Keeping things lively even in calm of summer

It is 9:30 p.m. and Daily Herald reporter Christy Gutowski, already at the end of a long day of following courts in DuPage County, is banging out the lead to a scoop that would predict the culmination of a 26-year mystery. In less than a week, Brian Dugan will confess to the murder and rape of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico.

It is midnight and Daily Herald sports reporter Tim Sassone, the dean of Chicago hockey reporters, has just heard a report on cable television that could rock Blackhawks fans: General Manager Dale Tallon has been fired.

It is a Saturday, and Sunday editor Ginny Lee is poring over last-minute details with reporters Joseph Ryan and Marni Pyke of an investigation with a message for drivers throughout the suburbs: You won't believe how easy it is to get a ticket from a red-light camera and how hard it is to fight one.

These are supposed to be the summer doldrums, the dog days, when things quiet down, suburban families languish into the last few weeks of the season and, often, public events relax along with them. To be sure, some areas of the news are experiencing a bit of calm. The legislature has completed its annual Delay of the Inevitable and left Springfield with no solution on the lingering budget crisis. School, county and municipal boards are on hiatus or dispensing quickly with mostly non-controversial matters.

But there's still plenty going on to keep Daily Herald reporters and editors on their toes to bring you news of your community that matters - and do it ahead of anyone else.

We spent considerable time wringing our hands last week over Gutowski's bombshell on Dugan. It was based on sources who had to remain anonymous, a situation we do not permit lightly, the potential motives for a guilty plea after so many years of denial were a little vague and the consequences of being wrong could be devastating. But, as usual, Gutowski's sources were solid - and numerous - and for a story that has attracted so much community interest over the years, it was obvious we could not delay. Through remarkable effort on her part and that of our night news desk, we got the story in the next morning's paper.

Of course, this week, events in DuPage County court proved Gutowski right, though putting a cap on this long-running, highly competitive story meant another doldrum-defying week of difficult interviews, odd hours and high-pressure writing - and another scoop: excerpts from Dugan's letter of apology that the court refused to hear him read until his sentencing hearings begin.

Sassone's long night - which would also feature herculean contributions from editor Aaron Gabriel, who had to remake sports pages even as they were about to go to press, and Barry Rozner, who wrote an online-only column at 1 o'clock in the morning - would lead into a long day of follow-ups.

Our series on red-light cameras energized, engaged and enraged suburban readers. In terms of our original goal - to produce work that makes a difference - it was an unqualified success. Readers gobbled up information they've been longing for and policy makers are reviewing the technology.

Such remarkable feats of reader-focused commitment become the stuff of legend around the newsroom. And, frankly, they happen in small ways nearly every day - even in the laziest days of summer. But you should know about them - not simply because they deserve recognition, but also because they show the lengths to which newspeople will go, even in the hardest of times for their business, to make sure you get the most important news, the most in-depth news and the most relevant news.

And you get it here first.