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Following the awards she and her co-workers at The Charlotte Observer won for its poultry industry investigation, Kerry Hall is taking on the business column there upon the retirement of Doug Smith.

Well deserved. Congratulations to her.

(Thanks to JR for the tip.)

Our old friend Pete Khoury, after time on the police beat and wire editing, left us years ago to join the New York Times.

He decided to spend his vacation at home, good consumer that he is. He writes about it on the Times' City Blog.

Me, I'm just happy to read that he's still employed.

Linda Austin, who used to be managing editor here, has resigned from her position as editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Apparently, she is going to work in academia.

Sadly, it came the same day as the announcement of layoffs there. (Not a good day in Charlotte, either.)

Wednesday update: Her new job -- executive director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University.

Well, not exactly.

Mark Sutter reminds me that David Weidner was a business reporter for us for a short period in 1996-97. (I wasn't in the news department at the time and don't remember him.)

Here he is being interviewed by Samantha the Money Honey Bee on yesterday's Daily Show. David is identified as a MarketWatch financial analyst. Is there anything better than appearing on the Daily Show these days? Unless you're Jim Cramer, of course.

Update: If you have trouble with the embedded video, try this link.

Former managing editor Ned Cline's latest book was featured with a front-page story yesterday in the News & Observer. Ned's topic: Tar Heel philanthropist Walter Davis. I can't find "The Walter Davis Story" on Amazon. Yet. But I'm sure it'll be there.

Amy Dominello has been a popular person for my blog. She was our first fulltime online reporter. She won awards for us. She put herself out there in a blog. She covered Katrina. And she left us for a bigger organization to be a digital mojo.

I'm sorry to say she's back in this blog for the wrong reason. She's been laid off as part of Media General's closing of its D.C. bureau.

She's a crack journalist and any outfit would be lucky to have her. (We have a hiring freeze so that counts us out.)

We published an obituary for Charles O. Bell this morning.

When I arrived in 1985, Bell was one of two gardening columnists the paper published. Two seems like a luxury today, but the morning paper and the afternoon paper had just merged and each had a gardening columnist. As both had their fans, the editors decided to keep both on. (We still publish two daily crossword puzzles for the same reason.)

Bell wrote the column from 1970 to 1990, and it was an excellent one. I can't say that on my own authority because I didn't do much gardening in those days, but my wife did and swore by his advice.

As I read about the bankruptcy filing of the Philadelphia newspapers, I thought of my friends who work there, including Mark McDonald, who covered Guilford County government here back in the 1980s.

Or he used to work for the Philadelphia Daily News, which is where he went when he left us.

Now, I discover a year late, that he is a speechwriter for the mayor. My guess is that if Mark is in the loop, Philadelphia city government is a little more honest.

Delighted that Kerry Hall, a former reporter for us and now at the Charlotte Observer, is a co-winner of the Distinguished Writing Award for Local Accountability Reporting given by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. She and a team of Observer reporters won for their stories revealing how officials in the poultry industry ignored and threatened injured workers.

Charlotte's story about it.

My friend Ted Vaden, public editor at the N&O, panelist at the first ConvergeSouth and frequent linkee here, has gone to work for the state DOT as deputy secretary for communications.

"DOT is an agency that has had its problems, and I see it as an interesting challenge to take on the communication function in addressing those problems," said Vaden, 61. "[Conti] has made it very clear he wants the department to be more open to the public, more accessible."

Ted was one of my editors back when I was at the N&O 30 years ago.

Update: Greensboro assistant city manager Jim Westmoreland is going to work at DOT, too. It appears as if DOT is doing its best to keep the employment numbers up in Raleigh.

(Via Andy Bechtel on Twitter.)

At the 57-second mark, former News & Record reporter Ben Feller, now AP's White House reporter, greets President Obama in the press room. (The clip is from Jan. 22.)

You can decide if the reporters are being respectful to the President of the United States or if they are sucking up. Ben described it as "a wild scene." His story is here.

The New York Times piece from yesterday about press relations.

Thanks to Diane for the tip.

