Question: On July 4 on Bainbridge Island, a young soldier marched in the parade, dressed in his uniform and wearing the medals he had earned in Iraq. The MC of the parade scornfully asked (over the mike) what he was a veteran of, and the vast majority of the crowd booed him. There’s been no coverage of this anywhere. Why? Surely, this disgraceful behavior should have been held up to scrutiny by the rest of the state, if not the nation. — Rose Dempsey, Spokane Valley

Answer: The incident you described has received some coverage in the Seattle area, but little beyond that. I can’t speak for the rest of the state’s newspapers, but we haven’t published anything about the harassment of Jason Gilson because your note is the first we’ve heard of it.

I did a Google News search this morning and found only two newspaper articles about the incident. Robert Jamieson, a columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wrote about Gilson in a column published July 9, five days after the event. And the Bremerton Sun published a news story about the parade and the treatment of Gilson in a story published July 10. It’s my sense that this is one of those stories that initially gets overlooked because it happened on a holiday and occurred at an event that normally would not receive much media coverage.

We rely on the Associated Press to provide most of our coverage of news and events in the Seattle area because we do not have a bureau there. I will ask AP to consider doing a story about Gilson and the parade, but given the passage of time (10 days) since the event, it may not be a high priority for them. — Gary Graham, managing editor

Update: I’m happy to report that your question, which I shared with the Associated Press editors in Seattle, prompted AP to file a short story that we published in Thursday’s Spokesman-Review. The mayor of Bainbridge Island issued an apology to the soldier for the way he was treated at the parade. — Gary Graham, managing editor

Anyone there believe in God?

Question: I am writing to ask if there is anyone there who still believes in God. — George W. Kinerson, Spokane

Answer: I suspect we have a great many people of faith in our newsroom. But a staff member’s religious views are personal and, frankly, none of my business. There is no religious litmus test for staff members. — Steve Smith, editor

Why not list events by dates?

Question: If you are going to publish on the Web, you have to realize people from out of town will check in to see what is going on and they will want to know when concerts, fights, debates, etc. are planned.

So when is this Mozart concert? Tuesday and Wednesday — but which week? The dateline is the 15th, and the story says next week. But those of us who travel and plan ahead have learned that datelines are often interactive and updated daily, and old stories don’t always get sent to the cyberspace black hole in a timely manner. So when is this Mozart Concert … the 13th and 14th or the 20th and 21st of July?

Answer: Associated Press style calls for us to use a day of the week when the event is within the coming week. Beyond that, it says to use dates. So the story did conform to AP style. So the short answer is that the concerts are on the 20th and 21st.

You make a good point, however, that stories on the Web don’t always indicate an accurate print publication date, and therefore make it difficult to establish when an event will occur. I mentioned this to the editor of our InLife section, and she agreed that we should try to include dates when practical in the print edition. The stories themselves are transferred from print to online in an automated process, so that change would need to occur in print. — Ken Sands, managing editor of online and new media