Youth Today, citing the “rumor mill,” listed four possible candidates to head the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. They are Ernestine Gray, New Orleans juvenile and family court judge since 1984; Gail Mumford, senior associate for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and former director of treatment services for the Missouri Department of Youth Services; Laurie Garduque, director of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Models for Change Initiative, a juvenile justice reform effort that focuses on four states (Louisiana, Washington, Illinois and Pennsylvania); and Vicki Spriggs, executive director of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission.
Karen Baynes, formerly with the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government, had been the top candidate for the job but withdrew last December. Youth Today had its own announcement, naming veteran investigative journalist Sara Fritz as publisher, succeeding co-founder Bill Treanor. Fritz spent nearly two decades with the Los Angeles Times and also has worked for U.S. News & World Report, Congressional Quarterly, and the St. Petersburg (FL) Times. Since leaving journalism in 2002, Fritz has worked for non-profit organizations.