The Martin family has lived in Maywood – an industrial city southeast of Los Angeles – for 15 years. After a series of illnesses in the family, they agreed to have tests done to find out what toxics and heavy metals they carry inside.

I edited this multimedia profile of the Martin family, part of a series I’m producing for California Watch called California Lost. The video was shot by Josiah Hooper and photographs were shot by Daniel Anderson. This feature appeared on The Huffington Post. Read the full story by Janet Wilson on California Watch.

In the heat of the desert, more than 30,000 farmworkers have set up makeshift homes in overcrowded trailer parks – often without access to clean water, electricity and sewage systems. Some, like Ana Sanchez, are demanding basic rights to safe living conditions.

I shot, produced and edited this multimedia profile, part of a series I am producing for California Watch called California Lost. The video appeared on The Huffington Post, New America Media, KPCC.org, the SF Chronicle’s iPad app, Mun2 (NBCUniversal’s LA network for Latinos), and several blogs. I also produced a Spanish-language version of the video. Read the print feature by Patti Leigh Brown and learn more about the story.

Frank Quan’s family has lived at China Camp, catching and selling shrimp, since the 1890s. He’s the last remaining resident of a Chinese fishing village that once thrived on San Pablo Bay. Now the state is closing China Camp State Park along with dozens of other parks because of budget cuts. What will happen to Frank?

This is the first of a series of video profiles I’m producing for a California Watch project called California Lost—see more from this project here. This video also appeared on The Huffington Post, Fresno Bee, and KQED.org
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Read the full story on California Watch.

Video produced by Carrie Ching
Story reported by Joanna Lin

After 9/11, the government began encouraging local police, private security and everyday Americans to report so-called “suspicious activity” that may indicate a security threat. Taking photos of landmarks, walking “nervously” and writing in a notebook are all activities that have led to people being stopped and questioned. Could you be next?

This animated feature was published online with an investigative reporting package by the Center for Investigative Reporting and NPR called “Under Suspicion”—see the full package here. This is the second animated feature I’ve produced for CIR, working closely with the very talented illustrator/animator Arthur Jones.

Directed and produced by Carrie Ching
Reporting and research by G.W. Schulz, Andrew Becker, Tia Ghose, Daniel Zwerdling, Margot Williams
Illustration and animation by Arthur Jones
Music by Lukasz Stasinski and Erik Haddad

What’s the price of gasoline? In the U.S. it’s about $4 a gallon. But some experts say the true price of gas is much higher. What about the costs of pollution, and the global and local problems caused by it? Who pays for those? This animated feature from the Center for Investigative Reporting calculates the carbon footprint and other “external costs” of gasoline use in the U.S.

I produced this animated feature with reporter Sarah Terry-Cobo and illustrator Arthur Jones. The video was a huge success for CIR/California Watch and was featured online by Time, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, Grist, Mother Jones, AlterNet, TreeHugger, Huffington Post, KQED, and many other blogs and publications.

“The Price of Gas” won an award for Explanatory Journalism (Multimedia) from the Society of Professional Journalists (Northern California) in 2011. It was also a finalist for the Video Journalism award from the Online News Association in 2011.

Reported by Sarah Terry-Cobo
Produced by Carrie Ching and Sarah Terry-Cobo
Sound mix and editing by Carrie Ching
Animation and illustration by Arthur Jones

See the complete project at priceofsex.org.

Also, see part two: South Africa’s Shadows: A Journey into the “Bad Buildings” of Johannesburg

Also, see part one: Out of Bounds? Cape Town’s Cleanup for the World Cup

In March 2009 I launched “The Investigators”—CIR’s new web-video series highlighting investigative reporting, as it happens, by journalists around the world. Learn more about the series.

The Investigators is CIR’s web-video series highlighting investigative reporting—as it happens—by journalists around the world. See the video on CIR’s website.