Jacksonville Today Associate Editor Mike Mendenhall focuses on Jacksonville City Hall and the Florida Legislature. A native Iowan, he previously led the Des Moines Business Record newsroom and served as associate editor of government affairs at the Jacksonville Daily Record, where he twice won Florida Press Association TaxWatch Awards for his in-depth coverage of Jacksonville’s city budget. Mike’s work at the Daily Record also included reporting on Downtown development, JEA and the city’s independent authorities, and he was a frequent contributor to WJCT News 89.9 and News4Jax. Mike began his journalism career at the Newton Daily News, where he was promoted to editor-in-chief and won the Iowa Newspaper Association’s Outstanding Young Iowa Journalist Award and the Harrison Skip Weber Investigative Reporting Award. A graduate of the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Mike is the rare combination-Star Wars/Star Trek fan. When he’s not writing, Mike is on the beach or camping with his wife Betsy and their two dogs Jovie and Nessie, enjoying live jazz or at the movies.