I covered a proposed controversial state immigration law from Atlanta. When the bill passed and was signed, I convinced my news director to let me drive five hours south to report on its impact in Georgia’s farm country. I had a list of sources, but I tossed it after meeting a tour bus driver parked in my motel parking lot. He was with a major Mexican band playing that night. I went. That’s where I found the ordinary people I needed to hear from. Longtime political reporter Jim Galloway later called one of my interviews from that night a “gem.”