Maureen Saltzer

Since launching The Capitolist last summer, I’ve learned there’s no shortage of political or policy news to cover in Tallahassee and around the state. Every day, my inbox is filled with press releases, story ideas, document dumps, leaks, rumors, fake emails and other interesting tidbits from every corner of Florida. From health care, medical marijuana and environmental legislation, to intra-industry disputes over alcohol sales or gaming regulations, and even issues impacting the state capital in the off-season, like the Leon County’s former sheriff and staff using county generators during Hurricane Hermine, or the City of Tallahassee’s slow response to the storm, there’s so much to write about and so little time for one person to do it all.

Many of you have been pitching story ideas, and I try hard to diversify the site’s content. But I have found that my desire to cover more issues is limited by the most precious commodity any of us will ever possess: time.

Thankfully, The Capitolist’s reinforcements are arriving, just in time to chronicle the final weeks (hopefully!) of this year’s legislative session, and two of them are already here in the form of freelance session reporters Maureen Saltzer and Michael Ferrara. They’ll add much-needed bandwidth to The Capitolist’s session coverage as we go down to the wire in the closing weeks.

Michael G. Ferrara

Maureen may be new to covering Tallahassee, but she has covered South Florida business issues for many years, through her role with Progress & Innovation magazine on the Treasure Coast.

Michael is new to Florida, but he has quite possibly one of the strongest and unique writing backgrounds of any reporters I have come across having spent significant time overseas teaching the English language. His most recent stint included teaching English to foreigners in Istanbul and he takes a strong interest in education issues.

Starting today, Maureen and Michael will be covering the Capitol for The Capitolist, joining the media scrums and in some cases, asking the questions that go against the herd. They will help provide our readers with the same type of distinctive and thought-provoking coverage you have come to expect from this site: no-nonsense coverage that questions why things are happening, who’s behind them, and what’s really at stake.

Most importantly, these new team members will give me more time on what’s really important, like writing everyone’s favorite fake-email column, “Monday Mailbag.”

But seriously, if you are in the Capitol, say hello to Maureen and Michael and look forward to more exciting content from The Capitolist for the rest of the 2017 Legislative Session.