It was a surprise when the desk told me that Dave Bryan and I were heading to Palmdale to cover the arrival of Christopher Hubbart.

Dave Bryan and I mostly cover politics. This wasn’t exactly a political story, even if it did have some political elements.

Hubbart, known as the serial rapist nicknamed “The Pillowcase Rapist” was being released and an area East of Palmdale was to be his new home.

I don’t know how you feel about rapists being released from prison in your neighborhood, but I gotta say, if it was my neighborhood, I’d probably be against it.

The house where he’s staying is on the outskirts of town. He’s got a few neighbors, but mostly he’s isolated from most of the community.

It’s not an easy drive to his house and I want to make sure you understand that there is a lot of NOTHING out there.

Still, it is a community and the people who live there have the right to protest having a convicted sexual predator dumped in their backyard.

I’m pretty sure you would never hear of Hubbert being dumped into an area like Palos Verdes or Beverly Hills.

I love covering a good protest, but the drive made for a very long day.

We scrambled once we got there to go live for the 5pm and 6pm newscasts. It felt good that we made it, even if just barely. The later newscasts weren’t a problem in terms of time, but the working conditions were still a challenge.

The heat was bad and there was wind and dust that we had to deal with.

It was quite an adventure, even if it wasn’t exactly a “political” story.

Christopher Hubbert stayed inside the house and I never got to interview him in person.

We did get to interview one of the men from the private security company that had been contracted and assigned to Christopher Hubbert.

The guy we talked to seemed intent on simply doing the job he was hired to do. We didn’t ask him how he felt about protecting Christopher Hubbert.

I didn’t have to ask him, because he wore the answer on his face. His expression said it all.

Just doing the job that he was hired to do.

Yeah, I certainly recognize that face.