It’s been a very productive first week of the new semester. Here are some of the latest fruits of your labor:

• Sandra Roa spent a night on the cold streets to chronicle the city’s annual homeless census. Her hard work paid off: She helped MSNBC put together an audio slideshow.
• Nicole Turso wrote a fun sidebar about a governmental “hot seat.” Check out her story in City Hall, near the bottom of this link.
• Maya Pope-Chappell made the cover the Brooklyn Heights Courier with her story about an increase in juvenile crime, driven by young robbers’ thirst for iPods, cell phones and other gadgets. The article isn’t online – but feel free to come by my office for a look.
• Damiano Beltrami’s story and audio slideshow about a Greek-Italian entrepreneur who saved nearly a dozen Jews in Latvia during World War II made the I-Italy website.
• Jenni Avins’ piece about a new exhibit at the New York Food Museum on the 1930s milk wars was featured on dossierjournal.com.
• Karina Ioffee wrote a piece for the Daily News about the proliferation of illegal housing conversions.
• Ben Fractenberg’s brite about a contest to create a mascot for the city Parks Department made the News.
• Sergey Kadinsky shared a byline in this News story about a fatal fire in Harlem.

In our alumni corner:

• OMG! Stephen Bronner scored the cover of AM New York with his article about how texting abbreviations are creeping into young students’ speech and writing.

Congrats to all – and keep

Tags: Ben Fractenberg, Damiano Beltrami, Jenni Avins, Karina Ioffee, Maya Pope-Chappell, Nicole Turso, Sandra Roa, Sergey Kadinsky, Stephen Bronner