These are some of the pieces over my career I believe best represent the scope of my writing and reporting abilities in a newsroom-style setting. Below, you'll see how I handled longer enterprise pieces, breaking news and softer features. If you want to see my most recent stuff, check out the game criticism section. Thanks for looking!

UPDATED: Christmas Morning Victim ID'd; Relatives Mourn

Dec. 25, 2010: Cesar Guerrero remembers fixing French toast and sausage for his son on Christmas Eve. On Christmas, he had to come to Baxter Street near Echo Park Avenue – a neighborhood he and his family left behind two years ago – to identify his son's body. Eighteen-year-old Caesar Frank Guerrero of Bell Gardens was the lone fatality in a Christmas morning shooting that also left three other men wounded. Police reported the shooting took place just before noon at Innes Avenue near Sunset Boulevard, with Guerrero's body being discovered in an otherwise empty Honda Civic on Baxter Street.

Stopping By Pasadena's Sexiest Shoppe

You'd think a lit sign pointing to a sex shop, especially at night, would be impossible to miss, but the place to which it belongs can sometimes get lost between the allure of an upscale burger or a dish of healthier Mediterranean fare. But there it sits: Wedged between Umami Burger and Pita Jungle is the storefront of Romantix, a boutique that specializes in adult erotica and has been a mainstay in Old Town for decades.

Video game violence in the cross hairs

April 4, 2005: Columbine. The Washington snipers. Gang shootings in Oakland. Violent video games were blamed in all of them. The latest exhibit in the People v. Video Games involves an Alabama teen who an attorney says was inspired by the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise to steal cars and shoot three people. As the electronic entertainment industry prepares to defend itself in that case, Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, is lobbying for his second piece of legislation targeting games this time a call to re-evaluate the rating system designed to keep violent games out of children's hands.

IndieCade, the gaming industry's Sundance, heads to LA

There’s the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the Game Developers Conference (GDC), Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and a host of other gatherings where industry leaders and enthusiasts alike find (or invent) ways to set the gaming Internet ablaze with speculation about the future of the industry. But the gathering that could be closer to the industry’s cutting edge is the nearly 10-year-old IndieCade, which is coming to Los Angeles for the first time this week, starting Friday.

Shooting leaves 2 Palm Springs police officers dead

Two Palm Springs police officers – one a 35-year veteran of the department and the other a new mother – are dead after a Saturday afternoon shooting that left a third officer in the hospital. The suspect was identified Sunday as 26-year-old John Felix, a Palm Springs resident. He was taken into custody after a SWAT standoff. He was treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, and will be booked on two counts of murder on a peace officer, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said.

A sign of these times?

Oct. 26, 2006: Guns, drugs and cop killing came first. Now, the great debate about video-game content is showing some school spirit. Games and violence in schools have been talked about in the same discussions for years. But the material in the new video game "Bully" - which includes fighting on school grounds - comes at a time when the region is still reeling from the massive Fontana High School riot and a major brawl at San Bernardino's Pacific High School, and sensitivity to school violence and bullying in the U.S. is steadily rising.

Today's boomers were yesterday's innovators

May 29, 2010: They don't get it. Like it or not, those four words typically epitomize the feelings of younger generations when it comes to baby boomers and technology. You'll usually hear it from the exasperated, eye-rolling teen who relentlessly posts Twitter updates in the presence of grandparents. Or perhaps the 20- or 30-something who has to help their father set up their cell phone or iPad. But what perhaps the younger set doesn't realize is that baby boomers are a generation once known for being free-spirited, experimental and open-minded.