I want to know what stories you want to read. I'm always looking for story ideas that will get you interested and tell you something you didn't know before.

So what is going on in La Porte County that needs to be in the paper? Along with that -- What are we already covering that you like, and what aren't we covering that you'd like to see?

Thanks for your input! Alicia Ebaugh

I really appreciate the chance to answer this question. I have "lurked" on this forum for some time, and never joined or felt need to reply, until now... hopefully, it is worth it..

Stories I would like to read about:
Well in reading the many comments on the ND online page, sometimes important topics come out of the discussions on there. I suggest that ND staff review what is being said on there and determine if a story can come out of the discussion... Granted, a lot of it is opinion and plan venting, but every now and then, something good gets discussed. It would be nice to see it taken further into a full fledged story.

Other topics I have had interest in learning more about..

New business that open up in town, what brought the business to MC, why did they see an opportunity here, and what they hope to gain from or bring to MC?

What are the children of our town doing to better our town? or do they even want to? High school or Middle school kids, do they see them selves in MC in the future? working or raising a family of their own? If not, why?

What are the struggles that people in our town face? Unemployment, lack of education, crime, poverty, homelessness? What does MC do to offer help? is it enough? What lead to these situations for these people? Does our city work for its people, or only for the "rich people from IL, that live on the lake." (note: this is not my opinion, rather, a definition I have heard many times by many people in this town).

More stories on positive things in the community, church events, clubs (boy/girl scouts, etc.) What are the people in LP county doing to better the community? It doesn't take a lot to find out.. stopping by a local library, or church, or club event will often lead you to what people who have a sense of community, are doing in our community.

I know that most of these ideas are more "human interest" stories, and need the right individual to be willing to give you a glimpse into their life to write. However, I also feel that these stories can spark something in the reader to feel a connection to others.. After all, isn't that what life is about? Finding a common ground?

Thanks for offering this option, Alicia. I hope to read about one of these idea's in the future in my subscription to the ND.

~Bellah

I cross-posted this on the facebook page for you A!



Welcome to the site, excellent first post!

A couple of ideas from the perspective of a person that only reads the online version:

1) a series that takes a personal view of how everyday people contribute to the fabric of LP county. Many interesting people out there that make LP interesting and might have a very interesting viewpoint- Might not even need to be in print format, but as a blog;

2) incorporate Twitter and a blog on the website (Michael Gresham talked about how this could be incorporated on WIMS, and as a listener from Chicago, I complete/strongly agree);

3) interesting businesses in LP county;

4) consolidate the Herald-Argus and News Dispatch;

5) Political analysis; doesn't have to be partisan, but you can analyze why candidates are campaigning a certain way. See Ward Room on NBC Chicago .com for an example;

6) Incorporate video from events and related to stories for use in conjunction with online stories- even create a YouTube page.

7) Create a working relationship with a radio station and video/news to share stories and increase readership: i.e. Sun-Times is aligned with NBC and Tribune is WGN.

good ideas Zas

I'd like for the N-D's website to have a place where readers can upload their own photos and video like several other news sites.

That's what I really appriecaite about this site because you could do all of that either here or on the facebook page. Even though this forum don't have that large of a membership and most accounts are inactive, it generates tons of traffic, especially when breaking local news happen (ie. peak of 160 unique hits when the ISP break occured).

I know that I've already complained about this in the past but they need to put the print edition job ads online. Linking to Yahoo HotJobs is absurd.

Maybe I'd like to see more investigative reporting. Such as, What's being done to control the county's exploding mule deer population? What's being done to stop roadside littering? When and Why did Marquette change it's name from St. Mary's? Has Marquette ever considered resurrecting it's football program? Why are there so many vacant business properties in Michigan City compared to other nearby Northwest Indiana communities? Why don't Michigan City High school hire their own graduates to coach Michigan City High School teams like Merrillville does? Who was the idiot that thought that Michigan City was ever going to have a population of over 100,000? What were those people that boarded the Eastland thinking, what did they do with all the food when they didn't show up for the picnic?

I enjoy Parkhouse's Home Cookin' on Sunday and Drew White's Unwritten No More on Monday.

Tax, in the upper right corner of the N-D website is 4 links, one is local jobs. Don't go through the classifieds sections cause that's takes you to yahoo

I like the idea of the political analysis also. Mike does an OUTSTANDING job with candidate forums here, but the N-D should include some type of coverage for that also.

I'd like to see a section about what's going on. For example, the Parks & Rec dept should have a weekly update on local P&R events, not just special events, but a list of everything that's going on--like the weekly softball games, who's playing who, what time and what field. etc. Same with the MCAS, Sr. Center, etc. Give Pop Warner a spot, too for their games. Sometimes people aren't directly involved with a program but like to attend as a spectator. For example, I do not have a child in Pop Warner, but I would love to go the LP/MC game and have no idea when or where it is.

