Ashley Nagaoka Boylan started her career as a journalist. A reporting internship got her interested in politics and led her to Washington, D.C., where she now works as a press secretary for her home-state Rep. Colleen Hanabusa.
Boylan contacted news directors in D.C. but never found a good fit. In 2010, the year Hanabusa was elected to Congress, Boylan worked as press secretary for a cancer advocacy nonprofit. She also volunteered for the campaign in D.C. doing opposition research and press work. When Hanabusa won, Boylan became her press secretary, leaving behind her days as a reporter but not entirely changing her outlook.
“Being a reporter is public service, and I’m still doing a public service here as a press secretary,” she said. “One of the benefits that I have is that I was a reporter, so I know what they want and I know how they want information because I was on the other side.”
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Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, arrives for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the investigation of the IRS' targeting of political groups. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify and caused a protest from some committee members when she offered an opening statement and engaged in dialogue with members before invoking the right.
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