Political Consultant Reports of the Bleak Financial Situation in Sacramento

Alan was with KPBS since 2006. His return to San Diego was a homecoming, of sorts. Alan began his news radio career in San Diego in the 1970s, producing business and financial coverage at KSDO. He went on to work as a news anchor, reporter and talk radio host in both Seattle and San Francisco. Prior to his work at KPBS, Alan most recently spent seven years producing an award-winning morning radio news program in the Bay Area. He’s won regional awards for his work in San Francisco and Seattle, including honors for breaking news coverage of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens and the events of 9/11. Alan is a member of Public Radio News Directors Inc. and the Radio Television News Directors’ Association. Alan’s interests include medicine, the environment, music, politics, scrabble and handball (though not always in that order).

Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.