Email: liala.helal@patch.com

Phone: 763-203-2207

Hometown: Fridley, Minn.

Birthday: June 10

Liala Helal is a community journalist who most recently worked as a reporter at The Journal in International Falls, Minn. She began as a reporter at The Minnesota Daily and has held internships at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, as well as a writing and reporting fellowship at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. Before joining St. Michael Patch as Local Editor, Helal freelanced for her hometown Patch, Fridley Patch.

Helal is an avid reader and collector of awkward fortune cookie messages. She enjoys photography, an occasional run, and exploring new places. She is fluent in Egyptian Arabic and enjoys Middle Eastern art and culture. She lives in the Twin Cities with her cat, Q-Tip.

She has lived in St. Paul, Plymouth, St. Louis Park, Chicago Ridge, Ill., Fridley, and International Falls.

My 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 and human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal certain key beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable.

This disclosure is not a license for our editors to inject these beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that our beliefs are on the record will force us to be ever mindful to write, report, and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you, the user, ever think you see evidence that we failed in this mission, we wholeheartedly invite you to let us know.

Helal is a believer in open-mindedness and the saying that if you love life, it will love you back. Her political beliefs include supporting issues on a case-by-base basis, regardless of which political party they are tied to.

Helal believes that a person can make even the most unpleasant activity fun, and that humor is the best bond between people.

Her favorite quotes are: "The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."-Muriel Ruckeyser, and, "Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air."- Henry Anatole Grunwald.