Pat Yack, my predecessor as editor here, writes in his Christmas card that he is the incoming Atwood Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

With Van King leading the School of Communications at Queens University, an academic network is building.

When I first met Eva DuBuisson, she was a middle school student, I think. Her father, David, was our editorial page editor, and she was in the office visiting him.

Fast forward to yesterday when I read about her advice to the Alamance-Burlington school board. That middle-schooler is now a Raleigh attorney specializing in education issues. She didn't stray too far: her father has a law degree, too.

David, by the way, left the paper several years ago and now runs Pecan Tree Inn in Beaufort with his wife, Allison.

Wednesday update: Speaking of editorial page editors, my friend Dennis Hartig, who serves in that position at the Virginian-Pilot, is retiring. Dennis is a great editorial page editor. I'm happy for him.

Marse Grant died yesterday in Raleigh.

As editor of The Biblical Recorder from 1959 to 1982, Marse was a friend of every religion reporter in the state. I had the privilege and pleasure of working with him for a few years when I covered religion at the N&O. Marse was an excellent source on all matters relating to the Baptists, speaking his mind openly and directly. As the editor of the journal of the Baptist State Convention during tumultuous times, his voice was a model of editorial independence, often differing from the official line.

Not surprisingly, he was also a good friend.

My friend and former boss Van King has been named the dean of the School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte.

The news release doesn't say whether he'll teach, but the new dean will be missing a bet if he doesn't let Van loose in the classroom. When he talks about journalism, the man could light water on fire.

Ed Williams, our brand development manager and wine columnist, is going to become director of public information and marketing with Alamance Community College.

We're negotiating with him to keep his wine column.

Ed has been here for more than 20 years as a reporter, an editor, a human resources staffer, marketing director and probably a few things I left out. He has won a bunch of press awards and taught many a journalist. When he went to the brand development position, I wrote this about him. It still applies.

I've known Ed when he was a reporter for The Raleigh Times and I was the same for the News & Observer. We've seen a lot of changes in our business. I hate to lose him at my side fighting the good fight.

The N&O has a nice story about reporter Pat Stith taking a voluntary buyout and retiring.

Stith has long been known among print journalists as our version of Mike Wallace, as in when a government official gets a message that Pat is on the line, uh-oh.

I had the privilege of working with Pat several times when I was at the N&O, including one story that resulted in the departure of the school superintendent. He is a master at investigative reporting, nailing down every detail, keeping his cool, and writing with such precision that there is no question that he knows what he was talking about. We once spent the night at the newspaper, working to get the reporting and writing exactly right.

Most people talk about the stories he's written. I talk about the number of journalists he's mentored. After 40 years in the business, they must number well into the hundreds. I'm proud to be one of them.

Henry Black Ingram, retired professor of music at Greensboro College, father of Music for a Great Space and a reviewer for the News & Record, died on Saturday.

It has been a while since Henry reviewed musical performances for us -- he retired from that role about the time he retired at Greensboro College in 1995 -- but that doesn't lessen the importance he played here. His understanding of music and his fine writing brought credibility to his reviews and to the paper.

I had a personal connection with Henry, too. His granddaughter and my daughter grew up together, and his family and mine attend the same church.

Through his musical leadership, he leaves his mark on Greensboro. He was a good man.

Leave comments and memories about Henry here.

Carla Bagley, who was a reporter and editor here for many years, died this morning in Durham. She was a dear friend and we mourn her.

Update: Her obituary.

Forrest Brown, one of our best editors and page designers back in the day, and who later went on to papers in Austin and Charlotte, is moving to CNN as an editor later this month. He says he'll have his hands in everything: stories, slide shows, TV crawls, video captions, e-mail alerts, blogs, etc.

That's the good news. The bad news is that his shift is 7 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. As good as he is, I doubt he'll be doing that for long.

Paul Muschick, a reporter here in the 90's and 00's, is now watchdog columnist for The Morning Call in Allentown.

For those who know Paul, they will get a laugh at his photo on the Web site. While he's striking the pose of a mob enforcer, he's actually the nicest guy.

Yesterday I got a call from someone at Fox News about the program they were doing on Tony Snow. They wanted to put someone on the program who had worked with Tony here.

