My series on the crash of Flight 401 has been an entire year in the making. From gathering information, to performing extensive research, to sitting down one on one with survivors to venturing into the waters of the Florida Everglades to the place where this fascinating story began 37 years ago. A little more than a week before the anniversary of the crash, WUFT aired my three-part series about the legacy of Flight 401 and its survivors.

Click on the photo below for the three-part series.

While watching the news one day, I saw a story about a Central Florida man who lost a few fingers trying to save his dog from an alligator. I couldn’t imagine myself reacting any differently if it was my dog, and as someone who literally lives in “The Swamp”, I became curious as to how often these “beasts” attack. But after extensive research, the results were shocking. Since 1948, when the Florida Wildlife Commission started keeping record, only 22 people have been killed by an alligator. Only 22 people in 60 years. That means that there’s a greater chance of my beloved pooch attacking me than an actual Florida alligator.  Harold Nugent, a volunteer I met on the Paynes Prairie Reserve in Gainesville, carries a piece of paper with each victim’s name on it in his wallet. Not as a warning for visitors but as proof that alligators are “loving creatures” and the “gentlest lizards” he’s ever met. But….there’s always a wild card. For Don Goodman, the director of the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville, his wild card’s name just happened to be Mojo, a 12 foot, 400 lb. Florida alligator.

For Don’s story and to hear a little bit more about Harold Nugent, click on the picture below for my investigative piece on alligator attacks in Florida….

Gainesville, Florida once again makes it on the list for the National Coalition for the Homeless Meanest Cities. With all their rules and restrictions on the homeless, the City Commission has made it quite hard to survive as a homeless person in Gainesville. I interviewed Pat Fitzpatrick, a passionate and quite comical homeless advocate who’s doing everything he can to change it…even if it means taking over the steps of Gainesville’s City Hall.

I didn’t know what to expect as I drove to interview Amber Bradley. I only knew what I had learned from one of her friends: She had been in a horrible accident on US27 when she was a senior in high school which had killed her two friends, and she now suffered from physical limitations due to her injuries. When I arrived, however, I met an amazing young girl who had overcome her obstacles with a beautiful smile on her face and was using her tragedy to help change the lives of others. She definitely changed mine. Here’s my in-depth look at Amber.

Imagine being as smooth on the drums as Ringo Starr but not being able to hear a single beat? It seemed impossible until I met Lyndon White. A student at the Syndey Lanier School in Gainesville, Lyndon overcomes his struggles with cerebal palsy and hearing loss with a pair of drumsticks and finds his voice through music.

When 21 Polo Championship horses suddenly died in Wellington, Florida right before a competition, their bodies were brought to the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary medicine. Pathologists at the “School of Vet Med” worked round the clock conducting necropsies on each of the horses to try find the cause of death. Later on in the investigation, it was determined that the horses were given an incorrect dosage of medications by a veterinary pharmacy in Ocala, Florida.

In North Florida, three major rivers began to overflow after the state experienced large amounts of rainfall. The waters steadily rose- destroying homes, stranding residents, and even covering major highways. This was the first time the rivers had risen to this level since 1948. My News Director sent me out to cover this breaking news story around 11 a.m. It took us hours to reach the flooding and finally find a homeowner, which had my photographer and I racing back to the station to get the story in for the 5:30 p.m. newscast. I watched my video, wrote the script and tracked the package in the car! By the time we got back to the station, it was 4:45 p.m. but luckily I was able to edit the piece and get it to the Video Tape operator by 5:28! What a day!!

Here’s the final product:

Here’s a more in-depth look at Amber Bradley’s visit to Gainesville High School, where she spoke to Driver’s Ed students about the dangers of driving with the hopes they’d learn from her own tragic experience.

The first wave of the digital TV transition hits Gainesville, Florida but some residents just aren’t prepared, like University of Florida student Raul Prado. That means at the stroke of midnight, those without cable, satellite, or a converter box, will have  TV’s showing nothing but static. Click below for my report for WUFT.