As the race to the White House heats up, The Costa Rica Star is welcoming a seasoned political reporter to its staff to keep US expats in the know about this important election year, with a focus on how US elections affect Americans living abroad.

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.

Nelson has been fascinated with politics from an early age. “I was 11 years old in 1960 growing up in Washington, DC. I witnessed the 1960s explode before my very eyes,” Nelson recalls. “I went to see Martin Luther King’s famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. I was standing on Memorial Bridge as President Kennedy’s funeral procession passed before me. While smoke was still rising, I toured downtown Washington, DC with my father following the riots and burning of hundreds of businesses and homes after King was shot dead in Memphis in 1968. These events — along with many more — shaped my future.”

And, after more than 50 years, Nelson still recalls his first big interview – for his high school newspaper. “My first controversial interview, as a reporter for my high school newspaper in 1965, was with George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, at their headquarters in Arlington, Va. Rockwell was later shot dead in 1967 in Arlington. That man scared the hell out of me, but I learned a valuable lesson to be fearless in my reporting,” Nelson recalls.

 

Personal life and other interests

In addition to newspapers, Nelson has worked professionally in country music AM radio as a disk jockey and news director in Tennessee; in television as a production assistant for children’s programming with WNVT-TV 53 outside Washington, DC; and in film making for the Public Broadcasting System making educational movies for children in New York City and Washington, DC.

Nelson graduated from the University of Denver in 1972 with a B.A. Degree in Mass Communications.

Nelson is also the father of three living adult children. Nelson lost his wife, Jeni to cancer in 2006 and a son, Coady, to heroin in 2015 in Costa Rica. Nelson lives in Jaco Beach, where he attends the Horizon Church.