Colin Flaherty

Colin Flaherty (born June 25, 1955) is a writer, talk show host and the owner of an on-line ad agency and public relations company.

Most recently his by-line appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek after he submitted a business tip to "Today's Tip" - a section of the publication in which readers can submit business tips.

In June 2011, he won First Place in the Washington Post Spy Novel Writer's Contest. The contest was judged by Washington Post editor and best selling author David Ignatius, who said Flaherty's work was his "strong favorite," and it "advances the story and twists it in a new and interesting direction, very deftly." His winning entry was the subject of a radio show on WDEL, a small radio station in Wilmington, Delaware.

Books
In 2011, Flaherty published an e-book titled Redwood to Deadwood: A 53-year Old Dude Hitchhikes Around America Again. He wrote the e-book after remembering that lots of people used to hitchhike, but few do now.

In 2012, Flaherty self-published White Girl Bleed A Lot, a book chronicling the pattern of African-American flash mobs attacking passersby in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and other major cities.

Business and Professional Career
Colin Flaherty attended the University of California San Diego. After attending school, Flaherty was hired to be a council representative to San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez in 1982.

Four years later he was hired to cover city hall for the San Diego Business Journal. After less than one year on the job, the San Diego Press Club named Flaherty the top political reporter and the Best of Show. He also covered San Diego for United Press International, the San Diego Reader and San Diego Magazine.

In 1992, he was mentioned in passing in a Los Angeles Times article regarding a story he had written about Kevin Wiley, a convicted murderer who was subsequently released from prison after having his conviction overturned.

In 2003 the California Fair Political Practices Commission fined Flaherty $76,000 for $400 in illegally donated campaign contributions to local political candidates. According to the Commission, Flaherty "executed a scheme to inject money into the campaigns of local candidates, while concealing himself as the source of the contributions."