Below are links and brief descriptions of some of my work. Some clips are in PDF form.

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BREAKING NEWS REPORTING:

Protesters turn back buses of immigrants — The Desert Sun

Covered the July 2, 2014 dueling protests outside of a Border Patrol station in Murrieta, California that blocked three busloads of undocumented women and children from entering the facility for processing. Captured the scene of this national story, shot raw footage of the protests and routinely sent updates for a live blog. The story was picked up by USATODAY.com and ran in the front page of the Arizona Republic. Discussed my reporting of the protests the following day live on Southern California Public Radio KPPC’s Airtalk with Larry Mantle the following day.

View a PDF print version of the story here with the jump.

6 arrested in Murrieta, but no undocumented immigrant arrival — The Desert Sun

Teamed up with the paper’s veteran immigration reporter to provide spot coverage of organized protests three days following the July 2 protests when another busload of undocumented women and children were scheduled to be transported to the Murrieta Border Patrol station for processing.

ENTERPRISE REPORTING:

Small rural districts battle to keep special ed students close to home — The Fresno Bee

Detailed the complexities behind rural Fresno County school districts’ efforts to serve their special education students for The Bee’s quarterly education tab. For many cashed-strapped, rural districts with Hispanic, farm working families, the solutions aren’t always ideal. Sometimes that means students take lengthy bus rides for classes outside their district. Spoke with several teachers and special education authorities for the story. Contextualized many of the uphill battles rural districts across the country face in recruiting special education teachers.

At Salton Sea, tourists fled but families remained — The Desert Sun

Teamed up with a fellow Desert Sun multimedia/photo intern and spent time in several surrounding communities near the Salton Sea to document the lake’s vibrant past and its uncertain future. Researched the lake’s complex political and environmental history and spoke with several families who live near the sea about their concerns and hopes. This story was accompanied by a short documentary and ran as an A1 Sunday centerpiece.

Indio, Coachella volunteers reach out to homeless — The Desert Sun

At the start of my second week in the internship, a Desert Sun photographer and I were embeddded with a group of rescue mission volunteers who delivered supplies to homeless at five different camps — including one inside a bridge overpass. Many of the volunteers were homeless at one point and the run was emotional for many of them. Filed this story on same-day deadline and it ran A1 centerpiece.

Disability lawsuits target Coachella Valley hotels — The Desert Sun

Combed through several court records and spoke to lawyers well versed on the legalities of the Americans with Disabilities Act for this story on two serial plaintiffs who sued more than a dozen hotels in Downtown Palm Springs over a span of several months. Detailed the history of ADA lawsuits in California and captured the reactions from several hotel managers and owners who were faced with two costly choices: settle or fight the lawsuit in court.