We had a call from a Columbia news, views & reviews reader who had a few questions about site navigation. After a few minutes, we cleared up the questions, but we thought maybe more explanation may be warranted.

Here’s what we are trying to accomplish and here are some navigation tips.

1. Each day our goal is to produce three main stories/articles/posts. One of them will be “today’s news.” That will contain a link to the day’s weather; a link to what happened on this day in history and a noted person’s quote about a particular topic or issue. The other two posts (sometimes there are more than two) will carry information about items that may be of interest to people who work, play, shop or live in the Columbia area. In any event, the style we have adopted for Columbia news, views & reviews is three main news posts displayed on the home page.
2. By clicking on one of the tabs at the top of the home page you will be directed to specific reader comments or community activities or surveys or information about the site.  At the bottom of the page, there is a search bar field in which you may type in any word(s) and the site will quickly produce all the articles that include that/those words. In the center column, there is monthly calendar. By putting your cursor over the day block, a pop-up block will show the titles of articles published on that day. In the right column, you can see the most recent reader comments and posting.

In March when Columbia news, views & review came to life, we began with a two-part posting on the needs of communities (http://www.knightcomm.org/part-ii-a/) . An important concept from that report remains our mantra: 

“To lead full lives in America’s democratic republic, citizens need two kinds of information: civic information and life-enhancing information. These may come from the same sources or through the same media. The same information sometimes serves both purposes, but they remain distinct categories. Successful problem solving for both individuals and communities requires access to both. Yet, millions of Americans lack ready access to relevant, credible information in either or both categories.”

We welcome your comments, suggestions and observations. If you have questions, call, write or email us … we’ll try to accommodate your input. Thank you for visiting this site, we hope it provides an arena to have an “a-ha” moment; a “WTF” reaction or a “what’s response.” We absolutely encourage citizen and reader involvement. We invite you to send “press releases”, pictures, articles and opinions for inclusion. Communities need reliable, timely, accurate information sources to grow, inspire and involve its shareholders. Columbia news, views & reviews will continue to try to deliver this information.

In case you missed this yesterday posting, we think it’s worth reposting because of the relevant nature of the topic.

• Arrest at Arizona small-town council meeting – Look at what happens when citizens do what citizens are supposed to do: participate in government. Look at the number of citizens who attend the meeting. Notice that the meeting is video taped; notice too that there are microphones for the “elected pub servants” and for the audience participants. Notice that the police chief attends the meetings. Notice that there are other municipalities that want to do things without citizen “interference.” Take time to look at these videos, too. The first is of the actual meeting in during which she is arrested; the next is a radio talk show host discussing the issues. 
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