Never Again

Mary O’Keefe and her family boarded a plane last week bound for Iowa – Mary’s “home.” It wasn’t long after that the phone calls started.

From “Can you find out why there are helicopters circling overhead?” at 11:30 one night to the shoplifting suspect that rammed his car into officers and then took off on foot on Tuesday afternoon, the area’s crime and safety events seemed to escalate with the same speed of her airplane. These were all news stories that she would be assigned while here at the paper and, with her gone, most fell to me – a poor substitute. I thank the CV Sheriff’s Station and the Glendale Police Dept. for their patience.

Anyone who knows Mary knows that she has a nose for news – and loves hunting it down. To say that she was missed is an understatement.

Thankfully, from the moment her feet hit the ground back in California on Tuesday night, she got up-to-speed on what was going on in the foothills and surrounding area. She met with CHP Officer Cooper bright and early Wednesday morning to check out how things were going traffic-wise at local schools, talked to the Coroner’s Office to get updates on a body discovered in the Angeles National Forest and another dumped on La Tuna Canyon on Aug. 9 and learned what the schedule was for the installation of medians on Foothill Boulevard and the status of OSH. Because of her hard work, all these stories can be found in this week’s CV Weekly.

I’ve decided that, while vacations are good, she is not ever allowed to go on one again. Sorry, Mary.

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I want to say thank you to the many people who took the time to drop a line regarding last week’s column about the call to action by the Boston Globe and this newspaper’s response to it. I was encouraged to learn that most considered the cries of “fake news!” would not/should not be directed at this newspaper. In addition, one reader said that, though he appreciated the paper before retiring, he now “pores through each page and thoroughly enjoys getting the low-down about what’s happening locally.”
I am so glad that our work is so well received. We appreciate having the opportunity to present it every week.

  robin goldsworthy