It’s Valentine’s Day, which means we’re a little low on staffers tonight - while some of us call Spec our significant other, many Speccies are actually out on dates - but we’re hoping the Weekend section (a perennial late-nighter) will match The Eye, which PDF’ed at 3:30 a.m., a record for the year (possibly longer). Of course, the late breaking story on, well, Barnard pipes breaking, kept us in the office for a few more hours. But last night the News team came together in excellent fashion, as the editors coordinated with Photo and a number of reporters on the scene (read: knee-deep in sewage/murky water).
On a more sober note, reports are streaming in of a gunman opening fire on an Illinois campus today. It’s sad, perplexing news. We here at the Spec have to figure out whether - and if so, how - to cover the tragedy. The precedent is technically set by the Virginia Tech incident of last year. What we’ll do now is ask ourselves if this compares, if there’s a local angle, and if we have the logistical support to cover it. While we’re all shocked by the news, this might be one for our readers to follow in the Times and Illinois papers, CNN, or Google News.