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A flower to Lee Griffin, principal of Children Reaching for the Sky charter school, for reconsidering an earlier decision and allowing two students to have a week off from school so that they could spend more time with their father, an Army soldier on leave from Iraq.

Griffin told the Star's Carol Ann Alaimo last week that he would deem the absences unexcused and wouldn't allow the students — Khalina Polanco, 11, and Andres Rios, 8 — to make up missed assignments. The story was quickly picked up by national media, and reporters from across the country called Griffin for comment, Alaimo reported.

However, Griffin said earlier this week that the school will accommodate the students and help them keep up with assignments.

Given that the children's father, Staff Sgt. Enrique Rios, 30, has been in Iraq for eight months, the school was wise to give the Rios family as much time together as possible.

A thorn to the Cochise County Attorney's Office for stonewalling the release of records in the fatal shooting of an illegal entrant near the border in January.

A story Tuesday by the Star's Brady McCombs said the records — which include witness accounts and an autopsy report — contradict the border agent's account of how the Mexican national died.

The Cochise County Attorney's Office only released the 300 pages of documents after the Star filed a legal notice last week that it would seek court action to obtain the records. That followed the denial of 10 written and verbal requests for the material, McCombs reported.