Obviously, IOKIYAR – can you imagine the furor that would have erupted had Teague said something similar?

Still, I now know Tinsley should get a pass. Thanks Heath!

Over at Congresspedia, we’re starting to track the members of Congress who are using Twitter. We’ve compiled a list of 29 members thus far, and we’re always on the look out for others. One neat trick we’re offering: for those members who are using Twitter, you can read their latest posts right on the Congressedia profile.

Rep. Tom Udall was one of the first to adopt the service, and his campaign has been quick to embrace blogging and other aspects of the Web as well. You can see his Congresspedia profile here, complete with his most recent “tweets” from Twitter.

If you know of any other members of Congress using Twitter (or congressional candidates for that matter) please let us know!

When I returned from Washington D.C. in August, 2004, I took a position as news director for KNFT radio. My predecessor, Larry Behrens, had just taken a job as KOAT’s local reporter for the Silver City/Southwest New Mexico area. At the Sun News, Levi was working with Tom Baird and sports reporter Matt Miller. The Daily Press was employing Melissa St. Aude, Mary Alice Murphy, and Steven Siegfried, with Vince Kong on sports duty.

The lay of the land has changed completely. Every name listed above has moved on (or is moving on) with the exception of Mary Alice, whose role at the Daily Press has been reduced significantly. KNFT’s news operation was basically scrapped in 2006.

I think the changes have been gradual enough that there’s been no serious loss of institutional knowledge, the statistic is staggering in my mind. What happens to follow through on long-term stories? How does a news organization maintain relationships with the community when its most visible ambassadors are constantly changing?

What do you think? Has the turnover in reporters been good, bad, or a mixed bag?

The Three Gorges Dam, then, lies at the uncomfortable center of China’s energy conundrum: The nation’s roaring economy is addicted to dirty, coal-fired power plants that pollute the air and belch greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

I don’t know when the shift occurred, or why I didn’t notice, but it sure was nice to read a newspaper article that plainly said coal-based power production is a cause of global warming.

“But wait,” you say. “Didn’t you just start a new job?”

Well, I did, but I applied for the Congresspedia position at the same time, and I think it will work out better for everybody involved. The Studio Theatre is an incredible organization, rightfully known for wonderful contemporary productions, and I’m already missing the staff there. Their newest production, Shining City, will probably leave you breathless.

So, what’s Congresspedia? It’s a joint effort between the Center for Media and Democracy and the Sunlight Foundation. Basically, we’re trying to promote a knowledge base founded on citizen editors — that means you! Anybody can register, and anybody can edit. It’s my job to help those who do. We have a couple of projects going on right now, so head on over and give it a try. We provide an preview of hearings and votes on major or controversial legislation, headlines throughout the week, and a recap of issues on Fridays, so there’s always something to learn if you drop in.

I’m a Sunlight Foundation employee, something I’m immensely proud to say. This is an organization that’s trying to increase transparency and openness in everything our government does. The staff bio page reads like a who’s who of open government advocates and investigative journalists.

The Sunlight Foundation hasn’t been around long, but it has some great accomplishments thus far. Take a look at PopUp Politicians (which is running on this site), for example, or the cool work we’re doing with the Punch Clock campaign.

I know a lot of people feel disillusioned about government and politics and the media. Congresspedia is a great way to not only take meaningful action, but to help others become involved as well. Every entry, every edit, is another bit of information that citizens and journalists can reference.

If I know my readership, you probably do quite a bit of reading online, and you’re likely interested in news and politics, and you’re tech-savvy to a degree. Why not check out New Mexico’s portal on the 2008 election, and make some changes? Add a candidate that’s running if we don’t have him or her listed yet. Check for endorsements. If you’ve been following the debate on SCHIP, why not record how New Mexico’s congressional delegation voted on the bill?

In closing, I’m incredibly excited to be part of this. It brings together so many of the things I’m interested in: new media, investigative journalism (though that’s not really my department at Sunlight), transparency in government, citizen participation and Congress itself. In other words, it’s just about my dream job.

So, head on over and poke around (be sure to do some editing) and, while you’re at it, add the Sunlight Foundation blog to your bookmarks and/or your feed reader.

[Haussamen]: The benefits of the online format are immediacy, depth and multimedia opportunities. I can publish articles that don’t run in newspapers until the next day. I can have a written article accompanied by photos, video, comments, links to other sites that contain more information, etc. The possibilities are nearly endless. And the only space constriction is the attention span of the readers. So there’s more opportunity for exploring the complexities of issues than in print or on television.

Heath is an incredible asset to the state, and especially to residents in Southern New Mexico. His prediction that Doña Ana County may one day rival Bernalillo in size is a bold one, but he makes the case. If it comes to pass, he’s going to be primed to take advantage of the increased importance of the area.

In addition, Heath is a great advocate for increased openness in government and reducing the role of corporate money in politics, and who can’t get behind those principles?

His site should be daily reading, and I hope you’ll give him a read if you haven’t already. You can always find his latest headlines in my sidebar, though you’d do well to bookmark him or add his site to your feed reader.

“It is the trend for PM Newspapers across the country for years now. The last nail in the coffin was the Internet. All those people that used to wait for the afternoon delivery just switched over to blogs and Internet news services.

Silver City is in almost exactly the same situation: it has an afternoon newspaper and a morning paper as well. One of the two flipsides to the Albuquerque situation is circulation: right now, the Silver City Daily Press (the PM paper) has the Silver City Sun-News beat as far as subscribers go. In addition, the Daily Press circulation numbers have been going up (or, at least that’s what my employer told us before I left the newspaper).

Still, the Daily Press can’t become complacent.  More and more residents of Grant and Catron counties will get access to the Internet (and more of those users will have access to broadband) and the Daily Press is going to find itself competing with more and more competitors.

It’s going to be interesting to watch what happens with the Daily Press. I’d love to see a more active Web site for the paper. Their online edition is a unique approach, but I think they’ll eventually find they need more interactivity (i.e. comments sections for articles), a better archive system and more free content.

I’d also pitch making the Daily Press Web site the Internet resource for residents, and for those planning to visit and/or move to the area. The Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce fills part of that role, but I think the Daily Press could find a niche if it invested the time and energy into making it intuitive and useful.

Still, the newspaper business in Silver City should make for exciting speculation and viewing in the coming years, as more and more people get their news and information from non-traditional sources, like blogs, Digg, and podcasts.

Robert H. “Bob” Johnson, a champion for open government and a former Associated Press executive who, during a 42-year career, wrote AP’s first bulletin on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has died. He was 84.

After retiring from the news cooperative in 1988, Johnson helped start the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and made a new career out of fighting for public access to government meetings and records.

I first worked with Bob when I was editor of the Mustang. I was a complete rookie in the journalism business, but Bob didn’t care — he was incredibly helpful and insightful. During the past four years, that’s how I always encountered Bob: I had some question about access to public records, and he’d tell me about the applicable statutes or give me a comment for print.

In a time when our lives are under increased scrutiny, and when our privacy is at risk, it’s a sad blow to New Mexicans that their greatest champion in checking government power has gone so soon.

Thank you, Bob, for everything.