Robert Aguilar has been named president and publisher of the San Angelo Standard-Times. He came from the Redding (Calif.) Record Searchlight where he has served as advertising director for the past four years. Both are owned and operated by E.W. Scripps Co. He replaced Jack Pate who left in early July to be publisher at the Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press.

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The Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association of Texas honored six TPA members with the Outstanding Newspaper Award Aug. 4 at the Ambassador Hotel in Abilene during the Professional Development Conference for Agricultural Science and Technology Teachers of Texas.

Newspaper winners were The Albany News, The Texan Express in Goliad, Grand Saline Sun, Valley Tribune in Quitaque, Whitesboro News Record and Snyder Daily News.

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The Allen American has a new community editor, Nicole Bywater. Bywater comes from a sister paper also owned by Star Community Newspapers. The previous community editor Brenda Bernet began a new job as a reporter at the Plano Star-Courier, another sister paper.

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The Alpine Avalanche announced two new employees and the wedding of another.

Maria Torres is a new part-time classifieds representative and Ty Henderson is covering sports.

Associate Publisher Betse Brooks and Joe Esparza were married June 26 in the courtyard of the Hotel Paisano in Marfa. They had a honeymoon in Las Vegas. Esparza, a former Avalanche employee, is a graphic designer with Alpine Printing Co.

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Brad Bennett has taken over the court and police beat for the Athens Daily Review. He is a recent Texas A&M University graduate and was the assistant sports editor for the The Battalion. He interned for the Plano Star-Courier as a police reporter.

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Kevin Birdwell is the newest staff member of the Bowie County Citizens Tribune and DeKalb News. He most recently was sports editor of the Ennis Daily News.

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Randy Bruton has joined the Tri County Leader in Whitehouse as a staff writer. He is a 2003 graduate of Texas State University in San Marcos with a bachelor’s in print journalism.

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Alma Carillo came back to work at the Fort Stockton Pioneer in August with editorial duties. During her former stint with The Pioneer, she handled inserting, circulation, editorial duties and sales.

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Brian Davidson is the new editor of the Western Observer in Anson and Stamford American. He received a bachelor of science in biology from Texas Tech University and spent the last three years in sales in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.

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Gene Deason, who headed the Brownwood Bulletin news staff from 1976 until 2001, returned as managing editor. He started at the Bulletin in 1969 and was first named managing editor in November 1976. He held the lead position in the newsroom until leaving to become publisher of the Alice Echo-News Journal. He returns to the Bulletin from the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, where he had been managing editor since January 2002. All three newspapers are American Consolidated Media dailies.

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Lynda Dodd joined The Sealy News. She comes to the newspaper having bee a computer programmer and analyst in the consultant field for several years.

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Mike Drago has been named Texas & Southwest editor of The Dallas Morning News. He joined The News in 1999 as criminal justice editor. He previously was a reporter and editor for The Associated Press in Dallas.

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The El Campo Leader-News announced two staff changes.

Dory Kana Labay has joined the advertising department. Labay is a December 2001 graduate of the University of Houston. Tomie Lunsford, a May graduate of Houston Baptist University, has joined the news staff. She replaces Wendee Orton. Her immediate duties will be covering the police beat and the El Campo school district, as well as feature and photo assignments.

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The Freedom of Information Foundation will posthumously honor Howard Swindle with its 2004 James Madison Award. Swindle, a former editor and reporter for The Dallas Morning News, died June 9. The James Madison Award, to be presented Oct. 1 in Austin, honors people who demonstrate an appreciation and respect for the First Amendment and open government. While at the Morning News, Swindle edited and directed three projects that won Pulitzer Prizes.

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Houston Chronicle reporters Cindy Horswell and Ruth Rendon were honored with the Outstanding Media Coverage award from the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children for a story on a statewide abuse hotline calling system.

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James Jennings is the new managing editor of the Colorado County Citizen. He came from The Daily Citizen in Searcy, Ark. and the Clarksdale Press Register in Clarksdale, Miss. He replaced Tana Ross.

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LaTarah Edmond has been promoted to director of sales and marketing for the Greenville Herald-Banner and Commerce Journal. She came on board in May 2003 and served as Newspaper In Education coordinator.

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Tim Lott has been named assistant managing editor for Internet operations at the Austin American-Statesman. Lott, who has been with the Statesman since 1989, will head editorial operations at statesman.com and Austin360, the newspaper’s online entertainment site.

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Amy McAlexander is the new office manager of The Bandera Bulletin.

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Salo Otero, sports editor of the Laredo Morning Times, received the Putt Powell Sportswriter of the Year award recently during the Texas High School Coaches Association summer meeting in Houston.

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Bill Ramsey replaced Kirk Dickey as news editor of Cedar Hill Today. Dickey left to accept a staff writer position at an Arkansas newspaper. Ramsey came from a monthly magazine in Van Zandt County and has more than 15 years of experience at daily and weekly newspapers.

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Kolleen Roe joined the sales staff of the Boerne Star. She will focus on base revenue and classified sales.

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Vanessa Leanne Sanders of Azle and Anh “Andy” Minh Pham of Hurst were married July 25 at A&M Gardens in Azle. The following day the couple left for New York City for their honeymoon. Both work as reporters for the Azle News and Springtown Epigraph.

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A San Antonio Express-News carrier and her children were carjacked at gunpoint while delivering newspapers Aug. 22.

Griselda Tristan, an independent contractor with the Express-News, began her usual route around 5:40 a.m. when a car followed her Dodge Ram pickup and blocked her path. Her 13-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son were inside.

She told police that the occupants of the car took out a rifle and pointed it at her and told her and her children to get out of the truck.

Tristan has delivered newspapers for 13 months and said she normally takes her husband along.

About 20 minutes later and only a few blocks away, the car thieves beat and robbed a man on his morning walk, according to police.

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Dan Savage, publisher of the Waco Tribune-Herald, plans to retire in July 2005. Savage has been publisher since 1996. He previously was executive vice president and general manager of the Austin American-Statesman and advertising director of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News and Journal-Herald. Savage said he was announcing his retirement a year early to allow for a smooth transition to a new publisher.

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Bobby Simons is the new sports editor of the Lampasas Dispatch-Record. He was sports editor of the Hereford Brand from October 2002 to September 2003 and worked for West Texas A&M University.

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Stephen W. Sullivan will retire as vice president of newspaper operations for E.W. Scripps Co., effective Dec. 31. He began 34 years ago selling advertising for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He joined Scripps in 1997 when the company acquired Harte-Hanks Newspapers, including the Caller-Times. He was president of Harte-Hanks and president and publisher of the Caller-Times before the acquisition and from 1997 to 2000 continued as the newspaper’s president and publisher. He was named vice president of newspaper operations at Scripps in August 2000.

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Ben Trollinger rejoined the Williamson County Sun as a county reporter. He was a reporter at the Round Rock Leader and replaces Traviss Thomas, who is pursuing a teaching career.

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Stephan Wingert, general manager of The (McAllen) Monitor in McAllen, has been named publisher of the Daily Press in Victorville and the Desert Dispatch in Barstow, Calif. Wingert had been general manager since 1999.

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Mitch Word rejoined The Brownsfield News as writer and photographer. Word served as sports editor of the News from 1994-98. He was sports editor of the Wise County Messenger for five years and worked for a free weekly for one year before returning to Brownsfield. Word replaced Blake Decker who became a teacher with the Brownsfield school district.