LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Tara Kolla fancied herself a green thumb-turned-green businesswoman when she planted an organic flower plot in her yard and sold poppies, sweet peas and zinnias at the local farmers market. For her neighbors, it was an eyesore.
Where Kolla saw her efforts as creating a lush sanctuary, her neighbors witnessed dusty pots, steaming compost, flies and a funky aroma on their tiny cul-de-sac in Los Angeles. They complained to zoning officials — and prevailed.
Kolla and other urban farmers are fighting back by challenging city halls across the country to rewrite ordinances that govern residential gardens. They believe feeding their fellow urbanites homegrown tomatoes, fresh eggs and sweet corn will change the world one backyard at a time.
Seattle has loosened its rules for backyard goats, New York City’s health department is taking steps to legalize beekeeping and Detroit is looking into regulating compost and greenhouses.
This story ran on AP’s national wire, the front page of the San Diego Union Tribune, the home pages of Yahoo! News and AOL, with video that I shot and edited.
Click to play AP Video: Firefighting water balloons
By Raquel Maria Dillon | ASSOCIATED PRESS
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) _ William Cleary believes aerial firefighting could become child’s play.
Five years ago, his son drenched him with a water balloon – and got him to thinking.
“He was three stories up and I was walking, and he still managed to hit me square in the head,” said Cleary, a Boeing engineer. “I thought, why can’t we be this accurate with water on fires?”
So he started working on a system to use giant water balloons to put out wildfires.
This is one of several video pieces I produced in Park City for AP’s Entertainment Video division. Unfortunately the video is only available to paying APTN members, but here’s the story that ran on the wire and the script.
AP Photo | Amy Sancetta
By Raquel Maria Dillon | ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) _ After a career playing to sold-out stadiums, U2 did what their fans have done for years — stood in line to see U2 perform.
That concert was “U2 3D,” a film of the band’s 2005-06 Vertigo tour, shot at several shows in South America with new 3-D technology.
“I was really hoping we weren’t crap after all these years. Luckily we weren’t,” guitarist The Edge told The Associated Press before the band donned plastic glasses to watch the movie’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night.
The Edge, joined by singer Bono, drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton, joked about the absurdity of seeing themselves perform after playing together for more than 30 years.
“It’s kind of horrific,” to see himself on stage in 3-D, said Bono. “It’s bad enough on a small screen. Now you get to see the lard arse 40-foot tall.”
This story ran on Sunday’s A1 and with an audio slideshow online.
The editors were desperate for a piece about the growing popularity of the county fair among Latino families. I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say about the fake charreada or the Batalla de las Bandas. Then I found the trio, working musicians playing their hearts out on a small stage in between taco trucks and churro stands. They made me think of the boleros my grandfather loved and I knew how the music evokes nostalgia across generations of immigrants. Molina was also a great talker — bonus! I wanted to put him on the radio. Instead, I pitched a slideshow, only the second that the paper had ever done.
Of all the musical acts at the Sonoma County Fair, Trio Zaragoza plays the smallest stage. It’s barely a stage at all, just a corner near the picnic tables in the Mexican Village area.
With sweet romantic lyrics and delicate guitars, traditional trios take audience members on a trip down memory lane with the greatest hits of 1940s Mexico.
“We’re not ranch hands, we’re caballeros – the last gentlemen of the great Golden Age of Mexico,” said Carlos Molina, who manages the group and plays bass.
