Anna Schier
Anna Schier covers fast-moving public policy and local developments with a service focus on how they shape everyday life, including food businesses and the people who run them. She is national breaking news editor at Patch, coordinating coverage across markets and working with real-time alerting tools to surface stories quickly. With more than 12 years of experience spanning culture, economics, environment and other complex topics, she brings a broad news sensibility to food-related coverage.
Breaking news and state policy
Schier’s core reporting centers on new laws, enforcement initiatives and statewide trends that affect residents on the ground. Her coverage of a law that doubles the tax on guns and ammunition details the 11 percent levy, situates it among a slate of new gun measures, and explains what the change means for buyers and sellers. In a piece on legislation targeting homeless encampments, she walks through proposed rules on camping near schools, open spaces, transit stops and sidewalks, and spells out the warning periods, potential charges and required referrals to shelter and services.
She reports on infrastructure and traffic enforcement as well, such as speed cameras being introduced in major cities, explaining where they will be deployed and how they fit into broader safety efforts. Economic fallout is another thread: her article on home insurance premiums rising by 150 percent in one county connects academic research with local impacts, underscoring how policy and market forces cascade down to households. Public safety operations show up in her work through alerts about driving-under-the-influence checkpoints, with clear details on timing, locations and what residents can expect.
Across these pieces, she distinguishes herself by tying statute and enforcement back to the practical consequences for people, rather than treating policy as an abstract beat.
Food businesses and consumer-facing regulation
Within that broader breaking news frame, Schier carves out a focused lane around restaurants, food businesses and the rules that govern them. She reports on statewide requirements that restaurants list allergens on menus, spelling out which establishments are covered, what information must be disclosed, and the date the law takes effect so operators can adjust.
In that piece, she emphasizes the consumer-safety rationale while still foregrounding what compliance will look like for restaurants, showing her habit of writing for both diners and owners.
Her food coverage also includes openings and seasonal shifts, such as “Rich & Creamy Opens For The Summer Season,” where she spotlights a business’s return, its offerings and timing for patrons. Taken together, these stories show a consistent interest in the intersection of food, regulation and everyday experience, using clear, direct language to make rules and opportunities easy to understand.
Community culture and profiles
Schier’s work includes narrative features that introduce readers to people whose stories illuminate local industries and culture. In “Local Author Chronicles His Life in the Mississippi Barge Industry,” she profiles Jack Lambert and his book about three decades on the river, summarizing his experiences and positioning the memoir within the context of regional commerce and personal history. Even in these feature pieces, her reporting is grounded in concrete details - years on the job, specific experiences on the barges, and the themes of the book - rather than broad generalities.
This approach carries over to food and policy stories, where individuals affected by new laws or economic trends often anchor the coverage.
Editorial leadership and verification
Beyond her bylines, Schier plays a central role in Patch’s multi-market breaking news operation.
As national breaking news editor, she relies on high-priority alerts to flag potential stories, then makes rapid decisions about whether and how they should be pursued, balancing comprehensiveness with avoiding unnecessary noise. Her listing as a fact-checker notes more than 12 years of experience and work across subject areas such as culture, economics and environment, indicating a professional emphasis on verification and cross-topic fluency. That background shows up in her reporting, which frequently draws on academic papers, legislative text and official statements to ground coverage of both policy shifts and food-related regulations.
For sources and subjects, this combination of editorial oversight, fact-checking experience and a service-oriented lens means she approaches food stories not as lifestyle content, but as news about systems that directly affect how people eat, work and run their businesses.
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.