Friday the 13th: Jason Writes Edmonton Headlines
That winter, and now gas prices, is really hitting Edmonton’s budget hard. We’ve gone from a surplus to a deficit in just a few months (and without doing all that much). Speaking of the City needing money…It’s going to cost you more to park in Edmonton (at meters anyway).
I enjoy the endless debate of LRT vs. BRT (that’s bus rapid transit). Yes, it’s likely cheaper to claim a lane as a bus lane and zip some buses around on more express routes. But, as this column mentions, while you can find plenty of folks who like taking a train, subway, maybe even a streetcar (in my opinion) you won’t find many people talking about how much the love public buses.
The Journal’s business section has a lot of stories on Stantec. But, I guess, Stantec does kick a lot of business butt.
Police in Edmonton and Leduc have used DNA to link a man, already charged with a sexual assault, with other assaults in Edmonton, Vegreville, and B.C.
Guards at the Edmonton Remand Centre have been complaining of unsafe conditions. Today, an inmate is dead and another is charged with his murder.
While wildfires begin to burn around Alberta, the City of Edmonton is reminding people to be careful with their cigarette butts, since firefighters were putting out fires all over Edmonton because of careless smoking.
The wind we’re experiencing is not helping contain those wildfires. And in Edmonton the wind is knocking out power.
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Do you miss Premier Ed Stelmach already? He says we’re ready for the next boom. This time.
What about David Swann as Liberal leader? Do you miss that yet?
Some of the early costs of an oilspill cleanup are starting to come in. With about one third of the spill cleaned, the costs will be going up. It’s the worst spill in Alberta in four decades.
Beginning this fall you can ask to see your home inspector’s license.
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Leduc is keeping it local. Which is kind of ironic since they’ve got the Edmonton International Airport right there.
Get ready for your parents to move in with you.
Laughter continues to be thought of as a good medicine.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is coming to Edmonton. I had to double-check this didn’t have anything to do with press junkets for the new Conan movie.
Watch out for black cats today.
Be Original
Today’s headlines are going to be a little different.
Our journey of news stories begins with a nice, steep climb.
They’ll all be Calgary stories!
*cricket* *cricket*
Of course they won’t. We haven’t opened a franchise in Calgary. Yet.
Riffing on that for a second, I think it would be funny to expand one day and make the other cities name their blogs something-onian. So instead of the proper Calgarian it would be the calgaryonian. It’s what the Gothamist network does.
Alright, enough of getting sidetracked.
Everyday (well, Monday-Friday) I look at all of our cities illustrious and industrious newsrooms for stories that are big, small, interesting, ugly, cool, and in general, you and I might learn something from.
Inspired by this post from the editor of the Christian Science Monitor (Thanks for the link, Marilyn!) I’m going to focus on the newsroom’s original stories today. His post is about how they’ve transitioned to an online-first model and seen their audience, online and in print, grow. But he notes that it’s mostly because they continue to create new content and try not to cover what everyone else is up to/talking about.
That might be a little harder in a daily news format but I think we’re about to see that the newsrooms with the most staff, and the most original stories, are the ones that I usually link to the most anyway. And that we all tend to link to on Twitter.
One note I will make, I’m going to include opinion and commentary on items that might not be new, since that stuff can only come after a story surfaces.
And away we go…
Here are the original headlines:
from the Edmonton Journal:
Edmonton increase snow plowing budget by $800,000
Volunteer fair for Edmonton festivals a big hit (It’s a genius idea for the festivals to get together for this event.)
Thousands of jobs set to end in Edmonton region
Ex-WEM boss savoured his bite of Apple (The Big Apple.)
Stantec profit dips in first quarter
Edmonton’s McCoy Corp profitable again in Q1
Rescue of Greece saves Alberta too, economist says
Challenging the climate change deniers (Graham Thomson is only writing about it, not taking them on.)
Edmonton minor hockey group to teach its players to be respectful toward women
from the Edmonton Sun:
World Cup soccer fans may get early tipple (Bars could open early, alcohol could start flowing earlier than usual too.)
Heart Institute well worth the way (Hicks on Six.)
