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Florida environmental news: The stories behind the story.
About Me
Let's Get Acquainted
In May 2021, after 40 years of journalism - 35 years as a reporter for The Palm Beach Post - I decided to call it quits.. After a year of surfing and mountain biking in Costa Rica and tackling long-neglected home repairs, I realized how much I miss my passion - reporting and writing.
With The Backstory Blog, I am free to write how and what I want along with my thoughts and opinions about what I saw and heard during my career and what I see and hear today.
The blog draws on my experiences covering many beats - cops, courts, government, education,politics, environment, the Florida Everglades and my favorite – investigative reporting.
You may remember some of my bylines from stories about former President Donald Trump’s visits to Palm Beach and deep dives into his local tax and business dealings.
As a member of a team of reporters investigating the ongoing opiate epidemic, we uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance fraud in Palm Beach County’s drug treatment industry. Our investigation led to over 100 arrests and shut down numerous shady treatment programs and sober homes.
I also played a pivotal role in covering the November 2000 presidential election, Florida’s landmark case against the tobacco industry, Everglades restoration and the William Kennedy Smith rape trial.
By far my greatest accomplishment was helping free an innocent man wrongly convicted of murder. Kevin Coleman spent 13 years behind bars before testimony from a new witness I found helped lead to his release.
Some of you may also remember my award-winning Sunday column - Hoping for a Happy Ending - a weekly chronicle of my own experiences with depression, bipolar and alcoholism and analysis of timely mental health issues. A compilation of my columns and blog was published in 2009 and is available on Amazon.
As a swimmer, scuba diver and surfer, I have a special place in my heart for all things water – the ocean, lakes streams and especially the Everglades. You will read a lot here about these issues – and more.
Among my many awards are two Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, the James Batten Award for Public Service, American Society of Newspaper Editors Jesse Laventhol Prize for Deadline Reporting, Mental Health America's media award. and the Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade award.
I hold a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Oakland University in Rochester Michigan. I am the mother of a smart, beautiful daughter and Cooper, a lovable but timid potcake pup from the Bahamas.
As a visitor here, you are part of a fantastic and diverse community. Your comments, tips and story ideas provide me with new material to make The Backstory more interesting, insightful, thorough and your source for environmental news .
There are plenty of ways that you can become more involved. Please subscribe, comment and share The Backstory Blog on you social media and with friends and colleagues..
Thanks.
Christine
Freshly retired reporter Christine Stapleton spent 36 years covering news in Florida. .