I am responsible for the Orlando Sentinel/Sun Sentinel Tallahassee Bureau, coverage of statewide politics, the Florida Legislature, Office of the Governor, state agencies, courts and industry groups that work in the capital city.

A native Missourian, I've worked for newspapers of varying sizes and slants since high school. I have covered politics and government for more than a decade, and been in Tallahassee since the 2004 hurricanes. I am a (sometimes) dues-paying member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc., and the American Political Science Association. I am also a Ph. D. student in the FSU Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy. So I don't get to schmooze as much as I'd like.

Football Saturdays, Jazz Age writers, injuring myself regularly via tennis, St. Louis Cardinals baseball (sometimes), traveling on the cheap (always), and enjoying the scenery in one fascinating state.

Politicians serve up dumbed-down view of government 5/11/2012
TALLAHASSEE – Imagine what could happen if politicians trusted voters to make up their own minds about what government can do.

Fair Districts amendments did change political lines 5/5/2012
TALLAHASSEE — Now that the major court challenges to new political districts seem to have ended, politicos can return to their regular campaign-season summer jobs of pleading for checks, promoting themselves and trashing their opponents.

Get ready for 'merit retention' fight 4/27/2012
TALLAHASSEE – Florida's legal world is quickly polarizing around what could be the least-sexy "historic" political contest on the ballot this fall: the "merit retention" of three state Supreme Court justices now drawing tea-party opposition.

Racial issues still echo in redistricting fight 4/20/2012
TALLAHASSEE – Some things in politics change so slowly, you wouldn't know the river was flowing at all.

Interest groups precisely measure their 'investment' 4/13/2012
TALLAHASSEE – Florida policymakers have praised the virtues of measurement for years: the quantification of students, teachers and schools – and now the cost of some college degrees versus others, public hospitals and prisons versus private ones, and so forth.