Local News All About Forward-Thinking

The more I read national "news," the more I want to stay away from that world. Local news is where you find the good stuff anyway.


At a local level, you find the stories that validate journalism as a contribution to society. Whether it's a story about a downtown revitalization project or a report on area schools, local news seems to always look toward the future with a sense of hope and optimism.

Local economy stagnant? Let's find out how people are making it better. New businesses? New restaurants? New housing?

Poor standardized test scores? Let's ask the school systems what they're doing to improve education.

Record-high gas prices? Let's see how factory workers and stay-at-home moms are adapting.

You see, local news is all about forward-thinking, and it's stuff that matters to real people.

Average Joe doesn't want to hear why Oliver Stone thinks Bush is the worst president in history. Or about the falling-out between Obama and his psychotic former pastor.

It'll be interesting to see if news becomes more localized as print journalism dies.

Expect to Pay Out the Ear for Transatlantic Shipping

I don't buy a lot of imported British merchandise, so I never knew the cost of shipping for transatlantic purchases. Nor had I fully realized the exchange-rate between the British pound and the US dollar.

A couple weeks ago, my brother bought a Radiohead tee-shirt from the band's online store (based in England of course). That brought home the relative worthlessness of the USD, as the shirt's 15-pound British price tag translated to about 30 USD.

Last week, I pre-ordered the May 5 issue of British music magazine NME to get a free copy of Coldplay's new single "Violet Hill." The magazine itself cost only 1.87 British pounds -- roughly 5 USD -- but the total came out to 8.10 pounds. That's 6.23 -- more than 10 bucks -- in shipping costs!

It'll be worth it once I spin that "7 vinyl on my record player. But, like any self-respecting consumer, I still had to whine a little.

Trying to Get My Priorities Straight

Whenever I turn on my computer and open Safari (Apple's version of Internet Explorer for all you Mac-illiterate readers), there are a couple of things I check before moving to anything else. These are my top priorities:

1. Grace College email. I've pretty much given up checking my Hotmail inbox, so I rely on my Outlook account for anything important. Although, I still give my Hotmail address sometimes in an effort to divert junkmail.
2. Facebook. Yes, it's true. At least I'm man enough to admit it.
3. Grace Portal. I like to keep an eye on my grades.
4. Ryan Sholin. Actually I get Twitter alerts when he posts, so I'm not sure why this is the case.
5. Sean Blanda. Journalist first, student second. It's refreshing.

I think there's something missing from my internet priorities list. News. Since college started, I've felt like I haven't had the time to read the paper. But staying informed is just as important a part of my education as classes (if not more so), so I'm trying harder to keep up with local, national, and world news.

For my local news, I mostly read the (Elkhart, IN) Truth at eTruth.com. The Truth gives pretty good coverage of the entire Elkhart area, and they're working at developing a strong online presence. They've also get a few interesting staff blogs.

For national news, I've been reading the LA Times, primarily because I like their website. I also like to browse links at the Drudge Report.

I go to the BBC for most of my world news. The British perspective is fun, especially during campaign season. They seem to find the American political process most fascinating. Which is kinda weird because I stopped caring about the Democratic primaries months ago.