Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Rory White @rorywh.bsky.social · 4d

Today we launch Civic Searchlight, a tool for searching local government meeting transcripts across 550 municipalities in Canada.

Access is open for researchers and journalists:

civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com

CivicSearchlight - by Canada's National Observer

Search transcripts of municipal meetings across Canada. Find discussions about topics that matter to your community with Canada's National Observer's search tool.

civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · 20d

Happy #HobbitDay to those who celebrate! Pics from the weekend’s bi-annual Hobbit Party.

A hand-lettered banner in front of a yellow door that reads: Welcome to Hobbiton

A boxed set of Tolkien’s poetry on a wood bookshelf with a flower crown, small sword, and hobbit hole painting.

A copy of The Hobbit on a dining table with a bouquet wrapped in birchbark, a pear upside down cake, a stack of apples, and a charcuterie board.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · 24d

I had a dream I was a reporter working in an intergalactic news agency writing an investigative story on alien poaching and now I need @matthewclaxton.bsky.social to write the story please and thanks.

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Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Matthew Claxton @matthewclaxton.bsky.social · 24d

Hi, fellow reporters!

I'm not seeing this technique as much anymore, so I think we should review "the brutal parenthetical" when writing about people who are objectively terrible.

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Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · Sep 11

There are folks who like to take "sides" in local media, cheering for or against organizations or journalists like they're heroes or villains in the ongoing struggle for truth.

But in B.C., it's more like an ecosystem. There are places you might like less or more, but they all contribute.

Jen St. Denis @jenstden.bsky.social · Sep 11

Global is a really important part of BC’s news ecosystem

Just to name one example, they were able to break a series of important stories about the Noelle O’Soup case globalnews.ca/news/9032414...

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Aug 9

Saw your stuff at the fair! Congrats on the v. important wins 🏆

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jul 29

Do I maybe have a novel idea based on this very premise, with the main character eventually being forced to attend council meetings and public hearings to turn her dream into a reality? Is it maybe inspired by hours and hours of watching local council meetings? Who’s to say.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jul 29

I’m a young woman who inherits/wins a dilapidated house. I make zero rezoning and/or building permit and/or business license applications to the local council while I turn it into a B&B.

Matthew Claxton @matthewclaxton.bsky.social · Jul 28

I'm a reporter in a film. I work in a huge newsroom filled with dozens of people and have weeks to work on a single in-depth news story, for which I will take exactly zero physical notes.

Tim Maughan @timmaughan.bsky.social · Jul 28

Hello, I’m a novelist in a film. I have money and own a house.

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Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Eva Holland @evaholland.bsky.social · Jul 24

We can't even boycott the USA in peace, they're dragging us over the border now.

ℳatt @matttomic.bsky.social · Jul 24

A Quebec fisherman who was fishing 15 kilometers north of the US border was essentially kidnapped by US Border Patrol, who capsized his boat and dragged him to an American prison cell.

In any normal time this'd be quite the international incident, y'know?

www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

Lallemand said he borrowed his friend’s boat and was fishing near Venise-en-Québec, which is roughly 15 kilometres north of the U.S. border at the northern tip of Lake Champlain. He says he has been fishing for decades and is adamant that he was in Canadian waters when the Coast Guard showed up and told him to turn off his engine, to which he complied.

The three officers told him he was in U.S. territory.

“I said, ‘No, I’m very sorry, I’m in Canada.’ And I said I’m polite enough to talk to you guys but you cannot arrest me. ‘You can’t come across the border and pick me up’ but they did,” he recalled.

Lallemand started his engine and said he wanted to talk with the officers by the shore, but the Coast Guard followed and tried to push him into the U.S., which is what caused him to go overboard.

“They’re tying my boat to their boat. They’re not even taking care of me. The third time I went down, coming out with water in my mouth, spitting it out, I said throw me a buoy,” he said.

Once on their vessel, he said he was aggressively put in handcuffs. “I never saw somebody so angry,” he said.

He was then handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, who fingerprinted him, put him in a jail cell with his clothes soaking wet, and gave him a “dirty” blanket.

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Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Jimmy Thomson @jameswsthomson.com · Jul 24

"elbows up" (tread water while the US coast guard drowns you for fishing in Canada)

ℳatt @matttomic.bsky.social · Jul 24

A Quebec fisherman who was fishing 15 kilometers north of the US border was essentially kidnapped by US Border Patrol, who capsized his boat and dragged him to an American prison cell.

