Loss of a soldier touches all of us

News that a Bradenton native had just been killed in Afghanistan came via email early Friday. Publisher Bob Turner forwarded me the email, received from someone he didn't even know. It read, chillingly direct:

My nephew, Patrick Lay, was killed in action today in Afghanistan. Born and raised in Bradenton. Thank you for your time.

With little else to work from, reporter Lee Williams started some furious digging. He quickly tracked down -- via Facebook -- that it was painfully true.

As Williams and photographer Grant Jefferies began reaching out to the family, we were humbled by their response. Spc. 4 Lay's mom, Stefenie Hernandez, his fiancee Joann Steiff, his sister Nikki and countless other relatives and friends opened their door and their hearts to us -- out of deep respect, pain, loss and love of their lost soldier.

Grant's photo of Patrick's mom, above, lost in thought outside her home, speaks that proverbial thousands of words. We have been "lucky" in Manatee County for the past several years, as the war hasn't taken a direct hit in claiming the life of one of our own. This was a painful reminder of how much so many have given.


And it stirred fears and prayers in all who were touched by the news. We found an article and photos by Stars and Stripes, and wanted to share this one with our readers. The photo by Laura Rauch/Stars and Stripes shows Spc. Lay sitting on a vehicle as the sun sets over Combat Outpost Nalgham, Afghanistan on May 21. Editors there gave us permission to publish, in exchange for two copies of the Herald with the photograph. In sending Herald photographer Tiffany Tompkins-Condie the OK, administrator Jen Stepp wrote:

Tiffany,
You’re so very welcome. As I was processing your request I just became so very sad that here we have a soldier doing his duty and his photo appearing in the paper just a couple months ago to him having been killed today. My most sincere condolences go out to his family and those he served with.

And when I sent Williams' story and Jefferies' photographs to McClatchy-Tribune News Services for national publication, the Washington editor replied:

He reminds me of my best friend’s nephew who's going to Afghanistan in January. I hope I don’t read anything like this about him.

Say a prayer for all our troops to return home, safe and alive.

In memory of Dr. Brian Murphy

Dr. Brian Murphy will be missed by our community. His death this week shocked almost everyone and, like me, left us wishing we could have one more conversation with him.

He always had a rye joke or a "hot tip" for me when we ran into each other, usually at the Eye Center where I'm a patient of Dr. Mike Mackie. One of the more memorable times was right after the 2002 elections, in which Dr. Murphy was defeated by Bill Galvano.

"I thought for sure I had the race sewn up when you guys didn't endorse me," Dr. Murphy cracked with a grin. (He was right, the Herald didn't -- but what a race it was, with these four candidates: Dr. Murphy, Galvano, Benjamin Milks and David Miner.)

Dr. Murphy went on to represent Manatee County in so many other ways. If you have memories to share, please sign the Legacy Guest Book created here.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Murphy's family.

'Manatee Featured Fugitives' leads to news

Each Sunday, we publish "Manatee's Featured Fugitives" in the Local section and online, sourced by Manatee County Crime Stoppers. The feature includes 11 mugs of the most-wanted fugitives from Manatee County, with their personal data and the charges against them.

It also includes a strike through any fugitive caught the week before, and new mugs to replace those. Det. Dan Hutto, special investigator with Manatee County Sheriffs and a Crime Stoppers coordinator, sends me an email with all this information every Friday.

This afternoon, Detective Dan's email came with word that three fugitives had been nailed this week. Thinking that's the most we've had in one week, I forwarded the email to our news desk, suggesting a story. I didn't even look at the names.

1A News Editor Kelly Lipp let out a holler: "That's the guy suspected of beating Sister Nora!"

Police reporter Paradise Afshar quickly confirmed it: Eliseo Ortiz, 51, was arrested Thursday by the Tarpon Springs Police Department.

The plight of Sister Nora touched us all, and we wrote a dozen stories or columns, including this blog.

When columnist Vin Mannix contacted Sister Nora this evening, she took the news in stride.

“I forgave him long ago. Forgiveness is the Christian thing to do. It’s the more healing thing than keeping a grudge,” she said. “I hope they won’t be too hard on him. ”

Watch for the full story in Saturday's editions.