It made me think of some of the other distinguished thinkers and writers who have come through our editorial department. An incomplete list in no special order:

* Ed Yoder, who won a Pulitzer Prize at the Washington Star.
* Jonathan Yardley, who won a Pulitzer Prize at The Washington Post.
* Newsweek critic Malcolm Jones.
* Weekly Standard publisher Terry Eastland.
* John Alexander, retired president of the Center for Creative Leadership.

This would be an all-star department, except that some of them worked for the afternoon paper, The Greensboro Record, and others for the Greensboro Daily News. Some were liberal, some conservative. They also weren't here at the same time. Yoder started in 1961 and Alexander left in 1986 1990. And the list doesn't even include Bill Snider, who started it all by hiring Yoder and who stayed here until retirement.

Say what you will about the editorial positions they took, the department certainly is a career launching pad.

Carol Dykers, who was a city editor with me here in the the 80's, is now teaching communication courses at Salem College. Well, she's been there since 1995 but we just reconnected. She's a specialist in civic journalism, public polling by news media, visual communication, and the role of news media in creating community.

She has kept her hand in street-level journalism, too, creating documentaries.

Tony Snow died this morning.

Nationally, Snow is best known for his roles as President Bush's press secretary and Fox News host, but in our shop he is remembered as a former editorial writer for The Greensboro Record back in the 70s. He got his start in journalism here.

Sigh.

Update: Fox is doing a live show on Tony tonight at 9 p.m. on On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.

Bodie McDowell, outdoors editor for this paper for, like, forever, is being inducted into the N.C. Guilford Sports Hall of Fame.

I know Bodie a little bit. I never went fishing with him or anything like that because he retired from the paper in 1992. That and I don't fish. But my sense anyway is that fishing was a secondary byproduct of hanging out with him.

I don't know what he thinks of the Hall of Fame deal. He's already got the greatest honor any journalist can achieve. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has named a fish in his honor: the Bodie Bass. Now that's cool.

Dan O'Mara, a reporter and editor here in the 1990s through 2001, has been named senior editor at the Herald in Rock Hill, S.C. Dan has been an editor at The State in Columbia since 2001. He'll be a good one.

Joseph Schwartz of UNC-Chapel Hill is one of UWire's top 100 student journalists.

He interned as a reporter here two summers ago. UWire isn't wrong.

(Via Romenesko.)

When Meredith Barkley was a reporter here, he was one of the more vocal conservatives in the newsroom. (Yes, I know it goes against the conventional perception of newspaper staffs.)

So some of us were surprised to see him in this new Hillary Clinton ad. (He is in the blue pinstriped shirt beside David.)

Love conquers all, even politics. Meredith explains: My wife is a big Hillary supporter. She was invited to meet with her in W-S last week and ask her a question. I figured I'd just sit back and watch it all and maybe get to meet a presidential candidate. But heck, first thing I knew I was in an ad!

Tim Thornton, a former higher education reporter here and now at the Roanoke Times, won the Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment from the Southern Environmental Law Center for his series about mountaintop removal coal mining, "Moving the Mountains."

Tim's series was an in-depth investigation into the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining in Southwest Virginia. Janisse Ray, a Reed judge, says: "This is a thorough investigation into the greatest tragedy of the American landscape today. I read it greedily, filled with equal parts of bottomless sadness and amazement at the people who, despite the odds, have found the courage and enlightenment to fight it. Very impressive."

Thanks for the tip, Jeri.

Ned Cline, former managing editor of the News & Record, has been named by Gov. Easley to a panel to review of policies concerning the retention of e-mail messages.

Ned retired in 1998, I think, after a career as political reporter for us and the Charlotte Observer, editorial writer and editor -- he was M.E. when I was hired in 1985. Since then, he's written books about Joseph Bryan and former state Sen. Marshall Rauch.

I hope the governor knows what he is doing.

Short story here.

I don't even remember this guy, but some of our folks do. And as he made SI and Romenesko, I suppose he qualifies as an alum in the news.

Pat Yack, my predecessor in this job who left to be editor of the Jacksonville Times-Union, resigned from that job today. (Via Romenesko.)

