Writing | michaelstein

Selected Writing Clips:

‘There’s no end in sight’: Entergy bills rising at historic pace (Verite News)

Police Lawsuits Provide an Inside View of Cash Register Justice in Louisiana (Scalawag)

Neighborhoods Watched: The Rise of Urban Mass Surveillance (The Lens)

Payroll fraud and a ‘secret sex room’: Troubling allegations at New Orleans S&WB (Verite News)

How to Save a Town From Rising Waters (Bloomberg CityLab)

Award-Winning Investigations:

Power company pays actors to pose as power plant supporters

I broke the story of how New Orleans' power company, Entergy , paid actors to pose as supporters of a controversial gas plant at regulatory hearings. Our reporting prompted the City Council to launch an investigation, resulting in a $5 million fine against the company. The company's CEO stepped down three months after The Lens' first exposed the astroturfing scheme.

I was awarded the Sierra Club Distinguished Achievement Award as well as the New Orleans Press Club 2019 award for best investigative reporting. I later published a story in The Nation about the nationwide rise in deceptive utility astroturfing schemes.

Five-part series on New Orleans surveillance

In 2021, I brought together years of reporting on police surveillance to create a five-part series called Neighborhoods Watched: The Rise of Urban Mass Surveillance. I wrote roughly 20,000 words on how the New Orleans' surveillance network works, its cost, effectiveness, lack of oversight and potential for harm. I collaborated with a graphic designers and surveillance researcher to formulate the project and present the work in an interactive web series. We were awarded a grant from The Fund for Investigative Journalism.

I had previously done extensive reporting on New Orleans' surveillance apparatus. For example, I was the first to report on the powerful analytic software behind the city's web of cameras. I exposed how the police were using facial recognition despite years of denial. And I reported on how the city began using the cameras to justify firing employees and dispute workers compensation claims.

The New Orleans Press Club awarded the project the 2022 award for best digital special section.

Mayor's deceptive campaign to cut public library funding

In 2021, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell launched a ballot initiative that would have cut the city's public library budget by roughly 40%. I did extensive explanatory reporting to highlight the misleading and outright false statements coming from the Cantrell administration. The stories were widely circulated. An opposition campaign quickly sprang up, and the ballot initiative was voted down by residents.

I was a finalist for the New Orleans Press Club 2021 award best investigative reporting.

New Orleans' scandalous "smart cities" project

I was the first to do in-depth reporting on an ambiguous and dubious "smart cities" project the city was pursuing with a consortium of businesses that included NBA legend Magic Johnson. I reported extensively on the plan's questionable details — like its lack of a price tag and reliance on resident data mining — and allegations that city officials conspired with the consortium to violate the city's public bid laws.

The project has since become a major political scandal and the project has been abandoned. The City Council and the city's Inspector General have launched investigations into the allegations, including subpoenas and the seizure of city computers.

I was a finalist for the New Orleans Press Club 2022 award for best continuing coverage.

Government official uses position to skirt pandemic restrictions

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, I discovered there was a wedding venue that continued to host 200-plus guest weddings indoors, despite emergency restrictions meant to stop just that. The wedding venue was owned by the family of a local City Council member. I revealed that the Council member was formally employed as a consultant for the business, and that she had used her government email to lobby numerous state officials to ensure the venue continued operating.

I was a finalist for the New Orleans Press Club 2021 award for best investigative reporting.