After many months of short staffing at KEYE-TV and KXAN-TV  we have three new reporters in town, with a new KXAN weekend sports anchor on the way.

Karen Kiley

At KEYE, Karen Kiley joined the reporting staff in late April from WDBJ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Virginia. According to her Facebook page, Kiley worked in the Lynchburg bureau and then was named New River Valley Bureau Chief, based in Blacksburg, the home of Virginia Tech University.

Notable stories on her recent resume include coverage of the murder of Virginia Tech police officer Deriek Crouse last December and the Hokie football team’s appearance in the January Sugar Bowl game against the University of Michigan.She studied at the University of Maryland

Here’s a story she did on May 9 for KEYE.  

Over at KXAN, News Director Michael Fabac is suddenly in a hiring mood.

Casey James has joined the station from KTXS-TV, Abilene, where he worked for more than a year. James is a Dallas/Ft. Worth native who served with U.S. Naval Intelligence out of high school.

Casey James

“Seeing and experiencing some of life’s greatest and worst moments intrigued me so that I wanted to focus on reporting,” he said on the KXAN web site.

James interned at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas while attending the College of Southern Nevada and the University of Las Vegas.

He then moved to Abilene, where he covered the 2011 West Texas wildfire outbreak which threatened thousands of homes and took several lives.

“I enjoy waking up and not knowing what the day holds, or who I will meet,” James said.

Here’s James’ May 9 report on rising rents on KXAN.

Ignacio Garcia

At its Hill Country bureau in Marble Falls, KXAN has added reporting duties to the portfolio of photographer Ignacio Garcia. The University of Texas graduate joined KXAN last November.

Garcia worked at WFAA-TV in Dallas for 10 years, beginning as a production assistant and working his way up to writer, associate producer and part time weekend reporter for a weekend magazine show. He captured several Emmy awards and a Headliner award.

Since 2000, Garcia has freelanced for a number of clients including NBC, CBS, HBO, MTV, National Geographic Channel, and Discovery. He has also produced travel reports from several Caribbean, Latin American and South American countries for a variety of outlets.

Garcia is a Brownsville native.  He replaces Jacqueline Ingles, who leaves KXAN on May 25 after two-and-a-half years for a new job with WFTS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Tampa, Florida.

Garcia filed a rather moving story about a World War II vet reuniting with his favorite old airplane in Burnet on May 4.

Brent Carney