Brooke Staggs
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Brooke Staggs’s Biography
Read Full Bio →I’ve covered everything from women’s rights in Ghana to the pot penny stock market. My multimedia work has appeared in local and national publications, including the Orange County Register, San Jose Mercury News, Denver Post, The New York Resident, Vegas Seven magazine and Running Times.
I embrace my watchdog role, with a series of stories about the city of Victorville that's been cited during ongoing investigations by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the SEC. I'm also passionate a…
Brooke Staggs’s Journalist Portfolio
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Interview
See all 15 answers →What was your first job as a journalist?
Have you ever used a typewriter?
How is social media changing news?
Awards
See all 6 awards →California Newspaper Publishers Association's Better Newspapers Contest
2013 - Breaking News
My article about a teen who shot his father during a hunting trip took first place in this statewide contest.
California Newspaper Publishers Association's Better Newspapers Contest
2012 - Environmental coverage
I wrote a series of stories about a sewage pipeline break that earned a blue ribbon during the statewide contest.
California Newspaper Publishers Association's Better Newspapers Contest
2011 - Features
My feature story "Tiny Fighters," which traced the story of two severely premature babies, took second place in the state for a newspaper our size in 2010, while the Daily Press received second in the category of general excellence.
Daily Press Publisher's Award
2010 - Publisher's Award
I received the newspaper's Publisher's Award in 2010. My editor, in nominating me for the award, wrote these words: “Brooke is a star reporter. She has doggedly dug into her beats, most noticeably Victorville, by fairly and thoroughly documenting the city’s mismanagement. Even county and federal investigators seek out Brooke’s help with their investigations. Brooke is equally adept at writing compelling personality profiles and human interest stories.”
Best of the West
2017 - Explanatory Reporting
I tied for first place in this award honoring the best work in the western United States for my reporting leading up to California's vote on legal marijuana. A judge wrote: "Reporter Brooke Edwards Staggs is clearly among the nation’s preeminent reporters on this subject." “In a powerhouse category, the Orange County Register’s examination of the legalization of recreational cannabis in California stands out as a remarkable multimedia accomplishment, providing clear and concise explanation on every conceivable element of Prop 64, its implementation and its effects. Readers learn how the law provides legal protections to medical marijuana users who risked losing parental rights and how a migraine-suffering reporter obtained her medical marijuana card. There are infographics, a video, Facebook Live and the fantastic website thecannifornian.com."
California Journalism Awards
2019 - Enterprise news story or series
A statewide database of local cannabis policies, and stories written from that data, earned my colleagues and I a first place win in the Enterprise News Story or Series category.