Byron Acohido, 49, joined USA Today in December 2000 and began focusing on the technology industry. In 27 years in journalism he has worked at The Herald, in Everett, Washington, the Dallas Times Herald and the Seattle Times, where he won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting, for stories linking a dangerous defect in the rudder controls of Boeing 737 jetliners to a string of crashes that killed hundreds of people.