A story is assigned when a reporter can get to where it happens and stay long enough to watch the thing work or fail. We do not run pieces written off a press release, and we do not run pieces without pictures.
Figures printed in the rail beside an article carry their source on the line below them. Where a figure comes from a body that has an interest in it, the line says so. Where we could not confirm a number, it is not in the rail.
Corrections are made on the page itself, dated, with the original wording kept in the note. A correction that changes what a piece concluded is also printed at the head of the desk it was filed to.





