Day-to-day, week-to-week, the Post sniffs out and covers the big story

Day-to-day, week-to-week, the Post sniffs out and covers the big story

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The University of Florida Black alumni. From day-to-day, week-to-week, our newsroom staffers never know what big story they may have to end up covering. Whether it's intensely local, or of state or even international interest.

We work hard to be the authoritative source that our readers come to for that news story.

We experienced that recently when Great Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, made their way to Palm Beach County. Our county hosts celebrities all the time, but when Post Sports Editor Nick Pugliese shared a tip that the high-profile couple was coming to Wellington for a Polo match we weren't content to just wait for them to show up.

Our editors began planning what stories and visuals to get ready for the day they were to arrive. And we were ready, with background stories and photo galleries of previous visits to remind of our coverage. On the big day, the Post was first out of the gate with stories, photos and video .

WELLINGTON — Meghan Markle stepped to the podium Friday carrying the trophy that was awarded to the winner of the Royal Salute Sentebale Polo Challenge . The Duchess of Sussex walked past the first two players of the winning Royal Salute Sentebale team before squeezing in beside her husband.

"Me," Prince Harry said, pointing to himself and feigning surprise before the couple kissed.

The most famous polo player in the world helped his team win the round-robin charity match that benefited Sentebale, of which Harry is a co-founder, before receiving the congratulatory smooch from his wife.

Harry's goal helped Royal Salute Sentebale defeat Grand Champions 3-1 in the final game. Sentebale was a 1-0 winner over Maseru in its first match.

Ever since UF President Ben Sasse announced a controversial decision in early March to close the university's Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, The Post has monitored the reaction and activities of UF's Black alumni, who, by far have had the strongest reaction to the decision. Noting that the state's pre-eminent campus of higher learning only began "welcoming" students of color in the 1970s, they wondered aloud why their alma mater would seemingly shut down efforts to further diversify its student and faculty population. Especially when those efforts have shown moderate success, at best.

So when the Post received a tip that hundreds of UF Black alumni were preparing to step up their ask in the most public way possible — through the media — we mobilized to not only cover the story, but break it ahead of everyone else. (After all, Palm Beach County is home to arguably the largest Gator Booster Club in the country.) We not only broke the story, but amplified it across all 16 USAT Network-Florida news sites, as well as USA Today.

A coalition of Black University of Florida graduates is calling for the school to set aside millions of dollars in private donations to reconstitute diversity programs that the school gutted last month.

A new group calling itself the Coalition of Concerned Black University of Florida Alumni says the state’s flagship university needs to reinvest in racial diversity efforts to reverse its “swift and decisive retreat from core values and principles.”

The group, founded by UF graduate and former Florida Bar president Eugene Pettis, wrote in a letter to UF leaders last week that the school risks damage to its status if it does not do more to “maintain a diverse and inclusive learning environment.”

And we did a lot more. Check out some additional stories and photos from our staff from the past week below.

I hope you continue to support local journalism in 2024 by telling a friend about us. We won't mind.

Rick Christie

Executive Editor

You can always reach out to me at rchristie@pbpost.com and find me on X (formerly Twitter) at @rchristiepbp . Or send in a news tip to breakingnews@pbpost.com . Subscribe to independent reporting that supports democracy via subscribe.palmbeachpost.com .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Day-to-day, week-to-week, the Post sniffs out and covers the big story