Sports stars rally for a cause
from Metro Edmonton:
Hockey mom proves she’s an indispensable part of the team
from the Edmonton Examiner:
Enjoy wine and cheese with potential trustees (It’s this Saturday night.)
Cat, cat, everywhere a cat – So what do we do about it?
Yard sale puts junk good to use (I think they mean they’ll put it to good use.)
Reuse fair hits Queen Alex hall this weekend (We love a good swap meet.)
Help sink the queen (A different food bank story from the Metro story, below.)
Glenora daycare worker honoured (One of the best in the province.)
CASA hosts kids’ spring celebration
Job search workshop gets teens thinking outside the box
Ronald McDonald House opens new quilt room
McPherson a heroic legend (We’ve had plenty this week on Gary McPherson, and the Examiner is in on it too.)
Sold on the arena vision, but what does it cost?
from the Globe and Mail:
Alberta group makes case for oilsands
It’s a vulgar dance for Alberta Grizzlies
from 630CHED/iNews880:
Indy news encouraging for city (Not as much red ink.)
And 3 stories from sister station CHQR in Calgary: New hope for patients with kidney problems
Canadian Federation of Independent Business warns about economic recovery
from CBC Edmonton:
Western premiers on Asian trade quest
Woman in teen-stabbing barred from library (Barred before the stabbing, that is.)
Metis community needs its young people: councillor
from CTV Edmonton:
from Global Edmonton:
Nursing: You can’t live without it (It’s National Nurses Week.)
from CityTV Edmonton:
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Quick side-note: As luck would have it, today is Thursday, SEE and Vue are out with their issues of the week.
from Vue Weekly:
Vue’s got their “Meat” issue this week. It’s full of tasty stories on wild game, local meat and, well, more meat. It’s also time for the Golden Fork Awards.
Safe it not relative (An opinion on environmental safety of the oilsands.)
Homelessness: Strategy for success (Thoughts on Edmonton’s 10-year plan to end homelessness.)
Vue’s also got a Great Outdoors section. Sadly, it doesn’t include anything about the John Candy movie.
from SEE Magazine:
First off, today is Best of Edmonton 2010 day. I didn’t win for sexiest blogger.
Street musician Brian Gregg keeps on plucking
The Marquee Tourism slush fund
Overreacting to the library problem
And, if you didn’t already know it, SEE and Vue are two of Edmonton’s best sources for everything arts, entertainment, music and cultural.
Here are stories more than one newsroom covered:
City council sets date for Edmonton arena hearing
Bureaucracy impedes Edmonton LRT, manager says (He’s proposing an “arms-length” committee to deal with smaller LRT expansion issues, so it doesn’t get bogged down at the council level.)
Edmonton neighbourhoods share $2M for business facelift
Police chief focuses on anti-graffiti enforcement (I’m all for getting rid of gang tags, but let’s leave cool stuff like the Listen birds and “Oh No.”)
Simple, cheap drug holds cancer treatment promise
Scholarships hope to draw youth into the trades
Crews battle brush fire north of Edmonton (It’s near Thorhild.)
British newspaper article takes aim at Stelmach (This is about the oilsands pitch happening in the U.S. so soon after the Gulf oil spill.)
Verdict in June for Syncrude duck deaths trial
Alberta Liberals pitch $50 voter tax credit (Is that all it would take to get the other 60% of the population to vote?)
Come one, come all (Grey Cup party y’all.)
Edmonton’s Matrikon sold in $145M deal
Three better than 1 in food bank fundraising effort
Witnesses sought in nightclub shootings
Edmonton racist jailed over hate attack
Little girl recovering in hospital after brital dog attack (She’s from Grande Prairie.)
Whew. I’m tired. I had to do a lot more reading today, to make sure the stories I put in the Original section were just that.
What, if anything, does this all say to you?
Personally, it was interesting to really go over the stories, moving them around once I found it covered by someone else. I’m still not sure what it all means, but there’s something in there to be said about Edmonton coverage.
Do the sources you usually turn to shine when we take away the stories everyone has?
What to make of the Examiner’s long list of stories? They aren’t exactly the hardest-hitting but certainly speak to hyper-local coverage.
Were you more/less likely to click a story that’s original? How about when you didn’t know which newsroom it was from?
