Report to Readers by Susan LoTempio

Help and hate

There was an unusual juxtaposition of stories in the City & Region section Thursday that illustrate quality of life issues experienced by people with disabilities in our community.

  One of the stories was about 18-year-old Joey Gentile-Gioviano of Cheektowaga, who, because of his disability, benefits from water therapy. His family saved enough money to buy a backyard pool, but turned to the insurance company for help getting the special equipment necessary to get him safely into the pool.

The insurance company turned them down. But the Make-A-Wish Foundation did not. And now that he can get into the pool with the assistance of a lift, "He loves being in there," his mother, Marilyn Gentile told reporter Emma Sapong. "If it was up to him, he would just stay in the water."

The other story described the terrifying experience of several young people who are developmentally disabled, who were taunted and chased in their car by teens who seemed hell-bent on causing them harm. The teens were so aggressive they forced the victims to crash as they attempted to get on the Thruway.

But thanks to the outrage of the public, which gave the police eye-witness accounts and tips, three teens were arrested and are facing hate crime charges.

Those stories certainly show the best and the worst of the people who live here. But I also suspect they illustrate some of the problems many residents with disabilities experience on a daily basis in this community. We don't often hear about their problems, but being denied services they need, or being harassed or taunted when they just want to eat a burger, may surprise you, but they are in no way unusual.

Great place for our kids?

I moved back to Buffalo two decades ago because I wanted to raise my family here. The reasons to return home (in our case from California), were the same in the mid-1980s as they are now: being close to family, plentiful day care, affordable cost of living, good schools (at least in the suburbs), and a family-friendly quality of life.

Western New York has always had the reputation of being a great place to raise a family, but does the hype live up to reality?

That's what writer Nicole Peradotto wanted to find out for her story that appears in First Sunday magazine. As you might suspect, there's good news and bad news in her report. Not only did she do extensive research and reporting, but her piece also reflects her personal experiences as the mother of two young children.

What Peradotto writes about mirrors exactly what I experienced 22 years ago when I moved home with an 11-month-old in tow:

Family connections are strong; day care offerings iffy. Public schools disappoint; activities for children - beyond sports - are wanting.

Overall, WNY is no better or worse than most other places to raise a family, despite what the marketing folks would have you believe.

To find out why, read her piece  and join the conversation on the Inside the News blog.

That collapsed bridge story

To the thousands and thousands of print edition readers who wondered why the tragic story of the Minneapolis bridge collapse wasn't on our front page this morning, I say this:

     In my humble opinion, we goofed. Big time.

   I'm not offering reasons or excuses for it. It was apparently an error in judgment and errors in judgment can hardly be hidden when they take place in a newspaper.

  Lucky for us that our online edition has  up-to-the-minute news as it unfolds today in Minneapolis.

  And Friday's print edition will also have much more on the story.

   It's also lucky for us that there will be a paper tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that  .... That allows us the chance to work hard to get it right.

Class of 1987

Our news stories and blogs pay a great deal of attention to WNY's brain drain.

  We all know that people are leaving this region in droves, but it really hits home when our own children decide to live and work somewhere else.

Two of our reporters took the personal approach to the brain drain issue and developed a three-part series that kicks off in Sunday's News called Best & Brightest. It focuses on some members of the Class of 1987 from 25 high schools in Erie and Niagara counties.

Ten years Twenty years (thanks Mark) after graduation, these young people tell us about their lives now, and why they stayed in the area, or why they left.

News Staff reporters Mary Pasciak and Deidre Williams have been working for months tracking down the far-flung class of '87 through intensive research, interviews, Web work, phone calls and e-mails. News photographer Derek Gee has devoted much of his working time to the project, photographing the 48 members of the Class of '87 who are participating.

Their work, under the guidance of suburban editor Bruce Andriatch, will come to fruition when you read the stories and see the Web extras, such as yearbook pictures, biographies and two audio slideshows.

Members of the Class of '87, and anyone else who wants to chime in about the series, can go to our Buffalo Nation blog, which on Sunday will turn its attention to these special stories.

It some ways, reading Best & Brightest feels like attending a 20-year 10-year high school reunion - only with deeper implications for this struggling community.

Harry Potter alert

  Who can be surprised that the Internet is all abuzz over the new Harry Potter book?

