One of those days

Sometimes it's feast or famine in the news business.

One day, we can't find a decent story. The next, we have four that could lead the next day's edition.

Thursday was one of those days.

First, we spent quite a bit of time during the day working on a piece on the University of Central Arkansas' ongoing financial issues. On any given day, that's a sure-fire lead story.

Then, the 23 counts of child porn story falls in our lap. In the grand scheme of things, maybe the world doesn't end if we put that story on page 3 (more on that in a minute), but that story's sure to get a lot of readership, and so it's a contender for top-of-the-paper, too.

Of course, Dick Morris came to town Thursday, and anytime a national figure visits, the resulting story might well be the most important thing going on.

When we thought we knew what Thursday's front page was gonna look like (toss in a couple Dazzle Daze photos and some UCA-Kansas basketball coverage), some guy had to barricade himself in a residence and fire off a couple rounds. When we can get "SWAT" and "barricade" in a headline, we've got a winner.

And so now we have to squeeze and rethink. Reminds me of the copy editor's refrain: With a hat-tip to The New York Times' slogan, we'll do our best with "all the news that fits."