About
Writers:
Megan Rolland
Megan Rolland covers state government for The Oklahoman and focuses on investigations and enterprise stories from the state Capitol.
She got her start as a reporter for her high school newspaper in Grand Junction, Colo. and earned degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Missouri.
Before moving to Oklahoma, Rolland covered city government for the Gainesville Sun in Florida and interned at The Kansas City Star and The Colorado Springs Gazette.
Michael McNutt
Michael McNutt has been assigned to The Oklahoman’s Capitol Bureau since February 2005. His chief assignments are covering the governor and the House of Representatives. He also covers the offices of lieutenant governor, state treasurer, state auditor and inspector as well as agencies including the Ethics Commission, Election Board and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority. He also reports on campaign expenditure and lobbyist spending reports, political parties and covers statewide and House elections. In 2008, he covered the Republican National Party’s convention in St. Paul. Minn. McNutt has been with The Oklahoman since 1983. Before joining the Capitol Bureau, he served as assistant news editor and assistant city editor for The Oklahoman and worked in the newspaper’s Enid bureau. Before that he worked for newspapers in Enid and in Rolla, Mo.
Chris Casteel
Chris Casteel has been in Washington bureau of The Oklahoman for 20 years, covering news of specific importance to Oklahoma. In his time in Washington, Casteel has covered the Anita Hill hearings, the House impeachment and Senate trial of former President Bill Clinton, nine national political conventions, numerous U.S. Senate and House campaigns, three rounds of military base closures, federal corruption charges against former state Sen. Gene Stipe and many other issues and events.
Before his assignment to Washington, Casteel covered the state Capitol and politics in Oklahoma. He began working for the late, great Oklahoma City Times in 1982 in the Norman bureau, while still a student at the University of Oklahoma.
Paul Monies
Paul Monies is the Database Editor for The Oklahoman. He’s in charge of maintaining the newsroom’s databases for everything from voter information and state finances to inspections and campaign finance. The Oklahoman’s reporters use these data sources to add context and analysis in their daily and long-term stories.
Paul spent five years as a business reporter for The Oklahoman, covering manufacturing, employment and the economy. He’s also worked at newspapers in Texas and Missouri.
Paul is a native of Scotland who landed in small-town Texas more than 20 years ago. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
He lives in Oklahoma City.
Bryan Dean
Bryan Dean is a staff writer for The Oklahoman. He has covered Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County government since 2003. He also covers the military and open government issues statewide. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Dean has a bachelor’s degree in journalism with minors in political science and history. He is a past president of the Oklahoma Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and is president-elect of Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc., an organization dedicated to preserving open government. He has won numerous awards for his government coverage including two First Amendment Awards from the SPJ Fort Worth chapter and a first place award in government/political writing from the Great Plains Journalism Competition.
Jane Glenn Cannon
Jane Glenn Cannon is chief of the Norman bureau and covers Norman city government, including city departments, city officials and those wonderfully long city council meetings. She writes a community outreach column three times a week. In the past, she has covered county government officials and state agencies. She has worked for The Oklahoman almost six years. Before that, she was a reporter for the Norman Transcript. She has been reporting on government issues for more than 30 years. She is the recipient of two Sweepstake trophies awarded by the Associated Press, one of them for investigative reporting and the other for trial coverage. She also is a Beechy-Musselman Award winner. She lives in Norman with her dog and two cats. She has one son.
Nick Trougakos
Assistant Local Editor Nick Trougakos has been a reporter for The Associated Press, the Tulsa World and The Oklahoman, where he covered county and federal courts, federal agencies and the military. Trougakos has been an editor at The Oklahoman since 2005, and now oversees the state Capitol and Washington bureaus.
Michael Baker
Michael Baker is a Sr. Reporter at The Oklahoman’s. He has served in that position since August 2007. Michael believe as journalists we should be tenacious watchdogs of public officials and our government institutions.
Baker was born in Edmond, went to Edmond High School and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Oklahoma. He also obtained a Master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California.
Baker has worked as a journalist in California for about 10 years before returning to his roots and moving back to Oklahoma.
James Tyree
James Tyree is a Norman-based reporter for The Oklahoman who covers the University of Oklahoma, Cleveland County government and general assignment in Norman, Purcell, Goldsby and southwest Oklahoma. He returned to The Oklahoman in 2006 after working there as a sports intern in summer 1990.
James is a native of Janesville, Wis., who also spent time growing up in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nev. He is a University of Oklahoma graduate who has reported for newspapers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Oregon and Kansas City in addition to Oklahoma — after working his first first-time job as a veterinary assistant.
Away from the office, James is the proud father of three children and an avid rock ‘n’ roll fan, particularly U2, and the Chicago Cubs.
John Williams
John Williams is the Edmond Outreach Reporter for the Oklahoman.
Williams grew up in Pauls Valley, about 65 miles south of Edmond. His wife Jane and he have lived in Edmond since the 80s. She is an elementary school teacher. The have two children who attended and graduated from Edmond schools.
John has worked in several fields over the years including radio, TV, ministry, author and journalist. He is also a graduate of Edmond’s University of Central Oklahoma.
Diana Baldwin
Oklahoman reporter Diana Baldwin covers government and law enforcement happenings in Edmond. Baldwin has been a reporter and editor with The Oklahoman for 19 years of her 33-year journalism career.
Baldwin was a member of the investigative team during the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing that left 168 people dead. She spent four years covering the bombing investigation and the alternative theories that followed the terrorism on American soil. Baldwin was one of the first reporters at the scene of the April 19, 1995, bombing.
She covered Oklahoma County District Court and the Oklahoma City Police Department where she broke statewide and national stories on embattled Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist, bail bond wrongdoings by judges and a series of stories on the Brenda Andrew and James Pavatt murder case.
Baldwin was been covering Edmond since December 2005 after spending a year at the Norman Bureau. Most of her career was spent covering law enforcement and the courts.
For four years, Baldwin was the features editor at The Oklahoman. She was responsible for establishing a features department that mirrored a newsroom.
Baldwin spent 12 years of her career at The Ardmoreite Newspaper in Ardmore and two years at The Duncan Banner in Duncan for two years.
Baldwin was one of the founders of the Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc., the state’s freedom of information organization.
