Allen city officials have renamed the driveway leading to Joel Recreation Center on Bethany Drive as Sheila Curtis Lane in honor of the former general manager of The Allen American. Curtis worked for Star Community Newspapers, formerly known as Dallas-Fort Worth Community Newspapers, for 18 years, including posts with the Plano Star Courier. She also was posthumously named Citizen of the Year at a Celebrate Allen event earlier this year. Curtis died in July 2003 after a struggle against cancer

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Jerry Beeson joined the Big Sandy & Hawkins Journal as the new editor. Beeson is a former All-American baseball player at Oklahoma State University.

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Valerie Bintliff has joined the Amarillo Globe-News as director of human resources. She came from a 14-year career at Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System where she served in the payroll and human resources departments.

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Greg Bowen, writer and city editor of the Victoria Advocate, won a 2004 Environmental Awareness Media Award from the League of Women Voters of Texas. He was cited for reporting on drought, flooding on the Guadalupe River, regional water plans, and other water legislation and groundwater issues from the Gulf Coast to the Carrizo-Wilcox and Edwards aquifers in Central Texas.

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The Cleveland Advocate announced two staff changes.

Debra White has been named as publisher and Trish Jones as editor. White was appointed acting general manager and publisher in January, following the resignation of Susan Lyles who relocated to Oklahoma.

Jones succeeded Linn Scherwitz, who held the post for 16 months. Jones has been with the Advocate since April 2003 as a full-time editorial reporter and writer.

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Mando Flores is the new copy editor at the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise. He was online editor and editor-in-chief of The Collegian at the University of Texas-Brownsville and design editor and managing editor of The University Star at Southwest Texas State University.

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Harriet P. Gross joined the staff of the Texas Jewish Post in Dallas-Fort Worth as a weekly columnist. She is a longtime journalist and began working in the 1950s.

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Charley Harrist, former Atlanta Citizens Journal editor, pleaded not guilty May 3 to child pornography charges.

A sealed indictment was handed down April 6 by a federal grand jury in Tyler, charging Harrist with one count of possession of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors and one count of receiving child pornography, the Citizens Journal reported.

The newspaper earlier reported that Harrist took his personal computer to a repair shop where an employee allegedly found pornography while performing maintenance on the computer and contacted police.

The newspaper’s office computers were not part of the investigation.

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Dwight Heins, sports editor of the Lamesa Press-Reporter for the last 22 years, won the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ Golden Hoops Award recognizing him as Sports Writer of the Year. He joined the staff in 1982 after stringing for the Big Spring Herald and earning an associate’s degree in journalism from Howard College in Big Spring.

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Shannon Lowry has been named editor at The River Cities Tribune in Marble Falls. Lowry is a veteran reporter and editor with more than 20 years of experience at both newspapers and magazines.

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The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal announced staff changes.

Karen Brehm has been named assistant managing editor for news and features. She succeeds Hank Murphy, who is leaving the newspaper to pursue other interests in Wisconsin.

Shelly Funsch has been named features editor, replacing Brehm.

Lee Irwin, city editor, is leaving the paper to become a trainer for a computer software company in Utah.

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The Longview News-Journal announced two staff changes.

Juan B. Elizondo Jr., former state editor of the Austin American- Statesman, joined as managing editor. Sherry Shephard, formerly city editor, is the news features editor. John Lynch, former police reporter, will become city editor.

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Michael Matthews, staff writer for the Lake Country Sun in Graford, suffered a heart attack at his residence May 4. He was transported to Palo Pinto General Hospital by Possum Kingdom East EMS and later transferred to Plaza Medical Center in Fort Worth by Critical Air. The Sun reported that he was released late May 5.

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John S. Merculief II, copy desk chief with the Abilene Reporter- News, has been named the new city editor. Merculief will replace Anthony Wilson, who has served as assistant managing editor for about a year and a half before being named managing editor of the San Angelo Standard-Times in April. Both newspapers are owned by the E.W. Scripps Co. Merculief came to the Reporter-News in June as a copy editor and has served as copy desk chief since August.

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Randy Nettles, Texas Press Association’s senior advertising account executive, won the Austin Advertising Federation’s “Big Wig” Award for Austin’s Best Newspaper Rep for the second year in a row.

The Big Wig Awards honor the best and brightest suppliers and vendors in Austin’s advertising industry, the ad woman and ad man of the year and a lifetime achievement award.

Nettles has been in advertising sales for TPA since July 1998.

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Gary Perilloux became editor of The Orange Leader. He previously worked seven years at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo.

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Andy Pham and Vanessa Sanders announced their engagement and wedding slated July 25. They are both reporters for the Azle News and Springtown Epigraph.

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Connie J. Priest is the new publisher of The Bandera Review. She joined the newspaper in February.

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Delia Ruiz, who had been coordinating the Spanish section of the Laredo Morning Times, has been promoted to Spanish editor for El Tiempo de Laredo. Ruiz, who worked her way through high school and two higher education degrees, started working part time at the Times in the composing section of the production department.

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Rex Seline, managing editor for news at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the new president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW).

George Haj, assistant managing editor for business at the Houston Chronicle, has been named to the SABEW board.

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Bob Sonderegger has joined the staff of the Pearland Journal and Friendswood Journal as sports editor and staff writer. He was managing editor of the semiweekly The Angleton Times until it closed March 27.

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Ethan Tatum, a recent graduate of Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, will be the new editor of the Alvarado Star.

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Ed Todd, longtime Midland Reporter-Telegram staff writer who now serves as a special correspondent for the newspaper, has been named a statewide winner of the 2004 Paul E. Ellis Media Awards by the American Heart Association.

Todd won first place in the Mid-Small Market Newspaper Daily category for his Heart Healthy Midland series, which appeared in the newspaper in 2003.

Honorable mentions went to Carolyn Poiret and Jan Jarvis of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, James Ragland of The Dallas Morning News and Bob Francis of the Fort Worth Business Press.

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Julie Vaughan has been named editor of the Canton Herald, Van Banner, Wills Point Chronicle and Van Zandt News. Vaughan began her newspaper career as a staff reporter and graphic artist in the Herald office. In 2000, she transferred to The Monitor in Mabank as a reporter and later became associate editor. She became associate editor in November 2000 of the Herald, Banner, Chronicle and News.