Cara DeGette grew up in Denver, Colo. After receiving a journalism degree, she did a three-year stint in the Central Rockies at the Vail Daily. In 1993, she helped launch the alt weekly Colorado Springs Independent, serving initially as the news editor and then editor for the past four years.

The recipient of numerous national and statewide journalism awards, Cara is currently a contributing editor at the Independent, and continues to write her weekly column and investigative pieces. She also mentors other writers. A previous stringer for the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, Cara has broken numerous stories of national import, and was one of the first journalists in the country to cover the so-called Patriot Movement of the 1990s.

As a senior fellow, Cara is focusing on CD-5, the Colorado Republican Party, the GOP presidential race, religion, education, print media criticism, and news from the Colorado Springs area.

Ernest Luning

Wendy Norris lives in Fort Collins. After contributing at DailyKos.com for three years, she launched Unbossed, a successful national group blog to help bridge the ever-widening gap between the media and the progressive blogosphere. Unbossed focuses primarily on investigative and original reporting which is pitched to the media to promote more progressive perspectives in news coverage.

She also writes “Unbossed,” a monthly political column for the Rocky Mountain Chronicle.

Wendy serves as the managing editor of The Colorado Independent and covers stories on CD-4, reproductive health, radio/TV media criticism and rural issues.

David O. Williams worked as an editor and reporter for the Vail Daily for five years before launching a competing alt daily. The Daily Trail and weekly Vail Trail won 40 Colorado Press Awards during Williams’ nearly six-year stint as managing editor, including Best News Story for an article on a Vail man’s death in police custody in Thailand. Williams’ coverage led to disciplinary action against U.S. embassy personnel and changes in the State Department’s relative-notification policy.

Williams has freelanced for publications such as the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times (even if it was only for the Kobe Bryant sex scandal case), Aspen Daily News, LA Weekly, and others, Williams launched realvail.com.

Dana Boone wrote for the Des Moines Register for seven years, covering suburban communities, education and minority affairs. She has also written for the Iowa Bystander, one of the oldest African-American newspapers in the state. She grew up in Des Moines and earned her B.A. in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from Grand View College in 1999. For Iowa Independent, she covers state commissions, boards, and agencies and anything else of interest in the Des Moines area.

Chase Martyn, managing editor, moved to Iowa four years ago from Palm Beach County, Fla. An avid web user for more than a decade, Chase founded the blog Iowa Progress in 2006, and he currently blogs here. He has done paid (and unpaid) political work for the Iowa Democratic Party and progressive candidates across the state. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Grinnell College and lives in Des Moines.

Lynda Waddington lives in Eastern Iowa with her family of five. She serves on the executive committee for Iowans for Voting Integrity, is publicity chair for Women for Peace Iowa and, in 2006, was elected to represent Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District on the Democratic State Central Committee. She worked for more than a decade as a print journalist before launching her own communications business. She also writes at the blog Essential Estrogen.

LoRayne Apo-Joynt is a progressive activist and citizen journalist. She has blogged since 2002 pseudonymously for her own site, as well as for state and national blogs. She has also contributed investigative research to a national citizen journalism site, ePluribus Media. Having worked for more than 13 years at Fortune 100 companies, she now runs a small consulting firm specializing in competitive intelligence and business services in mid-Michigan. She is the managing editor of Michigan Messenger.

Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and the voice behind the popular blog Dispatches from the Culture Wars. He is co-founder of Michigan Citizens for Science and has written for such publications as the Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education. He has appeared as a guest on several nationally syndicated radio talk shows, has addressed many state and national organizations and conferences and has appeared on C-SPAN.

Minehaha Forman was born in the rain forest of Belize and moved to the United States at the age of 15 in pursuit of higher education. Now, she is a freelancer in the Detroit area and a recent graduate of Oakland University. Her work has appeared in Hour Detroit magazine as well as Dbusiness magazine. In 2005, she created the blog ONE, which highlights her creative writing.

