After swift community backlash over the publication of a racist cartoon, the patriarch of a Missouri newspaper and two of his daughters resigned last week. The June 10 cartoon in the Washington Missourian–a response to the nationwide uprising over the death of George Floyd– shows a black man attempting to steal a white woman’s purse.…
When my executive editor at the Des Moines Register asked me to cover the local fallout of George Floyd’s death for the USA Today network, I had no idea that I’d be documenting a historic string of protests that would extend to all corners of our country and many places in the world. Even as…
The scene was peaceful–as many of the protests have been. As the sun set in the city of Carbondale in southern Illinois on Sunday night, hundreds of people, many wearing masks because of the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic, locked arms in support of systematic change and an end to police violence. Community members…
In September of 2019, there was a small mumps outbreak at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. I had just started my term as editor-in-chief of The Gateway newspaper, and I thought it would be fortuitous to buy a large bottle of hand sanitizer for the newsroom. I wrote a little note with scripted handwriting: “don’t get…
In 32 years with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, breaking news reporter Kim Bell has conducted thousands of face-to-face interviews. On the crime beat, she visits victims’ neighbors and families to collect their stories. “Those are things I would have done before the pandemic.” Bell said recently. “Now I don’t feel comfortable knocking on peoples’ doors.”…