March 2000 - August 2003

Heard on hundreds of radio stations across the country reporting for CBS News Radio and the Westwood One program America In The Morning. I primarily covered stories in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach areas, but also traveled to all other parts of the state, as well as the Bahamas. I've included MP3 audio from some of the bigger stories I covered during this time.

I started with CBS News as the custody battle over Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was building. I had been filing reports for the network for seven years by then, since starting in 1993 at KARN in Little Rock, which was then a CBS affiliate.

I worked as a stringer reporter, which means I didn't get a regular paycheck, but was paid per story. It was an interesting way to make a living. Admittedly, I would get nervous during down times when there were no big stories out of South Florida. But it was never quiet here for too long. And some stories would stretch out for days, weeks and in some cases, even months.

That's how the Elian Gonzalez story was. The five-year-old boy was one of only three survivors of an accident, in which a boat carrying a group of Cubans trying to get to the U.S. capsized. He and the other two arrived aboard small rafts on Thanksgiving Day in 1999. Elian would become an icon for Miami's exile community, which did not want him returned to the communist island, fearing that Fidel Castro would use him as propaganda. I spent months literally camped in front of the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives as Immigration and Naturalization officials tried in different ways to negotiate with the family. When that failed, heavily armed federal agents raided the home to return Elian to his father, the only surviving parent, who would eventually bring the boy back to Cuba. During the ensuing demonstrations, I would learn what tear gas felt like, as police tried to get a handle on the protests. It was a fascinating story, which taught me a great deal about South Florida's Cuban-American community and the history of Cuba.

Another huge story that would give me weeks of work was the 2000 presidential election. Problems with Florida's voting equipment would keep the nation waiting five weeks to learn whether Al Gore or George W. Bush would become President. I watched the incredible recount process as election officials in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties tried to determine the intent of voters by carefully looking at each of the notorious punch card ballots. Eventually the U.S. Supreme Court would intervene, stopping the recount, declaring Mr. Bush the President.

Florida has since invested in high-tech, touch screen voting machines, even though they're far from perfect, as was evident in the 2002 Democratic primary for Governor. Because of human errors, it would take a week before Bill McBride emerged victorious. Even though Janet Reno was only a few thousand votes behind McBride and there were plenty of discrepancies she could have objected to, she said she was conceding defeat to avoid further dividing the Democratic Party. McBride gave Governor Jeb Bush much more of a challenge than many people were expecting, but in November Bush managed to become the first Republican Governor in Florida history to be re-elected.

I also covered Florida's connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11th. This is where many of the 19 hijackers had lived and received flight training. People who had lived next door to the hijackers were stunned. All told me the men seemed like friendly, normal people. I included the accounts of a flight instructor who had given training to two of the men, as well as a waiter in Hollywood, Florida who had served a drunken Mohammed Atta and another hijacker the weekend before the terrorist attacks. Both were overwhelmed to know they had come in contact with some of those responsible for such a horrific attack and felt extreme guilt, thinking they could have done something.

There were plenty of other big stories I covered beyond what is detailed here. For months I watched the landmark Florida tobacco trial wrap up. After two years, a jury decided that cigarette makers were liable for the diseases caused by smoking and awarded damages to a class of about a half-million sick Florida smokers. I also covered the school shooting in Lake Worth, near West Palm Beach, where a 7th grader shot and killed English teacher Barry Grunow. A year later I covered the trial of Nathaniel Brazil, who testified that he was only trying to intimidate the teacher when the gun, a cheap so-called Saturday Night Special, went off by accident. He was eventually convicted and is now serving a 28-year sentence. Another emotional story I covered was the crash that killed racing legend Dale Earnhardt at the Daytona International Speedway. The story interupted my wife and I as we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. We had just checked into a hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach and were on our second round of drinks when my cell phone rang. But that's the life of a reporter, never knowing when a breaking story will interrupt your plans.

At that time, unless I was out of town, I would work and broadcast from my home office in Pembroke Pines, which is between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. I found there were advantages and disadvantages to working from home. It was nice having my cats by me as I worked and only having to drive when covering stories, but I also sometimes missed the excitement and camaraderie of working in a newsroom.

I'm proud to have spoken several years in a row about my job during career day at Sunshine Elementary in Miramar, Florida. I had spoken years before in 1996 to one of my aunt's classes at Meadow Park Elementary in North Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1999 my wife, a behavior specialist for Broward County Public Schools, suggested I speak at one of her schools. It may seem odd, but I find it more nerve-racking to have all those sets of eyes on me than to be live on a network of radio stations. But I greatly enjoyed it. It's amazing how sharp and inquisitive kids can be. I would bring a boom box and play for them a couple of reports as an example of the kind of work I did. I explained to them how radio and the news industry works and encouraged them to start paying attention to news by reading newspapers and watching or listening to news reports. I always tried to get across the importance of becoming familiar with what's going on in the world around you. I also pointed out that by the time I was their age, I knew I wanted to work in radio and made it a goal that I kept working toward. I tried not to sugarcoat it, explaining that I have had major ups and downs in my career, but kept at it. And with persistence and the willingness to take chances they too can achieve their goals.