Mr. Rossi has been advising the East Leyden student news staff for most of his twenty years at Leyden.

His current news media habits include spending too much time scrolling through the Google News feed on his phone. Through these sources, Mr. Rossi encounters the political news of the day and reads broadly about today's social issues, including ideas about justice, race, and gender. In addition to the political/social news of the day, Mr. Rossi also follows and reads topics related to his interests: the outdoors, technology, sports, and being a parent. He is proud to have visited more than 20 US National Parks and happy to report that reading travel blogs and other tourist information have led to a wider reading about environmental issues. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about his technology feed, which currently delivers gadget information rather than serious considerations of technology's impact on us. As for sports, he's a hopeless Chicago Bulls fan...at a time when reading about them is truly a lost cause...maybe!

This year, he's hoping to adapt his news diet in a number of ways. First, he'd like to commit to the many excellent long-form reads that he encounters. Early efforts have been very good, with the notable inclusion of the 1619 Project in his first week on the diet along with other long reads posted by friends on social media. He's hoping to make time on the weekends for these stories from Longreads as the site does some heavy lifting for him.

While he makes it a point to stay informed on local matters by watching the nightly news, Mr. Rossi's diet also includes reading The Chicago Tribune for more state news. An article on Chicago taxes interfering with their odds of a casino helped him better understand the concerns many are voicing with regard to the state's high tax rates and their impact on business. He's also been enjoying watching the NBC Nightly News. It's helping put human faces to all of the stories he's already scrolled through on his phone, serving as a necessary reminder that there are people behind those headlines.