Mike Szymanski is the Studio City Editor and he's had his roots in the local area since he first came to work at the Los Angeles Daily News in 1985 and rented a place on Arch Drive.
Now, this is the area where he runs his Dachshunds, practices martial arts, sings in the choir at a Methodist church and drives his Prius around with Bruce Springsteen blaring. He lives with his family in the hills, his two nephews go to local schools and he's involved in the PTA. He continues to teach a UCLA Extension class in journalism, which he has done since he arrived in Los Angeles after being recruited away from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A graduate of the University of Florida, he earned two prestigious Hearst Awards in investigative reporting and feature writing, and went on to write for the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, US Magazine, The Advocate, Los Angeles Magazine and many web sites such as E! Online, SciFi.com, Zap2it.com, Hollywood.com and more. He won a Lambda Literary Award and earned journalism awards for coverage of  "Breakdown-Homelessness in the Valley" and other local issues. A libertarian-turned-liberal, Mike worked in the past on Free Speech causes and helped raise more than half a million dollars for AIDS-related charities. Mike has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis for more than 10 years and hopes you'll never notice.   Call Mike at (818) 233-1164, or write MikeS@Patch.com. See Mike's Welcome to Patch video here.