Kori Suzuki
South Bay and Imperial Valley ReporterKori Suzuki covers South San Diego County and the Imperial Valley for KPBS. He reports on the decisions of local government officials with a particular focus on environmental issues, housing affordability, and race and identity. He is especially drawn to stories that show how we are all complicated and multidimensional.
Kori first joined KPBS in 2023 as part of the inaugural California Local News Fellowship and was hired as a staff reporter in 2025. Previously, he worked as an associate producer for Reveal and as a visual journalist at The Seattle Times and KQED. Before that, he worked for The Washington Post’s audio team, the weekly environmental public radio Living on Earth, and KALW. As an editor at his college newspaper in St. Paul, Minnesota, he helped lead a team covering the murder of George Floyd and the yearlong Black Lives Matter uprising that followed.
He has a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley and bachelor’s degrees in environmental studies and media studies from Macalester College. He is a member of Diversify Photo.
Kori was born and raised in Berkeley and Richmond in Northern California, across the bay from San Francisco. He is a proud, fourth-generation Japanese American and loves foggy mornings and cooking with the radio on.
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The killing of Gates, a member of the local unhoused community, has raised questions about how the Sheriff’s Office responds to mental health crises. -
The federal agency’s failure to meet the deadline came in the final days of a deadly year for immigrants in federal detention. -
A Huntington Beach-based developer is proposing to build a nearly one million-square-foot warehouse for artificial intelligence development in the center of the Imperial Valley. -
Federal agents detained Viktoriia Bulavina, who is married to a U.S. citizen, following a green card interview late last week. -
Viktoriia Bulavina’s lawyers say her detention marks a new escalation in the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigration. -
State Sen. Steve Padilla’s letter comes as Imperial Valley residents and advocates say they were blindsided by plans for the project.
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Two techies launched the app in 2021 to fill a glaring information gap. Watch Duty centralizes fire and evacuation updates from various agencies, as paid staff reporters and an army of volunteers provide real-time updates based on radio traffic. -
Eighty years ago next month, a rock 'n' roll legend was born: Rosie Hamlin, an icon to the Chicano community. She got her start right here in National City. -
Reddit users in r/sandiego asked about a few of the state propositions, the San Diego mayoral race and the several local sales tax measures.
- California’s plastic bag ban is only part of a broader effort. What’s next?
- ‘These spaces are often stressful:’ Questions raised after another death in Imperial County
- Veterans stand with Afghan allies as Senate Republicans say they're a public safety risk
- Major plumbing headache haunts $13 billion U.S. carrier off the coast of Venezuela
- Trump says 8 EU countries to be charged 10% tariff for opposing US control of Greenland