My college experience could best be described as a marathon that became a sprint: I graduated in less than 4 years with enough credits to complete two majors and enough hours spent in the newsroom to qualify as a full-time job. How it happened and why I did it? I didn't go into college planning to leave in less than the routine four years. I attended the Missouri School of Journalism and entered college with sophomore standing due
On 9/11/2001, I was in eighth grade. I got one stolen glance of the towers falling from a TV screen in my homeroom and called my mother, telling her "I want to come home." I attended a small, private Catholic middle school in Kansas City, where teachers herded students into rooms without televisions and didn't answer questions about what was going on. Instead, they unsuccessfully tried to redirect our attention onto an upcoming biology test. When I got
In case you missed it, the Online News Association will hold its next conference in San Francisco. Sound familiar? That's because we did it already in 2009. In between the two California stops, the organization will have scheduled two East Coast conference locations (Washington D.C. and Boston). When does this game of bi-coastal ping-pong stop? There's this big expanse of land between California and Boston that includes a handful of the top journalism colleges and universities (Northwestern, Missouri,
When I tell people I get paid to write for a living, I'm often asked what I enjoy reading. I can spout off a list of my favorite journalists in no time, but ask me what I like to read for pleasure and that's a totally different story. I don't get a lot of time to myself, save an hour-long commute to POLITICO's Rosslyn offices, but I do try to read as much as I can.
I’ve spent the last handful of years knee-deep in various levels of government, from Kansas City’s city council, to the Missouri legislature to my current job – covering national campaigns for POLITICO. So it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that I care a lot about government transparency and access to information. To talk about improving government transparency, I have to tell you a story about my grandma. She lives in one of Kansas City’s roughest
