I am a general assignment reporter with specific and varying niches – the local film industry, U.S.-Cuba relations, Tampa history, professional wrestling and the odd and unique people who make up this area. I have been a journalist in Tampa since 1999. In my younger years, I was also an independent filmmaker best known for an award-winning documentary on Charlie Wall, Tampa’s first crime lord. At home, I am married to a woman who is way out of my league and a father of four kids who have diverse career goals – engineer, veterinarian, ballerina, and a “fighting ninja.” As opposed to a pacifist ninja.
![Project archaeologist Jaime Rogers, 28, uses a 3D laser scanning device to collect data on the Jackson House in February. [LUIS SANTANA | Times]](https://www.tampabay.com/storyimage/HI/20190424/ARTICLE/190429867/AR/0/AR-190429867.jpg&MaxW=576&ImageVersion=Rotator "Project archaeologist Jaime Rogers, 28, uses a 3D laser scanning device to collect data on the Jackson House in February. [LUIS SANTANA | Times]")
![Laura Spaulding uses replicas of a home interior at the Spaulding Decon warehouse to help train new workers. She uses pig's blood for the training. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]](https://www.tampabay.com/storyimage/HI/20190422/ARTICLE/190429994/AR/0/AR-190429994.jpg&MaxW=576&ImageVersion=Rotator "Laura Spaulding uses replicas of a home interior at the Spaulding Decon warehouse to help train new workers. She uses pig's blood for the training. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]")
![Cuban and American flags hang in the atrium of the Carnival Paradise in June 2017 as the ship prepares for its inaugural cruise from Tampa to Havana. [MONICA HERNDON | Times (2017)]](https://www.tampabay.com/storyimage/HI/20190418/ARTICLE/190419612/AR/0/AR-190419612.jpg&MaxW=576&ImageVersion=Rotator "Cuban and American flags hang in the atrium of the Carnival Paradise in June 2017 as the ship prepares for its inaugural cruise from Tampa to Havana. [MONICA HERNDON | Times (2017)]")
![Kurt Schleicher looks over one of several liquor bottles found in the attic of his home in Ybor City. In 1933, Victor Lacata killed his parents and siblings there with an axe, but Schleicher questions whether it might really have been a mob hit. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]](https://www.tampabay.com/storyimage/HI/20190418/ARTICLE/190419640/AR/0/AR-190419640.jpg&MaxW=576&ImageVersion=Rotator "Kurt Schleicher looks over one of several liquor bottles found in the attic of his home in Ybor City. In 1933, Victor Lacata killed his parents and siblings there with an axe, but Schleicher questions whether it might really have been a mob hit. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]")