Mark Ladao

About

I was born in Fremont, California, and spent most of my childhood in the area before graduating from high school in Hawaii, where I also earned two college degrees.I'm a general assignments reporter for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and have covered almost every topic covered in news, including breaking news, local government, legislation, tourism, culture, health, education, crime, and the environment. When I'm not chasing the news of the day, I generally cover local agriculture and Hawaii's food systems.While I've been in the business of covering news for about six years, I've been interested in writing for much longer. Writing, photography and videography, as I learned as a teenager, were perfect for me because they generally did not require fine motor skills or coordination.Even earlier than that, I had started developing a connection to nature and the outdoors. As a child I was infamous among family and friends for regularly bringing home animals, from insects to reptiles to lost pets, that nobody else was interested in keeping.