After a long absence from the newspaper field, Mel and his family have chosen the  northwest valley as the “best location on earth” for their community newspaper, The Valley Voice.

   Mel has a B.A. in Journalism from Michigan State University, and a law degree, and has been associated with Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley, both in Beverly Hills, for over 20 years. As editor of one of the largest UAW-AFL-CIO weeklies in the nation, he won dozens of awards from the Neiman Fellows, Columbia University.

      Both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson invited him to the White House. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he has been active in B’nai B’rith for almost 50 years, and was President of the Beverly Hills Chapter for a number of terms.

      Rachel, who immigrated from the Philippines in 1992, leaves behind a very active church, community, and nursing record. She was president of the Christ Ambassadors Organization of the Assemblies of God and the Philippine Nursing Students Association. In 1989, she received the Nasaria Lagos Award for exemplary performance in the Arts, Community Services and Leadership. She has worked as an oncology nurse for more than 10 years at Cedars Sinai Hospital Cancer Center in Los Angeles. She also spent four years at the reknown M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. She attends Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch.

      Josh, 6, "copy boy", already likes to write ("My First All-Star Game"), and in addition to baseball, loves basketball. Josh attends Germaine Street Elementary School, and Temple Ahavat Shalom’s Sunday School (Northridge).