People in northern Rice County (where all the county’s ODs occurred) died in 2007 of an overdose at two times the rate they did in Hennepin County and Ramsey County over the same time period. (Verification of the math used to produce this statistic comes courtesy of a statistician serving on the News’ Watchdog Team).

The “safety net” is very easy to get around, takes about 2 minutes. I miss reading Rudolph the Red’s comments, hopefully he/she will figure out how to get around the “safety net” soon.

The new policy on northfieldnews.com still allows readers to post comments without identifying themselves. However, Web site users must first complete a short registration form that includes the submission of a valid e-mail address. This gives us the opportunity to contact posters if we have a question or problem with their comment. Users only need to register once; after that they can freely interact throughout the site.

Here’s an excerpt from the white paper that’s specific to LoGroNo’s collaboration with the RepJ project:

. . .the end goal is to attract enough paying readers to make the hub self-sustaining, ushering in a new business model for entrepreneurial journalists in the process. Newspapers may stand to gain from underwriting such experiments, given the low cost of entry and the built-in safeguards protecting independence and quality journalism, Witt adds. (emphasis mine)

Hmmm…. more potential for collaboration between LoGro and the Northfield News? Could be!

Although Jezebel has as good of guidelines as any other site might have,
I don’t care much for the star system. If you are a regular, and eventually,
when you find a good site for your tastes, you will become one, you can
star up your own favorite posters. If the Jezebel wants to do that sort of thing in a different area so that others can choose to research, fine, but I don’t like them trying to influence my decision to take certain people seriously and others not.

Thanks for the link, Anne. Fun.

“First!” And bacon-flavored ice cream?

Hey, do you people try to read all comments before you comment?

Do you read the comments from the top down, or from the bottom up? Just wondering.

Team Watchdog (OK, maybe the name needs work) is simply an acknowledgment that our readers possess knowledge and experience that could benefit our investigative reporting efforts. People with skills in accounting, finance, education, public service or other careers are invited to help us analyze data, answer questions and uncover solutions that will ultimately benefit the entire community… Team Watchdog isn’t being organized to just expose corruption, it’s charged with uncovering better solutions to admittedly complex issues facing our community.

Concerning Rudolph the Red, that reminds me of a story I heard one time about the couple from Minnesota touring Russia. Their tour guide was named Rudolph, and by the third or fourth day, they were getting to know him pretty well. They were touring Red Square when it started to sleet. The wife exclaimed, “Oh, look! It’s starting to snow!”
Rudolf replied, “No, that is rain.”
The wife replied, ” I’m from Minnesota, and I know what snow looks like. It is snow.”
“No, it is rain.”
“Snow!”
“Rain!”
The husband turned to his wife and said, “Stop arguing! Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear!”

After that one, I’m sure everyone is willing to go back to the thread!

But I wonder what is the practical outcome or result, and how would the process actually work?

I think Sam’s idea was to get leads, not to have so-called watchdogs do the work independent of the NNews, and not to give them access to the NNews’ lawyer (shared with other small-town newspapers). Self-appointed watchdogs can already write letters to the editor, or comment here or at the NNews site (sometimes anonymously, for good or ill).

Instead of having folks argue for or against watchdogs, I think it may be more productive (if the thread continues) to discuss how to make them work well and avoid the troubles that occur when it’s abused.

I think that’s enough: I have to do my reading for my CVEC class, “The Age of Enlightenment”.

P.S. It’s not about Northfield; it could be… but it’s not.

When other people say, “I don’t care.” it means I don’t care what you do, don’t bother me with it, it’s nothing to me, I want no part of it.

So what I am saying is that this is one of those, it’s English, but it’s local
jargon that differs from county to county or state to state.

(Hey, contact me if you still want to borrow that movie….)
(Now that’s thread drift….)

So, the bad blood from the News comments has spilled over to here. But let’s remember that the two sources of information (LoGroNo and the News) are separate. It’s my feeling that LoGroNo does a better job when they don’t allow anonymous posters, and it should be the the News having discussion about Rudolph.

I don’t like watchdog groups. Citizen participation is good, however, if the intent is noble and not pompous, too judgemental, or exclusive.

As for the News and LoGroNo having similar content: Wow, that’s a new one. I see “same content” all over the place. Strib runs a story that TV Channels 4 and 5 cover for lunch. It would be fun to figure out who owns the news, but mostly no one cares about that, they just want to be connected. The News and LoGroNo don’t have the same take on stories, either, and that is what makes this site interesting.

Anne, it’s not nice to write “I don’t care what you think.” You usually are more elegant than that… although many times it just seems like you are stirring the pot for the sake of stirring.

Kiffi and Victor-- chin up and maybe don’t take the bait.

Happy Monday!