Eric Francis

Eric Francis (born Eric Francis Coppolino, March, 1964 in Brooklyn, NY) is an American investigative reporter, essayist, author, editor and photojournalist. As an investigative reporter, he has specialized in corporate fraud and toxic torts litigation involving some of the world's most powerful corporations -- General Electric, Monsanto Company and Westinghouse. He is the astrologer for the New York Daily News and Marie Claire magazine. According to his bio on the Daily News website, he's "the world’s only astrologer to carry international press credentials. After a long career as an investigative reporter covering corporate crime, Eric went from the front page to the horoscope page." He is the founder, editor and publisher of Planet Waves, Inc., and is producer and host of Planet Waves FM, affiliated with the Pacifica Radio Network. Since 1994, he has worked as a research astrologer specializing in minor planets and other newly discovered objects, particularly the centaur minor planet group, as well as a horoscope writer and astrology teacher widely published in North America, the United Kingdom and Australia. He has taught at the Northwest Astrology Conference, the NCGR conference and is on the faculty for the 2012 United Astrology Conference (UAC) as a media panel expert and writing teacher. He continues to be active as a journalist in non-astrological fields, particularly on sex education and organochlorine issues and civil rights, most recently writing for The Ecologist in the UK. Planet Waves publishes the Dioxin Dorms website, which gives a comprehensive history of the dioxin incident at SUNY New Paltz and internationally dating back to 1929, for which he is best known as a journalist. In 2005, while based in Paris, he created Book of Blue, a fine art photo studio and series of online books. In a 2008 article, the (Kingston, NY) Daily Freeman said, "Though his camera lens, Coppolino has captured provocative and captivating images from around the world. He has gained international recognition for delivering a fresh and positive twist of world thought and culture with his photographs." He describes the project differently: "Spiritually and sexually intimate, these are images and narratives about gradually discovering myself through the exploration of relationships and art." In August 2009, as the author and photographer of Book of Blue, he presented his photography and its corresponding psychological theory at the American Psychological Association's Toronto world congress. The theme was, "Inner Goddess and Inner Gaze: Reconstructing Female Self Image."