{"id":302579,"date":"2026-05-06T13:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/302579\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:40:26","slug":"sacramento-bee-hires-california-higher-education-reporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/302579\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento Bee hires California higher education reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tarini<\/p>\n

Tarini Mehta is the new California Higher Education Reporter for The Sacramento Bee.<\/p>\n

Amin Muhammad<\/p>\n

A journalist who\u2019s written about schools through a social justice and equity lens has landed in Sacramento to cover higher education institutions locally and across the state.<\/p>\n

Tarini Mehta joins The Sacramento Bee as California Higher Education Reporter, a beat that includes two of the nation\u2019s largest, 4-year public university systems. She will help students, parents and young adults navigate affordability and accessibility of colleges in California, in addition to keeping watch over tuition and tax dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt its core, The Sacramento Bee seeks to serve the needs of its community, and I could not be more excited to join that mission,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mehta, originally from New Delhi, India, steps into The Bee newsroom from The Press Democrat<\/a>, where she covered K-12 and higher education in Napa and Sonoma counties as part of UC Berkeley\u2019s California Local News Fellowship<\/a> program. Her work at The Press Democrat included a series of stories that revealed allegations of race-based bullying<\/a> in a small-town public school district and school officials\u2019 tepid response<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUniversity campuses contain within them a promise of limitless hope,\u201d Mehta said. Through comprehensive coverage of colleges and universities in California, Mehta said she aims to be \u201ca small player in the larger project of unlocking that hope for as many people as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mehta has previously written for The Boston Globe, The Mercury News, The Diplomat, India Today, The Hindu and The Print. She has a master\u2019s degree from UC Berkeley\u2019s Graduate School of Journalism.<\/a><\/p>\n

Her first day on the job was Monday. She\u2019s reporting to California Political Editor Lauren Chapman.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Kat Tran<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Kat Tran is a local engagement and retention reporter for The Sacramento Bee. They focus on topics important to subscribers and produces newsletters while organizing community events and outreach. Tran previously worked as a food and drink reporting intern at The Bee. They graduated from the University of Florida in spring 2025.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tarini Mehta is the new California Higher Education Reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Amin Muhammad A journalist who\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-302579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}