Part of the frenzy focuses on the spoilers who claim they have the ending and are posting it online before the book goes on sale Friday at midnight.

Soon, every other type of media will get into the act and Potter fans who don't want to know who lives and who dies before they actually read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows" will have to go into total isolation.

We don't want to give away the ending even after the book hits the shelves, but the release of J. K. Rowling's last installment in the Potter saga  is BIG news, and that's something we can't ignore.

(Did you know, for instance, that book retailers report that more orders have been placed for this seventh Potter novel than any other book in history?)

So, to report the news and protect avid Potter readers, we'll include some "warnings" in the pages of The News over the next few days. We'll alert you to stories that contain plot information. You can read them, or not, as you choose.

Power of the falls

I grew up just a few blocks from Goat Island and the mighty Niagara Falls. We could hear the constant roar of the falls from every room of our house, and the dangers of the river and its rapids were drummed into every child on our block.

  The dangers became a reality when as a teenager I saw a toddler drown in the deceptively calm waters of the upper Niagara, just inches off Goat Island. It hit home again when I saw a huge cow trapped in the swirling  whirlpool near Devil's Hole. The animal never had a chance.

So, I was stunned to read about "six people horsing around on personal water craft in the dangerous waters of the lower Niagara River Monday night." See our story at this link.

What they did is not illegal, but it certainly is foolish.

Why do people put themselves at risk, especially against such a formidable foe as the Niagara River?

Readers, any thoughts?

Dog attack

A horrifying story out of Lockport on Tuesday was treated very differently by local radio and TV news outlets and this newspaper.

  The incident was about a 2-year-old boy who had been viciously attacked by a pit bull, the family's pet. The child was admitted to Women and Children's Hospital in serious but improving condition.

We handled the story in the Police & Courts column in the City and Region section. And because the victim is a young child and the actions of the dog were considered quite rare, we chose not to include graphic details of the attack.

Local TV and radio broadcasts did include the disturbing details.

Is this a case of censorship? No, but it does underscore the important differences between The News, which is a family newspaper, and publications like the National Inquirer.

We reported the story accurately without offering secondary details that would disturb the great majority of our readers.

Use the photo or not?

On the front page of today's paper is the picture of Bailey Goodman, one of the recent high school graduates who died, along with four of her friends, in the tragic Fairport car crash. Her picture accompanies a story by reporter Gene Warner that explores the problem of teens who drive on restricted junior licenses.

A well-spoken and thoughtful caller to The News' Reader hotline this morning questioned why that photo had to be used at all.

"It would be best and in good taste not to show the photos of those girls anymore in the paper," the caller said.

"Imagine how traumatizing [it is] to the family to see their deceased daughter's picture on the front page of The Buffalo News."

Most if not all the editors who work on The News' front page are parents, and the trauma of losing a child has been on all our minds since that crash. But, as Warner's story explains, there is a larger issue being discussed after that accident and this week's crash that injured Buffalo Police Officer Carl Andolina (the teen driver involved in that accident also has a junior license): Should the teens have been driving at that time of day on that type of license?

The fact is that neither driver was allowed to drive between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.

We understand that Bailey's friends and relatives may find it difficult to see her picture again in the paper, but perhaps they can take comfort in the fact that other parents may now be more vigilant in making sure their teenagers aren't breaking the law.

Is it news or a free ad?

Today's topic: Apple's iPhone and the media circus that has exploded around its release.

  If Apple's Steve Jobs isn't a master salesmen, then he must be the most media savvy person in corporate America. His calculated announcement of this swanky, expensive new Apple product has given the company just what it wanted: unimaginable free publicity before the iPhone even hit the stores.

How to report on (or even if to report on) something like the iPhone - or the next Harry Potter book, or a new talking Elmo doll or another "Star Wars" movie - has become a real issue inside newsrooms as editors wonder if we're becoming part of the publicity machine.

With the speed of light, products like the iPhone get absorbed into our cultural consciousness. Strange things happen, like people standing in line for days to be the first ones to buy the products.

But is that news, or the ultimate example of consumerism gone awry?

You tell me.

Check out some of the stories that have appeared in The News already,.

You can be sure there will be more over the weekend. 

Catching up

   Sorry to have been gone so long. I guess it's not good for this blog to go dark even if a person needs to take a vacation!

