The People of PIM, Finance and Commerce & The Saint Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report
The People at Politics In Minnesota
Sarah Janecek, Publisher. Sarah has been involved in Minnesota politics for
more than 20 years. [Much longer if you factor in lit dropping as a kid; the pay for an afternoon's work was a 39-cent cone at Dairy Queen.]
She began writing for the old Politics In Minnesota newsletter in 1993. A year later, she created Politics In Minnesota: The Directory. Now in its sixth edition, the 750-plus page book is often called the Bible of Minnesota politics. In 2005, Sarah launched PIM online. For many years, Sarah has provided the Republican perspective to various local media including Twin Cities Public Television's Almanac, KARE 11 (NBC), KSTP (ABC), WCCO (CBS) and FOX. When Minnesota political events become national stories, she appears on CNN, FOX and MSNBC and provides perspective to the national print media like the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.
In other lives, she was an aide to a U.S. Senator both in Minnesota and Washington, practiced law and worked as a contract lobbyist, most recently at her own firm, Janecek Public Affairs.
Janecek has hosted several radio shows and written commentary for the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She also writes for MinnPost.com. Proud to be a Golden Gopher, Sarah earned degrees in journalism, political science and law from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis, where she’s a "tiny red speck in a big blue precinct."
Ricé Davis, Operations Manager. Ricé has lots of experience behind the desks of many GOP political operations, both in Minnesota and Washington, D.C. In one of her nine lives, she was Director of Operations for former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson. Everything works fine when she's in charge. She is oft heard to comment: "I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world."
Dan Feidt, Web Editor. A graduate of St. Paul's Macalester College, Dan wrote and edited for The Mac Weekly, the student-run paper. Since 2001, he's operated HongPong.com, an offbeat news and views website visited occasionally by various intelligence agencies. He designed the Drupal-powered content management system for PIM, and does freelance web and design work, too. Dan is an Apple, Inc. shareholder, so he thinks Apple is totally awesome and everyone should invest.
Peter Bartz-Gallagher, Morning Report Editor. Peter—a native of St. Louis, Missouri—migrated North to attend St. Paul's Macalester College. There he majored in American Studies and was the Photo Editor at the entirely student-run The Mac Weekly for seven semesters—never once letting nudity slip by his steely editorial grasp. After seven years in Minnesota, Peter has come to love bitter cold winters but still can't stomach American League baseball. After work, he loves dining out, soccer, cooking at home, and taking pictures around Uptown Minneapolis.
Andy French, Media Specialist. Andy can deal with HD video, or composite video. It's no problem!
The People at Saint Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report
Bill Clements, Managing Editor. Bill joined Dolan Media in late February of 2005 as the feature writer for Finance and Commerce and the Saint Paul Legal Ledger, now the Capitol Report. He moved up from Chicago in February 2003; his friends thought he was nuts for moving in the dead of winter.
During his two decades in journalism, Bill has worked as a writer, copy editor and editor at newspapers and magazines and even a scholarly journal. He spent more than a few years freelancing, and even went back to school for an MFA in writing. At the time Bill moved here, he was writing as a freelancer for Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine and Crain’s Chicago Business. Bill received his college degree in English with a minor in classics from Columbia University. He lives in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood.
Adam Johnson, Web Editor. Adam is the go-to guy for editorial content on the Capitol Report website. He joined Dolan Media in 2006 reporting on construction for Finance and Commerce and expanded his beat to include med-tech coverage in 2007.
Adam cut his teeth at a community newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, where he covered business development in the northern suburbs. Before his days at Finance and Commerce, he covered education and technology for the semi-weekly Northfield News for two years in Northfield, Minn. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from St. Cloud State University. Adam lives in Eden Prairie with his recent bride, Amanda.
Bill Klotz, Staff Photographer. Bill was born in upstate New York and moved to Minnesota at six when his father was transferred from the IBM Endicott plant to Rochester. Bill attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where he studied photography and filmmaking, mainly.
He started his journalistic photo career snapping pictures for the Fairmont Sentinel in Minnesota. Before joining the staff at Finance and Commerce, Bill worked 10 years as a freelance photojournalist for Lillie Suburban Newspapers. Bill’s hobbies include cooking, trout fishing, canoeing and boat building. He lives in a Minneapolis house that’s been the subject of an ongoing, 13-year renovation.
Charley Shaw, Staff Writer. Charley joined the Saint Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report in October 2004. He has covered Minnesota politics and public policy issues including the 2005 partial government shutdown and transportation funding debates in the aftermath of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. Prior to joining Capitol Report, Shaw worked for the nonpartisan Minnesota Senate Engrossing Office. He was also a reporter for the Stevens Point (Wis.) Journal. A graduate of Lawrence University, Shaw lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two cats.
