Now covering public safety and courts!

As of mid-July, I am now the public safety and courts reporter! I will also continue to cover health and fitness and the soldiers from the local Oregon National Guard company.

I managed to get a taste of all aspects of my new beat my first full week in the position (July 20-24).

During that first week, I covered a case where a man was defending himself and had racked up about a dozen charges while in jail. During the second day of his trial, he pled guilty to the charges. The following week he pled guilty to most of the remaining charges. In all, he will serve 140 months in prison.

During that first week I also covered a fatal logging accident, a fatal car crash and a fatal motorcycle crash. For each of those stories, I had the tough task of calling the victims’ families to ask about their lost loved ones. All of the families were willing to talk to me, and I had the opportunity to tell readers about the victims in each of these tragedies.

The week ended with a house fire that destroyed a motor home a couple had been living in and a farmhouse that had been in the family for decades.

It was an exhausting week, but I loved every minute of it. I had been hoping to get on the public safety and courts beat for some time and was thrilled when the opportunity arose. I studied political science in college and focused on courts and law. The political system has always intrigued me.

I look forward to what each day brings on this fast-paced beat. (This week it’s several-thousand acre wildfire burning abut 35 miles from Roseburg.)