Everyone would be asking me who he was and i wanted to be able to tell them with a straight face i didn't know. he helped to show me the ropes, told me who the key players were, filled in the back stories, sent me suggested stories, always done on instant messenger, of course. mostly, though, wally gave me autonomy. i picked it up fast, learned what i wanted to cover, how to cover it, developed my own style, my own voice. i didn't cover politics out of the state house like most reporters. i covered the county bosses, the turf wars, the machine battles. the real action was, real action is, wher...