Jane Devin

I recently came across this article about Jim Deitz and his neighbor's complaints about painting his two-story rental complex with colorful polka dots. It's not that unusual of a story. A homeowner gets creative, vengeful, or even desperate and an uproar ensues. Such homes are generally thought...

When news about Jaycee Dugard's memoir, A Stolen Life, hit the internet recently, several commenters expressed their opinion that the kidnap victim had ample opportunities to run away. She was after all, a grown woman when she was found, and she was both bright and healthy. She wasn't shackled or...

"Got to pay your dues if you wanna play the blues, and you know it don't come easy." - George Harrison

"Meanwhile, back on my suicide farm, I'm reading about Snooki's book deal." - Suzy Soro, Comedian

This dispatch comes to you from a Starbucks parking lot, where I'm...

Fourteen year-old Katie Gohres started writing even before she started grade school. Inspired by the books her mother May read to her, Katie started off penning poems, but eventually her thoughts grew into stories. As she morphed into her teen years, she felt compelled to express her opinions on news...

In June of 2007, I wrote an article about Georgia Manguso, a woman I babysat for when I was a teenager. Georgia was an amazing woman and mother who emanated a certain light and kindness that was missing in my own life. I loved her. I was stunned when...

I'm one of those people who knock the holiday season as commercial and overdone. I complain about the music, the crowds, and the expectations. Yet secretly, underneath all of this angst, is a sentimentality that's more maudlin than a Hallmark commercial and more heart-rending than a Walton's Christmas special. The...

There are a lot of buzz words in industry, and perhaps the most overused is "people," as in "our people make a difference" or "our people go the extra mile." The corporate lingo of employee empowerment, teamwork, and "let's do this together" are often disingenuous bromides that amount to little...

As part of a year-long photojournalism trip around the country, I am including stories about people who are making a difference in their communities. For more information, please visit Finding My America.

Sabrina is a petite thirteen year old with bright eyes and an excited smile. She...

Radio Flyer is a small 1992 film about two brothers, Mike and Bobby, who invent a flying machine out of a little red wagon so that Bobby can escape the brutal abuse he regularly suffers at the hands of his drunken stepfather.

The end of the film never...

There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about a woman I knew only by way of polished misinformation, poorly written news stories, and a shoddy investigation that left her murderer free.

I think about the victim -- who was poor, mentally ill, and physically abused throughout...

By now, many have heard of Caster Semenya. The 18 year-old South African runner first made the news for her stellar run in the African Junior Championships, but had her victory tainted by competitors who insisted that the IAFF, (the International Association of Athletics Federations), should test Semenya's gender to...

After Michael Jackson died, all the usual suspects came out of the woodwork to inflame, speculate, accuse, defend, and memorialize. Media vultures like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Gloria Allred took their well-worn places, along with ex-attorneys, autopsy specialists, and professional pundits. Hundreds of thousands of Jackson's fans filled the...

I was a 16 year-old wanna-be love child in a lace shirt, faded jeans, and moccasin boots. Bill was a real 30-something hippie, who had camped out at Woodstock and demonstrated at Berkeley. He drove an old Volkswagon Bug the color of chewed-up Wrigley's gum, and was fond of quoting...

A seven year-old boy throws a temper tantrum in his second grade classroom, stomping on a teacher's foot, battering a school administrator, and tearing the room apart. The class had to be evacuated by school officials to ensure the safety of the other children, and police and the boy's mother...

In the last couple of days, I've read more negative rants about Facebook's 25 Random Things About Me meme than I've read actual lists of 25 things. Writers from the New York Times and Time Magazine jumped on the anti-list bandwagon, as did writers like Tod Goldberg,...

When George W. Bush was campaigning for President, I thought there was no better man he could have in his corner than Rush Limbaugh. After all, who could understand the political aspirations of a privileged, party-going, service-avoiding, C-average candidate better than a privileged, two-and-a-half semester college flunk-out, with a penchant...

Forgive me for getting a little Rahm Emanuel here, but Sunday's lead story on The Huffington Post is worthy of a middle finger salute and some righteous indignation.

"McCain Slams Stimulus -- Joins GOP Leaders to Attack Stimulus Package". Well, okay. I'm all for healthy debate, even if...

Like many others, I have followed the story of two year old Caylee Anthony, who was reported missing last July. I have read the various twists and turns of this case, and felt the same frustration, sorrow, and anger that others have no doubt felt.

Certainly, in the case...

For several years, I've been a fairly invisible member of the one-paycheck-away-from-disaster class. As a writer with a down and dirty day job, I've lived dangerously, with no health insurance, no benefits, and precarious hours. I've gone without many American trappings, like protein, root canals, and Netflix. I've flipped my...

John Lennon struck a chord when he sang, "you may say I'm a dreamer, well, I'm not the only one". And he was right. To be human is to dream -- and to want to bring our dreams to life. Dreamers, though, have gotten a bad rap. Our antagonists would...