Using a $60,000 grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, the Futuro Media Group has added a segment to its NPR-distributed program Latino USA encouraging critical thinking about news coverage.

Julian Dawkins, the shuttle driver for PBS NewsHour's Arlington, Va. employees, was fatally shot the night of May 21 in Alexandria, Va., by an off-duty deputy sheriff. He was 22.

Two events at Arizona PBS’s Eight on May 23 will launch promotions tied to the three-part, six-hour documentary series Latino Americans, coming to PBS this fall.

Public radio reporters took all nine awards for radio reporting in this year’s Sigma Delta Chi Awards, which recognize outstanding reporting on radio, TV and the Web by national and local news organizations. NPR’s Ina Jaffe, Quinn O’Toole and Steven Drummond won for breaking news reporting (network syndication) for “Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions on Rental Deals.” For investigative reporting, John Ryan and Jim Gates of KUOW in Seattle were cited among stations in markets 1–100 for “Shell’s Arctic Oil-Spill Gear ‘Crushed Like a Beer Can,’” while Sandy Hausman of WVTF and Radio IQ in Roanoke, Va., won in the 101+ market category for “Naming the Fralin,” about naming the University of Virginia Art Museum.

YPPubmedia, a nonprofit group affiliated with DEI dedicated to “connecting young professionals in pubmedia to supportive national networks,” today announced members of its first advisory board. Serving are Chris Bay, interactive web producer, KDHX, St. Louis; Vanessa Harris, marketing director, Chicago Public Media; Chelan Lippincott, membership director, KBCS, Bellevue, Wash.; Andi McDaniel, interactive producer, Twin Cities Public Television, St. Paul, Minn.; Liz Mozzocco, music director, WAPS-FM, Akron, Ohio; Wynde Priddy, membership systems administrator, Colorado Public Radio; and Claire Radomski, membership manager, WFYI, Indianapolis, Ind. The organization currently has some 275 members in 149 public media stations and organizations nationwide. Membership is open to public media staffers ages 35 and under.

Matt Miller, host of KCRW's weekly news-analysis show Left, Right & Center in Santa Monica, now also hosts the biweekly This . . . Is Interesting, 15 to 20 minutes of conversations with thinkers and public figures about ideas in politics, economics and culture.

Proclaiming that “it’s time for the positive impact of Sesame’s educational content to be felt in schools as well,” Sesame Workshop on Tuesday announced a multi-year partnership between Sesame Street and Teaching Strategies, a Bethesda, Md.-based educational publishing company. Teaching Strategies focuses on early childhood education with curriculum, assessment, professional development and family resources. Its Creative Curriculum used in more than 100,000 classrooms nationwide, and nearly 1.1 million children are assessed annually with its Teaching Strategies GOLD. Sesame Workshop and Teaching Strategies will be “working closely together on the development of new resources for the early childhood classroom and for involving families in children’s early learning experiences,” they said in a joint announcement.

The FCC announced on Tuesday procedures for noncommercial television and radio stations to raise money on the air to assist victims coping with tornado damage in Oklahoma. The commission has already received and granted one waiver request related to relief efforts, it said in the announcement. Third-party on-air fundraising on noncoms is generally prohibited. But the FCC grants waivers in cases of disaster relief. Last year the FCC proposed allowing pubTV and radio stations to spend up to 88 hours annually raising funds for third parties on the air without a waiver. That recommendation is still pending.

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences presents two honors in a variety of categories — the Webby Award and the Webby People’s Voice Award. IADAS members select nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of Webby Awards, while members of “the online community” vote for winners of People’s Voice awards. PBS Digital Properties shined in both contests: its productions took four Webbys and three Webby People’s Voice Awards. “Mister Rogers Remixed: Garden of Your Mind,” the first in a series of remixes of iconic PBS personalities created by PBS Digital Studios, won the Webby for video remixes/mashups.

For more than a decade, pubcasters have debated whether local stations can harness the power of the Internet. There has been no shortage of naysayers in this ongoing exchange, and, for a time, that side of the discussion seemed to be winning, for good reason.

Money shortfalls at New York’s WBAI, one of two Pacifica Foundation stations that must relocate their studios later this month, continue to worsen. At the end of April, WBAI lacked funds to pay staff or rent on its antenna, according to an email by the treasurer of the station’s board. WBAI owed about $119,000 and had $4,000 in the bank as of April 29, Local Station Board Treasurer R. Paul Martin wrote in an email that was sent to an LSB Yahoo! group. The station is mandated by law to pay its staff, and missing the rent on WBAI’s antenna on the Empire State Building could result in “very bad consequences” if not paid by Monday, May 6.

Public radio favorite David Sedaris, a frequent contributor to This American Life and other programs, is hosting weekly episodes of Selected Shorts this month. The first show of the series, released for broadcast April 28, paid tribute to the late David Rakoff, a writer and This American Life contributor who died of cancer last year. Another episode includes readings of three Dorothy Parker stories, including one by actress Parker Posey. Sedaris himself read a story by Frank Gannon on the May 12 program. Selected Shorts is produced by WNYC and New York’s Symphony Space, and is distributed by Public Radio International.

The Center for Investigative Reporting will fold its three different brands under one roof beginning May 29. The CIR moniker will now incorporate the Bay Citizen, which covers local stories in northern California, as well as California Watch, which covers the entire state.