On Deadline was compiled and edited by Mark Mahoney, editorial page editor of The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y. If you have an innovations or inspiration you'd like to share with American Editor readers, please e-mail it to Mark at mahoney@poststar.com.

Spring 2009 Moving on Lessons from across the pond Go jump in a lake Re-gifting Unflattering portrayal Freedom of speech debate Blame it on the kid Super Bummer Business model Aren’t we non-profit already? Sun still not shining Fewer statehouse reporters

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF one of your reporters brought this story to the Page 1 meeting?

It depends on where you live.

According to an item on Yahoo News, one of Nigeria's largest daily newspapers reported that police had implicated a goat in an attempted automobile theft.

Yup. A goat that not only can drive, but one that doesn't have his own car and has to steal one.

With a story like that, who can blame the Vanguard newspaper for printing this sensational development on its front page?

The report, according to Yahoo News, said two men had tried to steal a Mazda two days earlier in Kwara State. When vigilantes cornered the men, one of the suspects transformed himself into a goat.

The paper quoted police spokesman Tunde Mohammed as saying that while one suspect escaped, the other transformed into a goat as he was about to be apprehended. The newspaper reported that police paraded the goat before journalists.

Vanguard published a picture of the thief, as a goat, in his all his tin-can-eating, car-stealing glory.

Yahoo noted that belief in black magic is widespread in Nigeria, “particularly in far-flung rural areas."*