Hello and welcome to my blog!

Hello  everyone and thanks for reading my very first post of  ”On the Beat with Mary Benton”

I’m really excited about this opportunity to blog on click2houston.com.

The plan is for me to write about all of the big stories that I cover everyday (education, elections, and exciting events in our community)

And, of course, the breaking news (jury verdicts in big trials, murders and fires)

I am what we call in the TV news business, a ”general assignments” reporter. 

In my opinion, that means I have to “generally” know something about everything: tax hikes, the west nile virus, the price of a gallon of  gas, the evacuation plan for the next big hurricane, the names of elected officials (and if I’m really lucky, their cells phones numbers in case we need to call them late at night) 

Here’s the plan: in addition to keeping you updated on important stories during the day, I  want to take you on a behind the scenes journey in the news business.  

I want to answer the questions many of you often ask me:   

Why did you cover that story? 

What was it like to meet and/or interview that person? 

Why does your boss make you do that?

How come you did a live shot in the rain without an umbrella?

So don’t forget to check in everyday, send me your questions and comments, and together we’ll experience what its like to be “on the beat!”