ABCNEWS' Brian Rooney

— -- Brian Rooney joined ABCNEWS in January 1988 and has covered the West as a correspondent based in Los Angeles. He reports for World News Tonight With Peter Jennings, Good Morning America and other ABCNEWS broadcasts.

In June 2004, he was the first reporter to represent ABC News at the former President's home when President Ronald Reagan died in Los Angeles.

In the fall of 2003, Rooney led ABC's coverage of the wildfires that swept through Southern California. He was one of several correspondents who reported on the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Sacramento Statehouse.

Rooney was nominated for an Emmy award in 2002 and 2003.

In recent years he has focused his attention on Hollywood and the entertainment industry. He has reported on smoking in movies, the use of inflatable dummies for crowd scenes, and the explosion of movies based on comic-book characters.

He also reports on general news from the West, everything from forest fires and earthquakes to politics and the art of making sculptures from rusted mufflers. In 1998, he climbed a 180-foot redwood tree to interview tree-sitter Julia "Butterfly" Hill.

In 1997, Rooney reported on the murder of Ennis Cosby, and in June 1994 he was the first ABC News correspondent at the scene of the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Stories Rooney has covered include the Oklahoma City bombing; the 1994 rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico; the 1992 Los Angeles riots; and the 1991 Persian Gulf War, while based in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

From Beijing, Rooney contributed to the ABC News' coverage of the 1989 student uprising in Tiananmen Square. He was also one of the first ABC reporters to arrive in San Francisco after the October 1989 earthquake.

Rooney joined ABC News from WBBM-TV in Chicago, where he had been a general assignment reporter since 1985.

From 1981 to 1985, as general assignment reporter for WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, he covered the indictment of Providence Mayor Vincent Cianci, corruption in the Department of Public Works, and local and national election campaigns.