THE PENNSYLVANIA YEARS
Franklin & Marshall College
Director of Media Relations, editor and writer for this four-year liberal arts college that was started in 1787 in Lancaster, Pa.
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Editor and Publisher​​​​​​
In 2008, My wife and I along with a business partner launched a community newspaper, TheBurg, in Harrisburg, Pa. I was co-publisher, editor, writer, photographer, circulation manager and paper delivery man. This free monthly publication reached an estimated 44,000 readers in five counties. We sold the paper in January 2013.
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Columnist
For three years, starting in 2005, I wrote a monthly column on government and politics for Harrisburg Magazine.
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Journalist
At the turn to the 21st century, I went to work as reporter and a co-editor for Capitolwire.com, the first online news service in Pennsylvania. We covered with some depth government and politics. I assisted with designing the website’s editorial content.
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Associated Press
Statehouse and general assignment reporter. Covered governors, legislators, agencies, news features. Some of memorable stories were Amish street gangs, a deadly bus crash and a factory explosion.
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The York Daily Record
This little paper has a distinguished history of past editors who fought local governments to ensure critical information reached the public. The usual beats—government, politics, cops, education—but my specialty was the religion beat, writing about faith in people's lives such as how church-going traditions have slipped away, the emergence in the local conscious of the practice of Islam, and why some Jewish families also celebrate Christmas.
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Freelance Writing
News and features for various newsletters, newspapers and websites including The New York Times, Stateline.org, Reuters, Philadelphia Daily News, Wilmington News Journal, Harrisburg Patriot-News, Central PA Magazine, Harrisburg Magazine, Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, City & State.
THE WASHINGTON YEARS
The Washington Business Journal
Covered the biotech industry in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia metropolitan region, writing about new and existing companies that held promising scientific products that could one day revolutionize medicine and agriculture. This job included assignments for the newspaper's quarterly magazine. One memorable story was about mapping the human genome, which included an interview with James Watson, the molecular biologist and co-discoverer of the DNA structure. Also covered legal affairs and business. One of my favorite features was about a Ugandan immigrant who waited patiently at his newly opened convenience store for the proposed convention center in downtown D.C. to open across the street. He expected the center to attract many customers to his store. Unfortunately, his business folded before ground was ever broken.
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Roll Call
Ronald Reagan started his second term as president when Sid Yudain agreed to hire me. It was a unique little newspaper (still is), covering Congress as a community, which it is, despite the partisan bickering. Sid couldn't pay me much, so I took a second job, waiting tables across town at night. It was an interesting experience the first six months (before Sid sold the paper to Arthur Levitt, then president of the American Stock Exchange). I interviewed congressman and senators during the day and sometimes served them food at night. One or two salons did a double take as I took their orders, but said nothing. Sid generously shared his wisdom, usually with a bark, but I gained great insight into national government and politics as well as the politics and business of journalism.