Amie Schaenzer
Amie Schaenzer links food news to broader business and community coverage in the Illinois suburbs, following how restaurants, grocery chains and local institutions affect everyday life. She has worked as an editor with Patch since the company launched in 2010, and her reporting combines local business openings and closures, consumer updates and family‑oriented community stories.
Business and food coverage across Illinois
Schaenzer’s core focus is local business reporting, often anchored in food and retail stories that show how the suburban economy is changing.
Her work includes statewide business roundups such as a digest that highlighted Major League Baseball choosing a theater for free July 4 entertainment alongside other top Illinois business stories. She compiles local digests that pair restaurant news with community recognition, including coverage of a Crystal Lake restaurant closing alongside a feature on a recognized local author. In her food beat, she reports on consumer‑facing expansion stories like a popular ice cream shop moving into Chicago suburbs, treating brand growth and market reach as neighborhood business news rather than lifestyle fluff.
Her business lens extends beyond individual storefronts to broader economic trends. Schaenzer covers statewide shifts such as Illinois layoffs topping 8,000 in recent months amid major store closings and job cuts, framing unemployment figures in terms of their impact on workers and local economies. She tracks grocery and retail developments, including Trader Joe’s expansion and other fresh market items that appear in her Illinois business news digests.
Across these pieces, she tends to use brief, service‑driven formats - roundups, digests and short explainers - that pull together several business and food stories so readers can scan what matters in their area in one place.
Libraries, books and family-focused community news
A recurring thread in Schaenzer’s work is attention to institutions and resources that serve families, particularly libraries and reading programs.
She writes list‑style pieces recommending “Some of the Best Halloween Books for Kids,” featuring titles with ghosts, ghouls and wizards aimed at school‑age readers. In a related vein, she publishes “The Bully Menace: 13 Reads For Parents, School‑Aged Kids,” curating books that help families address bullying and inviting readers to share additional suggestions by email. She also conducts Q&A interviews with children’s authors, such as a conversation with an Algonquin writer about a book on being “the boss” of one’s body, reflecting her interest in child‑focused content and practical resources for parents.
Her coverage of libraries combines service information with community safety. Schaenzer reports on the St. Charles Public Library cancelling in‑person events for two weeks, explaining that scheduled programs were paused and outlining how patrons would be affected.
She follows that story as conditions escalate, covering the library remaining closed following threats and describing a near altercation tied to masking policy that contributed to the shutdown. She also writes lighter family‑life features, such as a Libertyville story on a “Twosday” baby born on a palindrome day, which was highlighted in a roundup of good‑news stories across Patch.
Taken together, these pieces show her tendency to situate food and business reporting alongside coverage of the spaces - libraries, schools, community programs - where families spend time.
Crime, safety and public services in the suburbs
Schaenzer routinely covers crime and public safety stories that intersect with the institutions she reports on. She has written about a former library board trustee arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge after an incident at his home in Elgin, connecting governance roles with personal conduct when they affect public trust.
In Des Plaines, she reports on a woman facing kidnapping charges after tying up a man in an attempt to force him to attend relationship counseling, detailing the circumstances and charges in straightforward terms. Her crime coverage also includes cases in which a family friend is accused of sexually abusing a teen after offering her a place to stay, emphasizing both the alleged offense and the community context.
She does not limit safety reporting to conventional crime beats. Schaenzer writes on incidents shaped by bias, such as charges filed after a woman was beaten in a homophobic attack, placing the case within broader concerns about threats against LGBTQ+ residents.
She covers weather‑related risks as well, including a piece on more winter weather on the way, where she explains that up to 11 inches of snow could fall on the Chicago area and warns of bitter cold conditions. Across these stories, her style is direct and factual, prioritizing clear descriptions of what happened, who is affected and how public services - from police to libraries - respond.
Long-running Patch editor with a regional lens
Schaenzer’s longevity with Patch shapes the breadth of her coverage. She has been with the outlet since its launch in 2010, taking on editing responsibilities across multiple Illinois communities over time. At various points she has stepped back from local editorships while colleagues temporarily handled specific town sites, underscoring that her role has extended beyond a single neighborhood or city. Her current work often appears under broad Illinois branding and statewide digests, reflecting a regional perspective that moves easily between business and food stories, library updates, crime reports and family‑friendly features.
Across subjects, Schaenzer’s distinguishing trait is the way she threads local food and business coverage through the fabric of suburban life - libraries, schools, families and safety - so that openings, closures and expansions sit alongside the resources and risks that define community experience.
4 more food journalists.
Aaron Guerrero
Aaron Guerrero is head of the digital department at Miami’s Community Newspapers, where he pairs restaurant coverage with community-facing content. He focuses on how Miami-area restaurants evolve, celebrate, and experiment through new concepts, menus, and neighborhood-focused dining experiences. He reports on restaurant openings, such as an Italian food hall at Plaza Coral Gables, new executive lunch menus, and wood-fired Latin steakhouse brunches, explaining what sets each venue apart. He also covers awards, like a Wine Spectator honor for an Italian chophouse, and events that turn dining rooms into social hubs. His bylines extend to features on sports-themed gatherings, civic renamings, local visits to restaurant programs, sponsored community pieces, and official notices. His work is straightforward and descriptive, helping readers and local businesses connect around specific openings, promotions, and dining experiences.
Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming reports on how courts, jails and public safety systems work over time. He is a reporter at The Daily Memphian covering public safety, the local court system, suburban news and business developments in North Mississippi. His work follows trials, sentencing, appeals, plea deals and judicial decisions, including major cases tied to Tyre Nichols and rapper Young Dolph. He also covers jail conditions, inmate deaths, crime data, prosecution units, trafficking, shootings and public-order incidents. His suburban reporting examines cannabis businesses, restaurant openings and how commercial growth affects communities such as Olive Branch. Fleming previously covered education in the same newsroom. He uses clear, unadorned prose to explain legal steps, deadlines, institutional problems and the political, commercial and community effects of public-safety decisions.
Alana Al-Hatlani
Alana Al-Hatlani is a food writer and editor who treats recipes, restaurants, and food features as ways to explore culture, community, and the business of eating. She works on the food team at Southern Living, overseeing and contributing to print recipes and reported features. Her pastry-focused, restaurant-tested perspective comes from time in restaurant and bakery kitchens. She helps plan and write monthly food packages, including “The South’s Most Treasured Desserts,” and wrote “8 Summer Recipes Our Editors Make Every Year.” She also writes recipe tips, ingredient explainers, restaurant guides, and reported stories about workers, owners, and communities. Her subjects include regional specialties, dining scenes, kitchen basics, and food industries. Her work has appeared with OpenTable and Yahoo. She reports on the ground, explains techniques clearly, and connects specific dishes and places to larger stories about food and livelihood.
Alana Edgin
Alana Edgin is a business reporter whose strongest focus is food, restaurants and consumer-facing businesses. She works at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and has also had work syndicated across AOL and Yahoo News. She covers new openings, closings, expansions and franchise growth, along with retail, health, services, corporate news, data incidents, business support programs and sponsorships. Her reporting includes detailed roundups of new restaurants and businesses, coverage of El Pollo Loco’s opening, and stories on burger trucks, dessert shops, Vietnamese sandwich restaurants and gourmet markets. She also contributes to food and drink reviews, including fall coffee and jerky comparisons. Edgin reports with practical “what, when, where” details, structured comparisons and clear explanations of how offers, partnerships and business changes affect consumers and the local economy.