writer journalist etc.
I’ve started blogging on the food industry for BNET. I’ve been doing it for about a month now, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. Some of my recent posts:
Groups Clash Over Organic Standards for Fish, Milk
More Eating In Means Higher Sales for Heinz, Smucker’s and Campbell Soup
Financial dilemma: For many Muslims, conventional loans can be a sin
By Katherine Glover
Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008
MinnPost.com
Seven years ago, staff at the Neighborhood Development Center made a realization. Plenty of Somalis and other Muslim immigrants had attended the St. Paul-based center’s trainings for small-business entrepreneurs — but in more than a decade, not one Muslim had ever taken advantage of the center’s small-business loans.
The reason? Islam forbids “reba,” or usury. To some, the term refers merely to excessive interest, but to others, it includes the payment of any kind of interest — making conventional bank loans a sin for them.
Trans (I) Am
Chrissy Nakonsky looks to become the first transgender Republican state legislator from Brainerd (or anywhere)
By Katherine Glover
Minnesota Law & Politics
August/September 2008
A sidebar to “Not the Man She Married.”
scanned article as PDF (scroll down to page 2)
Not the Man I Married
by Katherine Glover
Minnesota Law & Politics
August/September 2008
When a trans person marries a member of his or her new gender before transitioning, is there any reason the union shouldn’t be considered legal?
“Generally speaking, the validity of a marriage is measured at the time that the marriage is contracted,” says Phil Duran, a staff attorney with GLBT rights group OutFront Minnesota. “So if at the time of the marriage one person was legally male and one person was legally female, then short of an annulment, the only way you can terminate that is through death or divorce.”
Which adds an extra twist to the legal issues around same-sex marriage.
“If we were ever to get a divorce,” April says, “I could go to Texas and marry another woman, or I could stay here and marry a man.”
Cookin’ With Sun
Sierra Magazine
November/December 2008
Mike and Martha Port sell solar cookers to outdoor enthusiasts in the United States–and use the profits to subsidize sales of the ovens in developing countries.
Also check out the online-only audio interview with Solar Oven Society volunteer and recipe-maker Bill Potts.
Blind activists protest depiction in new film ‘Blindness’
by Katherine Glover
MinnPost
“This is the kind of movie that’s going to make my life harder,” says Jennifer Dunnam, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota. “The people in this movie just seem to lose all capacity for creativity and for taking care of themselves, and it’s a problem when real people already think that about blind people.”
Transgender Rights Meeting: Mara Kiesling Mixes Humor with Savvy Insight
by Katherine Glover
Lavender Magazine
April 11, 2008
At a town hall meeting on transgender rights, the executive director of the Washington D.C.-based National Center for Transgender Equality talks about the battle for a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
The Food Detectives
by Katherine Glover
Minnesota Law & Politics
August/September 2008
After something like E. coli strikes, these lawyers turn into Columbo.
Crop Prices Cut into Conservation
by Katherine Glover
The Environment Report
With grain prices hitting record highs, a lot of farmers are removing land from the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners to idle land for conservation. The US Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, says the CRP is still in good shape, but some conservationists disagree.
Thousands March in Gay Pride Parade in Argentine Capital
by Katherine Glover
The Associated Press
Thousands of Argentines waving rainbow flags marched in the annual Gay Pride Parade Saturday in Buenos Aires, where some said they still face discrimination in one of the most gay-friendly cities in Latin America.
First Barbie Store a hit in Argentina
by Katherine Glover
The Associated Press
An Argentine entrepreneur sets up a Barbie “fashiontainment” store including a playroom, beauty salon and coffee shop.
It was an AP wire story so I’m including multiple links in case not all of them stay archived:
Yahoo
MSN
God on the Job
by Katherine Glover
News21
Head scarves, vacation days, proselytizing, condemning gay co-workers on religious grounds, refusing to transport alcohol or dispense birth control pills – where do we draw the line? Employers and courts struggle to find a balance in how far religion should be accommodated in the workplace.
Also includes interactive sidebars – a selection of cases in which the job itself went against an employee’s religion, an overview of what courts have said about uniforms and dress code policies, and a surprising answer to the question “Can a company ever require an employee to convert to Islam?”