  In an attempt to catch up, here are a few random observations:

  * Is there a newspaper in the country that has published as many news stories about trees as The News ? No doubt trees have been in the news (literally and figuratively) since the big storm in October, and continuing with the issues of cleaning up the damage, replanting, and now the problem of the lack of rain.
  Who knew trees could be so newsy.

* Unfortunately, we write and edit far too many stories about the death of children. But few have had as strong an impact as today's piece on the accident Tuesday night near Canandaigua that killed five young women. There isn't a parent in this newsroom, or in this community, who didn't feel sick when they heard about the tragedy.

  Both reporters working the story - Lou Michel and Phil Fairbanks - are parents themselves and despite any personal emotion they may have felt, the veteran reporters handled the story with the utmost professionalism.

* Now that Paris Hilton told her overly rehearsed story to Larry King the other night, isn't it time she dropped off the media radar screen? No more stories, not now, not ever.

Old news/new news

Time is a funny thing, especially in the news biz. Today's case in point: coverage of "The Sopranos" finale.

We'll leave aside the issue of whether the last episode of this or any TV series is actually newsworthy, and instead concentrate on how that kind of story evolves. In many ways, it's the perfect example of the clash of the "old" news biz versus the "new" news biz.

The finale aired Sunday night, and minutes after TV screens darkened, the Internet was buzzing. We quickly posted a blog inviting discussion on the long-awaited ending.

Next, TV and radio started to buzz.

About eight hours later, morning newspapers published their stories, which in many cases were reviews of the last episode. 

Tuesday, or 32 hours after the lights dimmed on the Soprano family, The News' front-page featured a headline that said: " 'Sopranos' debate begins."

Begins?

In real time, that debate was more than 32 hours old. For those who already had their say, the debate was over and they had moved on to something else.

So in this case, is the story ancient before media catch up with it?

Where are D-Day stories?

  Some callers to The News' reader hotline were pretty upset that they didn't find any stories in Wednesday's print edition of The News about the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, the Normandy landings that were a turning point in World War 11.
 
As with many of events from long ago, ceremonies, speeches, parades and memorials are held on the anniversary day itself. Stories about them appear in the next day's paper.

That's what happened this week. Today (Thursday), we featured a touching story about an American soldier who died during that invasion and whose dog tags were just returned to his surviving family. The story also reported on ceremonies held Wednesday in France, where Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates spoke about the fallen warriors.

Those who lived through that terrible war never want the world to forget. And our role is to remind our readers about that dark period of our history.

But there's nothing to report until events take place. That's the natural flow of the news cycle.

Tips that make news

  Wednesday's Focus story,  "A slow, broken system of benefits" surprised a lot of readers. Why should Western New Yorkers who need Social Security disability benefits have to wait so long to get  them?

That's what Jerry Zremski, our Washington, D.C. bureau chief, set out to explain. The news is not good because, as Zremski wrote, "the system is clearly broken."

What is not broken is the ability of people in our community to draw attention to such injustices. The suggestion to look into the bureaucratic mess came to us from a local citizen who knew enough about the problems to convince us it was worthy of a story. A front page story, as it turned out.

Stories about governmental programs can be yawners, but not when victims are willing to speak out. Such is the case of Pamela Chini, who has been fighting since 2003 to get disability benefits, according to Zremski's story. Because she's had to wait so long, Chini told Zremski that "I ate through my life savings. ... I'm so in debt I'll never be able to catch up."

One of the main missions of a free press is to hold all levels of government accountable - but that is  dependent on citizens and the media both keeping their eyes open. Some of the strongest stories this paper has published have come from readers' tips. Not all the tips pan out, but many do and those stories often hold the powerful accountable and expose the plight of the weakest among us.

If you care about such things, speak up.   

The Susan Still story

We report news of human tragedy every single day  - rapes, murders, child snatchings, cases of abuse. And some days that news is so overwhelming I worry that we in the media might become immune.

This week, if reporters, editors and readers alike did not sit up and take notice of the Susan Still story, then we are seriously deficient in humanity genes.

Today's piece by reporter Sandra Tan is about Still's appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show. On Tuesday, Tan reported on this domestic violence case, which resulted in Ulner Still being sentenced in 2004 to 36 years in prison for repeatedly beating his then wife, often in front of their children.

