Lou, Charlie, and Donovan interview students from an inner city school for the purpose of awarding a college scholarship to a journalism major. While Charlie and Donovan recommend a straight-A student, Lou pushes for a student who kicked a drug habit and got tutoring to improve his grades. Rossi and Billie uncover disturbing trends of violence at the same inner city school.

Lou visits his home town while on vacation and meets his old boss who now runs the town's newspaper. While there, an outbreak of an unknown cattle disease gets Lou's attention when it's suggested the disease could be transmitted to humans.

Lou clashes with the new media consultant who believes that the paper should do more trashy stories to cater to the younger crowds. One of those stories has Billie and Rossi investigating the "singles" scene by going out on dates through a computer service. While Rossi has trouble finding time with his date, Billie has trouble getting rid of her date.