Catherine A. Traywick Oakland at Work: A sailor’s life for me

Produced for Oakland North’s new series, “Oakland at Work.“ Though Mary Swift-Swan has traversed the Bay Area’s many estuaries and coastlines since she was 3 years old, she didn’t settle into the nonstop, unpredictable life of a sailor until she was well into her 30s. Now, as a licensed captain and the owner of Afterguard [...]

Catherine A. Traywick Oakland at Work: A sailor’s life for me

Catherine A. Traywick In “Dragon Tattoo,” David Fincher brings the girl to life

Originally published at Ms. magazine on December 26. I dreaded seeing David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In particular, I dreaded sitting through another graphic rape scene like the one in Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev‘s 2009 version of the film–a scene I described in my review as disquieting, intense and vicious. Hollywood [...]

Catherine A. Traywick In “Dragon Tattoo,” David Fincher brings the girl to life

Catherine A. Traywick Infographic: The Costs of Occupy

Check out this infographic I made for Oakland North, which illustrates some of the costs incurred by the City of Oakland as officials attempted to manage the Occupy Oakland protests. Byrhonda Lyons did the reporting: A week after Occupy Oakland protesters were evicted from Frank Ogawa Plaza for the second time, the city is still [...]

Catherine A. Traywick Infographic: The Costs of Occupy

Catherine A. Traywick Hyphen issue 24 out now!

Don’t forget to pick up Hyphen issue 24, which is now on (some) newstands! You can also subscribe, or check it out online. Once inside, you can read my feature the survival of a group of Filipino nurses in the face of workplace discrimination, budget cuts and sweeping changes in the health industry, as well [...]

Catherine A. Traywick Hyphen issue 24 out now!

Catherine A. Traywick J-School Nightmares

I had the worst dream last night. I was assigned to report on a serial killer in another city and spent several days tracking him down—only to realize that he had been stalking me, and planned to kill me and my J-school classmates. In the end, I had to kill him.Brutally. And then wait alone [...]

Catherine A. Traywick J-School Nightmares

Catherine A. Traywick The fraught history of Filipino nursing in the U.S.

I’ve been wanting to do a story on Filipino nursing in the U.S. for some time and, this year, Hyphen gave me the opportunity to do so, even facilitating funding of the project through Spot.us. Issue 24, which is out this month, features a story I wrote about alleged discrimination against Filipina nurses on the part [...]

Catherine A. Traywick The fraught history of Filipino nursing in the U.S.

Catherine A. Traywick Things Customers Say in Bookstores

British writer and perpetual bookstore employee Jen Campbell announced that she’s publishing a book based on her blog series, “Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops.” This, in combination with Borders’ recently announced bankruptcy, has prompted me to make my own list of the funny/irritating/weird things customers have said to me during my five years as [...]

Catherine A. Traywick Things Customers Say in Bookstores

Catherine A. Traywick Big Business Dictates Immigration Policy—At Workers’ Expense

Media Consortium | Huffington Post Arizona’s business leaders, frustrated by the deep financial fallout of increasingly radical immigration proposals, successfully swayed state lawmakers into defeating five extremist anti-immigrant bills. New America Media’s Valeria Fernández reportsthat 60 executives from the likes of WellsFargo bank and U.S. Airways penned an open letter to state Senate President Russell [...]

Catherine A. Traywick Big Business Dictates Immigration Policy—At Workers’ Expense

Catherine A. Traywick The 2012 Budget and Our Unsecured Border

Media Consortium | Huffington Post President Obama is taking heat from all sides this week for his 2012 budget proposal, which proposes increased funding for immigration enforcement and border militarization. While immigrant rights advocates are predictably up in arms over the proposal, House Republicans are (somewhat uncharacteristically) demanding significant cuts to border security funding — [...]

Catherine A. Traywick The 2012 Budget and Our Unsecured Border

Catherine A. Traywick In the Aftermath of People Power

Following the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, commentators and activists alike repeatedly referenced the Philippines’ 1986 People Power Revolution, during which the dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted and replaced by the much celebrated Cory Aquino. Last week also marked the 25th anniversary of the revolution and, accordingly, much was made of Aquino’s presidency and legacy. [...]

Catherine A. Traywick In the Aftermath of People Power