We in the media are guilty of dropping the ball many times. Too often, news coverage of an event reaches a fevered pitch, but then there is no follow-up on just how a story ends. Too often there are items that are front-page news when they happen and then buried inside the newspaper when they end. We too are guilty.

The Rev. Henry Lyons is the embattled black minister who was leader of the largest minority denomination in the nation. Lyons was accused of stealing money to buy expensive trinkets for his mistress. When discovered, Lyons' wife got mildly upset and set fire to a $700,000 "love nest" he had purchased for his lady friend.

When news of the controversy first hit the press, Lyons cried racial prejudice. He was joined by all of the usual black voices like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Protests were held over the white media's attack on this black minister. His church congregation gave him a vote of support.

Well, now the story has come to a close. Lyons tearfully admitted in court that he was guilty and asked for forgiveness. In all, Lyons lifted $2.5 million of church funds for his personal use. The Rolls Royce is gone. The diamonds are gone. The $700,000 beach house is gone. And the Rev. Mr. Lyons is headed to prison.

We do not rejoice in this news. We are sincerely sorry for Lyons, his family, his congregation and the denomination he served. He clearly made a mistake. As he stood before the judge recently, he appeared genuinely sorry.

But Lyons never apologized for throwing the issue of race into the debate. And Jackson and Sharpton were nowhere to be seen. Those thousands who charged that the rumors about Lyons were racially motivated stood silent. It's as if those lies never existed.

But they did. The Rev. Henry Lyons played the race card in an attempt to save his hide. It did not work.

It is similar in some ways to the outcry over the rash of fires at black churches two years ago. When the final government report was presented, very few of the fires were racially motivated. Most were simply acts of violence and most were committed by congregation members.

It's important to follow up on all stories and see how they end. You need not look beyond the Rev. Henry Lyons to realize that. -- Michael Jensen, Standard-Democrat, Sikeston.

* * * * *

Aircraft billings and shipments highest since 1984: The general aviation comeback continued in 1998, according to statistics from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. "For the third year in a row, the industry has set a new record for billings," said GAMA president Ed Bolen. "Last year was the first time since 1985 that the industry shipped more than 2,000 aircraft," he added. (The general-aviation industry delivered more than 17,000 aircraft in 1978.)

Billings last year were $5.9 billion, up from $4.7 billion in 1997. Total shipments were 2,223 aircraft, up from 1,569 in 1997.

We owe this increase in sales to the increase in commercial airline flight charges, consolidation among companies who find it management- and cost-efficient to fly their management team to sites by use of company airplanes, and the limitation on lawsuits.

* * * * *

The new office pools are taking bets on the starting date of the Southeast-Stroup fountain in front of Kent Library. This has replaced the annual first one-inch snowfall.

This is a busy 125th anniversary week at Southeast with DAVID COPPERFIELD (tonight at 6 and 9 p.m.), the Family Business Seminar at the Business School and International Week, which starts Sunday.

Second Friday Coffee at 7:30 a.m. this Friday at the Show Me Center will feature an update by Congresswoman JO ANN EMERSON and her friend from the English Parliament.

* * * * *

China's military chief directed money from Beijing to Clinton campaign, cays Chung: Former Democratic fund raiser Johnny Chung has told federal investigators that the chief of China's military intelligence secretly directed funds from Beijing to help re-elect President Clinton in 1996, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The exclusive report by Times reporters William Rempel, Henry Weinstein and Alan Miller hit Washington in the overnight hours Saturday.

Sources familiar with Chung's sealed statements to federal prosecutors tell the Times: "Chung says he met three times with the intelligence official, Gen. Ji Shengde, who ordered $300,000 deposited into the Torrance, Calif., businessman's bank account to subsidize campaign donations intended for Clinton."

Last spring federal agents moved Chung and his family into protective custody, law enforcement sources told the paper.

Military and White House split; U.S. chiefs argued that Kosovo action was not in America's interest: In the weeks before NATO launched its air campaign against Yugoslavia, U.S. military chiefs expressed deep reservations about the Clinton administration's approach to Kosovo, the Washington Post reported late Sunday night.

"The senior-most generals, meeting in closed-door sessions in the Pentagon's secure tank room, argued that the administration should use more economic sanctions and other non-military levers to compel Belgrade," the Post's Bradley Graham is reporting.

"They complained about what they saw as the lack of a long-term vision for the Balkans and questioned whether U.S. national interest there were strong enough to merit a military confrontation."

One senior officer "knowledgeable about the deliberations" tells the Post: "I think it's safe to say that I don't think anybody felt like there had been a compelling argument made that all of this was in our national interest."

And the paper reports that the chiefs have not given "serious consideration" to sending in ground troops, at least not U.S. troops.

Explained one senior officer: "There was no political consensus for it either here in the United States or in NATO. ... If what's happening in Kosovo is more in the vital national interest of the Europeans, shouldn't they be the ones clamoring to put together a ground plan to go in?" -- Drudge Report.

* * * * *

Canceling agreement: President Clinton is playing word games again, this time trying to make whole sentences disappear. According to a cable obtained by the Washington Times, the State Department is telling American embassies in Moscow, Beijing, and other foreign capitals that the Clinton administration won't have to deploy a national missile defense system under a measure recently passed by the Senate. The State Department says that two amendments to the bill provide loopholes. One says that a missile defense system would be funded through the normal appropriations process. The cable says that the Clinton administration views this as "underscoring that no deployment decision has been made."

The other amendment calls for continued arms reduction talks with Russia. Magically, this means plans to deploy a missile defense "must take into account our objectives with regard to arms control." The cable directs embassy officials to draw upon these assertions when discussing our missile defense policy with foreign governments.

This is malarkey, not diplomacy. The main part of the Senate bill makes it the policy of the United States to deploy a national missile defense "as soon as technologically possible." According to the principal sponsor of the bill, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), the amendments don't change the core meaning of the bill. House Majority Leader Dick Armey said, "If the president objects to deploying missile defense, he should "express that view in a veto message, not in secret cables." The words "is," "alone," and "as soon as technologically possible" have clear meanings to most Americans. The president should stop playing word games and start getting serious about protecting the American people. -- Washington Update.

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.