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Goes to show you never can tell

Ken Paulman

Steve Smith came to work this morning expecting a voicemail box full of reaction to today’s story about the closure of an FBI investigation into former mayor Jim West’s conduct and our publication of a photo of alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib prison that’s among those circulating on Australian TV. Alas, the readers were silent on that issue.

What he did get, however, was about 20 complaints that today’s crossword puzzle is too small. Enough is enough, he said. We’re going to make room on page D2 now for both puzzles - same size, every day. Addendum: Actually, “the same size” is a bit misleading. They’ll be adjusted so the point size on the clues is similar. As it is now, the new one isn’t that much smaller.

On a side note, managing editor Gary Graham mentioned today that one of the more interesting complaints he’s heard about the redesign is that the new size doesn’t fit as well into the bottom of a birdcage. Presumably, it also takes more pages to wrap a fish.

Still, we press on…

‘We’re in the wrong business’

Editors praised John Stucke’s straight-and-narrow approach in reporting Avista CEO Gary Ely’s $2.57 million in compensation. Remember, we’ve all got utility bills to pay, too, but we’ll let the readers judge whether this level of pay is appropriate.

Mathematically-astute readers will notice that Avista VP David Meyer’s totals don’t add up to $440,682. The figure should be $670,020. Don’t blame Stucke - he had the totals correct when he turned them over, the error was introduced in the production of the graphic (but still should have been caught). Smith said we’re going to take another look at the process for proofing graphics to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen again.

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Daily Briefing." Read all stories from this blog