MELINDA BURNS, regional affairs

Melinda Burns worked for the Santa Barbara News-Press for 21 years. She was a senior writer covering regional affairs, including oil, water, transportation, energy, agriculture, immigration, land use and the environment.

Burns's reports on the Mixtec Indians, the people who pick strawberries, the No. 1 cash crop in Santa Barbara County, won first place for immigration and minority affairs reporting in the 2005 Best of the West contest, a competition open to newspapers of all sizes in 13 states.

Also in 2005, Burns won a "Pinnacle of Excellence" National Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for "Ancient Mariners," a story on how the early Polynesians and the Chumash of Santa Barbara may have exchanged boat technology.

In 1999, Burns was awarded a first place in investigative reporting by the California Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting on the Mixtecs, who had conducted a series of walkouts in the fields of Santa Maria that summer. In the fall, Burns accompanied a group of Mixtecs who travelled to the state of Washington to pick cucumbers.

Locally, Burns has received awards from the Citizens Planning Association, League of Women Voters, Latinos for Better Government and the Santa Barbara Hispanic community.

Burns has a bachelor's degree in English from Harvard University and a master's of science degree in education from the University of Southern California. From 1969 to 1977, Burns lived in Latin America, freelancing and teaching. She worked as a bilingual teacher in Los Angeles and a reporter-trainee for the Los Angeles Times before coming to Santa Barbara in 1985. Burns was fired, illegally, from the Santa Barbara News-Press in October 2006.

ANNA DAVISON, science and environment

Anna Davison specializes in writing about science and the environment. A graduate of UC Santa Cruz with a master's degree in science writing, she worked at the Santa Barbara News-Press for three and a half years as a staff writer and editor.

MELISSA EVANS, city of Santa Barbara, religion

Melissa Evans has been a reporter for 12 years, working for newspapers in the Bay Area, the East Coast and Southern California. She accepted a reporting position in October 2004 covering religion and social issues at the Santa Barbara News-Press.

After earning a bachelor's degree in journalism from San Diego State University, Evans served as a crime and city reporter for The Tri-Valley Herald in Pleasanton, Calif. She then moved to the East Coast, covering three cities just north of Boston for The Sun in Lowell, Mass. While on the East Coast, she contributed to award-winning coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Evans returned to the Bay Area in 2002, when she began covering religion and culture for ANG Newspapers at The Argus, in Fremont, Calif. To further her education in religious issues, she completed an eight-week fellowship in Religion, Spirituality and Ethics Reporting at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 2003, a weeklong fellowship on Judaism at Brandeis University in 2004, and a weeklong course looking at free speech issues at the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., in 2004.

She has covered a number of social and religious issues at the News-Press, including continuing coverage of the Catholic abuse scandal, a series on death and dying and a series following a woman through recovery for methamphetamine addiction.

Evans was one of the six reporters illegally fired from the News-Press for participating in union activity on Feb. 5, 2007. She will be covering Santa Barbara City Hall, along with religious issues, for the Santa Barbara Newsroom.

DAWN HOBBS, criminal justice

Dawn Hobbs covers the criminal justice system for the Santa Barbara Newsroom. She worked at the Santa Barbara News-Press for nearly nine years on the cops and court beat. Prior to the News-Press, Hobbs worked at the Los Angeles Times.

While at the News-Press, Hobbs was the international lead reporter on the Michael Jackson investigation and trial with her scoops landing her a news analyst position for NBC News. She regularly appeared on "The Today Show" and numerous MSNBC news shows. She also provided weekly on-air updates to the BBC and Ireland Radio.

Hobbs has won 10 state and national awards for her coverage of the criminal justice system in as many years. She's received recognitions for various series and breaking news pieces on crime in Santa Barbara, including for her coverage of homicides, domestic violence, drug abuse, youth gangs and the Stearns Wharf fire.

Hobbs' recent top awards include three from the California Newspaper and Publisher's Association, one each for Spot News, Public Service and Investigative Reporting; three from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for the Prevention of a Safer Society; and the National Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting.

