Darren Fishell, Patch Staff

<strong>Email </strong>darren.fishell&#64;patch.com<strong><br>Phone </strong>909.274.8345<strong><br>Hometown </strong>Diamond Bar<strong><br>Birthday </strong>May 12, 1987<strong><br>Facebook </strong>facebook.com/DiamondBarPatch<strong><br>Twitter </strong>twitter.com/DiamondBarPatch<strong><br>Welcome Video</strong>

<strong>Bio</strong>

Darren Fishell has a passion for journalism that began early, as a sophomore reporter and later editor in chief for the Diamond Ranch High School paper. After those early years growing up in Diamond Bar, Darren shipped off to Maine to attend Bowdoin College, where he spent summers and spare time reporting in Brunswick for The Times Record on everything from church bazaars to snow plow contract disputes and gubernatorial debates. After graduation, he worked as a correspondent for The Times Record, reporting in towns dappling Mid Coast Maine. His reporting on four men battling prostate cancer earned him an award from the Maine Coalition to Fight Prostate Cancer and was collected and republished for distribution throughout the state.

At Bowdoin, Darren co-founded and served as editor in chief of a student and community news website called Curia that provided students a platform to read about and discuss the issues of the day. That site introduced Darren to a new take on community journalism as an extended and community-wide conversation – the resource that Diamond Bar Patch will provide.

Darren has also contributed reporting for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, an investigative journalism non-profit headquartered in Augusta, Maine.

Growing up in Diamond Bar, Darren attended Armstrong Elementary, Lorbeer Middle School, and Diamond Ranch High School. In his senior year at Diamond Ranch, he received a school service award for his work as editor in chief of the school paper.

See Darren&#39;s welcome video to Diamond Bar Patch for a video guide to the site.<br><br><strong>Our Beliefs</strong><br>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 because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.<br><br><strong>Politics</strong><br>I was a registered Democrat until the 2010 mid-term elections, when I became unaligned to follow a compelling Independent candidate for governor in Maine. I strongly feel that party affiliation is only the tip of the iceberg with any candidate and I follow politicians of any stripe who are thoughtful, nuanced, and caring. My only hard-nosed political belief is that a better-informed public is more capable of governing itself. <br><br><strong>Religion</strong><br>I am not religious, but I value strongly the idea of Buddhist teacher and thinker Thich Naht Hanh that we have much to learn and to take from every world religion. I would suggest his book Living Buddha, Living Christ to people of any creed. I believe our creation is magnificent and rife with mystery and I would point anyone to Carl Sagan&#39;s Cosmos as a brilliant illustration of that.<br><br><strong>Local Hot-Button Issues</strong><br>Development is an ongoing tension, both at the proposed site of the Los Angeles football stadium and at Site &#34;D,&#34; owned by Walnut Valley School District. The future of Diamond Bar could be shaped by the fate of the Los Angeles football stadium project.

School budgets will also be a point of interest throughout this year as districts will likely see significant cutbacks from the state.