My local daily newspaper recently took, to paraphrase Neil Armstrong, one small step for a newspaper, but one giant leap for newspaperkind. Or did it?

What did our newspaper do? They noted that a particular story (or, really, an on-going series) is "sponsored by ...."

Though very much an anomaly, our Everyday Citizen database was "offline" due to a weird and unrepeatable technical snafu for almost 3 weeks! We are happy to say that it's now completely fixed. We thank all of you for your patience.

Readership continues to grow at this site. Just in the last month, we had 704,238 hits (visits) - even though much of the that time, our writers were unable to post new content due to the extremely rare technical difficulties! In a normal, unfettered month, we have over 900,000 and during one recent month we even crested the million hit mark. These are, without a doubt, very respectable stats for a website of this kind. I believe it is because Everyday Citizen has high quality writers and thoughtful commenters.

And, the good news abounds! This widely acclaimed excellent citizen journalism site, founded in 1997, is fully re-tweaked, re-wired and very sturdy. Good to go for years to come. Writers can rest assured that their archives are working perfectly and are well protected with multiple backups. Our dedicated readers can now return frequently to find new content. New visitors can learn more by reading about our Directory of Writers, our Table of Contents and More About Us.

In the last 50 days, we've had only 11 contributors. They have only submitted 19 posts. That isn't even a new post every other day. With 55 registered contributors, that isn't a very good showing. That's not enough to attract and keep visitors coming in.

We have some very talented and interesting authors with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Let us hear from you!

I love soda.  That should be no such a big surprise if you saw my previous post where I admitted to loving junk food.  I love science.  And you know I loves Science Blogging.  But if I had known my little affair of junk food and science and social media would end up in the mess now regarded as #PepsiGate/#SbFail, I would have shunned the tasty but not-so-healthy beverage long ago.  You see, Cola has shattered my science blogging world.

This week, I will be attending Netroots Nation 10’, a progressive blogger conference, in Las Vegas. And while the thermometer will surely note a ‘heatwave’, what will be even hotter are the speakers and the training sessions.

As we deal with what the media is dubbing “post racial America”, we at Netroots will spend our time understanding and crafting the messages that will resonate in 2010 and 2012. With guests like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Al Franken, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Elizabeth Warren, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Ed Schultz, and Van Jones, we’ll be sure to tackle the issues that America is talking about.

Lately most of what I have read about Facebook is complaints about security and privacy. It’s legitimate to worry about how a company might appropriate all the personal information exchanged by those who use the site. Whether all of that data is being adequately protected from stalkers and scam artists is important too.

But in the last forty eight hours I have also seen how Facebook users have turned a social network site into a support network for a beloved teacher. Today there are scores of former students reaching out to let Virginia Witte know that her battle with cancer is our battle too.

It happened again a few days ago. A long-time friend who should know better sent me another one of those racist anti-Hispanic e-mails, one in a long line of many I’ve received since Arizona passed its “Show us your documentation” law. This isn’t the first racist e-mail I’ve received nor will it be the last, I’m sure.

Racist e-mails have become the norm in the last few years. After 9/11, I received a torrent of hateful e-mails against Middle Easterners in general and Muslims in particular. Finally, after I received such an e-mail, a particularly hateful one, from a friend, I responded. I told her to take me off her hate mail list. I also told her that one of my former officemates at the community college where I taught is a Middle Eastern Muslim, as is the cardiologist I see. Both men are fine people who came to America because they knew they could be successful here. Many Middle Eastern students took my English comp classes, and I assume most of them were Muslims, even though I never asked. The worst crime they ever committed was to try to bribe me with meals so they would get an A in the class. Of course, the bribes never worked.

According to CNN.com, "Punch lines about hygiene products flooded the blogosphere on Wednesday only moments after Apple Inc. announced it would call its new touch-screen computer the "iPad."

As we are all aware, the country's great newspapers and even local newspapers are at risk. In May of 2009, our local paper, The Rochester Eccentric, which had been purchased by Gannet, died a slow, but unnatural death.

Ever since May 2009, my community in southeast Michigan has been without a local news source. Immediately my thoughts turned to trying to save the paper. I called the managing editor, but to no avail. It was simply too late. The decision had been made and there was no changing the minds of the powers that be.

What to do. Why not start my own newspaper. But how?

We are happy to congratulate the writers of the Kansas Free Press on their 1st One Month Anniversary! The Kansas Free Press launched just one month ago, on October 1st. Since that first day, the reception, readership and traffic there has been nothing short of phenomenal. KFP's 54 writers have collectively filed 121 stories. During October, the Kansas Free Press has had 271,959 "hits" and has welcomed between 365 and 5,070 unique visitors every day! That's really magnificent!

So, what is the Kansas Free Press? As it steadily grows over the coming months and years, the Kansas Free Press strives to be a trusted state-wide online newspaper, featuring both opinion and news, written by citizen journalists about people, places, politics and policies that effect Kansans. Its writers are chiefly interested in examining what the people of Kansas value most and how individuals, governments, communities and neighbors respond to those values.