I drove down Clark Street on Thursday afternoon, just taking in the sights — the businesses, the trees and the camels — on my way back to the office.

The camels?

Four dromedary camels were standing inside the fence at the Georgia Army National Guard Armory, and that was not what I expected to see as I headed back to work.

It turns out the circus was back in town and the camels were drawing a crowd to the attractions inside the armory. Now, I’ve always had a love of camels — they’re just neat creatures — so I stopped.

And then after going to the office for a few minutes, I went back and made pictures.

One man asked what I was doing, which was understandable, and he sort of shook his head at the thought of The Covington News considering the event, well, “news.”

This answer seemed satisfactory in every way but to me, in that I couldn’t recall the collective noun for camels. (It’s not “a bunch.”)

But the question is one we have to ask ourselves multiple times every day: What is news?

It’s the first question students are asked in an introductory to journalism class. There are as many answers as there are students.

My definition has always been news is what people are talking about. Now, that doesn’t mean everything people are talking about needs to be in the newspaper — correctly deducing it was Mrs. White in the conservatory with a lead pipe while playing Clue with the kids is impressive but not going to make Page One. But generally speaking if the community at large is talking about it, that’s news.

Sometimes we are privileged to get to set the agenda a little bit. That happened this week when Darryl Welch noticed the Solid Waste Management Authority meeting’s agenda included a resolution asking the Board of Commissioners for permission to take garbage from outside the county.

Welch’s story on covnews.com Monday alerted the public to a possibility many have said they don’t want to become reality. Had it not been for our reporting on this issue, the resolution may well have been rubber-stamped. Now, it’s not even going to make it to the county commissioners, or at least not now.

Another example of finding what people are talking about is the controversial decision to terminate the employment of the county’s parks and recreation director, Anthony Avery. Welch and Managing Editor Jackie Gutknecht have been all over this one.

Gutknecht has pored through public records, which we paid to obtain, and met with officials and attorneys to get to the bottom of what happened and what might be coming next. (My guess: It won’t be cheap for taxpayers to settle this.)

Not every story is as fun as a caravan — I looked it up — of camels on Clark Street, or as hard-hitting as something on the crime beat. Oftentimes the work of a journalist is tedious, as when you look through personnel files or a bond agreement as we’ve been doing for the Morning Hornet economic development project.

But it is worthwhile to bring you information and context you can’t get anywhere else. I’ve staked my life’s work on being the leading news source — first when we can, but most trusted every time. I appreciate our readers and advertisers who make that possible.

David Clemons is the editor and publisher of The Covington News. His email address is dclemons@covnews.com. Twitter: @scoopclemons.