You are correct, the troops returning home is big news, and we will have a story on their return in next week's print edition. I'm sure you noticed that the troops coming home was the lead story on the Web site Wednesday and Thursday.

Your assumption that our priorities are a little out of whack could not be further from the truth. The troops returned home Wednesday, at approximately 12:30 p.m. -- an hour after the print edition of the Independent Review had gone to press. It was not possible for us to have photos or a story about the homecoming in this week's newspaper. Rather, we published the short brief on Page 7A saying they were expected to return home Wednesday so people who had not heard about it would know. We also referred readers to our Web site for updates.

That's the challenge of being a weekly newspaper, we have a deadline at the press we have to meet, and sometimes that simply doesn't match up with real-world events.

However, within hours of troops return, we did have the story above and a few photos up on our Web site.
That's the beauty of the Internet. The Independent Review, a weekly newspaper, can be a daily newspaper on the World Wide Web. I assume you read the story, since you took the time to comment. And for those who read only the print edition, we will have that troops homecoming story in the May 8 edition.

Thanks for your input. I'm glad to see you're using both our print and online editions.

Brent Schacherer
editor