There are few reporters who work a story as hard as Rick Daysog, and his talents were on full display last week.

Over four days, Daysog provided Advertiser readers three solid, exclusive stories, which highlighted his perseverance and determination to get the story.

After the terrorist attacks on various locations in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Daysog tracked down the mother of the hotel's managing director and CEO, Raymond Bickson, a 1973 Saint Louis High graduate. She was able to describe how her son and daughter-in-law were in one of the hotel's dining rooms when the attacks began. Bickson stayed with his employees and his wife escaped the ordeal. Ten hotel employees were killed.

While covering the indictment of Jimmy Pflueger over the Kaloko dam disaster, Daysog had also been tracking a civil lawsuit filed by the dissident shareholders of Finance Factors, the venerable loan institution that has been roiled by infighting.

Following up on his September 2007 piece about allegations that CEO Russell Lau and other company directors withheld vital corporate information, failed to pay dividends and undermined attempts by minority shareholders to sell their stock to outside investors, Daysog closely followed the latest legal entanglements when the case was settled on Nov. 21.

But the plaintiffs in the case would not agree to seal the depositions of local attorney James Wright, an outside director of Finance Enterprises Ltd., who made explosive accusations against the institution, including that Finance Factors made loans to company officials and family members and that one-fifth of its loan portfolio was tied up in slumping Mainland real estate.

Daysog obtained the depositions and fleshed out an in-depth story on Finance Factors for last Sunday's paper.

That Sunday night, he was back in the office again, filing an exclusive story about the Hawaiian Telcom Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Daysog is meticulous about knowing key dates when business developments are breaking.

On Nov. 15 of this year, he wrote, "Earlier this month, Hawaiian Telcom postponed a $26 million interest payment due to bondholders. It instead opted for a 30-day grace period to give itself time to negotiate with creditors to restructure the debt. That period ends Dec. 1."

Watching the date closely, he started making calls on Friday, Nov. 28, to find out if a deal had been struck with bondholders.

"If they didn't cut a deal, the bondholders would have the right to demand all $500 million of their investment back," he said. "I also heard from a source that the board met Friday and no deal had been made. I was pretty sure that a deal couldn't be made over the weekend since it was a holiday."

None of this is complicated. Daysog works the phones, keeps in contact with key players, watches for important deadlines and looks at documents throughout the day. That's why he's one of the best in the business.

Mark Platte is senior vice president/editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at 525-8080.