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For me working in local news always meant developing a fierce attachment to a community and it's stories. I remember driving though Calumet County and looking at all the antennas on farm houses and imagining that my newscast might be on sometime.
It's always a little bittersweet, that "your" stories will continue to develop without you.
Often the new developments mean the producer might just crank up your old file tape. Minnesota now has the suburban rail line that was just being designed when I worked there.
On Long Island, the Marcelo Lucero case has had several guilty pleas. Probably a good thing since the criminal complaints in that case were exceptionally complex.
The Taconic crash also still produces headlines.
The video from one story I covered, the death of U.S. Marine Ryan Jerabek, even ended up in a documentary, that was part of the Tribeca Film Festival.
But in the end you have to let your "news babies" grow up without you. Most stories fade from view, some have dramatic twists.
When I left Wisconsin, Steven Avery was free after being wrongly jailed for rape. In the end he would be found guilty of a murder in an unconnected case.
Like doctors, reporters have to learn to disconnect their emotions. But I can't help but wonder for example how Marcelo's brother and mother are doing.
Not every reporter feels this way, some are happy to say good-bye to a market and move on to a new town without looking back. But for me a little part of my heart will always live in Minnsota, Wisconsin, Maine, and Long Island.
