United States of America
Through various mediums, I tell stories. I write, tweet, post, blog, photograph and produce content.
As graduate from the University of Nevada Las Vegas in May of 2016, I received a degree in Communications Studies with a minor in Journalism and Media Studies.
My focus is mass communications and journalism, however I have experience in social media engagement and photography.
My passion for journalism stems from my interests in truth-telling and sharing others stories. I have a knack for investigative reporting and feature writing.
As a former reporter & writer with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, I gained valuable hands on experience, which will help propel my talents for the future.
Sean Randles gave his life trying to save a life. He died Saturday afternoon while trying to save a fellow hiker who lost her footing on a cliff at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, his family said Sunday.
Melanie Kushnir was much more than a hiker, she was an inspiration, a local official said. Kushnir died Saturday afternoon on a hiking trip at Red Rock Canyon, after losing her footing. Besides being an active hiker and lawyer, Kushnir joined the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada as pro bono project director in April 2011.
Laszlo Heredy remembers trying to soothe and care for two fellow hikers as they lay unconscious on slabs of sandstone and eventually took their last breaths. "They looked so peaceful as they lay 15 to 20 feet apart from each other," Heredy said.
Summer officially kicked off Monday with record-breaking heat, and more heat and sunshine are expected for the week ahead, according to the National Weather Service. Even so, a pair of tourists found Las Vegas cooler than a previous stop.
In Rio, Connor Fields won the gold. In Henderson, he felt the love. In a cheerful Tuesday ceremony, Henderson celebrated Fields, its resident Olympic gold medalist and bicycle motocross racer, presenting him with a key to the city. "It's so awesome to see the support from the city and feel like they're all behind me," Fields, 23, said.
Protesters marched on the Strip and chanted slogans Friday evening in solidarity with a North Dakota tribe that is fighting construction of a pipeline it says will endanger its water supply.
Ten cooking teams competed Thursday to demonstrate that those canned goods and other nonperishables you may keep on hand in case of an emergency can be much more than merely edible. They can be downright delicious.
Mary Wesley, who helped lead a movement by Las Vegas welfare mothers in the 1970s to fight a war against poverty in their community, died Sept. 13. She was 79. The movement's seminal moment came March 6, 1971, when the mothers and their children, along with entertainers, civil rights leaders, film stars and welfare activists from across the country, organized a march along the Strip.
Oregon resident Michelle Perkins' 11-year fight for justice brought her back to Las Vegas last week. Perkins' biological mother, Jan Sites, was murdered by her husband in 2005, before Perkins had a chance to meet her. Now Perkins is on a mission to keep the killer locked up.
Life is beautiful for festival-goers, but not so much for some business owners in downtown Las Vegas. The first day of the annual Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival kicked off Friday, as crowds of people began to arrive in downtown Las Vegas.
Festival-goers fed their minds and stomachs Saturday at Life Is Beautiful in downtown Las Vegas. The second day of the annual festival kicked off Saturday in downtown Las Vegas, bringing in larger crowds than the first day. Packs of attendees were so thick in some spots, there was barely elbow room.
There was no wedding chapel, no aisle and no wedding bells. Andrea Kilness and Kristopher Lovett married Sunday in front of a car, to the sound of a cheering crowd at Life Is Beautiful in downtown Las Vegas. The couple decided that Life Is Beautiful's third and final day was the perfect backdrop for tying the knot.
Las Vegas police arrested a man Sunday in connection with a deadly shooting Sept. 25 in a shopping center parking lot. Through anonymous calls, detectives identified Javar Eris Ketchum, also known as James Ketchum, as a suspect in the shooting. A Facebook page with the name Jay Fly also helped detectives identify him by his facial features and tattoos.
Las Vegas' LGBT Pride event kicked off in flamboyant fashion Friday with a spirited parade in downtown Las Vegas. The theme for Las Vegas Pride 2016 is celebrate diversity, welcoming all, not just the LGBT community. The parade and festival are expected to attract about 20,000 attendees over the weekend.
Nevada Coalition for Suicide Prevention Chairwoman Heather Shoop said suicide shouldn't be a taboo topic - preventing it requires open dialogue and awareness. On Friday, executives from Black Entertainment Television gave a big check toward an effort to enable discussion, stop suicides and save lives.
Nearly 300 people gathered for a candlelight vigil earlier this week for a man who was shot and killed near the Caesars Palace employee parking garage Friday night. Just after 7 p.m.
The carpet was red, but the political dialogue varied in color. With election day Tuesday, celebrities at Soul Train Awards 2016 expressed how important it is for them to use their platforms as public figures to encourage fans to vote. The awards show was Sunday at Orleans Arena on 4500 W.
To shed light on this issue, local law enforcement - Clark County School District police, Las Vegas police and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers - joined together Tuesday morning at East Charleston Boulevard and South Eighth Street to watch for and ticket drivers that didn't stop for Butterball One, a turkey walking to and fro in the crosswalk.
A line snaked around the Las Vegas Rescue Mission before the organization opened its doors to serve a Thanksgiving eve dinner to the homeless and the hungry. "We want to spread some love during this time of year," said Kevin Ellsworth, the mission's volunteer coordinator.
