Jeff Benedict

A top student and football star in South Central L.A., Kitam Hamm is one of a growing number of high school athletes who facelife-and-death decisions every day as they try to survive in gang-infested communities

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Blog

Blink

My last blog was on dying. This one is on living. Back in October, “Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway”... Read more..

Crossing The Bar

CROSSING THE BAR The call came the day after Christmas. “Grandpa’s aneurysm ruptured.” I was at home in Virginia, about to embark... Read more..

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON

For the past three months I’ve been working on one of the best stories of my career. It appears in Sports Illustrated today and is called “Straight... Read more..

A SINGER AND A CHEF

If I could be someone else for five minutes, I’d be Van Morrison so I could sing ‘Someone... Read more..

SEE NO EVIL

Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. In law school I spent a summer working as an assistant to the chief prosecutor in a child sex crimes unit. One of... Read more..

A Life Worth Living

Ray Brown and Steve Jobs Remember Ray Brown? He’s the 86-year-old bookkeeper that I wrote about back in July after he was diagnosed with cancer... Read more..

I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT

Over the summer I encountered a woman so stunning that I couldn’t look away. It happened at the Majestic Theater on Broadway. I was there with... Read more..

A WITNESS TO HISTORY

Painting by: Ed Vebell I like looking at the world through other people’s eyes. To a certain extent, that’s my job. But I’m also hopelessly... Read more..

A JUSTICE AND A GENTLEMAN

Justice Richard Palmer Sometimes I find myself in some pretty unusual situations. All right, make that most of the time. Take last month, for... Read more..

Showtime

On Monday my publisher will officially announce that Lifetime is making a movie based on Little Pink House, and Brooke Shields, who is currently on Broadway... Read more..

The Apprentice

Clancy and Jeff Benedict Last week I took a business trip to Salt Lake City. Mark Willes, the CEO of Deseret Management Corporation, asked me to conduct... Read more..

The Accidental CEO

Two years ago I wrote a book called How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The R.C. Willey Story. Tonight a television documentary based on... Read more..

When You're Feeling Sad

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, Brown paper packages tied up with strings – These are... Read more..

The Next Outbreak

During my career I've written well over fifty articles and essays for newspapers and magazine. It's fair to say that none of them tackle a public health... Read more..

Postcards From A Book Tour

Today I'm writing from Portland, Oregon, where I landed last night after concluding my first week on the road to promote POISONED. This has been the... Read more..

I Love What I Do

New Trailer For Poisoned When I entered law school I wanted to be a prosecutor. I'm so glad I became a writer instead. Law was the more conventional... Read more..

MODEL MOTHER

When my wife Lydia was a teenager she thought it would be fun to be a fashion model. Her real ambition was to be a writer. But she looked at modeling... Read more..

The Book That Changed My Life

On May 17 I’ll publish my tenth book. It’s called POISONED and this one is incredibly personal to me. This book tells the story that sparked the... Read more..

Sargeant's Heaven

Life is full of adversity. But the death of a child presents one of life's most agonizing trials. The grief can be unbearable. But this is not going to... Read more..

15 MINUTES WITH WARREN BUFFETT

Forbes just published its annual list of the richest people on the planet. Warren Buffett ranks third with a net worth of $50 billion. It was hard to... Read more..

HIGHER EDUCATION

Southern Virginia University is a small liberal arts college nestled in the Shenandoah Valley. The school’s president recruited me to teach there a... Read more..

THE MAKING OF AN SI COVER STORY

For the past six months I've worked on one of the most ambitious journalism investigations of my career. Sports Illustrated and CBS News collaborated... Read more..

SGT. PEPPER IN THE HOUSE

SGT. PEPPER IN THE HOUSE Recently, after a long work day, I came through the kitchen door and these lyrics boomed through my house: It was twenty years... Read more..

Travels With My Best Friend

Who’s your best friend? For me, that’s an easy one – my wife Lydia. There’s no one I’d rather be alone with. The trouble is that time alone... Read more..

Giving Beats Receiving

Frank Capra’s classic film ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ opens with friends and family praying for George Bailey, whose about to jump off a bridge.... Read more..

My Mickey Mantle

When I was a kid, most of my friends looked up to athletes. My hero was my grandfather Merle Shelton. I used to call him my Mickey Mantle. The Mick was... Read more..

Me and Julio

First a follow-up on my last blog post about teaching children well. The number of reader responses was off the charts. I heard from a Wall Street banker,... Read more..

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

This is a bit of a departure from my normal blog posts. No talk of criminal athletes, eminent domain takings, foodborne illness, or Indian casinos. Today... Read more..

IT’S A SHAME

This photo of Huey Long was taken in 1929 at his impeachment proceedings in the House Chamber of the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Last night I stood... Read more..

What did you eat today?

After my last blog post on E. coli, I was contacted by Chuck Jolley, a journalist who writes for the meat industry. Some 30,000 cattleman read his column.... Read more..

ONLY A GAME

Over the weekend I did an interview on NPR with Bill Littlefield, the host of 'Only a Game.'" Most of our conversation dealt with athletes and violence... Read more..

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