Digging in the dirt

Steve Smith, back from vacation, described today’s effort as “a fabulous paper, but not one the Chamber of Commerce will be sending out soon.” Smith said he’s heard a lot of outrage over the city’s handling of the firefighter case , which he said all but confirms his suspicion that if Jim West had been targeting young girls, he would have been out of office a lot sooner.

But that’s neither here nor there. The story, you may recall, popped up some time ago and sort of fizzled out when it was announced that no criminal charges would be filed against the as-yet-unnamed firefighter. Editors credit investigative reporters Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele for bringing to light details that have led so far to Daniel Ross’s resignation from the fire department and forcing the city to be more forthcoming with information. For instance, last week a press conference on the controversy was quickly moved ahead a day when city officials found out we had identified Ross and that detectives had instructed him to delete photos of the encounter.

If not for this reporting, “this story might well have disappeared for lots of bad reasons,” Gary Graham said.