Lou clashes with a woman who is the head of the woman's section of the newspaper over whose reporter should cover the alleged murder of a famous playwright in New Mexico.

Billie uses a battered woman as a source for a story on spousal abuse but has trouble following through with it when the women's husband finds out. She later finds out that a co-worker has a problem with spousal abuse.

Lou is shot by a robber, who is in turn killed by policeman Vince DeMayo. Both Vince and Lou have a difficult time getting their life back in order.

The Tribune hires an old acquaintance of Animal's from 'Nam: photographer Lee Van Tam. But Tam's domestic troubles interfere with his work. Lou tries to get out of meeting visiting relatives.

When Lou goes back to his elderly home to settle his aunt's estate, he meets an old flame and gets his first story assignment in years from Charlie.

The paper faces a public backlash after Lou runs a story about an NCAA investigation into the possible recruiting violations by a popular local college football team.

Art Donovan's mother is dying, but he is having trouble accepting this as fact. His relations with everyone in the newsroom suffer as his mother gets worse, and his colleagues try to help him come to terms with the inevitable.

While investigating a string of fires in the same neighborhood, Lou and Billie find a connection linking a building owner and members of a fire department to arson.

A mother, obsessed with tracking the hit-and-run driver who killed her son, arouses Rossi's fighting instincts and leads to a human interest story with an unexpected payoff. Meanwhile, after Lou and Mrs. Pynchon have separate encounters with hostile citizens, Billie is assigned to find out if there's a story in the use of cars as weapons.

The hard drinking husband of a popular female politician makes headlines while the Trib staff makes news itself in a gossip magazine. The Trib learns a hard lesson about what happens when private lives become public from Rossi's tough coverage of elected official, Bonita Worth, and Lou's firing of a resentful reporter.