Hawke Fracassa, 44, is chief of the Macomb County bureau for The Detroit News. He joined the newspaper in February 1990 and was appointed bureau chief last January. In between, he has had a variety of assignments at The News, from 1A page designer to copy desk slot to news reporter. He has written for The News about a variety of general-assignment topics, from bad priests and government abuses to parenting and Native American affairs.

Before coming to The News, Fracassa was a columnist, general manager and assistant to the publisher of Football News and Basketball Weekly magazines; news editor of the daily Detroit Legal News and Adrian (Mich.) Daily Telegram; and columnist and city editor of the Ypsilanti (Mich.) Press. He also edited suburban weekly newspapers in Metro Detroit.

In May 1999, Fracassa was part of a team from The News that won first place in enterprise reporting, as judged by Associated Press Managing Editors. “Are you getting your money's worth?” analyzed tax rates and government services for 127 Metro Detroit communities.

Fracassa graduated from Wayne State University and received his B.A. in Electronic Journalism. He lives in Warren, Michigan with his wife Anne and daughters Francesca and Rebecca. In college, he was the editor of Wayne State's campus daily newspaper, The South End, and news director of campus radio station, WAYN-AM.