Larry Kahaner

Larry Kahaner is an American journalist, author, ghostwriter and former licensed private investigator. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and now lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

His books include:

  • Competitive Intelligence (Simon & Schuster), ISBN 978-0684844046
  • AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War (Wiley), ISBN 978-0470168806[1]
  • Values, Prosperity and the Talmud (Wiley), ISBN 978-0471444411
  • Cults That Kill (Warner Books), ISBN 978-0446513753
  • On The Line (Warner Books), ISBN 978-0446513135
  • USA, Inc. (Bay City Publishers), ISBN 978-0-9984203-0-1

He has received the Jesse M. Neal National Business Journalism Award, [2] the American Society of Business Publication Editors Regional Gold Award [3] and an Associated Press Newswriting Award. He holds a Master of Science in journalism from Boston University. A former BusinessWeek Correspondent, his work has appeared in the Washington Post, [4] Los Angeles Times [5] and Information Week.[6]

As a reporter for the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer in 1980, he wrote the first in-depth exposé of the textile mills in the city and how they caused byssinosis, also known as 'brown lung disease,' in workers. Byssinosis is caused by inhaling textile particles. For years, workers were reluctant to complain about the illness for fear of losing their jobs. The mills exerted great economic power including owing an adjoining town, Bibb City, owned by Bibb Manufacturing Company. When the series was released, many of the newspaper's street boxes were looted of their copies. The series led to the Georgia legislature enacting laws to allow workers with byssinosis to file workers' compensation claims for the first time. The reportage also garnered several awards including an Associated Press Newswriting Award – Public Service. [7]

Kahaner arguably wrote the first, nationally-syndicated newspaper articles about frequent incidents of sexual harassment of female soldiers at Fort Benning at a time when Pentagon officials said that such cases were rarely reported or brushed aside.[8]

During the early to mid 1980s, Kahaner covered the telecommunications industry as it underwent a massive change from a regulated business, dominated by AT&T, to a deregulated industry that brought in new players and new technologies. As a founding editor of Communications Daily and later as a Washington correspondent for Business Week, in addition to freelancing for other magazines and newspapers, he wrote some of the earliest articles about the new telecommunications landscape,[9][10][11][12] cell phones,[13][14][15][16] email,[17][18] and the internet, [19][20][21] culminating in two books, "The Phone Book," with co-author Alan Green (Penguin, 1983) and "On the Line: The Men of MCI – Who Took on AT&T, Risked Everything and Won" (Warner Books, 1986).

During the 1990s and into the 2000s, Kahaner has been a regular contributor to Fleet Owner, a transportation and logistics print magazine and online publication. First, he wrote a monthly column about Washington politics, as well as other stories, and later in 2015 began writing a twice-a-month article about the lives of truck drivers. He has called attention to their day-to-day struggles,[22] [23] [24] health, [25] [26] safety, [27] [28] working conditions [29] public perceptions [30] and personal lives. [31]

In a 2006 interview with Michael Yon On Line Magazine Kahaner said: "I know this sounds corny but I would like to be remembered for something in my writing that helped someone or advanced a righteous cause. For example, when I was a reporter at the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia stories I did about brown lung disease –which you get from working in textile mills –helped change state legislation to protect workers. In another instance, I wrote about MCI 'On the Line' and how it beat rival AT&T. It was a David and Goliath story. This inspired a woman in the midwest to start her own business. It’s too early to tell if there will be any impact from my current book 'AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War,' but I hope that it will help people to see that there are too many military-style weapons in the wrong hands and it keeps wars going in the world’s poorest countries. I have no problem with gun ownership, but I have a problem with large-scale gun dealers who sell guns to anyone just to make money. It’s a crime on many levels." [32]

Partly drawing on his experience after college as a technician on an oceanographic vessel that surveyed Massachusetts Bay (The RV Atlantic Twin) Kahaner has authored a thriller "USA, Inc." which was published by Bay City Publishers in December, 2016.

References
  1. Seabrook, Andrea (November 26, 2006). "AK-47: The Weapon Changed the Face of War". Weekend Edition. NPR. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  2. "51st Neal Awards". American Business Media.
  3. "FleetOwner garners "Azbee" editorial awards". Fleet Owner.
  4. "Weapon Of Mass Destruction". Washington Post.
  5. "Why paying truckers by the mile is unfair and dangerous". Los Angeles Times.
  6. "1940 Census Data Swamps Servers". Information Week.
  7. "Brown Lung" series, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, January 4,7,8,9,10,17,1980; March 7,10,23,1980; April 3,4,16,1980; June 15,17,23,1980.
  8. "Benning Women say it's Gone Beyond the 'Hey Baby' Stage," Knight-Ridder News Service, August 5, 1979.
  9. "After the Breakup, Some Surprises," Channels, Jan/Feb 1986;
  10. "Changing Phone Habits," BusinessWeek, September 5, 1983;
  11. "Farewell to Plain Old Telephone Service, Consumers Digest, Nov/Dec 1983;
  12. "How Bill McGowan Broke All the Rules and Won," Washingtonian, March, 1986;
  13. "The Cellular Radio Duels Begin," BusinessWeek, March 1, 1982;
  14. "A Bell Lobby With a New Sound," BusinessWeek, March 15, 1982;
  15. "Cellular Radio Breaks Communications Log Jam," highTechnology, Jan/Feb, 1981;
  16. "Cellular Transforms Car Radio Field," International Herald Tribune, May 29, 1984.
  17. "Business Mail Goes Electronic," highTechnology, Jan/Feb 1982;
  18. "MCI's Newest Strategy: Shooting for a Broader Spectrum – Hotter Long-Distance Competitions from AT&T Pushes MCI into Electronic Mail," BusinessWeek, October 10, 1983.
  19. Wiring the Brains into Buildings, BusinessWeek, September 27, 1982;
  20. "Content Matters Most in Search Engine Placement," Information Week, June 12, 2000;
  21. "Carnivore: Is the FBI Monitoring Your Email?," Information Week, April 23, 2001;
  22. Larry Kahaner (December 2, 2016). "Married team truckers jailed after baking soda wrongly tested positive as cocaine". Fleet Owner.
  23. Larry Kahaner (October 21, 2016). "Get the Hell Out of My Weigh Station!". Fleet Owner.
  24. Larry Kahaner (January 8, 2016). "One trucker's towing nightmare". Fleet Owner.
  25. Larry Kahaner (December 20, 2015). "Debunking myths about sleep apnea". Fleet Owner.
  26. Larry Kahaner (April 22, 2016). "Underreported: Drivers not seeking help for mental health issues". Fleet Owner.
  27. Larry Kahaner (January 15, 2016). "Feds not liable for truck damaged during botched drug sting". Fleet Owner.
  28. Larry Kahaner (December 18, 2015). "How truckers protect themselves on the road; Guns, tasers, baseball bats and tire clubs". Fleet Owner.
  29. Larry Kahaner (April 24, 2015). "Paying by the Mile Caused Fatigue, Crashes and Fatalities". Fleet Owner.
  30. Larry Kahaner (May 23, 2016). "Truckers make ideal serial killers: FBI". Fleet Owner.
  31. Larry Kahaner (September 15, 2015). "Photographer reveals hidden lives of truck drivers". Fleet Owner.
  32. "First Person Singular: Larry Kahaner". November 1, 2006.
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