Praying mantis?

I’m a journalist and writer living in Chicago. I remain a reporter, though I recently got unemployed. Since I can’t help but write, this is where I can talk about unemployment in the United States right now, first-hand. Got raised in Philadelphia by hard-working parents (concrete contractor and medical assistant) who couldn’t believe there are no reporting jobs listed in newspaper classifieds. Also, I chronicle my efforts to get re-employed or at least to eke out a living.

Sometimes I feel like news reporters are going the way of the praying mantis – so ferocious and weird, so very endangered – and by sometimes, I mean “always anymore”. If only there were a way to federally protect us… but that likely defeats the Point (that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”).

Talk to me: l_fitzpatrick@hotmail.com

Or come find me at LinkedIn and on Facebook or on Wired Journalists

Here’s a bio, which GateHouse hasn’t yet taken off its “contact us” page:

Lauren FitzPatrick arrived at GateHouse from the Daily Southtown in suburban Chicago. She covered criminal courts and crime issues, and was part of the investigative team uncovering corruption in the government and police department in south suburban Harvey. She won an AP news award for a forensic analysis of Emmett Till’s reopened 1955 murder case, a MADD Illinois award for a drunk driving series and an SNA award for a feature on the mother of a young police officer convicted of a fatal drunk driving crash. FitzPatrick holds an MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism and a BS from Georgetown University, and while at Medill, reported from Washington, New York, Egypt and Cyprus in print and radio. She has worked in public television in Philadelphia, where she grew up. Before that, she taught English to schoolgirls in Saudi Arabia, where she wrote and edited a local expatriate newsletter.