A few examples of my work as a journalist are included below.
The biggest breaking news story of my career is probably Legendary Wrestler Verne Gagne and a Tragic Tale, published by MinnPost.com in 2009. This immensely sad story, which quickly was picked up nationally and internationally, details the accidental death of Helmut Gutmann after a confrontation with Gagne at memory-loss treatment facility.
A follow-up piece was published by MinnPost two days later, Verne Gagne and Aging Pro Athletes: Studies Focus on Brain Damage. It examined what has since become a widely reported theme–the connection between head trauma sustained by elite athletes and deadly Alzheimer’s-like brain diseases that often appear later in life.
This 2005 Minnesota Monthly piece profiles Peter Hutchinson, the man who would’a-been governor—had enough people in 2006 been interested in casting a third-party vote. They weren’t. He wasn’t. But Peter is a good man who ran an honorable campaign, as this piece, “The People’s Wonk,” indicates.
Here a relatively recent piece for the Capitol Report newspaper. It’s a profile on retiring St. Paul NAACP President Nathaniel Khaliq.
With the release of the Honeydogs’ new “best of” package, I was prompted to re-read their backstory, which I wrote and published in the March 2006 edition of Minnesota Monthly. Read: Honeydogs’ Life.
Here’s an oldie but a goodie, written to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic National Convention—a pivotal moment in national and Minnesota political history. Read “The Battle of Purgatory,” originally published in Minnesota Law & Politics.
Here’s an op-ed written with my friend Tim Penny, the former Congressman and current CEO of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Fund. It was published in the StarTribune and titled, “Don’t Stop Treating Third Parties Fairly.”
Discretion is advised for the following story. Just Short of Murder details the 1998 Minneapolis murder trial of James Aron Barber. It was originally published in Q Monthly, and now is online at CityPages.com. The story contains graphic and potentially offensive language. With the hindsight of time, I think I would shorten it up were I to write it today, but it retains a great deal of the impact I felt covering the trial from beginning to end–the only time in my career I have had that opportunity.
