Pete Stidman

A small group of community newspaper reporters, web developers, graphic designers and I have been working on a new idea called the Alliance for Community Journalism. In the past few months we have put together the beginnings of an organization that would work towards fulfilling a number of goals, most prominently supporting locally-owned and owner-operated community newspapers, educating new reporters and exploring new ways to improve the interaction between local media sources and their readers, such as “citizen journalism.”

One of our early projects is simply meeting people and getting reporters together to hang out and talk. That's what's happening at JJ Foleys this Friday at 6pm. Call it a learning phase. We’re just in it to make new friends and listen to what’s going on out there.

A more ambitious undertaking of ours is the Boston Bee project, a web-based project that is already underway. That one is under wraps for now, but will become public in the next few months. To hear more about it feel free to ask us at the event at JJ Foleys this Friday night or give me a call at 617-620-1989.

Other members of ACJ have begun looking into grants that could fund our first workshops for reporters. Some of these will be aimed at Boston youth, others would focus more on reporters already in action. That’s it in a nutshell right now, as I said, we’re just coming out of the shell so anything is possible.

We’re always looking for new people to help us build this thing, just email or call if you’re interested.

For a man who isn’t going to run for office, Al Gore sure is acting like a candidate in his new film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Even conservatives are talking about his potential as a presidential candidate for 2008.

And if he isn’t running, and he has said he isn’t, why all the deeply personal auto-biographical references in the movie? Why the repeated mantra, vote, vote, vote? Why the continual mocking of republicans without a single criticism of a democrat?

If the movie is tied up in the strategy for the 2008 election, it’s a good move. After all, the environment is the perfect trump card to use against a weakened republican party. Climate crisis can be, after many long years of suffering under stereotypes associated with the far left, a non-partisan issue, and even a religious one. Pulling the race-card with Katrina is powerful as all hell...

As expected, Bush has announced his intention to reduce gas prices this summer. This is perhaps the most obvious example of his loose grip on reality.

Three dollars may seem like a lot to most drivers, but it is nothing compared to what is inevitably coming down the line, whether it begins this summer, or summer ten years from now.

Oil resources, no matter how many new areas engineers say they have discovered, are not infinite. When they run out, we won’t experience it as a sudden last drop in the tank at the gas station...

It’s nearing the end of another long Monday and the weekend glow is just beginning to get tarnished. I’ve been working on a few stories for the JP paper that are pretty interesting. They’re tempting my tendency to spend way too much time on research. (There are deadlines to meet!)

One is about Mayor Menino releasing the budget for Fiscal Year 2007. Of course the story itself is dry as hell unless you were hoping they'd drop a dime and fix up the park or the library next to your house.

But have you ever wondered why Mayor Daley of Chicago has the funds to build a whole building dedicated to bicycles in the Loop, bike lanes criss-crossing the city, and a green roof on city hall designed by world class landscape architects and Boston doesn't have diddly?

This time of year you can witness the madness.

On one had, the budget illustrates the almost unlimited power the mayor has over the city in relief. On the other, it demonstrates his almost total helplessness against the state... (yo, click that read more button!)