[Hands out kudos]

Tonight, I got to witness good deadline journalism again as the Star-Banner localized the death of one of the victims of the Fallujah tragedy. Scott Helvenston, 38, lived in Leesburg, Fla., before joining the Navy — to eventually attain SEAL status. He later did physical consulting and stunts for movies such as G.I. Jane, and even made SEAL-style training and excercise videos. In Iraq, he was aiding security for food distribution.

The AP moved the names of the four civilians late in the evening, around 10 p.m. for us. Our city editor Frank Stanfield found Helvenston’s [Ed. note: corrected to 'Helvenston' from 'Helventson' 4/16/04] grandmother and brother at that late hour, and rounded up a fairly nice lead. Click here for the complete story. (It will likely pipe through to the Web by early in the morning; I’ll try to link directly to it then.)

Like many young journalists, I can be critical of newsroom resources. However, this shows that our A-team does well with what it has, and still makes deadline. I love it when a plan comes together. Even a roughly hewn, late-night plan.