Aviva Bechky

I just finished interning at The Oregonian/OregonLive, where I reported for the politics and education team. Prior to that, I spent the summer as the food and wine intern at the San Francisco Chronicle, covering everything from breaking restaurant news to colorful profiles to an in-depth story about a controversial ballot measure on farming. I've also worked as a general assignment intern at Block Club Chicago and as a features intern at The Seattle Times. Plus, I've spent time writing for D.C. publications like District Fray Magazine, Washington City Paper and Metro Weekly. I'm majoring in journalism at Northwestern University with minors in data science and gender & sexuality studies. At The Daily Northwestern, I've served as print managing editor, city editor and development & recruitment editor.

Featured Stories

San Francisco Chronicle •

The S.F. Bay is teeming with this tiny fish, adored by local chefs

Standing on the deck of a 60-foot fishing boat, Lucas Allen Maxwell swishes a net through almost-empty tanks. He comes up triumphant, holding a smattering of squirming silver fish, the last of that morning’s anchovy haul.

It’s just about 8 a.m. in San Francisco, and a man in a mustard yellow jacket is waiting on nearby Pier 47. Maxwell raises the anchovies for another deckhand to hose off and then pours them into a plastic bag. The man — Nicola Ingargiola, 69 — takes the bag from Maxwell with a look of delight, fish still wiggling around inside.

“Nice and fresh,” Ingargiola says. “You cannot get better than that.”
Block Club Chicago •

As Drugstores Close, Neighbors In Chicago's ‘Pharmacy Deserts’ Struggle To Access Meds

Genaro felt like he was suffocating.

The Little Village resident said he started suffering respiratory problems after the 2020 Crawford Coal Plant implosion covered his neighborhood in dust. Genaro relies on a daily medicine to manage his symptoms — but this May, he ran out of pills. Unemployed and uninsured, he didn’t think he could pay for more, so he waited instead of stocking up.
Block Club Chicago •

Antisemitic Signs Left On West Ridge Neighbors' Cars In Latest Hate Incident

Residents of a West Ridge side street woke up Monday to find antisemitic signs on their windshields and lawns, the latest in a string of hate incidents targeting Jewish neighbors in Chicago.

The antisemitic cardboard signs were discovered on cars and lawns early Monday in the 2900 block of West Sherwin Avenue, police said. Almost every car on the block was targeted, said Yisrael Shapiro, a spokesperson for Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th).
The Oregonian/OregonLive •

Mingus Mapps wants to make Portland work better. Will voters support his back-to-basics pitch for mayor?

Three years before he launched his bid for mayor, as hundreds protested the police nightly in downtown
Portland and City Hall leaders edged to the left, Mingus Mapps ran for city commissioner as a change agent: a
political newcomer challenging progressive firebrand and incumbent Chloe Eudaly with his moderate policies
and mild-mannered tone.

Mapps attracted powerful supporters with his unusual optimism for the city’s future. Neighborhood
associations. Business groups. The Portland Police Association. They buoyed him into office, where Mapps
sounded the alarm on rising shootings and homicides, the explosion of fentanyl and homeless encampments
and the city’s obvious struggles to address those problems.
The Seattle Times •

Seafood sustainability a looming question for PNW sushi industry

The fish carver slides his knife into a 550-pound bluefin tuna shortly after 6 a.m. on a mid-July morning. His blade makes a sound, click-click-click, as it rattles along the fish’s bones.

Batsukh Sevjid’s efficient cuts speak to plenty of experience preparing tuna for Kent-based seafood supplier Young Ocean, Inc. Standing in a chilled room, he slices the 5-foot-long bluefin from tail to neck and back, sectioning it into long quarters of deep red, highly prized flesh. A second employee cuts tho
The Seattle Times •

Meet the diplomat in Seattle who’s become a social media star

The origami cranes pour out of Whole Foods and Metropolitan Market bags, a Hammermill crate and a Häagen-Dazs box.

More than 1,000 pile up on the table: hot pink cranes. Orange and yellow and green cranes. Cranes with stylized waves crashing along their wings, cranes patterned with wisteria and gold fans, cranes with constellations, cranes with chrysanthemums, cranes made from paper commemorating the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Hisao Inagaki, the consul general of Japan in Seattle, sits dow
The Seattle Times •

Here’s what Paul Allen’s estate just donated to MoPOP

Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture is adding these items and thousands more to its collection, thanks to a bequest, announced Wednesday, from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen founded the museum with his sister, Jody Allen, in 2000.

Other highlights of the gift include “Star Trek” scripts annotated by actor Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Nyota Uhura in the original show and in six movies; a hat worn by the Wicked Witch of the West from the 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” film; and a f
Washington City Paper •

Washington Gas Faces Lawsuits in D.C. and Maryland Over Alleged ‘Greenwashing’

In the lower left corner of Washington Gas’ monthly bills, some customers have received colorful illustrations of flowers and a cheery environmental message.

“Natural gas is a clean, efficient, and reliable energy,” the message reads. “Converting an all electric home to natural gas is the equivalent of planting 2.75 acres of trees or driving 26,520 fewer miles each year.”

But that claim likely assumes—without evidence—that all electricity in a home is generated by a coal-fired power plant rath
The Daily Northwestern •

In Focus: Albany Care’s residents report violence and medical mistreatment. But many may have nowhere else to go

Peter Basquin moved out of one Chicago-area residential mental health care facility because of bedbugs, cockroaches and lice. He left another because it lacked the counseling structure he needed.

Basquin said he wound up at Albany Care in 2019, where another resident assaulted him.

The long-term mental health care facility, located in Evanston’s 4th Ward, is legally required to he