The description of portions of the 50-minute videotape of Still being verbally and physically abused are horrifying. Her composure when talking now about the abuse is stunning.

This newspaper has written about domestic violence many times before; it is not a new story. However, too often people read those stories, shake their heads in despair and move on to the next article on the page.

I doubt that many will soon forget Susan Still's horrifying experience, and for me, that is the perfect example of the power of the press.

Yes, it is our mission to expose governmental waste and wrong-doing, to report on wars, natural disasters, crime and the courts. But even more importantly it is our duty to expose those who are at-risk in our communities.

Readers tell me they don't want to read "unpleasant" stories about things like domestic abuse. Several years ago, the stories about priests abusing young people sent a shock wave through the Catholic Church and many readers were very angry at the media coverage of those cases.

But newspapers cannot stay silent about the victims who are among us, no matter how uncomfortable their stories. Thankfully, Susan Still did not stay silent.

Biggest story in town

   I've worked in other sports-obsessed towns - San Francisco and Oakland, just to name two.

  But never have I lived in a place that lives, breathes and dies by its pro teams like Buffalo. Which, as a journalist, makes me see sports as a whole other category of news.

Traditionally, sports news lands in the (wait for it ...) ... Sports section. That is unless something HUGE happens like an earthquake shaking up a ballpark (it happened in San Francisco) or a team gets sold and moves in or out of town (too many cities to list, but hopefully not ours).

In Buffalo, sports is News (with a capital N) and often lands on the prime real estate known as Page 1. Especially when a team, like the Sabres, are the hottest news of the day (and week and month, and probably, year).

What we've realized around the newsroom is that the craving for stories about the Sabres is insatiable. And our efforts to feed the hunger has ratcheted up significantly. Yes, there are the  medallions and posters, but also reported, staff-written stories that provide information important to fans - such as how not to get ripped off getting a playoff ticket. Or even if it's humanly possible to still get one.

Is this great investigative reporting? Uh, no. Does it reflect  what's important to this community? Without a doubt. And that's what drives our coverage.

The best news is local news, and the Sabres in the play-offs is not only big news to sports fans, but it also has a direct impact on City Hall, local businesses and schools as well as every media outlet in town.

For those who say we use up too much space covering the Sabres, I say this: We are happy for the chance to finally report some good news. And here's a link to today's front-page story.

The same can't be said about the Bills, but who knows what the next football season will bring.

Picture - Day 2

   What have I learned over the past two days? That the massacre at Virginia Tech is hitting people in Western New York very, very hard. And, they are expressing it with strong emotion, the most obvious of which is anger.

Much of the anger is targeted at us for using the photo of the murderer on the front page of Thursday's paper. That photo ratcheted up the emotions because many people saw it as the personification of evil. They also feel that the murderer got just what he had intended - attention from the mass media.

This country has suffered an overabundance of violence and tragedy in a short period of time - the Oklahoma City bombing, the attack on the Twin Towers, the Columbine shootings, the Amish school killings, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other acts of violence too numerous to name.

But I never saw an outpouring of anger over images of Timothy McVeigh, Saddam Hussein, or the men who flew the planes into the towers like I've seen this week.

The question is, why?

One thoughtful reader e-mailed me this morning, "For me, it was the pose with the guns. His school picture didn't have the same effect."

Many others told us that the use of the photo on Page 1 was "offensive and insensitive." They felt it  "glamorized" the murderer and it will suggest to other evildoers "a way to get notoriety."

Parents and those who work with children, pointed out that there is a great deal of fear among young people over the killings in Virginia, and the picture served to exacerbate those fears.

Looking back, I see now that the Thursday photo was more than a powerful image with news value. It became a symbol of violence and the object of fear.

Those who work in the newsroom have learned much in the past few days. And to our readers, I'd like to say: We hear you.

Picture of a killer

  Angry readers are e-mailing and calling today about the photo of the Virginia Tech shooter on the front page of today's paper.

"The image of the sick individual holding guns out on the front page of The News is just so disturbing to me on so many levels.  Not only do small children see this image at the store (papers are most often placed at eye level for children), but people of all ages continue to receive violent images.  I know it is your job to report the news, but ask yourself when you go too far to get higher ratings or more papers purchased," Colleen Fisher e-mailed me this morning.

