Walker Orenstein Email & Phone Number

Minneapolis

Covering energy, natural resources and sustainability

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Covering greater Minnesota and the Legislature.

Olympia, Wash.

State government and politics reporter for the second largest newspaper in Washington state.While covering day-to-day happenings of the state Legislature and government, I focused on enterprise and investigative reporting. I often fact checked public officials and political candidates.In May of 2017, I was selected for a New Journalist of The Year award presented by the Society of Professional Journalists, Western Washington chapter.

Olympia, Wash.

At the AP, I was a temporary reporter covering the Legislature in Washington state for 20 weeks. As part of a two-person team in Olympia, I handled a wide range of topics from youth homelessness to the state supplemental budget.While at AP, I wrote a story about the state Legislature not disclosing public records by claiming a legal exemption as part of an AP sunshine week project. The article spurred editorials from major newsrooms across the state such as The Seattle Times, the Yakima-Herald Republic, The Everett Herald and The Olympian. A colleague and I investigated how testing drinking water for lead is inconsistent in Washington's public schools because the Legislature never paid roughly $5 million for testing. The 2017 Legislature eventually secured millions for testing lead in water at schools. Months later, the state requested our data for how to target schools in need.I also covered presidential campaign rallies, congressional races and presidential caucuses along with many general assignment stories on crime, wildfires, education and much more.

Greater Seattle Area

In this temporary position at The Seattle Times, I was the main reporter in the newsroom at night. I handled anything breaking in the Seattle metro area such as homicides and also completed general assignment enterprise work on city issues.When major news hit, such as a deadly ice cave collapse north of Seattle, I was the first responding reporter, piecing together major facts.My work was regularly featured on the front page of the paper's local section and several of my articles ran on the paper's front page.

Greater Seattle Area

In this 11-week internship, I reported on music, outdoors, books, travel, movies and features. My work was regularly featured on the front page of the arts and outdoors sections.

Olympia, Washington

For this 10-week internship, I reported on the state Legislature in Olympia, Wash.Along with three A1 front-page stories and several stories on the front page of the local section, I won a Pioneer News Group Excellence in Journalism Award for legislative reporting, selected by journalism faculty at the University of Washington.During the internship, I investigated legislation exempting youth hockey players in the Western Hockey League from child labor laws and other labor protections.

Greater Seattle Area

Took phone calls for scores, maintained stats and schedules and wrote freelance articles for the prep sports pages. Instrumental in The Times’ preps website transition to ‘Sport Ngin’ web platform. Trained staff members.

Greater Seattle Area

Wrote regularly for the arts section and occasionally for other sections, focusing on enterprising arts features. Began and wrote a weekly column featuring hip-hop mixtapes for two years.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Sport Ngin is a Minneapolis tech firm that creates websites aimed at sports teams with its own web platform.Through the company, I maintained stats and schedules for MN Prep Hub websites and on prep websites for The Star Tribune in Minneapolis and four other major-market newspapers starting my junior year of high school. I did critical work loading rosters and schedules for launch of prep websites for those newspapers on deadline.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Through Sport Ngin I covered high school sports for the online Star Tribune in Minneapolis and other Sport Ngin websites beginning as a junior in high school. I started as an unpaid intern and was promoted to a paid part-time reporter as a senior in high school.