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Matt LaFever on Muck Rack

Matt LaFever

Verified
California
As seen in: MendoFever, Redheaded Blackbelt, SFGate, MSN, Flipboard, Yahoo, WCVB-TV (Boston, MA), WESH-TV (Orlando, FL), WBAL-TV (Baltimore, MD), WLWT-TV (Cincinnati, OH), WPBF-TV (Palm Beach Gardens, FL), WMUR-TV (Manchester, NH), KCRA-TV (Sacramento, CA) and
Covers:  Crime and public safety | Fires and emergency incidents | Local government | Environmental issues | Community events | Human interest
North Coast Contributing Editor @SFGATE | Publisher @MendoFever | Freelance @KymKemp & @KMUDNews| Digging deep in NorCal’s wildlands—where stories take root.

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Matt LaFever’s Biography

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For the past seven years, Matt LaFever has covered the North Coast of California in both print and radio news. A Humboldt State graduate, he has lived in the Emerald Triangle for nearly 20 years. His reporting spans local issues like crime and wildfires. When not writing, Matt is an avid outdoorsman, exploring Northern California’s rugged landscapes.

Matt LaFever’s Journalist Portfolio

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How a Yankees legend ended up in the Calif. town of Dunsmuir

How a Yankees legend ended up in the Calif. town of Dunsmuir

Dunsmuir marks 100 years since Babe Ruth's 1924 exhibition game with a revived softball tournament, celebrati…

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Humboldt says this idyllic hippie commune is a health hazard

Humboldt says this idyllic hippie commune is a health hazard

Humboldt County is threatening to evict the "Yee Haw" hippie commune over severe health and safety violations…

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A rare whale washing up on a Calif. beach is part of a big problem

A rare whale washing up on a Calif. beach is part of a big problem

These endangered whales don't often wash up on California coastlines because they "don't come close to shore …

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The Elder Magnolias of Ukiah's Courthouse-A Living Link to the Town's Beginnings - MendoFever - M...

The Elder Magnolias of Ukiah's Courthouse-A Living Link to the Town's Beginnings - MendoFever - M...

"Ancient sentinels of a passing era. Their roots are entwined about the hearts of many who linger here and in…

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An Infant Dead, A Toddler Abandoned-Mendocino County Is Left Demanding to Know How This Could Hap...

An Infant Dead, A Toddler Abandoned-Mendocino County Is Left Demanding to Know How This Could Hap...

Mendocino County has been left reeling in the wake of a heinous display of cruelty. How could someone charged…

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A Husband Gone, a Life Turned Upside Down- A Fort Bragg Resident Reflects on the Health Care That...

A Husband Gone, a Life Turned Upside Down- A Fort Bragg Resident Reflects on the Health Care That...

Ronald Valadao, a proud and sturdy carpenter, was brought to his knees by a treatable condition local hospita…

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Articles

California's love for one flower is poisoning the state's last wild river

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By Matt LaFever Verified
| SFGate Verified
Down on the river’s lower plain, though, the wilderness gives way to farmland. Here, a handful of growers produce nearly all of America’s Easter lily bulbs, which are then shipped off to greenhouses across the country. The iconic plant is the most famous export from Del Norte County — yet state scientists say decades of pesticide use by these growers have contaminated the tributaries that flow through those fields, threatening fish, wildlife and nearby residents.
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A toxic secret is flowing through California's wildest river

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By Matt LaFever Verified
| Yahoo Verified
A view of the Smith River in Del Norte County, California. (rskin/Getty Images/iStockphoto) Tucked into California's remote northwest corner, the Smith River winds through Del Norte County, a sparsely populated stretch of redwood country near the Oregon border. Celebrated by conservationists as the state's wildest river, 25 miles of undammed, crystalline water cut through ancient forests and rugged coastal mountains before meeting the Pacific near Crescent City.
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Riverside saunas are tearing a California community apart

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By Matt LaFever Verified
| Yahoo Verified
An aerial view of Big River, in Mendocino County, Calif. (halbergman/Getty Images) Roughly 150 miles north of San Francisco, Big River meets the Pacific Ocean just south of Mendocino, a coastal town famed for its Victorian architecture perched atop bluffs that plunge into the sea. Flowing more than 40 miles from its headwaters in the redwood-covered Coast Range, Big River contains the longest undeveloped estuary in Northern California.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

Freelancing with Kym Kemp's Redheaded Blackbelt

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Yes

How is social media changing news?

It is bolstering the importance of hyper-local coverage.