The Courier Electronic Edition

Have questions? We'll get answers


Who was the Allen of Allen Township? Is there still gas in the old Karg Well? Does anyone around here use Morse Code? Need a new manhole cover? What does a mayor charge for a wedding? Why flush fire hydrants?

If your kind of curiosity leads to these kinds of questions, we'll try to get you answers in a new column on this page on Mondays called, "Just Ask."

We can't take credit for the idea. The Associated Press answers such questions for a national audience in a weekly column called "Ask AP." It has not appeared in the printed Courier, but you can often find it on our Web site.

Samples of recent questions: Is there talk about building new nuclear plants? Does the Vatican have plans for tests on bones thought to belong to St. Paul?

If we're short of questions from our readers, we'll just see what other folks are asking The AP.

In any event, we hope you like "Just Ask," and that you just ask.

It's honor roll season again and, as some of you asked, we're going to try to publish them all in regular-sized type.

These lists will take up about three times as much space as before and many honor rolls will take longer to get into print.

We also plan to use the "Celebrations!" section for some of them because they are, of course, celebrations.

It's an experiment. If the lists are delayed too long, we'll have to go back to using smaller type.

By the way, thank you to readers near and far for nearly melting down our Web site on Election Night.

More than 33,000 "visitors" went to www.thecourier.com nearly 44,000 times on Tuesday, according to Nick Moore, our Internet services manager.

He reports we "significantly" exceeded our stated bandwidth capacity throughout the evening, peaking at about 140 percent at around 9 p.m., about 90 minutes after the polls closed.

Speaking of www.thecourier.com, have you been catching "The Buzz" weekly video? It's just two guys talkin' northwestern Ohio sports. They may not be pretty, but they're fun and they're good.

Don't forget, if you have a "smart phone," you can get Courier news wherever you are. Just use the free "AP Mobile" application and add your ZIP code.

On another matter, yes, we made a mistake this week by reporting too much detail of a police report in the "Public Record." We crossed a line of good taste, but it was unintentional.

Our staff is back to full strength with the addition of two reporters and two copy editors.

You've already seen Jordan Craven's byline, mostly on police and court stories. She is from Fostoria, graduated from Bowling Green State University, and has experience at our sister newspaper in Fostoria, and in Lorain.

And you've just begun to see Linsey Maughan's byline on Hancock County government and health care stories. She is a graduate of Southern Illinois University and the University of Florida, and worked at a newspaper in Minnesota.

Unfortunately, you will rarely see the bylines of new editors Alison Kemp, another Bowling Green State University graduate, and Amanda Williams, an Ohio Northern University graduate who started two days ago.

Both have experience at The Vindicator in Youngstown. They work "inside" editing copy, writing headlines and laying out pages.

On the Net:

www.thecourier.com.

Mattiace: 419-427-8406,

Send an e-mail to Peter Mattiace