PORT ANGELES — Former Senior Reporter Paul Gottlieb has been coaxed out of retirement to cover the state legislative session for the Peninsula Daily News.
Gottlieb will provide special coverage of the present 105-day session, teasing out issues that especially impact the North Olympic Peninsula.
This session is a 105-day budget session that occurs every other year. It will focus largely on negotiating a new biennial budget for 2023-25 for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Gottlieb worked for the Peninsula Daily News for 23 years before he retired last year. During that time, he covered a variety of beats, including the state Legislature, and served a stint as Commentary Page editor.
He has 40 years experience as a reporter, working for weekly and daily newspapers, mostly in Western Washington.
Gottlieb has won more than 30 journalism awards for columns, features and news stories.
While at the PDN, he earned a third-place regional Society of Professional Journalists Sunshine Award for open government reporting on the inner workings of conservation districts and a first-place SPJ award for criminal justice reporting.
Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Trenton, N.J., Gottlieb attended Trenton State College, completing a bachelor’s degree in English at Rutgers University and a master’s degree in journalism at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
“I am really looking forward to delving into the facts and nuances behind bills and the budget,” he said.
“It’s important to present useful, insightful information in a way that adds to readers’ understanding of government and informs their opinions,” he said.
“I’m up to the task.”