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The newsroom of the Boston University Washington News Service.

Boston University's Washington Journalism Center offers students the chance to spend a semester in Washington, D.C., meeting news makers, working in the bureaus of national news organizations, reporting on Congress and the federal government for New England news outlets and studying political reporting in the best political city in the world. ... More

Shaheen hears from AARP members

about health care reform

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 – Following the unveiling of the Senate Democratic leadership’s version of health care reform, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., fielded questions ranging from Medicare cuts to prescription drug costs on a teleconference call with 5,900 New Hampshire AARP members Thursday morning. (By Joe Markman)

Congressional probe

into Fort Hood attack begins

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 – The Senate hearing Thursday on the Fort Hood shooting began with questions about how federal agencies can cooperate to identify and prevent extremist behavior and unraveled to speculation on whether the First Amendment should apply fully to members of the military. (By Kase Wickman)

Green jobs training grants

for Connecticut announced

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 – Federal grants of $130,000 to create “green” jobs in Connecticut, including $60,000 for The WorkPlace Inc., a private non-profit in Bridgeport, were announced Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4. (By Katerina Voutsina)

Snowe’s fellow GOPers have

mixed temperatures about her

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 —Sen. Olympia Snowe has been in the hot national spotlight of the national health care reform debate for the past several months, and some in her party say the Maine Republican is melting away from her conservative roots. (By Kase Wickman) 

University of New Hampshire professor Andrew Rosenberg is advising the White House's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. (Photo by Caroline Treadway -- Boston University Washington News Service)

UNH professor’s love of the ocean takes him to White House advisory post

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 – University of New Hampshire professor Andrew Rosenberg’s trip to the Galapagos Islands to survey sea turtles when he was 17 may not have sparked his desire to work on the ocean, but it certainly helped cement it. (By Joe Markman)

Lawmakers propose emergency legislation for paid flu sick days

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 —Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said Tuesday that he will introduce emergency legislation to provide paid sick days to workers who  miss work because they or their family members have H1N1 or seasonal flu. (By Jeanne Amy)

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel voiced continued support for Israel on behalf of the United States at the Jewish Federations of North America conference in Washington.  (Photo by Caroline Treadway -- Boston University Washington News Service)

Worcester Jewish Federation delegates applaud Emanuel speech in Washington

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 —One day after President Barack Obama’s private Washington meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Worcester delegates at a conference of the Jewish Federations of North America applauded a speech by White House Chief  of Staff Rahm Emanuel that stressed the United States’ continued support for Israel as a “beacon of democracy” in the Middle East. (By Jessica Leving)

Eddie Insalaco of Willimantic at the World War II Memorial in Washington Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009.  (Photo by Caroline Treadway -- Boston University Washington News Service)

World War II veterans visit

their memorial in Washington

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 – It was a tearful hero’s welcome for 102 World War II veterans from New England, many from southeastern Connecticut, who arrived at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Saturday morning. (By Jeanne Amy)

Richard Schofield, above, joined thousands protesting health care reform and higher taxes outside the Capitol in Washington Thursday. Below, Shana Samuels, who turned three Thursday. (Photos by Caroline Treadway -- Boston University Washington News Service)

Tea Party protesters return

to Washington to protest health-care bill

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 —The Tea Party isn’t over. Several thousand protestors marched on the Capitol Thursday in opposition to the Democratic health-care bill that the House of Representatives hopes to vote on by the end of the week. Less than two months ago tens of thousands of so-called Tea Party protesters marched on the capital to oppose “out-of-control” government spending and the Democratic health reform plan. (By Jessica Leving)

The Capitol building with blooming Buddleia in the foreground. (Photo by Caroline Treadway -- Boston University Washington News Service)

A traveler’s guide

to visiting the Capitol

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 – People from all over the world are drawn to Capitol Hill to learn about America’s history, to see great art, to launch or advance their careers or to catch a glimpse of some of the nation’s most influential people. The range and abundance of activities for people of all ages, interests and tastes makes the Hill a must-see place for many visitors to the capital city. (By Haley Shoemaker)

Covering the Inauguration

Students from the Boston University Washington Journalism Program covered the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama for newspapers throughout New England and for television stations in Pennsylvania and New York. See the work of the Boston University Washington News Service reporters and read about their experiences here.