In 2003, her series on unsolved homicides in Santa Barbara County, entitled “Cold Cases,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Hobbs received a master's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, where she worked with Investigative Reporters and Editors and team taught investigative reporting. She has also received two bachelor's degrees, one in English and the other in journalism, from Humboldt State University.

Hobbs was one of the reporters illegally fired on Feb. 5, 2007, for participating in a union-related and federally protected activity.

Note: Hobbs will not be writing articles while she is recovering from carpal tunnel surgery, but you may see an occasional video clip from her until she is able to resume writing.

ROB KUZNIA, education

 A reporter for seven years, Rob Kuznia spent the last three covering education issues for the Santa Barbara News-Press. Prior to coming to Santa Barbara, he worked as an education and city hall reporter for The Argus daily newspaper in Fremont, a sister paper of The Oakland Tribune in the Bay Area. Before that he covered city government for The News-Review, a six-day-a-week newspaper in Roseburg, Ore. He graduated from the University of Minnesota's journalism program in 1999. He has won two awards, for feature writing and spot news coverage, in the Bay Area and in Oregon.

BARNEY McMANIGAL, Santa Barbara County

Barney McManigal covers county government for Santa Barbara Newsroom, after spending close to three years on the same beat at the Santa Barbara News-Press. McManigal, a Santa Barbara native, reported on heated 2006 campaigns for sheriff and supervisor, and contributed to an award-winning 2005 series called “Concrete, Not Crops,” which the California Newspaper Publishers Association recognized for excellence in agricultural and environmental reporting.

Before joining the News-Press, McManigal reported on national politics for the Denver Post, Casper Star Tribune and other regional newspapers as a correspondent for States News Service in Washington, D.C. McManigal started his journalism career in 1995, with internships at the Santa Barbara News-Press and Independent, followed by stints as a reporter, columnist and editor at the student-run Daily Californian, in Berkeley. He also worked as a production assistant for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in Washington and San Francisco.

Graduating from UC Berkeley in 1998, McManigal received highest honors in history for his thesis on George Orwell. In 2003, he received a master’s degree in history from Oxford University, focusing on Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley and the intersection of science and politics.

TOM SCHULTZ, city of Goleta, health care, general assignment

Tom Schultz reports on the city of Goleta, health care and general assignment topics for Santa Barbara Newsroom. He covered these and other subjects for more than eight years at the Santa Barbara News-Press.

Prior to this, he worked as a correspondent for the Valley Edition of the Los Angeles Times and gained experience during reporting internships with the News-Press; the Hartford Courant’s Washington, D.C., bureau; the Times in Los Angeles and Washington; and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Schultz was on a News-Press team that won a first place California Newspaper Publishers Association “Better Newspapers” award (circ. 25,000 to 75,000) for non-local spot news coverage of the 2003 earthquake in Paso Robles. Another News-Press team he was on took second place in the 2005 contest for agriculture resource reporting. The Mental Health Association in Santa Barbara recognized him in 2003 for “Outstanding Media Coverage” following a series of stories focused on the local and statewide delivery of care.

A 1998 graduate of the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in print journalism, he lives in Santa Barbara.

He was illegally fired by the News-Press on Feb. 6.

JOHN ZANT, sports

John Zant has been a working journalist in Santa Barbara for more than 38 years. He joined the News-Press sports department in the fall of 1968 after graduating from UCSB. He began his career covering high school games and writing feature stories. He received numerous awards from the Associated Press for his work, including a four-part series in 1973 that explored the increasing participation of women and girls in sports.

Zant wrote extensively about Olympic sports. He attended the 1972 Summer Games in Munich and subsequently covered six other Olympics for the News-Press -- Montreal (1976), Los Angeles (1984), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004). He also covered three World Series, three Super Bowls and a number of NBA Finals games in Los Angeles.

In the summer of 1988, Zant left the sports beat and embarked on a 110-mile walk along the Santa Barbara County coast from the Santa Maria River mouth to Rincon. His 10-part series -- a story on each day's hike -- was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

After serving as News-Press sports editor for five years, Zant returned to writing full time. He wrote three columns a week and covered a variety of sports events. His reports on the UCSB women's basketball team for the past 12 years were well-read throughout the community.