A belated welcome to Ian Benjamin of Albany, who joined The Record’s city desk staff as our cops/courts reporter on July 30. He replaces Dave Canfield, who joined the staff of The Post Star in Glens Falls.
Ian is a graduate of The College of Saint Rose in Albany and was executive editor of The Chronicle, the student newspaper.
In that position, he managed a staff of 20 and was  charged with overseeing the entire process of producing The Chronicle from start to finish. Ian also was responsible for expanding the distribution of the newspaper and printed a record number of issues in the 2011-201 academic year.
In addition to covering cops and courts, Ian will working as our general assignment reporter on Sundays.
To reach Ian, call 270-1287, email him at ibenjamin@troyrecord.com and follow him on Twitter at @ibenja2

With apologies to the ABC network , the staffs at The Record and our sister newspaper to the north, The Saratogian, are ready for some football – the high school kind, that is!
On Thursday, the two newspapers will publish a joint 72-page high school football preview section called “Kickoff 2012.”
Content from the special section will start appearing online mid-day Wednesday at www.troyrecord.com and www.saratogian.com
Kudos to Kevin Moran, executive sports editor for The Record and The Saratogian, and his staff, Assistant Sports Editor Tim Martin, and sports reporters Laura Amato, Mike Cignoli, Stan Hudy, Andrew Santillo and Ed Weaver for their hard work on the section. Chief Photographer Mike McMahon and his fellow photographers J.S. Carras, Erica Miller, and Ed Burke deserve a thank you, too, for their terrific photos. Ballston Spa Life Editor Joe Rocha did yeoman’s work proofing all of the pages.
The section, which is the first joint effort produced by the newly merged sports staff, includes team profiles, schedules, rosters, and more.
Laura and Mike will be our primary high school football reporters. If you happen to see them at a game, stop by and say hello.
We hope you’ll pick up a copy of Thursday’s print edition for the preview section, and don’t forget to check out www.troyrecord.com and www.saratogian.com throughout the high school football season for all of the latest updates.