Rob Wells joined the faculty at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism this spring as a visiting associate professor. He will be teaching a variety of reporting classes and is continuing work on data journalism and the history of business journalism. His second book, The Insider: How the Kiplinger Newsletter Bridged Washington and Wall Street, is due out in the Fall and will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press.

Owen V. Johnson has published an essay in The Hill proposing that Fort Benning be renamed Fort Ernie Pyle to honor all the war correspondents who have covered US troops.

Teri Finneman, Pam Walck and Meg Heckman are hosting a News Desert University conference in October. The conference will have both in-person and Zoom components the evening of Friday, Oct. 21, and during the day Saturday, Oct. 22. Topics will include a deans panel, creating a syllabus for a news desert classroom, raising funds to start these ventures, building trust in communities, lessons from students, the logistics of running a news desert operation and a brainstorming hour. The University of Kansas J-School is sponsoring and hosting the event in Lawrence. Registration will be free. Anyone interested should join our Facebook group for further announcements as we continue planning the conference and getting our registration site up.