Chris O’Brien returned in July to a job as a economic reporter for the "San Jose" Calif. "Mercury News" after a one-year sabbatical during which he was a stay-at-home dad in Cambridge, Mass. In May, he won a $25,000 Knight News Challenge grant to plan an "ideal newsroom" at Duke University for the digital news era and create an online resource for student newspapers and other news organizations looking to bring their facilities up to date with new-media trends. He has been a working journalist for 16 years, including the past eight the "Mercury News". A 1991 Duke graduate, he worked for the independent, student-run daily, "The Chronicle" and later wrote for "The News & Observer" of Raleigh, N.C.