Events:

Kevin Riggs

Anita Fein

Former KCRA staffers, reporter Kevin Riggs and photographer/editor Anita Fein, have both traveled to Cuba, took plenty of pictures and came back with stories they’ll be sharing with us.

Kevin and his wife spent five days in Cuba this past November. He says, “I’ll be discussing what motivated me to travel to Cuba, why it’s easier to do than many think, what I saw there (good and bad), and why there is such dissatisfaction with the Communist regime.”

An Emmy-award-winning reporter, Kevin has been recognized among California’s top political journalists during a career that spanned four decades. He has long served as a broadcast political analyst and recently co-authored The Insider’s Guide to Media Training: 99 Tips to Survive Your Interview In The Digital Age. (Amazon Publishing)

From 1994-2011, Kevin worked for KCRA, serving as a general assignment reporter, anchor and the lead for politics and the state capitol. He was named to the Cal Poly Journalism Department Hall of Fame in 2018. He has been recognized with numerous awards for broadcast excellence, including being part of the KCRA team that was awarded the 2011 Edward R. Murrow Award by the Radio Television Digital News Association for breaking news coverage of the Roseville Galleria fire. He was also awarded a Northern California Emmy for coverage of the Galleria fire.

Kevin recently retired as Senior Vice President for Randle Communications in Sacramento and continues to consult on media and communications projects.

Anita and her husband Larry traveled to Cuba in 2019 with a group from SFJazz, an organization of jazz lovers and supporters in San Francisco. She says, “The International Cuban Jazz Festival was happening and we attended wonderful concerts every night, and had day trips to music schools, dance academies, jazz clubs and art museums.”

A highlight of the trip for Anita, “in addition to the good food and excellent programs,” was an afternoon spent with photographer Roberto Salas in his Havana studio. His iconic photos of Castro and Che during the revolution have been published worldwide.

A true broadcast pioneer, Anita paved the way for women in local television news when she became a photographer and editor at KCRA in 1978, a position she held for ten years. Since leaving TV news, she has devoted her talents to fine art photography, making the transition from developing and printing in her home darkroom to digital image capture and Photoshop editing. She has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group shows since the 1970s, and has made many video and slide presentations. She maintains memberships in the National Press Photographers Association and Viewpoint Photographic Art Center here in Sacramento.