Channeling my inner Edna

I work an early shift.  I get up at midnight and at around 12:45am, I'm generally in contact with the morning team to talk about what incredible stories we intend to put our reporters on.  

There isn't an overnight photographer and we generally don't buy stringer video so when there's breaking news, we have to work the phones and dispatchers, although nice people, aren't always willing to part with meaningful information.

There was a fatal shooting at an Exxon station in Hollywood, about seven miles from the station so I decided to check it out on my way to the office.

Just in case, I instructed Amanda to choose a good photo from my Facebook page for the full-screen (in the event of my death).

Even after talking to the cop and snapping a few photos, I wasn't convinced that it was a huge story worth a reporter:  A bad guy went into a convenience store intending to rob the place.  The clerk shot and killed him.  My concern was that there would be no scene left at 5am and our reporter would be live at a gas station with nothing to show.

I was so wrong.
Turns out, a homeless guy who lives BEHIND the gas station saw the bad guys prepping to rob the place.  He alerted the clerk who had seconds to pull out a weapon.  One bad guy died, the other one ran away but didn't get far before he was arrested.  Thank goodness our reporter did a better job of finding the story than I did!
It was while I was driving back to the station that I thought of Edna Buchanan, a very famous Miami Herald reporter who wrote one of my favorite books.
I obviously spent too much time in the corner office and I need to sharpen my news sense!