About this site

The Benicia Bridge is a local newsletter launched in January 2026 by two professional journalists who recently returned to our hometown of Benicia. We were raised here. We live here. We care about this community.

About us

Laura López González is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience writing for outlets such as The Guardian, El País, and The New Republic. Her award-winning reporting often explores the intersection of medicine, equity, and public policy.

She still remembers when Benicia was pronounced, "Ben-ish-a."

Monica Vaughan is an award-winning journalist serving California communities since 2013 with a focus on water, air quality, housing and health equity issues. She previously worked as a reporter for McClatchy newspapers and as an editor for the USC Center for Health Journalism. 

The first news story she ever wrote was about mercury contamination in fish off the First Street pier for a Benicia High School chemistry class. Sadly, it never aired publicly.

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