The Last One To Know

So, here's a funny story. Well...funny for me. Not for the people it involves. I'll explain.

Since I've started at the this newspaper, there have been three instances where I've had to break bad news to people. The first time was when one of the school boards that I cover announced that they were suing the state Department of Education and the state Education Commissioner. So I called the state DOE and asked for a comment about the lawsuit and the comment I got was, "We're being SUED?!?!?!"

Oops.

The second time was when another school board I covered voted to write a letter to a fellow board member asking him to resign his post after he allegedly made racial comments (I've mentioned this before, I'm sure). He knew the letter was coming, but when I called he hadn't received the letter yet, so that was not as big of an oopps, but an "oops" just the same.

The third and most recent time was the other day when I got a news release from two people that filed an ethics complaint against a committeeman in yet another town I cover (I cover six towns). They filed the complaint five years ago and the state Local Finance Board found him guilty of violating ethics law because of a vote he made in office. He was fined $500. Then he appealed the decision with the state's Office of Authoritative Law who decided that there wasn't enough evidence to suggest that he acted in self-interest instead of violating ethics law, so they tossed out the decision. Then, last Friday, they announced that the LFB rejected their decision and the final decision was that he was going to be fined $500. So I called him to see if he would be willing to comment about the decision. Here's how it happened:

Me: Would you be willing to comment?
Him: That's old news. They made the decision to toss that out two years ago and they haven't made a final decision yet.
Me: Not according to a news release I got. According to this, the decision was made last Friday.
Him: Well then I guess I'd better call my attorney, shouldn't I?

So yeah, that was awkward.

I don't especially like being the bearer of unhappy tidings. It's always slightly amusing when I know stuff like that before the person directly affected knows, but hey. It happens. The three people weren't angry with me, of course, since I'm just the messenger doing my job. But it's always awkward when that happens. It's a little frustrating when news comes out a day before press time, so then I have to wait for people to track down their attorney and get me an official statement. Sometimes they get back to me, sometimes they don't. When they don't, the official statement is, 'So and so declined comment' and that's just the way it has to be.

In other news, it's pouring outside today for the first time in like...two months. So, we need the rain, but I still don't like walking into my office soaking wet. Ew.