I’m Maggie Lineback, the field producer in the Southwest Bureau. We’re a tiny bureau with an office in Dallas. Not that we’re ever there much. Correspondent Kris Gutierrez, our staff photographer and I travel a ton, covering Texas, Arkansas, Lousiana, and Oklahoma. Our stories range from NASA to immigration to breaking weather. Most of the time we stay in our region, but occasionally, on big stories, we’ll help out other regions and sometimes, they come in to help us. The pics are from a recent trip to Southern California.

Moving to Texas (from Philly) last year was an education. Kris Gutierrez and our photographer have done their best to inculcate me with a sense of local culture. They play country music (non-stop) on road-trips. We eat Whataburger at almost every opportunity and recently, I had the occasion to try the “real” Dr. Pepper. Apparently, this is only made in Dublin, Texas, where it’s cooked up with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. Kris and the photographer assure me it’s much tastier than the stuff the rest of the country is subjected to. They’ve also introduced me to Texas BBQ (outstanding) and sweet tea (addictive). I managed, on my own, to find the state brew, Shiner Bock.