Ortiz Profile

As a 2003 Sacramento State journalism graduate, Sacramento Bee's business reporter and columnist Jon Ortiz has had much luck in starting his career off on the right foot.

Prior to his journalism pursuits, Ortiz had come down with a serious stress-related sickness from working at and eventually owning a part of a medical supply company. Ortiz decided it was time for a change and went back to school.

Ortiz was hired onto the Bee's staff a couple of weeks after he graduated from the university. Before he applied for the job, he interned with the Los Angeles Times. His passion for the subject comes out very strong within his determination for the career.

In his stories, columns and blogs, Ortiz seems to say what everyone is thinking but no one wants to express. And he does it in a way that doesn't inject a heavy dosage of self-righteous opinion. He seems to grab the thought that floats around in everyone's head and, without killing it, nails it down with words.

A good example of this is a story that he did at the beginning of the year on the ever increasing gas prices:
"They're playing with us. You suspect it every time you fill up your tank or look over at the numbers on the gas station sign.

You notice that the price always goes up like a rocket but drifts down like a feather. You swap conspiracy theories with friends, family, neighbors.

Still, you always, always return to the pump and pony up for your high-octane fix."

The great thing about the story is that it's actually interesting to read. It isn't just another plug-and-chug sort of story that we hear all the time. You know, those stories about the impending doom that we seem to have trapped ourselves with? Ya, thanks for the reminder, couldn't notice that filling up at the gas station last night or anything.

He goes out and interviews a gas station owner, an oil industry consultant, a UC Davis historian and a representative from Chevron as well as an associate from an independent refinery. The spectrum is broad and his sources seem to hit all the major points along the way.

What I respect most about Ortiz is not his direct, concise yet clever way of writing, but his way to do what I believe the heart of all journalism is. He gives a voice to the voiceless in what seems for most to be a detached form of writing and news.

In his blog, "The State Worker", Ortiz seems to have hit the jackpot for those who have been long since undermined and overlooked. The blog is, obviously, about state workers, and he uses it as a way of keeping those to whom do the grunt work of the state up to date without having to follow every little move the government makes, some affecting them and others not.

He seems to play the translator for all the jargon that can all to often be associated with government and informs state workers on what they need to know. He lets them in on how it will affect them or why something has happened.

In a recent "State Worker" column, Ortiz responded to the outrage some Californians were feeling over recent pay raises to California state engineers. He received an email from an electrician in North Hollywood that was outraged over the ordeal, and Ortiz began to explain why it happened in a calm voice of reason.

Overall, Ortiz is one hell of a writer and one to defiantly watch. I'm not even a state worker and the stuff is brilliant.

To find more of Jon Ortiz's stories or to read the "State Worker", follow this link:
http://localsearch.sacbee.com/sp?keywords=Jon+Ortiz&aff=1100