E-mail: janet.metzner@patch.com
Phone: 410-302-9093 Hometown: Wheeling, W.Va. How I got to Maryland: In 2007, came to work as the assistant city editor with The Capital newspaper in Annapolis. Politics: From conservative to independent. Religion: Methodist, who attends the non-denominational, multi-cultural Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, MD. She's worked in newspaper, radio and Internet since 1990, except for four years as a quality improvement manager for VITAS Healthcare Corporation in San Antonio, Texas, and one year as communications director for Hospice of the Lawton Area, Inc., in Oklahoma. Most recently she was assistant city editor for The Capital daily newspaper in Annapolis; a government and education reporter for The Pittsburgh-Tribune Review; and statehouse, government, courts and general assignments reporter for The Dominion Post in Morgantown, W.Va. She has also worked at daily papers (Remember The San Antonio Light?) in San Antonio. Also in that city, she was entertainment editor for the multimedia company The News of Texas. She's been a staffer for The Lawton (Okla.) Constitution and Wheeling (W.Va.) News-Register.  She was an announcer for KLAW Country Music Radio in Lawton, Okla., as well as for The News of Texas in San Antonio. She interned with Clear Channel Communications' flagship station WOAI Newsradio in San Antonio. She's covered business, airplane crashes, the Sago Mine disaster in 2006, elections and a gubernatorial inauguration; and West Virginia University, hospitals, health and scientific research. On the side, she works for Life Time Fitness in Columbia, Md., as a swim instructor, teaching children ages 18 months on up to adults, including triathletes. Janet graduated with a degree in English and a concentration in German language from the University of Texas at San Antonio, after attending West Virginia University for two years where she was a varsity swimmer. She did graduate work in English Communication Studies at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Her son, LT. Justin Messenger, is a 2009 West Point graduate who has served a tour in Iraq, is stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, and is serving in South Korea.