Yes, the image is disturbing, but isn't that the point? The deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history is an incredibly disturbing story, and one that cannot be underplayed.

Video clips of the shooter were shown all over the Internet and television Wednesday night. Channel surfing through the cable news stations, I saw photo after photo after disturbing photo of the murderer pointing guns at a camera.

Newspapers also tell stories through images as well as words. And while the photos of Cho Seung-Hui on our front page were taken from a video clip broadcast by NBC News, they were not used to sensationalize the story or somehow "glorify" his actions. We made that clear with the headline, "Through mail, a killer's tirade."

Other newspapers across the country played the picture and the story in similar ways. Click here to see them. Some papers, such as the Chicago Sun-Times, had even more dramatic presentations.

What the photo did was allow readers to look into this man's face and see the eyes of a cold-blooded killer. What was disturbing to me, though, is how much he looked like a character from a violent movie or video game.

Seeing the way he presumably modeled himself after a killer in a movie or game, you have to wonder how much the violence so pervasive in our entertainment culture plays into the despicable acts that murdered 32 people in Virginia.

That front-page photo, while disturbing to many, ought to remind us that violence - fictional and otherwise - begets more violence. And there's no hiding from that.

When national news becomes local

  The Virginia Tech massacre was like a punch in the gut for any parent who has a child on a college campus. If it can happen there, can it, will it happen at my child's university?

Visceral reactions like that make news personal - not just something that's happened somewhere else to somebody else's child.

But is that news story local? It is to parents with children attending classes on local campuses and who worry about security measures that are - or aren't - in place on those campuses.

It's personal to anyone who lives in our community but who knows someone that works or goes to school at Virginia Tech. It's personal for graduates of the school who now live all over the world. And for high school seniors who have been accepted to fall semester at the college in Blacksburg, Va.

Reporter Maki Becker has found students and others from WNY who were on the Virginia campus yesterday, and  who survived the deadliest shooting rampage in our nation's history.

Their stories will be in Wednesday's Buffalo News. And, as the mother of a college senior, I'll read every single word while trying to control the fear that has settled on every parent I know.
   

So much news ... so little time

  The newsroom is all abuzz this week, not just because the Sabres are in the playoffs, but because there has been so much breaking news.

That's pretty unusual around any holiday - religious or otherwise - because everyone seems to go on vacation, even the newsmakers.

Not this Easter.
   
News stories have been breaking out all over the place the week before and after Easter. Locally, there's been the saga of Mayor Brown's vehicle; the release from prison of Anthony Capozzi; the state budget; Gov. Spitzer's first 100 days in office; the State Supreme Court justice involved in a crash; the Bass Pro deal; the suicide at the Seneca Niagara Casino and John Justice. On the lighter side, we've also been covering our lousy spring weather and the blooming Dyngus Day celebrations.

Nationally, there's that growing Don Imus story, the Duke lacrosse players, the presidential election, the war in Iraq, the student loan scandal, the strange weather all over the nation, and let's not forget the latest installment in the Anna Nicole saga.

Still, all those pale in comparison to the most important story in town right now: the Sabres.

Are we complaining about the excess of news? Not one bit. Bring it on!

Where to play Duke

From Managing Editor Jerry Goldberg,  more on why a story is considered for Page One.

    The announcement that all charges have been dropped against three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper at a party is part of a running story that illustrates the nature of journalism. That is, the news process is an evolving one, and you can always be sure that more information will be coming out as a story develops. It also speaks to how decisions are made about where to play stories.

     When a North Carolina prosecutor last April charged members of the team with raping a stripper  during a party, The News put it on Page One. It had the potent elements of a compelling story -- race, class and sex.  The white players were from one of America's best known universities while their accuser, an African-American woman, attended a smaller nearby college comprised of students less affluent than their Duke counterparts. Moreover, there was no indication of just how weak the case against the players really was.

    Another  story a day later also went on Page One. That piece dealt with defense lawyers attacking the prosecutor and detailing why their clients were innocent. A third Page One story about a month later dealt with a third member of the team being indicted. That player was the first to speak out about the woman's charges being "fantastic lies."