I haven't talked with Pat yet so I don't know anything more than this story, but its looks bad. I hope I'm wrong.

Pat was here for nearly five years and had an impact on many of us. He helped me get this job, and I consider him a friend. I'm not worried about him, though. He's a smart, inventive leader who will succeed in whatever he does next.

As reported by PhillyMag.com, Stephen A. Smith of ESPN longs to be back writing for a newspaper. His column in the Philadelphia Inquirer bit the dust last year.

"I’ve been a journalist for 15 years," he says. "Newspapers are my foundation. That's what it's all about. Having a newspaper column makes me feel credible and good about what I do. It's what made me feel whole." (Via Romenesko.)

He used to work on our High Point office...maybe he'd like to write for us!

Editor & Publisher writes about the new Media General Washington bureau that includes former N&R reporter Amy Dominello. I'm not sure why it took them until today to announce Amy's hiring as we announced it two months ago, but whatever.

Interesting to see how it works.

Juan Santos, who covered Alamance County and the Guilford County commissioners while he worked here in the late 1980s, passed away Sunday. Cancer. Juan moved to Raleigh and served for years as communication director with the state Department of Labor, but while he was here, he was a crackerjack investigative reporter.

He and I didn't have any interaction while he worked with the state, but my guess is that he told it like it was in a way that reporters covering the department weren't familiar with. He'll be missed.

Breea Willingham was a reporter here about 10 years ago. She now teaches journalism at St, Bonaventure University. She published this piece in USA Today today.

People often ask me how I managed to get out of the neighborhood and not follow a similar destructive path. I don't really know. My brothers and I grew up in the same house, raised by the same mother. With little money, we all had temptations to go down the wrong path. I think my brothers, like many black people, fall into a self-defeatist mode and believe all they can be is a victim. The hopelessness and despair in the black community are ever present in the media, so is it any wonder so many young black men feel they can't get out? I know Josh wants a better life. But he, like many black men, feels stuck.

Worth a read. She shares some of the response, too, at her blog.

We've hired Jayme Elrod as a designer on our night desk. Jayme was the lead designer at the newspaper in Grand Junction, Colo. Her name may be familiar because this is her second go-round here. She left us as part of the layoffs, and we're delighted to be able to get her back. She has a great eye for design.

Mark Sutter, who as much as anyone has helped shape our news report over the past decade, will become the editor of the Business Journal.

It doesn't come as a surprise. Nearly 18 years ago, Mark came here as a business reporter and later was business editor. If I were the publisher of the Biz Journal, I'd hire Mark. A short list of his accomplishments here:

* He was metro editor/Greensboro editor for seven years, smoothly steering our local news coverage through tremendous change, including a couple staff realignments and redesigns
* He has had a hand in every big news story in the Triad since the 90's
* He developed dozens of reporters and editors, many of whom have gone on to bigger jobs at bigger papers
* He was the author of our Town Square plan that has guided much of our recent innovation

When he left, he was i helping develop some new ventures for us and was in the middle of a updating Lex's Public Square white paper. We'll miss that, but I plan to continue to plumb his thinking on things, even as he is a competitor now.

Cedric Bryant is interviewed by Bryan Murley at Innovation in College Media about what students need to get hired. Cedric, who is in charge of recruiting at Gannett, attended A&T and started here as a reporter. More, in writing, when he had hair.

Cedric is a good man. I knew he was a recruiter -- and I'm sure he's good at it -- but I always thought it was a bit of a loss because he was a fine reporter and a splendid writer.

Ruthell Howard, who worked as a copy editor here in the late 80s, died Sunday of cardiopulmonary arrest.

She left us in 1990 to work on the copy desk of the Washington Post.

I didn't know Ruthell well -- I think she worked with Allen at the Winston-Salem Chronicle -- but I remember her as a tenacious copy editor and a gentle soul.

The Post's obituary confirms that: In the sometimes-anonymous copy desk position, which requires mediation between strong-willed reporters attached to their words and readers who demand accuracy, clarity and context, she was known as a polite but meticulous editor, her colleagues said.

Update: Allen's remembrance.