Email: susan.pascal@patch.com
Phone: 818-294-1561 Hometown: Montauk, N.Y. Birthday: Jan. 15 An award-winning journalist, Pascal has written for both print and broadcast media in Los Angeles and New York. In addition to being a contributor to Patchs since October 2010, Pascal wrote a column for Examiner.com and hosted The Athena Fortune Show for BlogTalkRadio. She is also a 15-year veteran of the motion picture industry, having headed the production publicity units on major Hollywood studio movies. Some of her films include the new "The Karate Kid," "The Fugitive," "Seven" and "My Cousin Vinny."  More recently she wrote the press kits for the upcoming features "The Apparition," "Crazy Stupid Love," and "Wanderlust." Pascal hails from New York and graduated from New York University with a B.F.A. degree. She currently resides in Agoura Hills with husband David and children–Jacob and Mia Rose. Your Beliefs At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know. Politics I am a registered democrat, and I would say my views are middle of the road, taking a liberal stance on some issues and conservative on the other. Religion I am more about sticking to sound values and morals. Local Hot Button Issues As the mother of two children, I am most concerned about the budget crisis facing our schools. I think that this issue is utmost on the minds of most people in this community. We are facing teacher lay-offs and program cuts on all levels of education. We have a strong and caring community, and I would like to believe that we will weather this storm and be able to maintain the high level of education that is well-known to the Las Virgenes School District.