Last updated 20-Nov-2009
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Reporting Live From the Nation's Capital

Bostonia, the Alumni Quarterly Magazine of Boston University, did a feature article on our Washington D.C. Journalism program.

Guest Speakers

& Special Events

Linda Killian, director of the BU Washington Center, moderates a discussionon health care reform with a panel that included Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., right.

Four congressmen discuss health care reform

at BU sponsored forum

The Boston University Washington Center in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars held a Capitol Hill forum Sept. 24 on health care reform featuring four members of Congress, two former presidential advisors and a Wall Street Journal editor. The discussion was moderated by Linda Killian, director of the BU Washington Center.

The panel featured Democratic Congressmen Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania and Joe Courtney of Connecticut and Republican Congressmen Michael Burgess of Texas and John Shadegg of Arizona. All of them have been involved in the health care debate and the legislative efforts to reform the current system. [MORE]

A Report Card: The first 100 days of the Obama administration

Leading journalists and academics gave a candid overview of the first 100 days of the Obama administration at an event organized by Linda Killian, the director of the Boston University Washington Center. MORE

Alex Kingsbury

Alex Kingsbury is as comfortable in a war zone as he is chasing leads from the nation’s capital, though it’s awfully hard switching from the former to the latter.

“It was difficult to go back,” Kingsbury, speaking to Boston University Washington News Service reporters, said of returning from covering Iraq for U.S. News and World Report. “Everything afterwards seems really boring.”

Yet from the way Kingsbury talked excitedly about the Washington reporting he now does, it was apparent the Maine native doesn’t find journalism too boring. [MORE]

Chuck Babington

Chuck Babington seems like he can handle anything, including former Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., interrupting his lecture to the reporters of the Boston University Washington News Service.

Babington imparted his Washington advice to the journalists on Friday, November 6, in the Senate Press Gallery. He has worked in Washington for years with many publications, including the Washington Post, but now covers the White House for the Associated Press. [MORE]

Ericka Niedowski

For Erika Niedowski, the assistant managing editor of Washington City Paper and an experienced feature writer, “long narrative articles should be heavily reported.”

“Feature writing does not excuse you from being a good reporter,” Niedowski told Boston University journalism students October 30, adding that journalists should be able to report on any topic.

Niedowski began covering city council while reporting for a suburban Maryland newspaper. She moved to political reporting for The Hill – where she interned as an undergraduate – focused on medical reporting for the Baltimore Sun and became the paper’s last Moscow bureau chief. [MORE]

Susan Milligan

The weekly breakfast discussion began with a sobering assessment of the news business. Susan Milligan, a Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe, looked around the room and noted that the students were the last bastion of Capitol reporting for each of their newspapers.

“It’s pretty alarming,” Milligan said, bemoaning the recent closings of newspaper bureaus in Washington.

But the veteran political reporter soon turned on the charm, cracking jokes, starting a lively question and answer session, and telling war stories.[MORE]

David Tamasi

David Tamasi is a lobbyist, but he is quick to tell you, “I prefer to call it advocacy.”

Tamasi has worked for over 15 years in public relations and lobbying.  He spoke to journalists at the BU Washington Center on Monday, Oct. 19, about how to work with lobbyists to obtain different angles on an issue.

“Our job, particularly as it relates to you all, is to make you aware there is some kind of inequity,” he said. [MORE]

David Mark

Niche journalism is the future of newspapers, according to David Mark, a senior editor at Politico.

Journalism that focuses on one subject “used to have a negative connotation, because it meant you weren’t covering the big picture; you were only writing for insiders,” Mark said. “I think now that is a positive thing." [MORE]

James Carroll

For James Carroll, a veteran Washington reporter, journalism is education. As an undergraduate studying political science at Boston University, he tried unsuccessfully to sneak into journalism courses, so he got a job as a copy boy and worked his way up the ladder.

More than 30 years later, Carroll continues to learn every day as an award-winning regional reporter covering the nation’s capital. [MORE]

Jeffrey Birnbaum

Jeffrey Birnbaum, managing editor of The Washington Times, shared his knowledge of numbers with journalists at the BU Washington Journalism Center on Oct. 5. 

Birnbaum encouraged the small gathering of journalists to comb through campaign contribution databases for compelling numbers. 

“There are three things lawmakers care about the most: getting reelected, getting reelected and getting reelected,” he said during [MORE]