Q: I need campaign finance reports for a couple of contested local races, but I am under the impression that I may not get access to those in time to write a story before the election. What all do campaigns have to keep track of? Is there a way to get this type of information while it’s still extra relevant?

“But just as I say,

It takes judgment, brains, and maturity to score

In a baulk line game,

I say that any boob can take

And shove a ball in a pocket.”

– Professor Harold Hill, 

The Music Man

By the time you read this I will have traversed my 60th birthday – or at least I hope I will have traversed it. I guess that remains to be seen.

RUBEN CANTU

DEL RIO – Ruben Cantu, a seasoned journalist with over two decades of experience in the newspaper business, has joined the staff of the Del Rio News-Herald as managing editor.

MARSHALL DAY

GATESVILLE – Texas newspaper veteran Marshall Day, a past president of the Texas Press Association, died Oct. 25 in Gatesville, where he was publisher of the Gatesville Messenger for 21 years.

Celebration of life services were held Oct. 28 in Gatesville.

Judge Amos Mezzant of the US District Court of Eastern Texas has issued a preliminary injunction against new overtime rules scheduled to go into effect Dec. 1, the National Newspaper Association reports.

The judge said his order would hold until further court review, accepting the argument of a number of state governments that to allow the rule to go into effect would create harm to employers, NNA Public Policy Director Tonda Rush said in a statement released Tuesday.

Texas Press Association members are encouraged to join the fun and informative sessions planned Jan. 19-21 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Dallas Frisco Hotel Convention Center & Spa.

Serving as one of the main draws of the midwinter conference is the 50-booth trade show in the hotel convention center’s Frisco Ballroom. Inside the trade show will be the ever-popular Texas Newspaper Foundation Silent Auction, featuring items ranging from practical to unusual to luxurious.

A new online survey is asking local journalists in the US to share their story as part of a wider initiative examining the health of the local newspaper industry.

Supported by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Knight Foundation, this project, “Local News in a Digital World,” comes at a time of continued disruption for the wider newspaper industry.

The statistics speak for themselves:

• Between 2007 – when there were 55,000 people employed in newsrooms – and 2015, newspapers shed over 20,000 jobs.

Texoma names Rodriguez senior group publisher

SHERMAN – Following a series of recent changes at the company that publishes the Herald Democrat, including re-branding it as Texoma Marketing and Media Group, the company’s general manager Nate Rodriguez was promoted to senior group publisher.

Texoma Marketing and Media Group publishes the daily Herald Democrat in Sherman and the Van Alstyne Leader, Anna-Melissa Tribune and Prosper Press weekly newspapers.

Carol Lee Robinson

Funeral services for Carol Lee Robinson were held Oct. 20 at the Greenwood Community Church in Greenwood Village, Colo. Mrs. Robinson, the wife of former TPA president Roy Robinson, died Oct. 17 after a five-year struggle with dementia and accompanying diseases.

Carol Lee Peter was born Jan. 11, 1938, in rural Sherman County, Kan., to Philip Peter and Fern Johnson Peter. She attended a country school through the eighth grade and graduated in 1955 from Sherman Community High School in Goodland, Kan.

Franklin, Tennessee was the site of the most recent convention of the National Newspaper Association. On the first full morning of the convention, the NNA has a long tradition of calling the roll of the states, and it was my thrill to carry in the Texas flag. Throughout the next two days, the flags of all 50 states lined the sides of the ballroom.

The roll call follows an Honor Guard, the Presentation of Colors and the Pledge of Allegiance.