Fifteen projects by 22 teenage filmmakers will receive grants through Project VoiceScape, a collaboration between Adobe Youth Voices and P.O.V., public TV’s longest-running showcase for indie nonfiction films. The Adobe and PBS Foundations jointly announced the grants today (June 1). Here is a list of the winning programs (PDF).

In her last column as NPR Ombudsman, Alicia Shepard credited NPR for demonstrating a commitment to transparency and accountability by employing a journalist as an internal critic of its news coverage. “They say this is the loneliest job in the newsroom – the public thinks you are a shill for NPR and NPR employees think you are an internal affairs investigative unit,” she wrote. “Often I’ve felt a bit like a security guard at a private party. Just my presence – and fear of being named in a column – may help to keep folks working hard to live up to the ethics and journalism standards that NPR has established.”

NBC News reportedly plans to hire former NPR President Vivian Schiller to lead its digital division. “People familiar with the company say Schiller, who once ran the New York Times’ Web site, will report to NBC News chief Steve Capus,” Peter Kafka reports for All Things Digital.

After Bill Kling retires on July 1 from atop Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media in St. Paul, he “plans to take his show on the road and use his influence to build up public radio stations across America,” according to the City Pages in Minneapolis. Kling reiterated to the paper his plans to raise $5 million a year for five years, to be used by four public radio stations (Chicago’s WBEZ, New York’s WYNC, and KPCC in southern California) to hire more reporters (Current, Oct. 18, 2010). Another $5 million per year will be donated to the greater public radio system.

WTVI, the PBS affiliate in Charlotte, N.C., is asking Mecklenburg County commissioners to restore a total of $1 million in funding that was cut in recent years, reports WFAE-FM. There’s no operating money for WTVI in the county budget, but the station gets help paying for equipment and studio space as well as about $100,000 to televise commission meetings. WTVI President Elsie Garner says the station won’t go dark immediately if the county refuses her funding request, at least “not in one year. But if you keep bleeding money, after awhile, yeah that’s the logical thing.” Garner denied to Current any rumors that WTVI may be considering dropping from PBS membership.

Ann Taylor, the bottom-of-the-hour news voice on NPR’s All Things Considered, is leaving after 21 years with the network. In a memo to staff, Managing Editor David Sweeney and Robert Garcia, newscast executive producer, say Taylor has anchored the spots “with great clarity of writing and authority of delivery.” The memo says Taylor wants to stop commuting weekly to Washington from New York, and her last day will be June 30. “Ann is one of the most gracious professionals both of us have had the honor of working with,” it says. “She’s unflappable on the air and is one of the most hard-working and adaptable broadcasters.

Frontline’s website is back up after being hit by hackers over the weekend. The group Lulz Boat claimed responsibility on its Twitter account Sunday night (May 29), mentioning retaliation for Frontline’s recent documentary, “WikiSecrets.” Frontline Executive Producer David Fanning said in a statement on the attack, “We see it as a disappointing and irresponsible act. We have been very open to publishing criticism of the film, and the film itself included multiple points of view. Rather than engaging in that spirit, this is an attempt to chill independent journalism.” The attack also involved PBS NewsHour and some PBS.org pages, which are still under repair but should be up soon.

Kate Dobrovolny, former station manager at WILL-AM-FM-TV in Champaign, Ill., who retired in April after 31 years at the station, is spending her summer right where she wants to be: In her garden. Meanwhile, the local News-Gazette reports, Illinois Public Media is conducting a national search for her successor. It’s also hired Debbie Hamlett as director of development to replace George Hauenstein, who left last fall. Hamlett was previously development and programming director at South Carolina ETV. Hamlett starts today (May 31). UPDATE: Current just heard from Hauenstein, who points out he did not retire, as the News-Gazette report states, but instead departed to become chief development officer at Vermont Public Television.

The Alternate Side, an HD Radio channel and online stream programmed by New York contemporary music station WFUV-FM, is expanding its broadcast footprint into morning drive-time. A six-hour music show, co-hosted by Russ Borris and Alisa Ali, will air on WNYE 91.5 FM, beginning June 1 from 6 a.m. to noon. The new programming deal supplants WNYE’s three-year relationship with KEXP in Seattle, which brought simulcasts of KEXP’s John in the Morning to New York’s airwaves in 2008. WNYE is part of NYC Media, owned and operated by the New York City government. The partnership with WFUV “provides the opportunity to improve our radio content and further workforce development in media at the same time,” said Katherine Oliver, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, which oversees the NYC Media group.

PBS President Paula Kerger, 53, is one of several women (including a 74-year-old bodybuilder!) featured in the Washington Post Magazine’s May 29 cover story on women and aging. “So many people believe that when they get to a certain point in their lives, it’s too late to do something new,” she tells the mag. “I believe that testing the boundaries of what you’re capable of is what aging is about.” Training for and competing in triathalons is one way she’s constantly challenging herself “to do something terrifying,” she says.

Reaction continues regarding PBS’s upcoming experiment to interrupt programming four times an hour for underwriting or promotional spots. In a New York Times story Monday (May 31), feedback came from sources including Alberto Ibargüen, a former PBS board chairman and president and chief executive of the Knight Foundation, which finances pubcasting initiatives. “My first reaction is that in any kind of marketing opportunity, if you give up something that is desirable and differentiates you from your competition, it’s too bad, and that’s what this is,” Ibargüen said. However, he noted, “the people of PBS would not do this lightly.” And Jon Abbott, president of producing powerhouse WGBH in Boston, said that “we have a lot of people who care about the work and care about our way of presenting work; that trust, the values that people place in public media are things that we are very attentive to and respectful of.”

Hackers attacked the PBS website late Sunday (May 29), posting a story on the PBS NewsHour page that dead rapper Tupac Shakur was “alive and well” and exposing username and password information for various PBS staff and stations, all reportedly in retaliation for a Frontline report on Wikileaks. Online mischief makers Lulz Boat claimed responsibility on its Twitter page around 11 p.m. Sunday. It said in a Tweet that the attack was in response to the Frontline documentary “WikiSecrets,” about the leaking of U.S. government secrets to WikiLeaks, its founder Julian Assange and the alleged leaker, former army intelligence officer Bradley Manning.

New Jersey officials are finalizing a deal to allow WNET/Thirteen in New York City to run the New Jersey Network’s television operation, the Star-Ledger is reporting today (May 29). State treasury officials are expected to announce the agreement this week. Sources tell the paper that WNET will incorporate a new nonprofit in New Jersey to manage the operation, and will work with several programmers, including Caucus Educational Corp., the nonprofit New Jersey production company run by Steve Adubato Jr., to provide local content. WNET will pay nothing to the state for the right to run the station. The state network also is auctioning off rights to purchase and/or run the radio operation.