News and notes
My newspaper column
You notice there isn't any color on the front page of this section, and that the weather page is in black and white.
If this were a construction site, we'd have a sign up that reads: "Excuse our dust. We're renovating to serve you better."
We're in the process of rebuilding our 32-year-old press. I won't bore you with the gory details but it is not unlike replacing a major appliance in your home part by part while still expecting it to operate day-in and day-out.
Essentially, it means that some of our press units will be offline periodically through June. Occasionally pages that are normally in color won't be. We hope to keep that to a minimum.
The result will be a cleaner look so we think the momentary "construction dust" will be worth it.
***
Last Monday, we published photos and information about the 10 most wanted fugitives in Greensboro.
By Wednesday, Greensboro police announced that two on the list were in custody and a third was in a correctional facility near Goldsboro.
The Greensboro Police department worked with us on the list; it was an attempt to help apprehend some of the city's 12,000 fugitives with outstanding criminal warrants. We were happy to help, but the credit for the arrests goes to the police, and the citizens who called in leads.
The "most wanted" column will appear on Mondays and will include suspects wanted by law enforcement agencies in Guilford County.
On a sad note, we lost a member of our extended family when our colleague Jeff Carlton died Thursday after a long and valiant fight against brain cancer.
Jeff, 36, had been a copy editor and reporter here for 10 years, much of the time covering high school and college sports.
He was first diagnosed several years ago and went through surgery. He recovered, returned to work. The cancer came back, and he fought it for months. He carried this awful burden with courage and grace. In fact, he had plans for a bright future. The Friday before last, we spoke for an hour about his interest in becoming assistant sports editor.
Two days later, though, he was admitted to the hospital and slipped into a coma.
Jeff was a heckuva writer, broke his share of stories and won his share of awards. Most important, he earned the trust and respect of coaches, players and readers. He treated people fairly and got it right.
His personal legacy is shown by the void his absence has left in the world. Dozens of people from across the country left messages on my blog about Jeff. Here are a few:
"I sent him a freelance piece I was submitting cold to another organization, asking if he would give it a look. I figured he would read it, make one or two suggestions and that would be that," Brian Joura wrote. "He ended up writing me a 1000-word reply and offered numerous tips. He was that kind of guy. We should all strive to be as helpful and kind-hearted as Jeff was in his life."
"I considered Jefferson my big brother," Kellie Dixon wrote, "and he adopted me as a kid sister. I could count on him for anything, from covering the occasional high school football game to helping me sort through my life."
"Jeff made my daughter shine in the eyes of readers in 2007," wrote Jan Hutcherson, mother of an Eastern Randolph high school basketball and softball player.
I encourage you to read them all on the Editor's Log at News-Record.com. Robert Bell also wrote a touching remembrance of Jeff in Friday's paper. You can find it at News-Record.com, too.
As one person wrote, he was one of the good guys.