Now this footnote:


Detective Dan also indicates each week whether any of the arrests were the result of a tip to their hotline (none of this week's were). But one of our favorites was just a couple weeks ago, when Trevor Christeson, wanted on charges of grand theft, came off the list.

Christeson turned himself in, Detective Dan informed us, after he saw his photo in the Herald.

SCF watchdog reporting gets results

This just in:

Daily watchdog journalism gets results. Sometimes almost immediately, as was the case today with State College of Florida.

We published a story today by Herald reporter David Gulliver, outlining SCF's until-now unreported plans to buy a new $71,000 Cadillac sport-utility vehicle for its top officials to use on college business. And Gulliver found the perfect perspective: The news comes two months after the college raised students’ tuition and fees by 8 percent.

Less than an hour ago, Gulliver received a brief email from SCF, saying they were yanking their request seeking sealed bids for the price of a new “executive vehicle.” Gulliver quickly posted the news to Bradenton.com.

Almost immediately, one reader emailed me:

In reference to the SCF cadillac story!!!!!! Thanks for bringing it to light and I have a feeling that there were a lot of complaints. I, for one, was furious when I read that story. My son is one of the students who had to pay that 8% increase!!!!

Huge story? Not in the scope of the trillions of missing dollars swirling in Washington. But it got people's attention -- everywhere I went today, it was the proverbial water-cooler talker. And we think that made a difference.

Herald has new Washington correspondent

You may have noticed a new Washington byline on our front page: Erika Bolstad.

Erika now covers Washington for the Miami Herald and Bradenton Herald. She replaces Lesley Clark, who has been promoted to cover the White House for all McClatchy newspapers. Since 2006, Lesley has done a great job tracking down our local politicians and covering stories extremely pertinent to Florida.

Erika has quickly stepped into those shoes in the past week. On the same day Erika was named our new correspondent, I shot her an email around 4 p.m. -- and asked her to chase down a story about Vern Buchanan. She had this story turned within two hours.

Erika has been in McClatchy's Washington bureau since 2007 as the correspondent for the Anchorage Daily News and the Idaho Statesman. I wagered she'll find hotter stories coming out of Florida -- and while she agreed, Erika reminded me that her clips include plenty of stories about Sarah Palin. And her work on the Larry Craig scandal for the Statesman was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in the breaking news category.

Follow Erika on Twitter: @erikabolstad

Harry Potter contest has sweet ending

Features Editor Jana Morreale summoned us into her office yesterday to pick the winners for our Harry Potter contest. An impressive pile of entries awaited on her couch -- hundreds of our readers had rummaged through the pages of the Herald and/or Bradenton.com to find the coveted "snitches," cut them out, paste them to the game card and then deliver them to the Herald.

I got the first pick for a runner-up, and randomly was drawn to the envelope emblazoned with a screaming "PICK ME!!" Turns out Kevin Belanger of Bradenton was the magnet.

Web developer William Winter made the next pick, and we had geographic diversity with Sandra Engel of Parrish winning another $25 gift certificate to the movies.

Then Jana, the diva of our “Harry Potter -- Find the Golden Snitch” contest, stepped forward to pick the grand winner of tickets to Universal Studios.

And what a grand pick she made, as announced within minutes on Bradenton.com and featured today on 1A in the Herald:

Becky Raburn, a longtime Holmes Beach resident who credited her team of family and friends for her entry when Jana called her with the news. Mrs. Raburn also shared that she is a cancer survivor who once again is battling the disease -- and her joy at winning the contest brought Jana and me to tears.

As Jana wrote in her kicker, here’s hoping they have a magical time with their winnings!

Manatee businesses help starving food bank

The economy took a vicious swipe at Manatee County's food bank, depleting most of its stock of food and supplies for our community's hungry.

The call for help came Monday morning, and our story published soon after on Bradenton.com and in the Herald this morning. Photographer Grant Jefferies added visual proof of the empty shelves, as the above image shows.

Well, this community is answering the call for help. Kristen Theisen, vice president of development for Meals on Wheels and the food bank, says the response has been fantastic today.

"We've had more than a dozen businesses request barrels today," she told me. "We're thrilled with that because we need all the help we can get. Thank you, thank you for the coverage."

The Herald has its barrel by the front door. Let's fill 'er up!