The National Civic Review, the quarterly journal of the National Civic League (“Now in its 98th year of publication”), has its Winter 2008 issue out. The issue has a 6-page…
Category: <span>RepJ</span>
Local governments and independent non-profits can be resources for business owners in need of support, especially in today’s tougher economic times. In Northfield, however, not everyone agrees on what the government and non-profits should do in order to offer the most help to the most business owners. The Representative Journalism Project attempted to collect more information about the matter by issuing a survey in January to 60 business owners or managers from a variety of fields. (continued)
Greenvale Township’s three supervisors met briefly Tuesday night to sign the final draft of an annexation agreement with Northfield after nearly seven months of negotiation.
The annexation agreement, among other things, indicates how much Northfield would reimburse Greenvale for the property taxes the township will lose when 530 acres of undeveloped farmland goes onto the city’s tax rolls. Northfield is annexing the land to attract industrial developers in the hopes of widening the tax base and creating jobs.
Federal dollars might soon funnel into communities across the nation if the Senate passes the $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and many people are already speculating about how the bill might affect their communities. This week, State Senator Kevin Dahle (D-Northfield), Christopher Richardson, superintendent of Northfield’s public schools, and Michael Hemesath, chairman of Carleton College’s Economics Department, talked about their understanding of the bill and what Northfield citizens might expect if it becomes law, which could happen as early as Friday night (update 2/14/09 8:15 a.m. the Senate did pass the bill).
I don’t know the Nieman Journalism Lab guys personally but Mathew Ingram’s blog post today, “Locally grown” news gets a boost acknowledged the good stuff happening here. The ‘boost’ to hyperlocal sites like ours that he’s referring to is the new funding that RepJ founder Len Witt just got from the Harnisch Foundation to create a new Center for Sustainable Journalism (CSJ) at KSU in Georgia. No, that doesn’t mean a cash infusion into LG or RepJ Northfield. It’s just that we’re going to be a part of something much bigger. Mathew had this to say about LG after a quick look around here. (continued)
The last week in January, I interviewed three professionals who are trading their know-how for the ingenuity (and, to a certain extent, free labor) of interns from Northfield’s two colleges. One partnership has already led to an art project, transforming discarded steel breadboxes into women’s breastplate armor. And there is promise that another trade could result in two new Web sites that could help boost the careers of local ceramic artists and rock stars.
The Representative Journalism Project has a core goal of revealing the journalistic process as it happens, from beginning to end, and beyond. By creating “Bonnie Obremski, RepJ,” I am striving to meet that goal in a better way than I have been. LocallyGrownNorthfield.org will be a place for me to publish my finished work. (continued)
Representative Journalism (RepJ) creator Leonard Witt (professor at KSU in Georgia, Public Journalism Network blogger) arrived in Northfield last night for a series of meetings (through Saturday) on the Northfield RepJ project at its six-month point. We tried to find him a set of long underwear last night before dinner at the Rueb ‘N’ Stein, but alas, the entire state is sold out on that item for some reason. Luckily, his room at the Archer House has a hot tub.
Len and RepJ reporter Bonnie Obremski were having breakfast at The Tavern this morning. We’re having boxed lunches from The HideAway today, meetings in John Schott’s Cinema & Media Studies department at Carleton this afternoon, and as Bonnie blogged earlier, there’s an open meeting that y’all are invited to at the Bittersweet Eatery Saturday morning at 10.
Update 1/17 at 11 am 3pm: new photos – yesterday’s RepJ/LoGroNo mtg at Carleton; RepJ feedback session this morning at Bittersweet Eatery; RepJ lunch at Chapati; Len Witt, paparazzi (continued…)
In this 8-minute video, Dr. Charles “Charlie” Reznikoff, addiction medicine specialist, answered my questions after talking to an audience of about 24 people on the subject of heroin addiction during a public presentation at the Northfield Hospital on Monday night.