Mari is a senior investigative reporter leading the award-winning NBC 7 I-Team and a Weekend News Anchor for NBC 7. Mari’s stories have prompted local, state, and federal investigations and caused law and policy changes. She is a regular contributor to the award winning NBC 7 Insight Investigative podcast. Subscribe to Insight on your favorite podcast app: Apple, Google Play, Spotify or Stitcher.
She has won numerous Emmy awards for her investigative stories and for her live reports. She's reported breaking news live on the TODAY show, MSNBC, and other NBC stations across the country. She’s also received numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and Press Club.
Before working in San Diego, Mari worked at WLBT, the NBC affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi. While at WLBT, she was sent to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where she rode out the storm and covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She also won an Associated Press award for a piece on the obesity epidemic in the state of Mississippi.
Mari graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California with a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science.
She was a Renaissance Scholar and graduated from the Annenberg School for Communication.
Mari is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE).
When she’s not reporting, Mari is chasing her two young kids around. She loves the local food and wine scene, traveling, cool hotels and watching USC football.
If you have a story idea, restaurant recommendation or a cool suggestion on family-friendly activities, drop Mari a line!
The Latest
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California Stockpiling Abortion Pills Amid Legal Battle. What's Next?
Gov. Gavin Newsom says California will stockpile an emergency supply of 2 million abortion pills known as misoprostol. This move is in response to a Texas ruling against the authorization of another medication that is used to end pregnancies.
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Maya Millete's Husband Declared Competent to Stand Trial in Her Death
Criminal proceedings were reinstated Monday in the case of a man accused of killing his wife, a Chula Vista woman who remains missing more than 18 months after disappearing from her home.
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Deputies Investigating Alleged Misconduct Involving Vista High School Football Players
A coach for the freshman football team was fired, according to Vista Unified School District Superintendent Matt Doyle
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Another Bystander Shot by Stray Bullet in Gaslamp Quarter
Business owners are fed up with violent crime after the second such shooting in just a few weeks.
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COVID: When Can I Come out of Isolation?
As the pandemic continues, there are ever-changing and confusing rules about when you have to stop isolating from other people
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Russian Oligarch's Seized Yacht Sails into San Diego Harbor
A $325 million 350-foot yacht owned by a sanctioned “beneficiary of Russian corruption” put into port in San Diego, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Veteran Lobbies for Psychedelic Therapies, Other Drugs to Become Legal in California
The proposed law in the state would give veterans access to psychedelic therapies and decriminalize several drugs like LSD, ecstasy, mescaline, psilocybin “magic mushrooms” and more.
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San Diego-Based Parents Group Fighting Mask and Vaccine Mandates in Schools
Let Them Choose is suing the San Diego Unified School District over its vaccine mandate.
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CBP Inappropriately Surveilled U.S. Citizens During Migrant Caravan: DHS Report
The report published by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General found that while the agency had justified reasoning to flag journalists, their tracking was not fully within CBP policy.
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COVID-Vaccine Religious Exemptions: What Are They, Will They Hold Up?
There’s growing concern that people may try to misuse religious exemptions to avoid employer and government vaccine mandates