 

    As the prosecutor's  case began to unravel, we ran further articles, although not on Page One. The ebb and flow of a legal case is seldom played out entirely on Page One. That's true because we know that more information is bound to come out.

 

   While announcing that the charges had been dropped, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who took over the case from Durham County District Mike Nifong, said his investigation cast doubt on whether an attack took place at all.

 

   It's a dramatic development, and that's why this story again will be given strong consideration for tomorrow's Page One.

 

 

 

Covering the war in Iraq

Shall we move on today from the issue of Sabres medallions to something much more serious?

Let's give it a try.

This week I received an e-mail from a reader who asks an important question:  "Why is it that we NEVER hear of good things happening in Iraq...or see pictures of our soldiers helping the people? Is there a reason we are shielded from the positive things that are happening? I think news should be all-inclusive, not one-sided."

It is discouraging, if not downright depressing, that the stories and pictures filed from Iraq by our wire services (like the Associated Press) seem to be all about death and destruction. We aren't reading much about the rebuilding efforts that are supposed to be going on there, or about any improvements in the daily lives of the people of Iraq.

There's a simple reason for that: the violence that has overtaken that country IS the story. Reporters are covering - at considerable danger to themselves and their photographers - the bombings and fighting that disrupt any semblance of a normal life in that country.

Because of the violence, reporters are restricted where they can go and whom they can talk to. That severely restricts their ability to get around the country to report on other stories. And if they can't find them, they can't write about them.

We have occasionally published stories and photos showing American soldiers helping Iraqi citizens, especially children. But we can only offer them to our readers when the wire services supply them to us.

I wish more of the news coming out of Iraq was uplifting, but we are at war and war news is seldom good.

More medallion mania

Day 2 of the hunt for Sabres medallions has gone pretty much like Day 1.

  The demand far exceeded the supply. But, remember that if you can't buy medallions at local stores, you will be able to order them by mail. Look in The News on April 18 and April 19 for the form to use to order any that are missing from your collection. In the meantime, keep clipping the coupons in the paper each day for individual medallions. You will need those coupons to purchase medallions at the store or if you buy them by mail.

If you are wondering why no one (from the company that does this promotion, to the stores that carry the medallions, to The News staff who put it all together) expected such craziness over these commemorative medallions, check out our front page story today about the Sabres No. 1 ranking in ESPN The Magazine's list of pro teams that pay back their fans for the time, money and emotion invested in the team. Here's the link.

The medallion sale has garnered a lot of media attention from local radio and TV reporters, but you should also check out our story today that explains how it happened and why. Here's that link.

From print to the Web to action

  We dipped our toes even deeper into that pool of Web site possibilities this week.

   A front page story on Tuesday and another on Wednesday focused on two important community issues. But instead of the stories ending with the last print paragraphs, we offered a link to a blog on  Buffalonews.com, and invited readers to get involved.

Tuesday's story dealt with the problem of potholes - and getting them fixed. At this time of year, I don't know anyone who doesn't get that sinking feeling (pardon the pun) when they hit a deep one on a local road. Potholes can rattle your body at the same time they blow your tire.

So we asked readers to use the Inside the News blog to tell us their pothole stories. We've heard a few and we'd like to hear more. Think of it as a community therapy session to rid ourselves of pothole frustration.

Our front page Focus story today concentrates on the serious challenge to restore trees damaged in the October storm. It's going to take a community-wide effort to restore the "treescape" that we lost last fall.  And we're asking Western New Yorkers to share their ideas how to "retree Buffalo Niagara" on the Inside the News blog.

Here's a chance to make a difference through the power of the newspaper, the outreach of the Web site and the collected effort of those who live here.

Live, from New York

  One of the big stories around town in the past few months has been the proposed auction of antiquities from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

The proposed auction of 207 pieces from the gallery's permanent collection is now the actual auction, and reporter Colin Dabkowski is at Sotheby's in New York City today to report on the sale of the first group of items.

He will file updates on this story that you'll find on Buffalonews.com today. Look for further details in his report tomorrow in The News.

Colin is the newest reporter to join our Features Department. A graduate of Syracuse University, he was a summer arts intern at The News and is now a full-time arts writer who will focus on the local art and theater scenes.

Two months into the job, and he's already pulled an important assignment that includes a trip to  Manhattan. Not bad.