I realize that the paper does give event info, but not the little stuff. That should be included as well.

I really appreciate everyone's feedback, even business ideas that I can pass on to my editors (especially adding more event and sports calendars, etc). I'm seeing a few things I can do already.

I'm specifically looking for story ideas that I or other reporters can do in a relatively short period of time (like feature stories on particular people, groups, businesses etc., or stories on an issue that has arisen in the schools or about town). It's fine to say you'd like to see more human interest stories, but without guidance I don't know where to go to find them. I have little time to search for ideas myself, so any specific ideas are always welcome. I also love investigative reporting, but I don't have a lot of time to do it, so those story ideas have to be really unique or important.

On a level of 1-10, how interested would you be in, say, a story about the food service at Michigan City High School. They have such a huge selection of food, it's crazy. And apparently they've won awards for it, too? What if I combined that with info on a study that found kids who eat lunch at school are more likely to become overweight? What about how the schools try to create healthy meals on a budget, and whether you can pack a healthy lunch for your kids for the same amount of money per student?

Although I'm being very unscientific, I'm just trying to gauge where people's interest lies.

Thanks for the tip on the jobs link, I still got Yahoo HotJobs, when I find out if any LP/MC Pop Warner games are to be played I'll be sure to you know, the team that I followed did not play La Porte last season because they were in opposite divisions, same with Merrillville, I was a little disappointed with that.

@ taxthedeer: regarding the local print job ads online. if you select classifieds then use the drop down menu in the middle of the page to select employment it should take you to the local print ones. I check it often on the HA site as I work with people in both communities that are "job searching"

@Alicia: how about something about the recent influx of heroin use and abuse in this county? I had a client tell me that it is easier to get heroin, and cheaper than the get marijuana in this area, as well as the lack of treatment for this addiction in this area. I am sending client's to SB or Ft. Wayne for quality treatment. Or, does the general population of the area, not feel this is something that need's attention and why?

or... business's I have noticed that have popped up lately.. Santoyas (sp?) the mexican buffet, the small place out on 212(looks like a hotdog place or something), the new purse store on Barker. Im sure there are tons more.

MCAS does a small article every now and then on a graduate from the school system and what they are doing in the community now. I imagine something like that could be expanded to a whole article.

I promise I have tons of more ideas. Just need to think about it for a day or two.

Lastly, when reading the articles that are interesting in the paper, they seem to be too "quick". Im not asking for a book, and I clearly understand the space restrictions, but it seems like just as the article gets going, its over.

~Bellah

If the schools are trying to battle the teen obesity problem, how come their ticket stubs to athletic events come in the form of a McDonald's coupon for a buy one get one free Big Mac or Quarter pounder?

Tax, those tickets are donated by whom ever the coupon is for. Since the MCAS is trying to cut costs, it uses those coupon tickets vs. having to buy tickets outright. People don't typically consider it, but buying tickets can become a little pricey--especially when is team is doing well and spectator attendance goes up.

The regional/sectional basketball tickets alone cost upwards of $500--or more. So, if the school can use tickets donated from some organization, who cares if they have a fast-food coupon on them?

Alicia, I've heard several different rumors about how ISP came to be in Michigan City. Most often, I've heard that the guy who originally owned the land wanted to donate it to the City for the high school, but he was spurned by the powers that be and out of spite, he donated it to the state for the prison instead.

Can you do a story on the history of the prison and how it came to be here? That would be cool.

That is actually a cool pathway to go down. Some historical stuff would be awesome. I remember the ND used to have an older guy who did some pretty awesome writing about City's history. A whole generation is coming up without that kind of stuff. Places like Pullman Standard and Barker Haskell mean nothing to kids here today.

I would like to see just a little investigative journalism. Writing about only what is being told by public officials can be very miss-leading at times. For example:
1. The paper was told an outside lawyer was retained to investigate the resulting safety issues at MCSD as a result of the IOSHA scandal. This same lawyer testified to the city council the the scope of his contract with the MCSD was to look at Ron Meer only, nothing else
2. When the residence status of former zoning board member Nolah Nasser came up several times. Jason Miller was told and put in the paper that she lived on Cleveland Ave. at the same address as Tim Bietry. While in fact she owned no property in the State of Indiana. (Jason realized the misinformation almost immediately but failed to report it.)
In other words why does the paper believe everything it hears? Ask a question once in a while.

(Mrs Nasser was quietly dismissed months later and replaced by some goof. A story on the goof that took her place on the Zoning board would make for fun reading)

Investigative reporting and follow-up on previous stories. Seems like memories are bit short around here.

