Marnette Federis, Patch Staff

<b>Basics: </b>

marnette&#64;patch.com

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<b>Hometown: </b>Glendale, CA

<b>Birthday: </b>November 21

<b>Bio:</b> Marnette was born in the Philippines and moved to California at age 10. Her first exercise in journalism was in the fifth grade, when she convinced classmates to put together a &#34;class newsletter.&#34; Since then, she doesn&#39;t remember a time without writing and journalism. Throughout high school and college, she wrote.

While an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, she worked for the campus newspaper, writing both news and feature stories. She also worked as a freelance writer for the East County Californian and was an intern for Voiceofsandiego.org, a daily online newspaper. Her work has been published by Roll Call, Reuters, Washingtonpost.com and The Seattle Times.

Marnette ended up in the Bay Area, a region she came to love during summer visits with family, to pursue a masters degree in journalism at UC Berkeley.  During her time at Cal, she learned about community and multimedia reporting. 

<b>Favorite things to do: </b>Running at the Sports Park, exploring Pleasanton&#39;s hiking trails, cafe-hopping in downtown and  reporting/writing/producing stories for Pleasanton Patch.

<b>Beliefs:</b>

<i>At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible and human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal certain key beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable.</i>

<i>This disclosure is not a license for our editors to inject these beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that our beliefs are on the record will force us to be ever mindful to write, report, and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you, the user, ever think you see evidence that we failed in this mission, we wholeheartedly invite you to let us know.</i>

<b>Politics</b>

<i>How would you describe your political beliefs?</i>

I would describe myself as center of the aisle on most things, perhaps leaning towards the left on social issues.

<b>Religion</b>

<i>How religious would you say you are? Casual, observant, devout, non-religious?</i>

I was raised Catholic. I still go to church on special occasions with family.

<b>Local Hot Button Issues</b>

<i>What do you think are the most important issues facing the community?</i>

School budget, parcel taxes, general development and growth issues

Where do you stand on each of these issues?

I&#39;m still learning about the facts for all these issues, so I can&#39;t say yet where I stand.