In 2003 she helped to open NPR West and increase NPR's presence on the West Coast, from her new base she traveled around the country and the world. She covered the U.S. led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2010 BP oil spill, the 2011 earthquake in Haiti, the 2011 Arab Spring in Libya and Egypt. Back in California the big news events were Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as governor in 2003, California's troubled prison system; and the death of pop legend Michael Jackson in 2009.