James Verini is a journalist based in New York. Until its untimely demise in 2009, he was a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio magazine, where he was twice nominated for a National Magazine Award in the reporting category. Before that he was a features contributor and columnist at the Los Angeles Times, covering culture and the arts, and before that a staff writer at the New York Observer, covering business. He’s reported from Europe, Russia, India, Mexico and New Jersey for the publications linked to on this site and more obscure ones besides.