Alan Greenblatt
Alan Greenblatt has been covering politics and government in Washington and around the country for 20 years. He came to NPR as a digital reporter in 2010, writing about a wide range of topics, including elections, housing economics, natural disasters and same-sex marriage.
He was previously a reporter with Governing, a magazine that covers state and local government issues. Alan wrote about education, budgets, economic development and legislative behavior, among other topics. He is the coauthor, with Kevin Smith, of Governing States and Localities, a college-level textbook that is now in its fourth edition.
As a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, he was the inaugural winner of the National Press Club's Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, which is given to outstanding reporters under the age of 35. Sadly, he no longer meets that requirement.
Along the way, Alan has contributed articles about politics and culture for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is happy to be working for an outlet where he has been able to write about everything from revolutions in the Middle East to antique jazz recordings.
Alan is a graduate of San Francisco State University and holds a master's degree from the University of Virginia.
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Blacks often struggle to raise capital to open and run restaurants, a legacy of discrimination. Over the past few years, promotions to help diners know which restaurants are black-owned have spread.
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Cape Town, South Africa, is now a global food hot spot. But the lack of restaurants serving traditional dishes of the continent speaks to larger concerns about what this post-apartheid society values.
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A handful of restaurants are experimenting with no-tipping models, guaranteeing their servers a base level of pay. So far, satisfaction is up and turnover is down.
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He shot eight films with Woody Allen and was particularly known for his work on dark films of the 1970s, such as the Godfather series. Wills was dubbed the "Prince of Darkness" for his use of shadows.
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The country's energy minister said 780 people were working in the coal mine at the time of the accident.
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Top earners are usually paid when they stay home sick, but low-income workers are not. That has triggered a debate about fairness and risks to public health when incentives force sick people to work.
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The tipped minimum wage has been stuck at $2.13 an hour since 1991. In states where servers make more than the federal minimum wage, restaurants haven't been hurting.
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Stories that titillate, amuse or arouse flash-in-the-pan outrage may be more widely read and shared than solid information. Celebrity and scandals have always attracted media attention, but in the Internet age, the balance is shifting more toward entertainment.
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The transition from one role to the other is difficult, and many have failed making the attempt. Nelson Mandela was a rare example who succeeded in both jobs. In addition, he willingly stepped down after one term in office, setting an example for a young democracy.
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Everyone who's ever had a job has had to show up for work on days they'd rather be anywhere else. Keeping it together can be especially challenging for servers, whose livelihood depends on providing diners with pleasant experience.