I spoke a bit too soon...today's story on the continuing issues in the Pines is a great example a follow-up on an investigative report!

I used to work with this guy who believed that things like this was some kind of foreign plot to make americans fat and lazy and kill us all off through our diet and take over the country.

I heard a comedian once say that Americans are so fat because we have ALL the food. He said walk into any convenience store on any corner in the USA and you will find more food than a third world country.

Sweet. I haven't been ripped publicly for my work at the N-D in years. It's like old home week.

Who says you can't go home again, J?

It warms one's heart.

I guess it's safe to assume who Milldew37 is.

Dang. My cover is blown.

So what's up with the Anvil Chorus in the online edition? Hasn't been updated since 8/26.

No AC in the print edition today...not sure when I last saw it in print...

What happened to Dave Hawk?

The rumor is... he gawn.

That's too bad. I'm pretty tired of the syndicated editorials. At least the AC was back in print today.

Dave's been gone for at least a year IIRC. Not sure why, tho. I kinda miss him.

Its been way less than that. Less than a month as I understand it.

Dave was let go less than a month ago.

Well, then maybe I'm thinking someone else took over as editor more than a year ago?
Or has my clock slowed down that much?

the editor of the crappy laportepaper took over a few years ago. Mr. hawk was not even gievn a farewell blurb in the ppaper after working their for decades. So, who wants 2 b captain of a sinking ship ?

Hasn't Richards been gone about a year? Maybe that is it?

One story I'd love to see would be a "family tree" of the folks at city hall showing who's related to who.

Scot Squires (formerly of the Herald Argus) wrote an article about that, complete with a great graphic of the "family tree".

Here's a copy of the text....wish I had an electronic copy of the graphic! It's from 2007, probably needs an update!

I'll bet that's it. Thanks. I was thinking my CRS was getting really really bad.

So I supposed a "where are they now" of people who have left the News Dispatch is out of the question?

Anyways, how about some follow ups of some of the biggest stories of the last few years? I'd be curious to hear how somethings turned out, such as the kid from LP who was captured in Iraq for example

Or the woman who jumped off the back of the lighthouse to commit suicide? And the police officers who tried to save her? Was her body ever recovered? What about her orphaned children?

Here's 1. Why is Dave Hawk no longer with The News-Dispatch? I think everyone wants to know -- and should know -- why. Maybe Chris Scable can answer that.

I will have to remain silent on that issue. For obvious reasons.

theirs rumors going round. if an editor who's been at a newpaper for 20+ years leafs, theirs a lil storhy about him/his acccompishments. not saying you need 2 answre, NDrepotrer, but if Mr. Hawk was let go or fired, it is somthing people want 2 know about. Even need 2 know about, since Mr. hawk was a memmber of the communnity for sooooo long.

rumors re things got bad and stupid over their in TheNd9spatch & mr. hawk shoud still have his job. heard this 2 weeks ago @lighthouse resterraant and last week at the football game; heard it from my buddy, whose kid may or may not have workd their, whilst I was working overnite.

I will miss Dave.

I have recently subscribed to the Post Tribune and read the local comments that don't require names and addresses. Some are funny, some are REALLY stupid, but it's fun to see what people are talking or complaining about in their community.

Rumor has it that Dave was terminated for insubordination because he wouldn't agree to forcing restaurants featured in some article to buy advertising space in the paper in order to be featured in said article. He said that was unethical and so his boss said he was insubordinate.

And I did NOT hear this from anyone working at the N-D--nor did I hear it from Dave himself, just FYI, but from a source close to the situation.

If this is true, my thoughts on this situation are:

1. The corruption in MC has definitely reached the paper--no wonder the news items tend to be so biased.

2. The restuarants in Michigan City don't need to be in the News-Dispatch to get recognition. We here at CBTL do our own ratings of them-we are becoming more popular than the N-D and have scooped them on many many occasions--so we are a good source for restaurant stories.

3. Everyone should go to a locally owned restaurant this weekend and come back here and tell us about your experience. Dig through the rants/raves in City Living and see where we've been already, pick something new, or try an old one for a new experience. Do NOT pick a "big box" place, pick something that is owned by a resident of LaPorte Co.

4. To Dave Hawk, I know you lurk here from time to time so I want to say good luck to ya. I'm sure you'll move on to bigger and better things. You will be/and are missed!

Me too! Good luck, Dave...sad to see you go!

I know of a good one!

Why don't you follow up on your own stories? You wrote that article about Tom Moss and his projected road into Moon Valley, but not a word afterwards.

Hey ND Reporter - I always appreciate your insight regarding the ND, a lifelong staple of my hometown experience. Here's a question - do you know who posts the pictures in the ND? They always like like this in the obits, and it's so pathetic. Just asking -

T