I'm the Inland Empire bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, responsible for covering a sprawling territory that stretches from east of L.A. and Orange counties to the Arizona and Nevada border.

Before starting the job in September, I spent a month filling in as the paper's Pacific Northwest correspondent, based in Seattle, and was a reporter in the O.C. bureau for a little over a year.

I'm a native of Beaumont, Texas, down on the Gulf of Mexico, and graduated from Texas A&M in May 2010. I spent two summers in college covering local news at the Washington Post and another summer in Louisville, Ky., at the Courier-Journal. I also worked as a stringer for the Dallas Morning News.

I write about crime, politics, the environment, natural disasters — anything under the sun — but the reason I'm in this business is people. For me, it's about meeting ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and having the privilege to tell their story.

Some of my favorite stories:

Square dancing to heal the heart | At the Cowtown hall in Riverside, square dance callers turn some members of the Cowtown Singles club into partners for life.

In Man Cave, they become boys again | At an Irvine senior living center, along with trains and planes, they build fellowship.

From sick to seaworthy | Marine Mammal Care Center works to revive the many ill sea lion pups and return them to the ocean.

Call him an Academic Decath-elite | DemiDec Dan is a legend in Academic Decathlon's rarefied world

Reporting is his stream job | CrossXBones uses a headset and a smartphone to cover protests. He says he's a journalist, not an activist.