CBS4 News Reporter and Anchor Gio Benitez, with nearly a decade of experience, will kick-off the 2012 Miami Dade College Journalism Speaker Series at noon on Nov. 9 at the college’s North Campus. This event is free and open to the public. Benitez is the recipient of two regional Emmy Awards from the NATAS Suncoast Chapter. He is a seven-time Emmy nominee. One nomination was for Benitez’s investigative series on alleged police brutality. Following his reports, two Miami police officers were forced to turn in their guns and badges. In June 2009, Benitez made U.S. television history as the first reporter to shoot a story entirely using an iPhone when Apple introduced video on the iPhone 3GS. He traveled to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in January 2010 to cover relief efforts following the most devastating earthquake to ever hit the region. Then in May 2012, Benitez, who is covering the 2012 presidential election, exposed that state investigators were questioning the citizenship of more than 2,000 registered voters in South Florida. For more information about the speaker series, please contact Manolo Barco at 305-237-1255. This and other MDC events are posted on the web at www.mdc.edu.