Dispatches:
Baristanet [Montclair NJ]: “Twenty-something Jackal ISO home run, bed pillow in Baristaville, in exchange for inside baseball scoop, pitching a few balls, and guaranteed access to VIP baseball events. Really? Families providing a bunk to minor league baseball players has become a tradition across the country, says NJ Jackals Director of Sales Brooke Kenna. Last year, about 10 Baristaville families gave Jackals a room in their home for the summer season. This year the team would like another 20 baseball-loving families to host a Jackal from May 10 – August 31.”
The bulletin board at BlufftonToday.com [SC] is lighting up with resentment towards today’s immigrant boycott: “I have started a new blog on this one that was began by “Landers”, to keep from having a second page. I say if there is a boycott on Monday, then I will begin a boycott at restaurants where Mexican workers are waiters or servers, my boycott will be no more tips for those Mexican workers at those eating establishments.” See also here, here. An editorless front page almost always produces surprises, however: there’s also a call for the legalization of marijuana. The end result ends up with the same positions as the editorial page of the Economist.
The Boston Police Department blog [MA] is a Web 2.0 police blotter: “About 9:16pm last night, officers responded to a radio call for a person stabbed. On arrival officers observed the victim being treated by EMS for stab wounds to the face and head.” Meanwhile, MNSpeak [MN] has Fun With Crime Blotters. I really have to get up the courage to go stick my face in the police station and not leave until I get the police blotter. And then do it again and again. Last time I went they told me to check the paper and refused to give it to me. Ouch. Well, first they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
CNN doesn’t care about your town, but Coastside [CA] does: They’ve got exclusive video of State Senate candidates for Half Moon Bay.
DC Blogs wants hyperlocal to go down to the block level: “Self-publishing is one of the most powerful and liberating tools of our age, and neighborhoods that have made a conscious decision to limit discussion of local issues to mailing lists are missing out. Mailing lists may be easy to join, but they’re not easily accessible and searchable. Most importantly, local blogs can extend community awareness beyond neighborhoods and help identify common problems, trends and inequalities. The ability to easily document issues with photographs, audio and video feed adds an impact that mailing lists can’t deliver. Neighborhood blogs are inevitable, but it would happen quicker in DC and in neighboring communities if mailing list managers, and their more active participants, began offering blogs as companions to mailing lists. The list of neighborhood blogs in this area — a Metro area of 5 million — remains surprisingly small.” They point to a new blog for DC’s Delray neighborhood. Subscribed. Welcome to the movement!
For my money, one of the most fascinating citizen journalism blogs out there isn’t about a city or town but about a workplace. LANL: The Real Story is what would happen if your corporate newsletter were edited by Walter Winchell. Hotter? It’s by and for employees of Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has been racked by scandals — and to hear the LANL crew tell it, cronyism and incompetence that makes the office depicted in Dilbert look like a veritable paradise.
One of a number of ongoing roundups of Boston area blogospheric sentiment towards today’s immigration rallies at Universal Hub.
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