creilly's blog

Two Stanislaus State students from Merced County will receive cash awards on Friday for reports they authored on their favorite series of books.

English major Maria Gasaway of Atwater will take home $200 for her paper on the Swiss Family Robinson collection. History major Abby Peretz of Merced will receive $100 for an essay about a fantasy literature collection.

Here's the CSU Stanislaus press release, issued today.

As newspapers everywhere struggle to adapt to the digital age, we're all trying new ways to tell stories online and get readers to our Web sites. In terms of those efforts, I've seen a lot that works. I've also seen a lot that doesn't.

In the latter category, I'd say this one, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer in Ohio, takes the cake. Talk about no-value crap. To me, this just seems like a desperate, uninspiring plea for Web clicks.

If you live in District 2 (if you're not sure, go here) and plan to vote on June 3, tonight's debate among the five candidates vying for a seat on the Merced County Board Supervisors should be worth your while.

If you can't make it, we'll have coverage in tomorrow's Sun-Star.

If you can, here are the details.

WHEN: Thursday at 7 p.m.

I spent four days last week training at UC Berkeley's Knight Digital Media Center, a nonprofit that aims to help good journalism succeed in the 21st Century.

Along with 20 other reporters from across the country, I spent most of my time there learning how to use databases as a reporting tool (thrilling, right?).

Between draining sessions in the computer lab, we listened to a variety of speakers on topics related to journalism in the digital age. I'm sure most non-newspaper people will find this stuff mind-numbingly boring, but in the behind-the-scenes-of-journalism spirit that defines the Reporter's Notebook Blog, I'll share a link to videos of the presentations. In case anyone's interested, this is what journalists talk about when they get together.

Now through election day, the Sun-Star will maintain a link on its homepage to information about the eight candidates running for a seat on the Merced County Board of Supervisors.

We made the first post yesterday. It includes photos and basic stats on each candidate, as well as their answers to 10 key questions designed to give you a feel for where they stand on issues like growth, the state's budget crisis and the performance of the current board.

I've gotten a few calls this week from readers wondering what's up with the Riverside Motorsports Park.

The approvals Merced County granted RMP in 2006 were revoked in February, when a judge ruled against the project in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups and the Merced County Farm Bureau.

So what's next for RMP?

We'll know after May 23. That's when RMP, the county, the environmental groups and the Farm Bureau will again go before the judge who handed down the February ruling. She'll then issue a follow-up ruling explaining in detail what steps RMP will have to take to re-apply for the county approvals necessary to break ground.