Chris McDaniel joins IVP news team
EL CENTRO — Most snowbirds don’t travel to the Desert Southwest in July, but Chris McDaniel — the new staff writer for Imperial Valley Press — is a unique sort of flightless bird.
Hailing from the Great Pacific Northwest, this native of Yuma, Ariz., flew the coop in lush green Washington State to return to the scorching desert sands where he cut his journalistic teeth on important issues including military exercises, immigration concerns, law enforcement activities, education endeavors and government oversight. McDaniel
McDaniel spent six years as a reporter at the Yuma Sun newspaper, where he was twice awarded by the Arizona Newspapers Association: once for best news story and once for best investigative journalism. He then migrated north to Washington where he worked for two years at Peninsula Daily News, located at the gateway of gorgeous Olympic National Park.
Among McDaniel’s roles at Imperial Valley Press will be to follow Imperial County government and the Imperial Irrigation District.
“We are delighted to have Chris on our team,” IVP Editor in Chief Tom Bodus said. “He brings us talent; he brings us experience, but most importantly, he brings us enthusiasm. That will go a long way toward helping us deliver both timely and interesting stories to our readers.”
Coming to Imperial Valley is a homecoming of sorts for McDaniel, whose great-great-grandparents — the Joyner family — once operated a dairy farm in Seeley. His great-great-grandmother is buried in El Centro, according to his late grandmother, Dorothy Joyner-Spain.
Invigorated by the plentiful availability of vitamin-D and prodigious heat, McDaniel is ready to roll up his sleeves and suss out important current events that affect the citizens of Imperial County.
“It is good to be back in the desert doing what I love,” McDaniel said, adding “the heat ain’t so bad” and that “it is so nice to have real Mexican food again.”
McDaniel is a graduate of Yuma Union High School and is currently finishing up his college degree. He also enjoys music of all sorts and moonlights as a drummer.