Todd Heywood comes to the CIM with a plethora of experiences. With a long history in journalism, advocacy politics, public relations, politics and even a stint as an elected official, he currently is the Capitol correspondent for the GLBT publication Between the Lines. He holds an associates general degree from Lansing Community College with focuses in history, substance-abuse prevention and intervention and theater performance. In addition to his work in journalism, Heywood, as he prefers to be called, continues to nurture his love of theater by running a small community theater, Sunsets with Shakespeare. Plays he authored have been produced at U of M Basement Arts program, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, local coffeehouses and in St. Louis, Mo. His work in theater won him a Pulsar Award as best community director in 2005, a Player’s Award for his portrayal of Otto Frank in “The Diary of Anne Frank” for Lansing Civic Players and a Barney Award from Riverwalk Theatre for best supporting actor in 1997. He lives in Lansing with his beloved dogs Virgil and Gypsy Rose.

Eartha Jane Melzer is a 1997 graduate of Antioch College with a degree in cross-cultural communications. Her documentary work has appeared in outlets as diverse as Fox News and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. She has worked as a freelance reporter and staff writer for the Washington Blade. She recently returned to her hometown — lovely Traverse City, Mich. — with hopes of covering environmental and social issues in the Great Lakes state. Eartha received an Honorable Mention from the National Press Club for the Hume Award this year, in relation to her investigative reporting on private security company Sovereign Deed.

Paul Demko is the Minnesota Independent’s political writer. A staff writer at the altweekly City Pages for eight years, Demko has won numerous awards for his writing — including a Frank Premack Award, an SPJ first place in investigative reporting, and an Investigative Reporters & Editors finalist citation for “The Hit Parade Revisited,” a 2005 feature he co-authored with then-colleague G.R. Anderson, Jr.

Steve Perry has been a Minneapolis journalist since 1984. A two-time editor of the alternative weekly City Pages (1989-97, 2002-07), Perry made that paper the first in the U.S. to launch staff-wide blogs, in the fall of 2002. His writing has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, Boston Phoenix, Mother Jones, and The Nation. He is editor of the Minnesota Independent.

Paul Schmelzer is managing editor of the Minnesota Independent. A freelance writer on art and activism, his interviews with activist Winona LaDuke, architect Cameron Sinclair, and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija appear in the book “Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Reader.” A former editor at Adbusters and the Walker Art Center, he publishes Eyeteeth: A Journal of Incisive Ideas. Also a media writer, Paul won a Frank Premack Award for Public Affairs Journalism (2007) and Society of Professional Journalists’ Page One Awards (2006 and 2007) — the first time in the history of both awards that a journalist from a web-only publication has won.

Chris Steller has been writing for Minneapolis community newspapers since 1995. He served as editor of the Southeast Angle, the Seward Profile and their successor, The Bridge, from 1998 to 2006. He helped edit West Bank Boogie (a Minnesota Book Award nominee) and manages the Friends of the Riverfront website.

Michael Connery is a political junkie and accidental activist who became involved in politics during the early days of the Dean campaign. He is a founder of Music for America, and served as its Communications Director and Web Editor from February 2003 until December of 2004. He is a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and blogs fulltime about progressive youth politics at Future Majority. Michael is also a weekend front-page writer on MyDD.com and a contributer to TechPresident.com. He is currently writing a book about the role of the Millennial Generation in progressive politics. Entitled Youth to Power, it is scheduled for publication in March 2008 by Ig Publishing.

David Alire Garcia is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of New Mexico. His writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Austin American Statesman and Hispanic magazine, among other publications. Prior to joining NMI, Alire Garcia worked stints as staff writer for the Santa Fe Reporter as well as editorial writer and columnist for the Albuquerque Journal. He also co-hosts New Mexico In Focus, a weekly public affairs television program broadcast on PBS affiliate KNME.

Marjorie Childress  lives and works in Albuquerque. She is one of the voices behind m-pyre, a local blog founded in 2004. She has a graduate degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico, and works for the SouthWest Organizing Project. She primarily writes about land development growth and issues of ethics and accountability in government.

Gwyneth Doland was a columnist and editor at the Santa Fe Reporter and Weekly Alibi before joining the New Mexico Independent. A native of Washington, D.C., she has lived in Albuquerque since 1994. Over the past decade, Gwyneth has written widely on food, politics, and food politics, among other things.