Betsy Sundquist, Staff Writer. Betsy has been a staff writer for the St. Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report since May 2008. She previously worked for daily newspapers in Fargo and Bismarck, N.D., and Sioux Falls, S.D., and was a pop-culture columnist for Internet Broadcasting Systems, with her column, Culture Shocked, appearing on TV station websites around the country. She has been a process server, a Web editor, a senator’s assistant in Washington, D.C., and a desktop publisher, but her first love is newspapers. She and her husband, Kip, live in Burnsville with their 7-year-old son Andrew and their dog of indeterminate breed, Otis.
The People at Finance and Commerce
Scott Fagerstrom scott.fagerstrom@finance-commerce.com, Editor-in-Chief. Scott, a native of Washington State, joined Dolan Media in February 2008. He has served as a reporter, columnist and editor at a variety of major newspapers around the United States, including the Orange County Register, the San Diego Union Tribune and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and his freelance work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Robb Report and Newsweek. Most recently, he served as editor of Passages, the employee newspaper at Northwest Airlines.
Scott received a bachelors degree in journalism from Western Washington University. He lives in St. Paul’s Merriam Park neighborhood.
Kendall Anderson kendall.anderson@finance-commerce.com, Staff Writer. Kendall joined Finance and Commerce in March 2008. As a staff writer at The Dallas Morning News, she covered poverty and social services, crime/police, education and reported in-depth on long-term care, domestic violence and state child protective services. A graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism, Kendall also worked several years as a freelancer for the award-winning Fort Worth Weekly, the Minnesota Women’s Press and Mpls.-based Be-Mondo Publishing.
She has been on the other side of the news world, working as a communications director at a Dallas-based non-profit community development - social justice organization and later as an independent communications consultant to Baylor Health Care System. Kendall has taught journalism (part-time) at Southern Methodist University and enjoys teaching English as a second language in her spare time at Cedar-Riverside Adult Education Cooperative in Minneapolis.
Mark Anderson, mark.anderson@finance-commerce.com, Financial Writer. Mark has been reporting on the finance and commercial real estate beats for Finance and Commerce since 2000. Mark entered the news business as a freelancer, writing for many Twin Cities newspapers and magazines beginning in the early 1980s. He was named editor of the Southwest Journal in Minneapolis in 1990, a community newspaper that was named the state’s top weekly by the Minnesota Newspaper Association in 1999.
An Iowa native, Mark attended Luther College and the University of Iowa and planned a career as a professional trombonist – until the reporting bug bit. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Paula Keller.
Burl Gilyard burl.gilyard@finance-commerce.com, Real Estate/Retail Writer. Burl joined Finance and Commerce in April 2004 after working as a staff writer for City Pages, Corporate Report magazine and the Twin Cities Reader. As a freelancer, he has written for numerous regional magazines and The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Rolling Stone, Slate.com and American Journalism Review. A Minneapolis native and a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Burl lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Nicole Cina.
Brian Johnson, brian.johnson@finance-commerce.com, Construction Writer. Brian graduated in 1989 from the University of Minnesota, where he majored in journalism and minored in Swedish. After a stint at American Airlines in Chicago as a ticket agent/Swedish interpreter, he returned to Minnesota to pursue a newspaper career.
Starting in 1993, Brian cut his journalistic teeth at the Oakdale Clarion newspaper, a suburban weekly, where he did a little of everything – and a lot of most. In particular, Brian managed a small team of talented freelance writers, including a former Minneapolis Tribune reporter and budding novelist, and a former Korean War correspondent. Brian joined Finance and Commerce in February 1998, where his primary beat has been construction, although he’s tackled everything from general business to credit and banking. Brian lives with his wife, Stephanie, and their three daughters in Richfield.
Arundhati Parmar arundhati.parmar@finance-commerce.com, Technology Writer. Arundhati Parmar joined Finance and Commerce in May 2008 and covers technology. She specializes in business reporting, and her career has taken her from a small high tech publication in California to a newspaper in Indiana. She also worked at two Crain publications in Chicago before deciding to go freelance. Quickly recognizing that people were her oxygen, she applied to Finance and Commerce and got the nod. Arundhati was born and raised in Kolkata (aka Calcutta), India. She has managed to get a degree from all the three continents she has ever lived in: Bachelors in English Literature from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, a Masters in English Literature from University of Sydney, Australia and a Masters in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University in Chicago. She has vowed never to step inside a classroom again.
Morning Reports
