Video by Sharon Pieczenik If U.S. Air Force official Steve Mayer is bothered by California’s refusal to inherit the radioactive waste dump he’s building outside Sacramento, he doesn’t show it. He’s plowing ahead with plans at the old McClellan Air Force Base to entomb soil contaminated with radium-226, a glow-in-the-dark substance that can cause cancer, […]
Katharine Mieszkowski
Senior Reporter and Producer
Katharine Mieszkowski is a senior reporter and producer for Reveal. She's also been a senior writer for Salon and Fast Company. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Slate and on NPR's "All Things Considered."
Her coverage has won national awards, including the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award two years in a row, an Online News Association Award, a Webby Award and a Society of Environmental Journalists Award. Mieszkowski has a bachelor's degree from Yale University. She is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
Posted inU.S. Education
Open-campus policy eats away at school nutrition effort
Scott Sowko, a sophomore at Berkeley High School, leaves Bongo Burger, a fast food restaurant near the school. Nearly 1 in 3 high school campuses across the country allow students to leave campus during lunch, according to a report from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.Noah Berger/Center for Investigative Reporting At […]
Posted inEnvironment
Nuclear byproduct levels on Treasure Island higher than Navy disclosed
Treasure Island is slated to become a mixed-use community for 20,000 residents, once the U.S. Navy can satisfy regulators that it has cleaned up the former base’s Cold War legacy of chemical and radioactive toxins.Anna Vignet/Center for Investigative Reporting Land slated for development on Treasure Island contains elevated concentrations of cesium-137, a byproduct of nuclear […]
Posted inEnvironment
How we searched for cesium contamination on Treasure Island
Last summer, the Center for Investigative Reporting began looking into reports of radioactive contamination at the former Treasure Island Naval Station. Along the way, a source told CIR that cesium-137 had been found at the site – yet that alleged finding from 2007 was not in official U.S. Navy cleanup reports reviewed by CIR. In […]