Also keep your eyes on Buffalonews.com for a new blog for gardeners.

Written by Jackie Albarella, who contributes gardening pieces to our Friday Home & Garden section, Jackie's new blog will be full of observations and guidance for those who can't wait for the growing season to begin.

TV viewers take note: another way to find updated program listings is by clicking on www.buffalonews.com/entertainment. Just type in your Zip Code to get the listings for your area.

What's missing?

   Two of the meetings News reporters covered Monday night - one in Lancaster, the other in Depew - resulted in two pretty substantive stories of interest to residents of those villages.

However, when they opened their Tuesday morning edition of The News to find out what the village boards were up to, they would not have seen the stories.

A glitch in our pressroom late Monday night resulted in the wrong plate being put on the press, and voila! - the wrong news was sent to that area of our readership.

The beauty of the Web is that once we learned of the mistake, we posted the stories on Buffalonews.com. Also, fresh versions of the stories will be in Wednesday's printed paper.

  In the right editions is our goal.

Which brings me to another benefit of publishing live local news on Buffalonews.com. Say you live in Northern Erie County and get that edition of The News. But your parents live in Hamburg and you're interested in what's going on at that end of Erie County. Your print edition may not have Hamburg news, but you can find it on our Web site.

All news, all the time.

Planning the front page

Over the years, I've had many readers ask how we decide which stories to put on Page 1. And now that we're live on buffalonews.com, and you can see the actual front page via a click of the mouse, it seems like a good time to let you in on the process.

It goes something like this:

Each week day at 11 in the morning, all the section editors (Features, Sports, Business, Local News) gather in the Editorial conference room along with the graphics editor, managing editor and executive editor to discuss the top stories of the day - local, state, national and world. At that time we sketch out what looks promising for Page 1.

Often, a story that a Business, Sports or Features reporter is working on will be pitched as a Page 1 candidate. Somewhere in the mix will be an offering from our Albany or Washington bureaus.

The game plan at this first meeting is to get the best and the freshest local new stories on the front page, and that includes the daily Focus Story, which is a deeper look at a local issue.

Those same editors gather again at 4:30 in the afternoon for an update on what news developed since the last time they met.

Another Page 1 plan will be drawn up, and work will start in the Graphics Department to design the front page.

Of course, many big stories can break after that afternoon meeting, and a team of editors at work until the wee hours of the morning are charged with getting those into the printed paper.

This week, though, editors working both day and night, have the online front page to update with breaking news. And since the news never rests, neither do we.

Just the facts, please

A story in today's paper about the "Hugging Bandit" who has been stealing from the drinking crowd on Chippewa, has a lot of people around town talking.

  Some are asking questions - such as why did we describe her only as a 48-year-old woman weighing 200 pounds? Why didn't the story provide a more specific description? After all, dozens of men have been duped by her, according to the story on the front page of the City & Region section.

It could be she approaches men only when they show signs of excessive partying, and therefore they may not be able to give police an accurate description.

But, since the story also states that officers believe she is a woman they've arrested 17 times between 1998 and 2005, there should be more details available to describe her appearance.

Which leads us to the sensitive issue of race. Should we identify any suspect by age, weight and race? Do those three things give an accurate description of a suspect?

I think not.

Our policy is that if the race of a suspect is included in a story, we also must include other specific characteristics - eye color, hair color, height, shape of face, facial hair, etc. - that give an accurate enough description of the person that he/she could be identified.

It's not a matter of withholding information. It's a matter of providing a full range of facts that creates a specific description.

In the case of the "Hugging Bandit" I wish our story had given a detailed description. Then the unsuspecting folks partying on Chippewa could protect themselves. Of course, drinking a little less would help, too.

Ask, and you might receive

One of our quaint little habits is to publish garbage pick-up information when a holiday changes the schedule.

  Readers seem to appreciate useful tidbits like that.

  But one Niagara County reader wonders why his edition has garbage pick-up info for the City of Buffalo and not for Lockport, where he lives.

  Very good question - which I forwarded to Scott Scanlon, who heads our Niagara County Bureau.

The short answer is that no one ever thought to publish a holiday garbage pick-up schedule for the county to the north, but come Memorial Day, our reporters there will gather the info as best they can and get it into the paper.

Keep those suggestions coming!