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I spoke with several people who said that anyone who is part of the "thin blue line" and who dies on duty deserves prominent public recognition of his or her service. It is, they said, an issue of respect.

Perhaps. But the larger issue to me is that the story was news, and we could have handled it better.

We don't have a reporter stationed in Winston-Salem, and we don't sell many papers there. So while Winston is only 30 minutes away from downtown Greensboro, it is not even a secondary news market for us. Had the shooting occurred in Guilford County, we would have treated it much as the Journal did the Plouff shooting -- with large headlines on the front page.

Still, even though the shooting didn't direct affect the safety of most of our readers, the impact of the officer's death did in a more visceral way. The papers should have reflected that.

In the end, we ran a longer story with a photograph when Plouff was laid to rest last Tuesday, the same day police charged a 22-year-old man with first-degree murder in his death.

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We haven't made the same mistake covering the travails of Greensboro City Council member T. Dianne Bellamy-Small.

Some readers have asked why we are pursuing the story with such "ardor," to quote one person I spoke with.

Bellamy-Small had a run-in with a police officer one evening when she was stopped for speeding. She was not ticketed, but words of some sort were exchanged. She filed a complaint with the police chief against the officer.

Since then, fellow council member Florence Gatten called for her to resign, a demand Bellamy-Small refused. A group of ministers responded by calling Bellamy-Small's treatment racist.

We have followed the events closely, publishing nine stories since our first about the traffic stop in mid-February.

Newspapers have always kept a close watch on how elected and appointed officials behave. Citizens deserve to know how their representatives go about their jobs. Unlike much of the discussion that takes place in City Hall, these episodes give citizens a different, up close and personal look.

This is a fascinating story about public officials involving intimations of favoritism, abuse of power, political infighting, a recall movement, and, now, racism. And rather than appearing to die down, it seems to be flaring up.

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In the good news department, it is awards season and the News & Record has done pretty well. We won 15 North Carolina Press Association awards, including 2nd place in overall General Excellence, behind the News & Observer in Raleigh.

In the N.C. Associated Press contest, reporter Nancy McLaughlin won the top writing award and editor Betsi Robinson won the top editing award.

Finally, our daily sports section won honorable mention in the national Associated Press Sports Editors contest. Columnist Ed Hardin and reporter Robert Bell won Top 10 writing honors in that contest.

These are exciting times of challenge and change in the world of newspapers. This recognition from three different journalism associations affirms our pledge to you to deliver outstanding journalism day-in and day-out.