Feel free to e-mail me. 

Older clips are parked here and here's my Media Bistro online profile. 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Westwood One Metro Source, Jan ’08 - Present
Digital editor for the Westwood One digital division.  Editing news feeds that go to radio station websites, including state/regional, national, international, financial, health, entertainment, and multiple music format feeds.  Obtaining and cropping images for a good end-user experience as well as exercising news judgment.

Organic Processing Magazine, August 2007 - Present
Contributing editor (intern) doing research, some writing, and proofreading.

Elph Studios, Present
SEO web content writer.

Suite101.com, February – November 2007
Pop music feature writer. 

CNET’s Webshots.com, August 2006 – 2007
Editor for entertainment channel, writing brief, HTML-dense posts.

Bonneville Broadcasting’s 987ThePeak.com, May 2006 – Present
On-air personality and creative content writer and editor for radio station website.

Submitawebsite.com, Oct. 2005 – May 2006
Web copywriter for the purpose of search engine optimization optimization (SEO).

Valley Publishing, Mesa, AZ, Aug. 2005 – October 2005
Managing editor for: Northeast Mesa Lifestyle magazine, Gilbert Lifestyle magazine, and Senior Lifestyle magazine.  Reporting, writing, interviewing, coming up with story ideas, and editing. 

Westwood One Metro Source, Scottsdale, AZ, June 2004 – August 2005
National news writer-editor.  Edit audio, write and edit national/international stories for broadcast on over 1,700 radio stations during busy morning shift.

KZZP-FM, Phoenix, AZ, Nov. 2000-Sept. 2003
Morning show on-air personality/producer; booked guests, reported entertainment news, hard news, attended press junkets, wrote long-form programming. 

KNBR-AM AND KTCT-AM (Sports Talk) San Francisco, CA, May-July 2000
Programming and production of live weekend shows and Giants post-game shows.

KSJO/KXJO/KFJO/KUFX/KCNL (Rock) San Jose, CA, April 1999-April 2000
Production Assistant.  Produced the Ricker show for KSJO, commercial production, copy writing.

METRO NETWORKS, Campbell, CA, Aug. 1998-Mar. 1999
Traffic reporter and producer for stations CD-93 and KMBY in Monterey.

KUFX/KOME/KLDZ (Classic Rock) San Jose, CA, May 1998-April 1999
Board operator.

EDUCATION
Boston University, working towards a B.S. in liberal arts.  Graduating in 2009. 
Paradise Valley Community College, Phoenix, AZ: Journalism, Puma Press newspaper staff ’03-‘05, general studies. Journalism certificate, 2006. 
Rio Salado College, Phoenix, AZ, 2003-2004 – General Studies.
Ohlone College, Fremont, CA, 1997- 1999 – Radio Broadcasting, General Education.
Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, CA, Class of 1997.

Continuing Education
Media Bistro eClass: Writing and Editing for the Web c. 2006 March-April 2006 (3 week course). 

References provided upon inquiry.

There’s a New Helicopter School in Town
By Heather  Larson

(Ran in the PVCC Puma Press newspaper, Fall 2006)

A new helicopter flight training school has opened up at the Scottsdale Airpark this year to provide flight training to a new generation of helicopter pilots who, upon completion of the school’s program, will be faced with a booming job market.  Premier Helicopters has locations in Denver as well and also plans to open up a school soon in Dallas, but Operations Manager Debbie Richardson says there was a need to bring the school to Scottsdale because they had students who were interested. 

The school’s President, Michael Kelly, is based in Colorado and divides his time between the Denver and Colorado Springs locations.  Kelly is excited about his schools and the many opportunities they provide to students who dream of becoming helicopter pilots. 

“I estimate that in five years, there will be 15,000 jobs available industry-wide,” says Kelly. 

What makes Premier Helicopters unique is the school’s relationship with Utah Valley State College so that students can obtain an AA or a Bachelor’s degree in helicopter aviation while learning to fly. Premier’s flight training last about six months, but after that students can continue their college courses online.

“We’re able to do financing through Sallie Mae and do student loans,” says Richardson. 

That is vital because the program to become a CFII, or certified flight instructor with instruments, will cost a student $70,000.  Whatever college credits a student has accumulated already are transferable to Utah Valley State College and Kelly advises students who wish to transfer into the program to get their general education requirements out of the way first.  If it sounds like a lot of money, Kelly points out his program’s other unique aspect – promoting from within and giving Premier students jobs as flight instructors.

“Banks are willing to lend to the students because they know we give them jobs,” says Kelly. 