God or Godzilla
by Katherine Glover
News21
Film buff Dave Canfield talks about how his Christian faith informs his passion for horror – and vice versa. Audio clips with photos.
Dave Canfield’s horror movie memorabilia collection is to die for. He owns around 4,000 DVDs, and every surface of his office is cluttered with toys and figurines, including a limited edition Freddy Krueger statue autographed by Wes Craven.
At first sight, you might never guess Canfield was a devout Christian. But he keeps his collection in his tiny, windowless office at Jesus People USA, the Chicago-based Christian commune where he has lived and worked for 18 years.
Holy Profits?
by Katherine Glover
News21
Chicago Christian commune Jesus People USA funds its charity work with a successful roofing supply company and other for-profit businesses.
CAFTA a year in: impact more ideological than economic
Katherine Glover
Medill News Service
May 31, 2007
This article deals with the effects of the Central American Free Trade Agreement on the United States, specifically Illinois, during the first year CAFTA was implemented.
The economic impact was minimal – Illinois exports to El Salvador actually dropped slightly, while imports to Costa Rica, which had not ratified CAFTA, increased. But both opponents and supporters of CAFTA acknowledged that the trade agreement was extremely important as an ideological step.
I also tried to put in some perspective about what trade agreements are and are not.
Although the debate is often mistakenly portrayed as a battle between those who support increased trade and those who don’t, in reality, the conflict is in the details.
…
“It’s a managed trade agreement,” [Robert] Scott [with the Economic Policy Institute] said. “There’s no such thing as a ‘free trade’ agreement that’s 2000 pages long. You’d just need a few pages to say: there’s a free trade area, there’s no tariffs or restrictions on trade, period, stop.”
Immigrants more than unskilled field hands, say farmers
by Katherine Glover
Medill News Service
May 30, 2007
Chicago Muslim professionals go with the flow
by Katherine Glover
Medill News Service
May 24, 2007
Mazen Asbahi admits he sometimes misses prayers. As a lawyer with Schiff Hardin LLP, sometimes he’s in negotiations all day and can’t break out. “A more hard-core Muslim who’s more senior might say, ‘I need to make a five minute break,’” Asbahi said, “but at my point in my career, I can’t always do that.”
Immigration bill has easier terms for farm workers
by Katherine Glover
Medill News Service
May 24, 2007
A report on one aspect of the long, ultimately unsuccessful attempt at immigration reform in 2007:
Under the [Senate] bill, agriculture workers who are here illegally could get a visa after paying a fine of only $500, whereas other undocumented workers would have to pay $5000. Furthermore, after the current visa application backlog is cleared, agricultural workers would be among the first to be processed.
U.S. $1-million visas are going begging
by Katherine Glover
Medill News Service
May 15, 2007
Each year U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can grant up to 10,000 visas to foreigners in exchange for a $500,000 or $1 million investment that creates at least 10 U.S. jobs. But last year only 486 investors applied, and only 344 visas were approved.
My first article for salon.com, “Why can’t gay dwarves get married in Middle-earth?” dealt with the issue of same-sex marriage in video games, specifically Lord of the Rings Online.
The article was trashed in the letters column as being a waste of time, silly, and not about Iraq. One blogger pronounced me the winner of the Award for Excellence in Trivial News Reporting.
My initial reaction was basically, “Of course it’s goofy! Does everything have to be deathly serious?” But the positive responses, including some very articulate replies to the “this article is completely goofy and a waste of time” camp, made me reconsider. The article does deal with a serious issue that means a lot to people – it just looks at how that issue is being addressed in a silly, arguably frivolous venue.
At any rate, the story provoked a lot of interesting discussions in various blogs, which was rewarding to me as a journalist, since with magazines or newspapers, I’m usually not sure if anyone even reads my articles unless someone makes a special effort to complain.
As for the Award for Excellence in Trivial Reporting, I would like to point out that the wording implies not that my story was the most trivial news that came out this year, but rather that of all the trivial news that came out, mine was the most excellently reported.
I can live with that.