Pandora, has died, the zoo announced Wednesday.
Pandora was 5 years old, the upper range of the median life span for her species, when she died Feb. 11.
Read the rest of the story in The Washington Post.
A tragic story out of Virginia Tech, with questions left unanswered. My latest for The Washington Post, on B2 with an A1 tease in today’s paper.
My condolences to Sam’s friends and family. Everybody I spoke to said she was a sweet, caring, intelligent woman. Thanks to the legendary Martin Weil for helping me on my first Post crime story.
Slain Tech student was from N.Va.
BY ZACH C. COHEN AND MARTIN WEIL zach.cohen@washpost.com martin.weil@washpost.com
The Washington Post
Feb 12 2014
A 21-year-old Virginia Tech student from Northern Virginia was found slain Monday in the Blacksburg area, where the university is located, authorities said. The student was identified as Samanata Shrestha, who grew up in Vienna and attended James Madison High…read more…
The Peace Corps named AU the third largest volunteer-producing, middle-sized university in the country Feb. 11. AU lost its No. 2 slot to the University of Virginia by a single student.
AU has fluctuated between second and third place since 2009 with the exception of 2011, when it was in fourth place.
Read the rest of the story at The Eagle.
My first Washington Post story leading the Obituaries front.
Lee Reynolds, an actor who played the seafaring title role on “Cap’n Tugg,” a Washington-area children’s TV show in the 1950s and 1960s, and who later became an announcer, writer and director for the public broadcasting station WETA, died Jan. 27 at Capital Caring hospice in Arlington. He was 87.
The cause was lung cancer, said his wife, Christine Lewis Reynolds.
Read the rest of my obituary of children’s show actor Lee Reynolds and my first byline for The Washington Post.
(On an unrelated note, this is currently my 100th post for ZachCCohen.com!)
UPDATE Jan. 30, 9:43 a.m.
B5 with a skybox on B1: My first print byline for The Washington Post, and my first byline in the print edition of a national newspaper.
TV’s Cap’n Tugg was ‘The Man With a Million Voices’
BY ZACH C. COHEN
zach.cohen@washpost.com
The Washington Post
Jan 30 2014
Lee Reynolds, an actor who played the seafaring title role on “Cap’n Tugg,” a Washington area children’s TV show in the 1950s and 1960s, and who later became an announcer, writer and director for the public broadcasting station WETA, died Jan. 27 at…read more…
If you read my piece for New Voices comparing my experience as a Jew in Costa Rica and Israel, you weren’t the only one.
A number of bloggers read it as well and were not impressed. Some of it reached near libel and/or anti-Semitism. Read the responses for yourself.
The home page of New Voices featuring the my blog post.
Shortly after my blog post went live, the Costa Rica Star responded (I think?) and confirmed my critique of their earlier article about me (I think?).
It was hard being Jewish. There were no Shabbat dinners or daily prayers in my life, so I felt Jewish a grand total of three times in Costa Rica. I had to seek out spiritual enlightenment, and that usually only happened within the walls of the synagogue.
That stood in stark contrast to Israel, where being Jewish was pervasive and, by extension, easy. Everything around our hotel on the Kinerret closed on Shabbat, forcing time for reflection and relaxation. Kosher food is bountiful. Hebrew is omnipresent.
But I felt just as Jewish at services at B’nei Israel as I did when I was surrounded by it in Israel. 10 hours in a shul in Latin America was as spiritually fulfilling as 10 days in the Holy Land.
Read the rest of my reflection on my travels at New Voices.
Today was my first day at The Washington Post. It wasn’t too eventful, to be honest (we only did basic training, such as accessing email, filing stories, posting to the website, etc.). I’ll have more thorough reflections later this week.
However, my tweet announcing my arrival…
First day at the @washingtonpost. Because news doesn’t stop for the snow. pic.twitter.com/ZiKNGcclQi
— Zach C. Cohen (@Zachary_Cohen) January 21, 2014
…ended up on Buzzfeed. Life achievement unlocked. Thanks for the shout-out, Benny Johnson.
Congrats on your new gig, @Zachary_Cohen – glad you braved the snow for Day One (even if @bennyjohnson gave you a hard time about it…)
— Cori Zarek (@corizarek) January 21, 2014
Just when I thought "Man, I could have been on BuzzFeed w/a snow tweet today," @Zachary_Cohen shows up. http://t.co/UEjy2r30D9
— Sylvia Carignan (@SylviaCarignan) January 22, 2014
Starting off the new year in journalism by creating a photo gallery for The Eagle on the opening of American University’s School of Communication’s new home in the McKinley Building. Though up and running, there are still plenty of areas under construction.
Zach C. Cohen 