Joel Gay is a longtime journalist who grew up in Albuquerque but spent nearly 30 years in Alaska. Most recently he was an editor with the Albuquerque Tribune. He now covers the environment, transportation and water issues for NMI.

After seven years as a newspaper reporter and editor, Heath Haussamen left behind a stable paycheck in May 2006 to join the Internet revolution. He started Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics, a news Web site covering politics and government in New Mexico that was recently named by the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza as one of the best state politics blogs in the nation. Haussamen also contributes weekly to the Diary of a Mad Voter blog published by the Denver Post’s Politics West and the independent Web site NewWest.net. You can find Heath’s blog at nmpolitics.net and learn more about him at haussamen.com.

Trip Jennings has worked in newspapers for nearly 20 years, including the Albuquerque Journal, where he reported on Gov. Bill Richardson, the New Mexico Legislature and state government. In addition to New Mexico, Trip has worked in Georgia, California, Florida and Connecticut where he covered a governor who went to federal prison for corruption.

Matthew Reichbach is a local blogger who co-founded and writes for New Mexico FBIHOP. Matthew has been blogging about politics since September of 2005 and about New Mexico politics since February of 2006.

Spencer Ackerman is national security correspondent for The Washington Independent. He has reported for Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect and The New Republic.

Matt DeLong  

Mary Kane covers middle-class finance for The Washington Independent. She is a business writer whose work has appeared in Salon, The Washington Post, Politico.com, The Newark Star-Ledger and other publications. She covered finance for Newhouse News Service in Washington for 11 years. She lives in Arlington, Va., with her husband and three children.

Daphne Eviatar

Mike Lillis follows Congress for The Washington Independent. Previously, he has covered health care policy with Inside Washington Publishers, and been DC correspondent for Iowa’s Waterloo Courier. He lives in Washington, DC.

Laura McGann is a former reporter-blogger at Talking Points Memo. She has also worked for the Dow Jones newswire, where her bankruptcy reporting was picked up by The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. A story McGann broke about an anti-terrorism data mining program run by the Department of Education and the FBI was inspiration for her dog’s name, FOIA. She is managing editor of The Washington Independent.

Ari Melber

Allison Silver is a former editor at The New York Times “Week in Review” section. She was the editor of The Los Angeles Times Sunday “Opinion” section from 1991 to 2000. She was Politics Producer for “Charlie Rose.” She is the editor of The Washington Independent.

John Arnold, New Mexico Independent
Abdi Aynte, Minnesota Independent
Jason Bane, Colorado Independent
Katharine Bernuth, Colorado Independent
Eric Black, Minnesota Independent
Larry Borowski, Colorado Independent
Luke Canfora, Michigan Messenger
Craig Cox, Minnesota Independent
Tom Elko, Minnesota Independent
Sandra Fish, Colorado Independent
Alan Fisk, Michigan Messenger
James J. Fordyce, Michigan Messenger
Don Fresard, Michigan Messenger
Dan Haugen, Minnesota Independent
Nancy Jaber, Michigan Messenger
Jeremy Jacobs, Washington Independent
Kay Jarvis, Colorado Independent
Matt Martin, Minnesota Independent
Mark Mehringer, Colorado Independent
Michelle Mustonen, Michigan Messenger
Andrew Oh-Willeke, Colorado Independent
Isaac Peterson, Minnesota Independent
Leigh Pomeroy, Minnesota Independent
Anna Pratt, Minnesota Independent
Paul Preston, Colorado Independent
Kerri Rebresh, Colorado Independent
Sarah Reller, Minnesota Independent
Luis Rimbaud, Washington Independent
Leslie Robinson, Colorado Independent
Kevin J. Shopshire, Michigan Messenger
Jim Spencer, Colorado Independent
Joel Thurtell, Michigan Messenger
Nancy Watzman, Colorado Independent
Ben Weyl, Iowa Independent
Dan Whipple, Colorado Independent
Brandon Q. White, Michigan Messenger
Celesete Whiting, Michigan Messenger
Chris Woods, Iowa Independent