The Daily Sentinel recently welcomed Kalen McCain as a new reporter to our staff. Here’s a short Q&A for you to get to know him a little.

Q: Who are you and what are you doing with that notebook?

My name’s Kalen McCain, I have a B.A. in journalism and political science from the University of Iowa, and recently moved here from southeast Iowa where I worked in a smaller newsroom — the Southeast Iowa Union/Washington Evening Journal — for about four-and-a-half years. While there, I was one of two people named by the Iowa Newspaper Association as 2025’s investigative reporter of the year, an honor that went straight to my head despite usually covering mundane stuff like crop conditions and sidewalk repairs.

Q: What do you cover?

Depends on the day! For the moment, I’m on a general assignme

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