An alternative story form at the bottom of the front page of The News & Observer fulfills its mission. It's sort of an executive summary of a report on how climate change will affect the state economically. A full story — necessary in this case to elaborate on the findings — appears elsewhere in the paper.

It's where that story appears that makes little sense. It's on 10A, sandwiched between a page with two short wire stories about Iraq and Afghanistan and the editorial page. But the news about the climate report is a state story, and the N&O has a City & State section. Why not put the full story in City & State, where it belongs, rather than in the back of the A section?

Just because the ASF is on the front page doesn't mean the story it refers to should be in the same section.