Tag: Announcements

Announcements

The C Is for Cola

Exciting news: Starting today, all the local politics coverage and analysis you rely on from The C Is for Crank will be appearing under a new banner and at a new location: PubliCola.com.

PubliCola is the pioneering news website my longtime reporting compatriot Josh Feit and I launched in 2009; much like The C Is for Crank, PubliCola covered city hall, Seattle politics, and the state legislature, where it was the first online-only site to get accredited back in 2009.

It also ran a little opinion column called The C Is for Crank.

Seattle Met magazine bought PubliCola in 2012, and last month, we got it back. We are grateful to Seattle Met for facilitating this exciting transition. We have a new logo too, designed by Jordan Rundle, which I’m especially excited to share with you. (Here it is with our old logo from 2009):

 

As part of the relaunch, I’ll be reviving The C Is for Crank in its original incarnation—as an occasional opinion column focusing on issues I care deeply about, including housing, homelessness, and transportation. Additionally, Josh will be returning to write for the site in his spare time, as he did in 2018, when he wrote an urbanist column called The J is for Judge, such as this installment against saving the Showbox.

Other than the name change, the site will remain true to the values and priorities you’ve come to expect at The C is for Crank—the same obsessive local news and analysis written by me and, since summer, also by the site’s new, outstanding police accountability reporter, Paul Kiefer.

Under the PubliCola banner, I’ll continue to emphasize the same coverage priorities I’ve established over the past five years at the Crank: news from City Hall, stories about the ongoing homelessness crisis, debates about transportation policy, police accountability, and much more.

For those who don’t want to update your bookmarks, don’t worry—thecisforcrank.com still works, it just redirects to PubliCola.

The C is for Crank—and also for Cola!

I hope you’ll join me in celebrating this acquisition. It’s been a long time coming.

Announcements, Cops, Featured, Police

Breaking News: The C Is for Crank Is Expanding!
Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay

I’m really excited to announce that The C Is for Crank has hired Paul Faruq Kiefer as our new police accountability reporter.

Paul’s impressive resume includes experience as a member of the RadioActive Youth Media team at KUOW, where he produced this award-winning feature; a news internship at WUNC radio in Durham, NC; and freelance work for KUNF in Fayetteville, AR, the Progressive, and the South Seattle Emerald, where he first caught my attention as part of the reporting team that produced this story about the pandemic’s impact on active drug users.

Paul will be covering the entire police-accountability beat, including the upcoming Seattle Police Officers Guild contract negotiations; the debate over how, and by how much, to cut the Seattle Police Department’s budget; the city’s response to protests against police brutality, which is currently playing out in court; and the role of the city’s alphabet-soup accountability agencies, among what I’m sure will be many other stories.

At a time when other media outlets are contracting and laying off staff, it’s exciting to be able to announce that this site is expanding, thanks in HUGE part to support from readers like you! After I posted that I was raising money to supplement grant funding for this position, readers stepped up and kicked in well over the initial $5,000 goal, which will make this position sustainable for at least one year. If you’d like to contribute to The C Is for Crank’s ongoing operations, or this position specifically, all your options are here.

Thanks for your support, and please join me in welcoming Paul—who can be reached at paul@thecisforcrank.com—to the team!

Announcements, Featured

Now Accepting Applications and Contributions: New Police Reporter!

On Monday, I announced that I’m hiring a part-time, entry-level police accountability reporter, and I need your help!

I’ve received a generous grant to fund this position, and I’m trying to raise an additional $5,000 to make this position sustainable for at least one year. All contributions will go directly and entirely to supplement the grant I’ve received to fund this position, including contributions above the initial $5,000 goal. This new reporter will cover police accountability, community-based alternatives to police response, the federal consent decree, the upcoming police contract negotiations, protests against police violence, the ongoing debate over Seattle Police Department funding, and everything related to the role police play in Seattle.

Please contribute generously to support this new position by making a one-time contribution via Venmo or Paypal, and include a note indicating that the donation is for the new police reporter! If you have any issues leaving a note or with the contribution process, email me at erica@thecisforcrank.com and I’ll make sure your contribution is directed to the correct account.

Second: If you are interested in this position, please send a resumé, any published clips or a writing sample, and a brief email explaining why you’re interested in the position to erica@thecisforcrank.com. I’ll be responding to candidates and setting up interviews next week. BIPOC candidates are especially encouraged to apply.