"The future is black," host Erykah Badu announced to the crowd after strolling onto the stage in a glow-in-the-dark outfit at the Soul Train Music Awards 2016. "Black people, we made it to the future." She led the show by discussing time travel and the possible election of Donald Trump as president, something that would happen two days later.
It's rodeo time again in Las Vegas, and the first night of action at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo didn't disappoint the throngs of fans who packed UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center.
Santa Claus came to town Saturday morning. Actually, thousands of Santas. But it wasn't an unusual sight to see this time of year in downtown Las Vegas. These Santas - 8,803 in all - were taking part in the 12th annual Las Vegas Great Santa Run benefitting Opportunity Village.
Violent-crime rates have risen this year across the Las Vegas Valley compared with 2015. NORTH LAS VEGAS In 2015, North Las Vegas police investigated 16 homicides. The total for 2016 is 22, spokeswoman Ann Cavaricci said Dec. 15. A notable homicide occurred May 5 involving Christina Franklin and her two children in North Las Vegas.
TIABI Coffee & Waffle, which recently moved to North Las Vegas, isn't the region's typical coffee shop. And that's by design. Longtime friends Tiffany Stiles and Mae Pineda visited far-flung places such as Seattle, Italy, Hong Kong and Japan. As tourists from 2004 to 2009, they noticed a distinctive coffee shop culture.
They came as recruits and left as peace officers. And Alexander Cuevas said achieving the badge was a wild, rewarding ride. "(It's) the best, hardest thing I've ever done," he said. Cuevas was one of about 35 recruits who graduated from the Southern Desert Regional Police Academy on Dec.
Adrienne Breen of North Las Vegas says animals have seemingly gravitated toward her for years. "I was constantly bringing animals home," she said. "I've always had a love for them." That love for animals prompted Adrienne and her husband, Jim, to open Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming at 7080 N.
Families are enthusiastic about a potential North Campus for Opportunity Village. The planned campus, which would be the organization's fourth in the Las Vegas Valley, is set to be modeled after the Ralph and Betty Engelstad Campus at 6050 S. Buffalo Drive.
North Las Vegas didn't place high in a recent survey listing the nation's 100 "most caring" cities. A WalletHub list ranked North Las Vegas 94th - below Henderson, at 78th, and Las Vegas, at 88th. WalletHub, a personal finance website, ranked Reno the most caring of Nevada's cities, at No.
Civilian street patrollers aim to help the North Las Vegas Police Department prevent crime by offering a united front and identifying public hazards. In North Las Vegas, 28 VIPS Citizen's Patrol Program members work in pairs, acting as the eyes and ears of the Police Department by identifying suspicious activities, crimes or dangerous situations.
Irvine, California-based restaurant Habit Burger Grill opened its first location in North Las Vegas on Jan. 16 - and its fourth in the Las Vegas Valley - and celebrated its grand opening with free food. The restaurant is at 6482 N. Decatur Blvd., Suite H100A, near the 215 Beltway in the Wal-Mart Supercenter shopping center.
The virtual stars shone bright as children gasped and pointed in amazement on a recent Friday at Southern Nevada's only public planetarium. An Evans & Sutherland Digistar 5 high-definition video projection system created a cosmic virtual reality in a larger-than-life, 30-foot dome inside a 68-seat theater at the College of Southern Nevada's North Las Vegas Campus.
About 120 people of various races and religions gathered at First African Methodist Episcopal Church for an event that advocated communication, understanding and love. The Jan. 15 discussion fell during the same week as Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Tony and Stephanie Lemons married after they'd dated for about a month. Nearly 24 years later, they say they still give each other butterflies. "We met on a blind double date," Stephanie said. "My friend told me there's a guy she wanted me to meet. We went to Chili's.
It's an indoor smell that's now foreign in most large U.S. cities: lingering cigarette smoke. Because of laws passed elsewhere in the past dozen years or so, Las Vegas is one of the nation's largest cities that still allow smoking in bars and casinos.
Ruby Duncan and five other women who fought for Southern Nevada welfare recipients' rights in the 1970s were celebrated as pioneers at the North Las Vegas school that bears her name. "They paved the way for other organizations and activists," said Vance "Stretch" Sanders, founder and president of All Shades United, a racial solidarity group.
Sign wavers. Sign spinners. Sign flippers. Human billboards. Sign dancers. They go by many names, and passers-by see them during the day in many parts of the Las Vegas Valley. Their job is simple: to get your attention. "I feel like a celebrity. I love this job," 22-year-old Charles Clements of Las Vegas said.
When water goes down a drain, you'll eventually get a small portion of it back in the tap. "(There are) 2,000 miles of collection system piping from homes and businesses within jurisdiction to the main plant," said LeAnna Risso, assistant manager of process control at the Clark County Water Reclamation District.
When Jody Shervanick wanted custom keepsakes for wives of fallen military members, she commissioned Denise Crary. Crary has been making crafts for more than 40 years, building a reputation in North Las Vegas. She specializes in cross-stitching, tole painting, glass painting, decoupaging and vinyling.