Email: charles.menchaca@patch.com
Phone: 630-740-5871
Hometown: Born in Peoria, IL, then family moved to Chicago area
Birthday: March 6

After studying journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Charles worked for almost three years right after graduation at the Wausau Daily Herald newspaper in Wisconsin, covering K-12 and higher education.

Before that Charles honed his skills as an intern at the Naperville Sun and then the Kane County Chronicle.

Charles grew up near Batavia and remembers venturing into that city for school field trips to Fermilab and roller skating at Funway. He's back on familiar turf and ready to tell your stories.

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

My family has voted for both liberal and conservative candidates. I have learned to seek multiple perspectives on any given issue and reflect those in my stories.

Religion

I grew up in a casually religious household. I have friends who come from different religious backgrounds and those who do not identify with a religion at all.

Local Hot-Button Issues

Batavians are passionate about supporting local causes, whether they be charitable (donating man hours to creating the Batavia Riverwalk) or commerical (purchasing groceries and clothing from local businesses).

The residents are also passionate about land use and taxes. This is not any more apparent than in discussions to annex Mooseheart land into the city and a proposed downtown recreation center.