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At Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., I was fortunate to take a reporting class from Albion Ross, a foreign news reporter for many years for The New York Times, who liked to read our copy out loud and point out mistakes in a voice that shook the walls of Johnson Hall. I can’t say I enjoyed his classroom critiques, but they gave me unshakable confidence in pursuing stories.

I think I heard his voice the day I opened my first unemployment check from New York State. The numbers didn’t add up to what I expected. I had followed the federal rule, which required rolling over my pension within 90 days, but I hadn’t checked New York State’s rule. New York was one of a dozen states that viewed rollovers as “double-dipping” and penalized workers. That didn’t seem fair to me, and many other middle-aged, mid-career workers laid off after 9/11, so I took my complaint to an administrative court. When I lost my case, I took the story to The New York Times.

The bylines below represent some of my best work; to read more, please contact me here.

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Changes That Will Shape Personal Finance Coverage in 2021 and Beyond | The Reynolds Center (businessjournalism.org)

I wrote on a wide range of personal finance topics for the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism from 2017-2021. Here are a few. You can search for my bylines under my name or on any one of a dozen or more topics such as: budgeting, credit cards, debt, health care costs, investing, IRAs, retirement planning, retirement investing, savings, and Social Security.

Investing Isn’t a Video Game: Important Things to Remember About Retail Trading

Your next business enterprise story: Student loan servicing

“Why Don’t More Americans Have Wills?”  

“3 Timely Stories to Report Now on Vaping”

Dori's writing on personal finance has been invaluable to our website and the mission of our organization. We use our daily blog to educate and inform business journalists in order to improve the quality of business journalism across the country. Personal finance is often left to columnists, but Dori's work constantly shows why reporters on the business beat should dig into topics that affect the finances of everyday people. She offers clear ideas and suggestions for reporters to improve the coverage of these issues.

Rian Bosse, Web Editor, businessjournalism.org

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When Pensions and Unemployment Checks Don’t Mix, The New York Times

There must be a mistake, I thought, when I opened my first unemployment check a few weeks after 9/11. After I was laid off, I rolled over my pension within the 90 days required by federal law, but I overlooked New York state’s rule. Along with a dozen other states, New York viewed a rollover as an early pension withdrawal and penalized workers. That didn’t seem fair to me, and many mid-career, middle-aged workers suffering the same fate after 9/11, so I took my case to the court of “public opinion” and pitched the story to The New York Times.

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A Buck Here, A Buck There,” and “Talking ‘Bout My Generation” in Make Your Money Grow Finance Guide, Newsweek

As part of the business news team, I reported for five Newsweek covers on the economy post-Enron and wrote two stories for a special section on the challenge of making your money grow in tough economic times. I also reported for Quinn’s Newsweek column as needed, while meeting twice-weekly deadlines for her personal finance Washington Post column.

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“One Boy’s Story,” Covenant House, Times Square, New York

I interviewed street kids and staff for these two essays, which were published in annual reports I produced for Covenant House, the Times Square shelter for runaway and abused kids. In a sense, these stories wrote themselves — all I did was listen.

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“The Vision of a Church United,” Logos Magazine

This essay, written early in my career when I worked on the staff of a start-up national news publication, still resonates today. Religious intolerance always makes headlines.

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“I Feel Like I Committed a Crime,” The (Morristown, NJ) Daily Record

“I Feel Like I Committed a Crime,” the first of a two-part series of the pros and cons of abortion, was published shortly after Roe vs. Wade. The series made the phone ring off the hook and won me a First Place in the Interview category from the National Press Women. The bylines below represent some of my best work; to read more, please contact me here.

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