I am settling in quite nicely in my new role as Managing Editor of The Covington News. But I must admit that I have a number of things that I still need to address. One of which is this overflowing line of notes that I have in the old reporters book.

Here we go.

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While my goal as managing editor is to improve the quality of the overall creative direction of the editorial machine, I know with that will come some changes. Some of that also means having to do some personal sacrifice.

From my tenure here at The News, I’ve been known as the “news guy.” Any type of news thing you can think of, I’ve covered it. I’ve very much enjoyed doing that, both as News Editor and now as Managing Editor acting still kind of as News Editor.

But I know that inevitably, that time is going to come to a close. Soon, we will be back to full editorial strength and there will be someone in my former spot. This means my day-to-day news beat reporting days will be over, at least for now.

Personally, it’s bittersweet because I very much enjoy being the go-to guy for news items. On the other hand, I’m excited to move on to be more of a jack of all trades and get to know every editorial aspect. That’s news. That’s sports. That’s social media. That’s other forms of content we’re going to introduce.

Stay tuned folks. Things are about to get very interesting.

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Speaking of interesting, how about that debate from JD Vance and Tim Walz?

In what I expected to be a Part 3 of what has been a debate clown show, it was actually civil… respectful… dare I say a great debate from BOTH sides.

Did they get a leaked copy of my last column before it published?

Regardless, I was very pleased to see a debate that — in essence — turned back the political clock. Go figure.

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This BioLab fire has been an absolute disaster.

There are lots of things I’ve been not pleased with about this whole ordeal, but the thing that makes me mad the most is the Miracle League situation.

The organizers of the event and the wonderful Miracle League staff in Newton County absolutely made the right decision to put athletes health and safety first and to postpone the event. Kudos to all of you.

I’m mad that we even got to this situation. There’s not much being released as to what actually happened, but it just doesn’t seem… right. That, of course, is me speaking with the reporter hat off here, to make that clear.

Regardless, I hate it for these kids who have worked so hard to get to this point. I, too, was looking forward to giving a spotlight to them for this edition, as I had originally planned to give them the entire top half of the front page. Yes, the entire top half.

Because they didn’t just deserve it. They earned it.

But let me be clear, when the event happens in May 2025, they will still get that spotlight. I just hope someone is held responsible for this BioLab fire before then.

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Lastly, are the Atlanta Falcons good? I truly don’t know.

Kirk Cousins looked fantastic last week against Tampa Bay, and it does seem like tight end Kyle Pitts has remembered how to play football (or the coaches remembered he was still there).

But while last Thursday’s performance looked promising, the games against Pittsburgh and New Orleans still gives me room for concern.

So I have no idea if this team is any good or not. I’ll know more when everyone else does I guess. You can bank on a column about it, too.

Evan Newton is the managing editor of The Covington News. He can be reached at enewton@covnews.com.