Dana Heupel died Dec. 26, 2018 at age 68. For 30 years, he worked in newsrooms spanning the Indianapolis Star, The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, The Kendallville News Sun in Kendallville, Indiana, and The Fresno Bee. He covered Illinois state government for more than 20 GateHouse Media newspapers as a reporter, city editor and statehouse editor. In 1999, he was awarded the Illinois Associated Press’ Member of the Year award for coordinating a statewide open-records project. He also served as executive editor and columnist at Illinois Issues, a public policy publication, before retiring in 2014.