Articles Posted by Rebecca Rosen Lum

Rebecca Rosen Lum is a veteran journalist who covers faith, culture and social issues. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in beat reporting for her coverage of Richmond, Calif. at the Contra Costa Times. Her series on the financial abuse of elders resulted in changes to California state law, and her reporting on conditions at residential hotels led to criminal charges and the closure of a facility. She is currently at work on a foundation-funded series on the impacts of incarceration on communities and the promises of realignment, a California state program that moves low-level offenders from state prisons to county jails.Her many awards include top honors from the California Teachers Association, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and the National Association of Consumer Advocates. She also chairs the Pacific Media Workers Guild’s pioneering freelance unit. Under her leadership, the unit obtained dental and vision benefits, and introduced the Fair Freelance Seal, a commitment to decent pay and working conditions carried by a growing number of publications. She is working with independent journalists to launch new freelance units in Oregon, Washington and Colorado. She has taught English and civics to newcomers in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and serves as scholarship chair for the East Bay Press Club.

  • San Francisco Chronicle to Continue Publishing Discredited Overseas News Mill Content

    Managers of the Hearst Corp.’s San Francisco Chronicle plan to continue using a controversial overseas content mill that fabricated bylines.

  • Doonesbury huffington post

    Doonesbury Takes a Whack at Huffington Post. No Hard Feelings, Says HuffPo Bureau Chief

    Trudeau is in good company: The Huffington Post has been dissed by the best, from Chris Hedges to Stephen Colbert. The first editorial cartoonist to win a Pulitzer Prize, the Doonesbury creator was just named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine.

  • This is currently a hot topic

    Workers to Protest Pacifica Radio Over Union Busting

    Pacifica Foundation hired Jackson Lewis in 2010, but that is the only point of agreement between the five-station, listener-supported broadcasting network and its KPFA workers group.

  • Panel: Journalists At Risk Without U.S. Shield Law

    Wolf spent 226 days at the federal detention center in Dublin between August 2006 and April 2007 – an experience he describes as “more boring than brutal” — for refusing to surrender raw video footage and give testimony to a federal grand jury about a Mission District demonstration in July 2005.

  • National Day of Action: Workers Fight Back Against Corporate Greed

    In particular, the Day of Action, which brought demonstrators out in cities across the U.S., trained its sights on Verizon Communications, where management and unions have been locked in a fight over benefits since a contract lapsed in August.

  • Religious Leaders Show Faith in Occupy Movement

    The OWS movement, which protests social and economic inequity and predatory practices that benefit the wealthiest 1 percent at the expense of the rest of society, was kicked off by the Canadian group Adbusters and began in September in the heart of New York City’s financial district. Since then, the movement has been adopted and localized in cities across the nation, some focused on specific issues.

  • Bill Would End Journalist Lockout at State Prisons

    Bill Would End Journalist Lockout at State Prisons

    This month, the Assembly Appropriations Committee unanimously passed AB 1270, also known as the “California Prisons: Media Access” bill, and it is expected to sail through the Senate in March.

    Of course, lawmakers have repeatedly approved nearly identical legislation in the past, only to see it fall victim to vigorous lobbying by the Department of Corrections and victim rights groups.

    But neither opposes the current bill, which was sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.