Phil Lewis: A correction and an apology

He claimed that parts of our Stadium Naples corruption coverage, which spanned seven years and more than a thousand stories, defamed him. He sought damages in excess of $5 million.

From the start, we argued that our coverage was fair and accurate. That it was based on public documents and long hours of thorough, careful reporting.

In November, a judge issued a ruling. He granted the newspaper's summary judgment request, which in our view affirms that our coverage was indeed fair and accurate.

Our record of accuracy, however, ended last week when we published a story about Rasmussen appealing the judge's decision.

In that story, published on page 2B of the Dec. 22 edition, we made a mistake.

We said Rasmussen was convicted of misdemeanor stock fraud. That was incorrect. He wasn't convicted of anything. He did enter guilty pleas to two misdemeanor stock fraud charges. The judge accepted the pleas and placed him on probation, but withheld adjudication.

That is not a conviction.

Rasmussen's attorney sent a letter demanding a retraction. We published a retraction in this past Friday's edition.

We regret the error, and today's column is an effort to further set the record straight.

As editor of the Daily News for more than eight years, I have been ultimately responsible for our Stadium Naples coverage. I was deposed in the case, and during an afternoon of questioning under oath, I attempted to stress that we do admit mistakes and correct errors of fact when they occur.

And, we apologize.

We made a mistake Dec. 22 and we are sorry.

There will be no Business section in our Tuesday, Jan 3 edition, because the stock markets are closed on Monday. National and world business news that occurs will be contained in our 'A' section on Tuesday.

In previous years, the Daily News devoted the entire section after the New Year's holiday to year-end stock market listings, which included each stock's opening price at the beginning of the calendar year and its closing price 12 months later.

We decided to suspend that practice this year and save the 14 full pages needed to list all the stocks traded on the New York, NASDAQ and American exchanges.

Readers have told us and research studies have confirmed that the use of — and need for — this type of voluminous stock listing in the newspaper has waned to the point that it does not merit the use of so much newsprint. The Internet offers an easier, more efficient way to review a stock's performance for the calendar year.

Those readers who do not own computers can get access to the Internet at the public library. While there, you can also pick up forms to file your Florida Intangible Tax, which often is the reason year-end stock prices are needed.

Phil Lewis is editor of the Daily News. E-mail him at pplewis@naplesnews.com