Top 10 stories of 2018

2018 was filled with in depth, heartwarming and important stories, from digging deep into public documents to sitting down listening to the homeless.

Here are my top 10 stories from 2018:

10. This story was a fun way to break out and write about something new on a topic not a lot of people are looking at (at least in terms of the religion news sphere).

9. This story is leading to a number of other stories regarding homelessness in Los Angeles. Stay tuned in 2019 for more.

8. I got to report multiple stories on what Miller Center is doing. This was one of my favorites. Also, expect more like this in 2019.

7. Finding foster parents isn’t easy and sometimes agencies are turning to Craigslist. It’s surprising and has some downsides that advocates are really worried about but it also works.

It’s easy to go into a story thinking it’ll be all negative. But once you really start listening to people you understand it’s a far more complex situation than you originally realized.

6. I wrote multiple stories involving the wildfires in California. This was easily one of my favorites.

5. I was tipped off about this story in late winter 2018. Finding and putting together all the data I needed to tell this story wasn’t easy. I’m glad I stuck it out because it shows the importance of including students with disabilities but how difficult it can be across the country.

4. Listening to these women’s stories was difficult but so important. I’m thankful they trusted me to share these with. The Amish #MeToo and the Church #MeToo movements have their own specifics and details but are part of the larger #MeToo movement that is so important to talk about. I plan to write about this topic more in 2019.

3. When news broke that @realDonaldTrump was helping bring home three Americans from North Korea, people tried hard to get the story of exactly what happened. I’m proud I was able to work with my sources to get that story out there.

2. I spent months working on this story. It took countless hours looking at numbers and many, many interviews. Ultimately I wrote 4,000+ words (which had to be massively cut down). I’m very proud of this story.

1.This was the first story I pitched, got accepted, wrote and published as a freelancer in Los Angeles. It was the start of everything.