I was just 19, and still at Golden West College, when I was hired by the Los Angeles Times Orange County edition for the lowliest job in the newsroom: clerk. Apart from being asked to get a fake ID so I could buy the night copy desk beer and pizza, and to keep wives and girlfriends on different phone lines, I was ecstatic: A college sophomore, actually working at one of the three great newspapers in the country as a teenager. I did my homework in the newsroom on weekends in the event big news broke and they'd need a reporter so bad that they'd send the college newspaper student to pinch hit. And I did.
I cut my teeth on the police beat and still love breaking news, but also grew into a better writer by learning from some of the best in the country. After two decades at a newspaper, and having to commute three hours daily to L.A., I opted to reinvent myself as a more focused mom and wife and learn more about online writing. I also had more time to volunteer, and enjoy the outdoors around me.
I am a native Southern Californian, born in Whittier, where I grew up swimming in pools, building go-karts and playing kick-the-can. One thing I love about Belmont Shore is that I can be outdoors and have so many places to be. I love to swim and do laps at the Belmont Plaza Pool, float on Alamitos Bay or cycle down the bike path to the Long Beach Museum of Art. Movies are something my son and I love to do together, followed by an hour or more reading at a bookstore. I also try to meet a minimum weekly quota of one double-double, no cheese.
Your Beliefs
At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.
Politics
Knowledge is power, and people need to understand how decisions are made in their community and how they can participate.
I believe in government for the people and by the people, and that public officials should do what they promise. I also believe that citizens have to work harder to ensure that they do. This is where Patch journalism will be key.
Religion
I believe in God. When I hear Gospel music in church or in concert, I feel God.
Local Hot-Button Issues
Balancing the rights of residents, visitors and businesses. Public safety. Traffic, particularly along Second Street into the intersection with Pacific Coast Highway. The future of the Los Cerritos Wetlands.
The Cal State Long Beach alumna shares the ups and downs of the TV job market and why she and her Converse All-Stars are fixtures on the sidelines, the Grunion Gazette's JJ Fiddler reports.
The police were called to Pine Avenue about the loose dog, and a man reported he'd been bit by it. The dog's fate was unknown.
Carrie White Scanlan sent Patch this shot of the crane this morning at Long Beach Yacht Club.
The funds are to be used primarily to reduce air pollution, plus upgrade runways.
She has Huffington Post readers abuzz with her blog about attending Occupy L.A. this weekend, and what she's seen the economy dish out to her family and those of her friends.
Construction delay will keep some lanes closed, forcing a detour between 105 and Bandini until 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Occupy Long Beach events draw lefties but also first-timers: middle class parents facing home foreclosure and a family finding they paid more tax in 2010 than three corporations combined.
Sunday's event, which wound through Belmont Shore and Southeast Long Beach and drew as many as 23,000 runners and viewers, featured work by child patients, others.
Belmont Shore resident, a professional photographer, puts on "Say Cheese, Long Beach."
One the owners selected for today is a children's book "The Hardest Word."
From poppies to daffodils to cilantro and cauliflower, there's a lot of planting to be done in the fall.
Judaism's holiest day of the year provides an opportunity for personal transformation.
The six-to-12 set will run, walk and toddle along one-mile course promoting fitness and healthfulness in a pre-Long Beach Marathon event.
In two videos from last night's meeting in Bluff Park (another is set for 6 tonight) local residents share how they've lost businesses, houses, a life as they knew it.
City official Amy Bodek says it endorses a 12-story tower, but only for a hotel, and the two key takeaways are to amend the SEADIP zoning just for that parcel to allow for some residential, and taller buildings averaging no more than four stories.
Testimonials offered on video, including stories of failed businesses and defaults on student loans, were mentioned Wednesday by the group meeting again at 6 tonight, and Friday, at Bluff Park.
Freeway construction at the 7th Street and Studebaker entrances to the Garden Grove (22), San Diego (405) and San Gabriel (605) connector backed up vehicles southbound.
Long Beach police say it was a possibly gang-related drive-by in daylight, car to car, and LBReport.com has the story with a map locating numerous nearby shootings.
Gusty winds kicked in overnight, and record rainfall was measured at Long Beach Airport, but warmer temps are forecast by Friday.
The local event at the edge of Belmont Shore is part of Occupy Wall Street, a mushrooming protest movement tapping anger over corporate greed for the economic downturn.
