MinnPost expands Washington coverage

With the coming of a new administration and changes in Congress, MinnPost has hired a full-time Washington, D.C., correspondent to report on events there.

Cynthia Dizikes will cover Minnesota's congressional delegation and report on developments out of Washington that are important to Minnesota readers.

Most recently, Cynthia was an intern in the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau, reporting on a variety of topics from youth voting trends to the increasing popularity of using a "death midwife" as a cheaper alternative to traditional funerals. Her last story for the Times ran the other day on the newspaper's front page and described the rising demand among East Africans in the United States for khat, a narcotic leaf that is a social tonic and time-honored tradition in Africa but illegal in this country.

Cynthia has also been a reporter for the Anniston Star in Alabama, and her work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune, Congress Daily and on National Public Radio. Last summer, she reported on Minnesota's political mood and its congressional races for the online initiative NEWS21.

Cynthia received her master's degree in journalism last year from UC Berkeley. She can be reached at cdizikes [at] minnpost [dot] com.

MinnPost's Washington correspondent position is funded in part from a grant from the Knight Foundation.

Roger Buoen is a MinnPost managing editor and can be reached at rbuoen@minnpost.com.