The operating cost of flying helicopters is twice the amount it takes to operate fixed wing aircraft and Kelly took that into account when deciding what to pay his flight instructors.  If a fixed-wing instructor’s starting pay is $10 to $13 an hour, Kelly felt his instructors’ starting pay should be $20 an hour since he knows the schooling is expensive.  He says everything has to do with the number of jobs available and while the number of fixed wing jobs are declining, the amount of jobs available to rotorcraft pilots are increasing.  There are more jobs on the market for helicopter pilots and the starting pay is about $40,000 to $45,000 per year. 

It would take a student around six months of going through the program before getting hired on by the school as a CFII.  At that point, the CFII would be making $20 an hour to instruct while logging those hours as experience.  Kelly says that after about a year the student has accumulated 800 hours and can then start flying turbine helicopters at which point the yearly salary jumps to around $50,000-$55,000.  This works as a one-year contract where the pilot works for a week on and then has a week off. 

It’s a booming industry, according to both Richardson and Kelly who describe jobs with corporations who need helicopter transport, sightseeing tours and pilots who can fly workers to and from oil rigs.  Kelly says students have graduated from the program and gone on to do sightseeing tours in Hawaii, Alaska and Florida. 

“It’s incredible.  With Vietnam veterans retiring there are so many openings,” says Richardson. 

Richardson encourages anyone interested in finding out more about the job outlook for helicopter pilots to go to Verticalreference.com.  The school encourages both women and men of all ages to do their program.  The Whirly Girls organization of international women helicopter pilots offers scholarships, which you can learn more about at Whirleygirls.org.  Kelly says there are about eight or nine female pilots at his schools right now across the country and a total of 60-70 students have graduated from Premier so far. 

For more information about Premier Helicopters, go to www.premierheli.com or contact Debbie Richardson at 602-690-9043. 

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Prop 204 – Is it Hogwash? 
By Heather Larson

(Ran in the PVCC Puma Press newspaper, Fall 2006)

You’ve seen those “Hogwash” signs on every corner begging you to vote “no” on proposition 204, but do you actually know what they are all about?  The ubiquitous signs are representative of an issue that will be making it onto the ballot this November and the question at hand is hard to pin down.  It is either an issue about animal cruelty or an issue of an animal rights agenda being pushed into Arizona by anti-meat activists, depending on which side you ask.  Both sides of the issue are extremely well-funded by both in and out-of-state groups and the issue is a passionate one. 

The CEO Of the Arizona Humane Society, Cheryl Naumann, points to the ballot language itself for an explanation of what Proposition 204 is about.  The words of the Humane Treatment of Farm Animals Act reads as follows, “A person shall not tether or confine any pig during pregnancy or any calf raised for veal, on a farm, for all or the majority of any day, in a manner that prevents such animal from lying down and fully extending his or her limbs; or turning around freely.” 

Hogwash campaign chairman and Chief Administrative Officer of the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation Jim Klinker says giving animals room to turn around is not what this is really all about.

“Their arguments are hogwash.  There is no science behind it.  The American Veterinary Medical Association says that hogs in stalls are more healthy sometimes because this prevents fighting between pigs.” 

Naumann, a conservative republican who grew up on a Texas cattle ranch, says the Hogwash Campaigners are misinterpreting the American Veterinary Medical Association’s decision on gestation crates and that the organization is heavily controlled politically by the agriculture community. Whenever the AMVA makes a decision it falls in favor of the agricultural community, according to Naumann.  The decision Naumann speaks of is one in which she says the Association wouldn’t take a stand against the gestation crates in question but said simply that all forms of housing animals have inherent problems and need to be studied more closely.  While there are over 100 Arizona veterinarians who say the crates are inhumane, there are veterinarians who support the Hogwash campaign as well. 

Klinker says the passing of this proposition would put small family farmers out of business, but Naumann insists the proposition supports the Arizona tradition of family farming and that this is only about requiring animals have the ability to turn around, lie down and extend their limbs.  Proponents of 204 say anything other than that is animal cruelty.  This is where “cruelty” is open to interpretation.  Klinker says the science is on the side of the farmers and ranchers in the state. 

“We’re not treating animals cruelly…that is our livelihood.  We don’t get anywhere treating our animals cruelly.  Their issue is they’re anti-meat, anti-confinement of animals and anti-slaughter,” says Klinker. 

He also states that when this same legislation was passed in 2002 in Florida, it put two small family hog operations out of business.  This is untrue, according to Naumann, who points out a 2002 article in the Orlando Sun-Sentinel where Rod Hemphill, the Gainesville, Florida Farm Bureau spokesman, said those two farms closed because of low prices and not the amendment.  

