The Center for Investigative Reporting has just announced the core team for California Watch, the new state-wide investigative reporting project that is going to take a deeper look at money, stimulus, spending, and policy impacts across the state.  The reporting team is superb--Mark Katches is a firecracker and the group he's assembled is full of fire--and Rosey and Louis are brilliant, so this is one with legs.

It's tremendously rewarding to be working with this group--I'm helping with web strategy, product development, social media outreach and marketing, and community building--on a part-time basis/ This means I am part of two news and community start-ups; Oakland Local, a very focused Oakland site focusing on news for and by the people, and CIR, a statewide deep dive into complex data and stories. Both are models for replication elsewhere; both are focusing on what they are doing right now before thinking about anything else.