OUR TAKE: A risk to health

For my last institutional editorial of the summer semester, I wrote about how Athens is slated to receive federal stimulus money to retrofit its buses to make them more environmentally friendly.

One of our reporters found that the buses in Athens now emit a particulate that causes cancer in about one in 3,800 people — when the Environmental Protection Agency's acceptable level is one in a million. It's a really interesting story and I'm personally happy the city will be getting the money to help all who live here breathe a little easier.

Click here to read what I wrote about the funds Athens will receive, for The Red & Black's editorial board.

BREAKING NEWS: University halts incineration of animals after violation

Today while we were getting ready to put the paper together, my editorial adviser told me he was contacted by the UGA Public Affairs office and they told him they needed him and a reporter over to the office for a news conference. He asked if I would go and, intrigued, I obliged.

During the news conference (which included The Red & Black, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Associated Press and The Athens Banner-Herald) we learned the university had been cited for an incinerator violation earlier in the month and had since stopped the burning of animal carcasses contaminated with infectious diseases.

Once the conference was over, we headed back to the office and I typed up a story for our Web site. Click here to read about the violation UGA received from the state Environmental Protection Division.

*Photo courtesy www.uga.edu

OUR TAKE: Aim to aid others

It was a slow news week this week at The Red & Black. So slow, in fact, that we had some difficulty coming up with ideas for institutional editorials. We ended up choosing to write about the Harry Potter craze as well as volunteering opportunities.

We had two contributor stories this week which both dealt with volunteering opportunities for students in Athens — and both were at places most students don't necessarily think about immediately (such as the local animal shelter). So when I was putting together the budget, I made sure to package those two on the same page — and when we had our editorial board meeting, we decided it would be worth writing an institutional about students volunteering.

I did a little research for it and found out that Georgia college students lag behind other states' college-aged students in volunteer work, so I found it especially important for the editorial to be written.

Click here to read what I wrote about student volunteering opportunities, for The Red & Black's editorial board.

OUR TAKE: A faulty procedure

I wrote an institutional editorial for this week's paper about a policy the University of Georgia has in place where employees must self report felony arrests and convictions. It sounds like a good policy, and in theory it is, but it's also unenforceable.

The Red & Black uncovered a convicted felon who was working for the university and had access to students' Social Security numbers — not something that should happen under this policy.

Click here to read what I wrote about the situation, for The Red & Black's editorial board.

Sex in the Classic City: Enjoying the freedom the single life offers

I'm really enjoying writing these Sex in the Classic City columns for the opinions page. They're easy to write and I can add some of my personality to my writing — something I'm not used to doing with news writing.

My third installment is about enjoying the freedoms that come along with the single life. As I've mentioned in my previous two columns, I have recently (March is fairly recent, right?) ended a two-year relationship, so I'm still getting used to life as a single person. I've enjoyed it so far and thought I'd share my opinions on why being single isn't such a bad thing right now.

As my Facebook mini-feed is bombarded with status updates of "ENGAGED!!!!" and my mail is slowly filling with wedding invites, it seemed a proper time to let the land of the single know they're not alone.

Click here to read my take on being single in the Classic City.

DECKS IN DOUBT: Atlanta parking deck collapse spawns investigation on campus

I'm not afraid to admit I am proud of this article. It was a classic "fly by the seat of my pants" example.

I arrived at the paper around noon on Wednesday, ready to do my managing editor's job of deciding where to put each of our articles in the paper for Thursday. We discussed in Tuesday's budget meeting we'd have a story about parking and tie in the new parking decks in light of Monday's parking deck collapse in Atlanta. The same construction company that built the Atlanta Centergy One deck is now building two parking decks on campus at the University of Georgia.

I checked in with the news editor to see how all our stories are coming along and he tells me we're going to make the parking deck story separate from the downtown parking story, which is fine by me. But our news editor was swamped and it being summer, we have few news writers we can call at a moment's notice to quickly turn around a story — especially one of this caliber.

So I offered to take the story. In a matter of hours — somewhere between three and four — I was able to do all my research, interviews and write the article, all while also doing my job as managing editor. It was an intense afternoon, but I am so pleased with the results.

And after that huge buildup, click here to read my article about how Monday's parking deck collapse in Atlanta is affecting UGA.

*Photo credit: Waites Laseter, photo editor of The Red & Black