Septuagenerian Occupy Oakland activist Daniel Borgstrom on J28 Move In Day and war.

And I won a James Madison award from the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee! Yes, they give those to cartoonists too.

For more beat reporting, keep an eye on Twitter but also Tumblr, where I’ve been doing some original little pieces lately, like this one on the SXSW Homeless Hotspots.

This is a video of me and many others being kettled by the YMCA. My favorite part is the cop yelling at me at the end to “get out the building” as we were all standing on the sidewalk.

Besides getting arrested for a second time while reporting on Occupy Oakland, I’ve been actually reporting on Occupy Oakland! For the Guardian, AlterNet, Truthout, Citizen Radio and the East Bay Express, from civic engagement, to lynching, to OPD’s new smarter policing, to Occupy Wall Street West, to January 28th’s “Move In Day,” and to my first part of Occupy Oakland paintings. Of those six pieces, two have drawings, and five are basically wholly written. I’ve also done some sweet “media appearances” with Punching Down, Thom Hartmann and the Alyona Show.

In light of being left off my own goddamn union’s list of arrested journalists this week because I am a freelancer, I have to link again to this piece I wrote a few months ago about why I am a cartoonist — and why I am still a journalist. I’ve kind of given up on people understanding that I can do multiple things, though, so from now on I guess I just have to go with “journalist” for clarity.

So the blog is here! First post is about Occupy Oakland’s latest camp and police raid last night.

Photo via whipartist, taken October 27, 2011 at Occupy Oakland.

Today my first piece for the Atlantic went live, which is pretty exciting. Please check that out. And then hire me to write long in-depth pieces all the time because goddamn do I love doing this work even though it means a life of poverty.

You should really just be following me on Twitter these days by the way — where, sorry conspiracy theorists, but the powers that be are not censoring the #Occupy hashtags.

But if you’re not, I’ve recently written new Occupy stories for the Awl and the SF Appeal, and I’m contributing more frequent coverage over at In These Times on the Uprising blog with the inimitable Allison Kilkenny.

Flash mobs, mic checks, port shutdowns, all of it, and so much more in the works.

If you’re reading this, you probably already know that full-time freelance reporting is not an easy life to live. I have no institutional support or colleagues on whom to rely for help, and my expenses are all on me. While I’ve embraced my poverty for the last several years, I’ve been able to supplement my income with various short gigs and well-paid drawing jobs. Covering a popular movement, especially in an economically depressed city, is not nearly so lucrative.

But I don’t really fucking care.

So I’ve started a fund to help me stay on the Occupy beat and not have to take on some less than ideal illustration jobs to make ends. If you can, a couple bucks would help more than you might think. And thanks so much to everyone who has helped already.

Some exciting work developments on the Occupy Oakland front. I was thrilled to do this piece for GOOD tracking the first six weeks of Oakland’s occupations. And yesterday my first Oakland field report documentary for Citizen Radio aired (starts around the 18 minute mark). Yes, I’m making radio again!

More written work is in the pipeline, big announcements, etc, the usual.