In any normal time this'd be quite the international incident, y'know?

www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jul 18

It’s the 487 draft emails that really complete the horror.

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Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Tyler Olsen @tyolsen.bsky.social · Jul 16

Personal news: In this morning's newsletter, I announced that I'm leaving FVC (and Overstory Media) at the end of the week.

My reasons include general burnout, personal living circumstances, and the challenges that come with operating a publication, especially one part of a larger media business.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jul 10

Almost done my second full week of Not Doing Journalism, and let me tell you, sleeping in rocks.

I haven’t totally abandoned FVC though—I spent part of today at the Chilliwack Archives helping figure out how best to archive our work for the future.

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Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Tyler Olsen @tyolsen.bsky.social · Jul 2

Important: Lytton is not "on fire" or "evacuated."

A fire that erupted on June 30 is now being classified as "being held" at six hectares. Which is pretty tiny for a BC wildfire.

There's another wildfire to the north, but it's far from Lytton. Over-dramatizing isn't helpful.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jul 2

Doing research for my book today, and came across this absolutely bonkers NPR story on horseshoe crabs, blue blood, and a massive resource exploitation industry.

Coastal biomedical labs are bleeding more horseshoe crabs with little accountability

Horseshoe crab blood is used to test vaccines around the world. But while Europe has approved a synthetic alternative, biomedical labs are bleeding more crabs from the Atlantic coast.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Eva Holland @evaholland.bsky.social · Jul 1

Hello, FoodSky! I have a relatively simple question about U.S. grocery supply chains that is not really a google question, it's an ask-an-expert question. Literally just one question, could be answered by email or a five-minute phone call. Can anyone point me to someone who could help? For a story.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jun 30

Thanks Stephen!

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Reposted by Grace Kennedy

Tyler Olsen @tyolsen.bsky.social · Jun 29

You can build a good, sustainable outlet from scratch *very* slowly. But If you're an existing outlet that is failing, it's very, very hard (impossible?) to reverse a decline with the incremental benefits that come from good journalism. The bad legacy economic forces outweigh the good quality forces

Mike Goodman @themlg.bsky.social · Jun 29

This is really bad. But the economic realities of journalism are really bad and those realities then, in turn, select for people interested in doing the things that the economic realities demand, thus reinforcing a terrible cycle.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jun 28

My thread did not mention Joti, who was my first real colleague, and not just an editor. Having another reporter felt like such a luxury, and I’m so glad we got to work together. Ditto for Josh and Grace 2—they made FVC a better place to be.

Tyler Olsen @tyolsen.bsky.social · Jun 28

I also should mention that FVC would not have done what it did without the considerable efforts of Joti Grewal, who left in maternity leave and decided to continue raising her kid, along with @joshkozelj27.bsky.social, Grace Giesbrecht and company colleagues like Nikki Gill.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jun 28

Also, I do have a book coming out—so I am definitely not hanging up my writing hat any time soon. Even though I am officially jobless, I still need to work all next week to finish the edits for my book by the deadline. And I have lots more stories I want to make sure I get out into the world.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jun 28

I don’t know what’s next for me yet, other than putting a load of kids clothes in the laundry because we are really running out of pants. But I am so grateful for the time I had at the Fraser Valley Current, and I really hope it won’t be my last time reporting on the valley.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jun 28

There were also professional reasons. Although Tyler and I are the face of FVC, we are not its owners. And there were things happening within the company that I could not support. (@timbousquet.bsky.social wrote about some of those issues in his stories on The Coast, another OMG publication.)

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jun 28

Making the decision to leave The Current was really hard. On the one hand, I loved the work and the community. On the other hand, Tyler and I were doing more than a two-person team’s worth of work. With my husband out of town every other month and two small kids, it was not sustainable.

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jun 28

I could literally keep going forever, linking stories that I am proud of. So I will stop after this one that came from my baby, the FVC History Edition. It only lasted a year, but I loved having a dedicated look at Fraser Valley history each month. There was so much we hadn’t covered yet.

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Generations: One family's history at the Stave Falls Powerhouse

Tour guide Janis Schultz has deep family connections to BC Hydro's Stave Falls dam

fvcurrent.com

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Grace Kennedy @gracekennwrites.bsky.social · Jun 28

Hearing how people used the hubs also led to another joint story by Tyler and myself: Government 101. The social studies class you forgot you needed.

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Government 101: How does Canada's federal government work?

Everything you forgot you knew about federal elections, jurisdiction, and law-making.

fvcurrent.com

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