About the writers
Andrew Schneider has spent his career uncovering secrets that corporations and the government don’t want you to know — often because they could or are hurting you.
 Photo by Paul Kitagaki Jr. ©2009 He broke the story of the asbestos poisoning of Libby, Montana, now infamous as the biggest environmental disaster in the United States. His reporting led to the criminal indictment of W.R. Grace and some of its top executives — leading to the largest environmental crime case in U.S. history. Schneider also was the first to report that fumes released by heating diacetyl, a butter flavoring used in thousands of consumer products, were destroying the lungs of food factory workers, mom-and-pop confection store owners and chefs across the country. He documented that seriously ill pilots were being allowed to fly commercial planes because the government looked the other way. He explained why scores of regular people – coal miner’s daughters and cops – were bypassed, and sometimes died, because the organs they were next in line for went to New York diamond merchants and wealthy foreigners. He showed why life flight helicopter rescues sometimes became death flights because competition for patients trumped flight safety. And he disclosed a global honey laundering network that allows adulterated honey from China to be sold to unsuspecting U.S. consumers. Schneider’s investigative work has been recognized with dozens of journalism awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes, the profession’s most prestigious honor. But even more important, his work at news organizations from coast to coast has earned the trust of government and private sector experts across America, giving him access to stories and documents that make him one of the nation’s leading public health reporters. Cold Truth is the first place on the Web where news you need to know will appear. Schneider will also post his longer form stories through links alongside the blog. You can send him ideas and tips at: schneider@coldtruth.com He credits whatever success he has had to many courageous whistleblowers, dedicated government investigators and that he was allowed to team up with reporters, photographers, artists and editors who care passionately about using their journalistic skills to make a difference. Schneider lives within sight of Puget Sound with his wife and three very happy Labrador retrievers. |
| Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett is a contributing writer and editor for Cold Truth.
Marlowe Hartnett is managing editor of The Food Watchdog and blogs at Type Like The Wind. |
Kathleen McLaughlin has been a freelance journalist in China since 2002. Now based in Beijing, she works as China correspondent for Global Post (www.globalpost.com), and for BNA, a regulatory and legislative affairs publisher in Washington, DC., Her stories about China have appeared regularly in the San Francisco Chronicle, Far Eastern Economic Review, Christian Sci ence Monitor and wide range of other news outlets. Before moving to China, she was a political reporter in Montana. |
Laura Lundquist is a graduate student in print journalism at the University Of Montana. A very non-traditional student, she has explored careers in engineering,  aviation, genetics and water quality assessment. Her varied background informs her writing, and while she hopes to be a journalist foremost, she wants to specialize in environmental journalism. {Note from Schneider: Laura was one of a team of reporters who covered the entire 2009 criminal trial of W.R. Grace, where she repeatedly amazed me at her ability to listen to hours of legal tap dancing and jargon and quickly cranked out a concise, understandable and entertaining story – on deadline.} |
Mary Bernton is a public health major at Tulane University. She aspires to be an epidemiologist, and loves research and writing. She is spending the summer as an  intern for coldtruth.com while she’s home in Portland, Ore. She wasted no time offering suggestions to make the site better. She can be reached at mbernton@gmail.com. |
She has spent the past three decades reporting, editing, reviewing books and freelancing for newspapers, magazines and news websites.
Thanks for fighting the good fight, Andy! Without your professionalism and great moral compass, I fear that citizens would be in an abyss of ignorance.
What you need is a good PR guy!
Thank goodness great reporters like Andy Schneider are still doing great investigative journalism!
No matter how many daily newspapers go belly-up or convert to web-only, there will always be a need for good solid, public interest reporting by folks like Andy and publications like The Texas Observer; we just have to figure out to finance their important work.
Carlton Carl
CEO/Publisher
The Texas Observer
Andy Schneider deserves a bigger audience, and the world deserves to become empowered by the knowledge that Andrew Schneider uncovers. We’ve got to find a way to get away from corporate media influenced information, and get back to investigative reporting as the “trend.” Andy, lead the way!
Good to see you’re still fighting the good fight!
Keep learning, reporting, writing, blow the whistle!
Thankfully there is still someone out there shining the spotlight of truth into otherwise dark corners. That gives me hope.
Hey…great site. Glad to see you’re still raising hell.
Drop me a line some time…
Thanks Andrew for blazing the path so others might follow in obtaining the truth behind the scenes that mainstream media does not provide.
[...] Celeste Monforton One of my all-time favorite investigative journalist and public health hero, Andrew Schneider, is writing for the new AOL News venture: Sphere. Schneider is exceptional because of the [...]