Roy Lee Besch is the new sports writer for the Cleveland Advocate. Besch has worked as sports editor for the Bay City Tribune and as a staff member at The Vindicator in Liberty.

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Paul Binz has been named editor of the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen. He was managing editor of The Monitor in McAllen since 1993. He succeeds George Cox who became general manager of a sister weekly.

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Tom Burkindine left Texas in January 2005 to manage The Kaselehlie Press in The Federated States of Micronesia. In July he returned to become editor of The Atlanta Citizens Journal.

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Christopher Cole has been named managing editor of the Uvalde Leader-News to replace Adam Yanelli. Prior to joining the Leader-News, Cole served as editor and publisher of  a weekly in Edgefield County, S.C.

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Mark Engebretson has joined the staff of The Winters Enterprise. His previous position was editor of The Graham Leader and prior to that he was managing editor of the Lake Country Sun at Possum Kingdom Lake.

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Betse Esparza rejoined the Alpine Avalanche as editor. She previously worked at the Avalanche for about four years but left recently for a stint at the U.S. Border Patrol.

Also Sally Hillyer joined the Avalanche as a staff writer. She is a retired elementary school teacher and worked part-time for the Port Aransas South Jetty.

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Allen Fisher started as a new part-time sports writer at the Aransas Pass Progress and Ingleside Index.

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The Galveston County Daily News received the national First Amendment Award for newspapers under 40,000 circulation from the Associated Press Managing Editors for an investigation into the State Power Program. The probe spanned more than a year and generated dozens of news articles by reporters Sarah Viren and Marty Schiaden and editorials and columns by publisher Dolph Tillotson, editor Heber Taylor and associate editor Michael A. Smith.

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Marc Gilbert has been named managing editor of the Killeen Daily Herald. From 1993-96 he was a designer at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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Jimmy Godwin joined Star Community Newspapers as contributing columnist.

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Rodney Hays is the new staff writer for the Anna-Melissa Tribune. Hays previously worked at the Yoakum Herald-Times and wrote for the newspaper of the Southern Baptist Convention of Texas.

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Dottie Johnston came on board as the new bookkeeper at The Madisonville Meteor. Johnston left a job at the local hospital.

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The Katy Times added two new members to its editorial staff and  hired a new publisher.

Brian Simmons was hired as sports editor. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 2005 with a bachelor of science in journalism and spent a year working at The Battalion.

Tara Stanley joined as staff reporter. She has interned with the Dallas Burn professional soccer team and the Denton Chamber of Commerce.

Evelyn Gardner has been named editor and publisher to replace Ken Steger, who retired after 20 years. Gardner began her newspaper career more than 25 years ago in Mississippi. For 16 years, she held positions with Texas Student Publications at The University of Texas in Austin.

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Christine Kern recently joined The Marlin Democrat as general reporter. She has freelanced for several publications in the Dallas area.

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Jim Levesque has been appointed news and sports editor of The Winnsboro News. He came from the photo

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Kevin Lewis, former sports editor and special projects editor of the Plainview Daily Herald for the past 18 years, has been named editor. He replaces Danny Andrews, who resigned last month to accept a position at Wayland Baptist University. Lewis, only the fourth editor in the paper’s history, began his career at The Slatonite in Slaton.

Also in Plainview, Craig Cummings joined the Herald as a staff writer covering health issues and police. He previously worked for Easterling Acquisitions.

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The Madisonville Meteor made several staff changes and welcomed a new publisher.

Tina Baiter left as a reporter, photographer and editor to pursue a career as a marketing coordinator.

Dave Lewis, former editor of The Navasota Examiner, was named publisher. Joining Lewis is his wife, Cue Lewis who comes on board as the new advertising representative. Throughout their 29 years of marriage, the duo has owned and operated newspapers in Celina, Little Elm and Denison.

Chris Perez came on board as staff writer. Perez graduated from Southwest Texas State University in 2004.

Dottie Johnston joined the staff as the new bookkeeper.

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Steve Massey has been named publisher of The Teague Chronicle, in conjunction with the newspaper’s 100th year in July. He began working at the Chronicle in January 1984 as news editor.

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Rex Maynor is the new publisher of The Huntsville Item. Maynor has been employed with Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., the Item’s parent company, since 1999. He replaced David Lyons who went to the Fort Bend Herald. Maynor came from the paper in Albemarle, Okla.

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James McAfee has joined the Copperas Cove Leader-Press as sports editor. For the past two years, McAfee worked for the Quanah Tribune-Chief and before that was an editor with Golf Digest.

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