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Al's Morning Meeting

Home > Reporting, Writing & Editing > Al's Morning Meeting
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Al Tompkins
Story ideas that you can localize and enterprise. Posted by 7:30 a.m. Mon-Fri.
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A dozen sites
I'm diggin'


*1. You thought sub-prime lenders were gone? No way! They are making FHA loans.

*2. Salon investigates "Friendly Fire" incident that leads to document shredding.

*3. Just in time for Thanksgiving, PETA posts a video of turkey abuse on a poultry farm.

*4. Seven key questions about a car company bailout.

*5. The Flip Cam has gone HD with a customizable cover.

6. A fun video to help you with digital conversion.

7. ProPublica's investigation into air marshals gone bad.

8. An awesome storm chaser photo blog

9. Planet Money is a really good blog about money and finance.

10. ESPN's "The Journey of Richard Jensen" -- the comeback of a wrestler -- is an extra good video.

11. You can lay subtitles or text bubbles on video -- any video. I will be using this to teach about storytelling.

12. I now use Utterz to file audio reports. You can use your computer's mic or any phone. It's simple and would be a great reporter's tool.

All of my Diggin' sites are saved on Poynter's del.icio.us page.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.


Slowing Growth in Bedroom Communities
My friend Boyd Huppert, a reporter at KARE-11 in Minneapolis, found a story that he and I believe plays out around the country. Huppert tells me:

New census data released last week had me traveling to Roberts, Wis., -- the fourth fastest growing city in Wisconsin since 2000, according to the new census data. It appeared to be a story about rapid growth in a bedroom community. Not anymore. Roberts issued nearly 70 building permits in 2001. Last year the town wrote three. So far this year -- zero. The mortgage mess and high gas prices are hitting these sorts of commuter communities especially hard. So much so that the census data can be outdated by the time it's released.

Watch Huppert's related story here
.

Posted by Al Tompkins 3:18 PM
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