But the story of the Florida farmers is one fresh in the minds of farmers based here in Arizona as election day approaches.  Bill McLaughlin breeds 168 cattle for roping in Buckeye also fears this will put small Arizona farmers like him out of business because if 204 passes here, the same legislation would move on to the next state.  He also fears the next target would be feed yards and small producers, thus beginning a sort of slippery slope effect. 

“Does this crack a door? Yes, it does,” says McLaughlin. 

Bas Aja, the Executive Vice President of the Arizona Cattle Feeders Association and a man who grew up on ranches from Arizona to Idaho says Prop 204 was brought in by two out-of-state animal rights groups, Farm Sanctuary and the Humane Society of the U.S. who don’t raise and care for animals, nor do they even recognize animal husbandry. 

“It’s a clever ploy to take one little angle of production and generate noise about modern agriculture,” Aja says. 

Proposition 204 is a proposition that’s on the ballot for election day this year where a “yes” vote makes gestation crates for sows illegal and a “no” vote allows the status quo to continue.  That status quo really only applies to the Farmer John hog operation in Snowflake, home to around 16,000 sows who are kept in gestation crates, according to Naumann. 

Pigs for Farmer John, or PFFJ, could not be reached at press time. 

Naumann says the press hasn’t been allowed into the facility to take photographs of conditions there because the facility has nothing to gain by allowing the press inside with cameras.  Aja says that is because doing so would be a biosecurity risk to the hogs, but he adds that he has seen the facility before.

“They are the best cared-for and kept animals I’ve ever seen anywhere in my life,” says Aja. 

Klinker says the photo you see accompanying this article was taken at PFFJ.  The photo was obtained through Ian Calkins at the public relations firm working on the Hogwash campaign, Copper State Consulting. Calkins says this is a photo of a worker in a pen and that animal stalls can be seen in the background.  Naumann says the pens and stalls in the PFFJ photo are fine and aren’t the gestation crates that this piece of legislation is trying to ban.  The Hogwash campaigners say the gestation crate photos obtained through the Arizona Humane Society were not taken in Arizona. 

Though the language in 204 applies to the veal industry in addition to the pork industry, there is presently no veal industry in the state.  Those against 204 don’t know why the proponents of the measure are attacking an industry that doesn’t even exist here. 

“The law specifies clearly what the regulations are in Arizona so veal farmers moving here can look at standards and come into compliance immediately,” says Naumann.  

If 204 passes this November, the law wouldn’t go into effect until 2013.  While the pro-204 side says it is cruel for animals not to be permitted to turn around within their housing, Aja gives a specific reason as to why the pregnant hogs aren’t allowed to turn around. 

“In gestation crates, animals are fed on one side of the crate.  If they turn around, they will defecate in their feed,” says Aja. 

So goes the campaign both for and against Proposition 204.  The pro side says animals raised for food deserve some baseline for humane care while the con side says they are doing nothing cruel to the animals that serve as their livelihood. 

Naumann says there is language in the ballot measure that makes an exemption to farrowing crates for sows.  The entire purpose of these crates and the gestation crates is to prevent the sow from rolling over onto her piglets.  But with a farrowing crate, the hog can lay on her side as the piglets can still stick their heads through a set of bars to nurse. 

“We made an exception in the law for farrowing crates because we don’t want the piglets to be crushed for Godsakes!” says Naumann. 

The issue of disease is one that also comes up with the issue of Proposition 204.  Nauman says the science is on the side of the legislation because while gestation crates allow farmers to pack more animals into a building so they can increase profits, this packing a large amount of animals into a tight space also presents a danger because this is more likely to pass disease.  Diseases are more rampant in industrialized farms rather than traditional farms.  But Klinker points to the World Health Organization, which says that animals in confinement are less of a risk.

He insists that modern operations are clean and healthy, which is echoed by Aja who stands by the practices of PFFJ in Snowflake.  Klinker also points out that the sows at PFFJ are managed by a veterinarian who takes offense when proponents of 204 says his animals are treated inhumanely.  He also says this farm is exactly the type of place where he would want his food produced. 

Naumann stands by the language on the ballot and says we have to eliminate gestation crates because they are extreme forms of confinement and just aren’t a traditional farming practice.  She adds that the largest pork producer in the U.S., Niman Ranch in Oakland, California, doesn’t use gestation crates at all because the ranch sees them as inhumane. 

She also insists this isn’t an anti-meat agenda and that the Arizona Humane Society only tackles animal welfare issues that affect our state.  She maintains the Humane Society is not an animal rights organization but an animal welfare organization that only picks the most aggressive issues to tackle.

“It’s a moral issue of how much will we as a society allow an organization to do in the name of profits,” says Naumann. 

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