One of the biggest challenges for a newspaper reporter is finding a way to follow a big story with a quality second-day story. You must go out and beat the bushes, talk to more people, dig up new facts and fashion a story that's just as interesting to readers.

Jim Martin did just that in his page 1 story in today's Erie Times-News on the effect of the loss of honeybees on local crop growers. The newspaper ran a big story on this topic six weeks ago, confirming what many readers claimed during the latter stages of summer, 2006.

The Times-News ran several letters to the editor from readers who wondered what happened to all the bees. It turned out the letter writers were correct; a disease called "colony collpase disorder," or CCD, wiped out 500,000 to 1 million bee colonies.

The loss of bees puts serious pressure on growers of apples, apricots, strawberries, peaches, plums, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash and more than a dozen other crops. Locally, beekeeper Larry Curtis lost all but 6 of his 1,000 hives over the winter, Martin reported.

This was an interesting follow to his original bee story, as Martin framed the picture in terms of the loss of business for farmers in the region.

On the city & region page of today's paper, reporters Kevin Flowers and Victor Fernandes followed up on the death of 52-year-old Dan McGarvie, who was stricken Sunday with a fatal heart attack while racing on the dirt track at Eriez Speedway.

Flowers and Fernandes captured McGarvie's spirit in the opening paragraph of their story: The small, hand-painted sign that greets visitors to Dan and Wendy McGarvie's home succinctly confirms the Summit Township family's passion. "If not home," the sign reads, "check race track."

McGarvie was stricken while rounding a turn in his racecar on Eriez's new clay-based track during a feature race. Not only did the Times-News reporters follow up the story, providing many facts that weren't apparent to the crowd watching the race, they infused their story with a sense of McGarvie's personality and his love of racing.

Erie Times-News reporters strive to not only bag quality scoops, they also work hard to follow up with good, newsy stories.

-- Kevin Cuneo

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