Interview with Marvin Carlson

This morning, Marvin Carlson of Manchester, candidate for Michigan's 7th District in the U.S. House of Representatives talked with Daniel Lai of Heritage Newspapers via a live telecast or "phlog" using Ipadio technology. Carlson spoke on job creation in the 7th District as well as health care reform and the oil spill in Kalamazoo. You can read his election profile at www.heritage.com.

~D.L.

President Obama visits Detroit

On Friday, President Barack Obama visited the Chrysler Group LLC's Jefferson North assembly Plant in Detroit during a brief stop in Michigan to promote economic growth in the auto industry.

Obama visited the Chrysler plant a little more than a year after the company emerged from bankruptcy to see a company that is on the road to recovery.

During the President's visit, Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne announced that the company's Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, which was scheduled to close after 2012, will now remain open. In addition, he announced that the company will add nearly 900 jobs on a second shift of production, scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2011. To support that operation, suppliers will add nearly 500 jobs.


Because my duties are first and foremost to the communities of Chelsea and Dexter, I was unable to attend the president's visit. However, as I believe the creation of auto jobs affects everyone in the state, I sent my trusted friend and photographer, Ian Kushnir, in my place. Ian has attended several news events with me and was thrilled with the opportunity to cover the president's visit to the Motor City.

Ian's communications with me via cell phone also allowed me to recreate a story from the president's visit, and that will be posted to our news site shortly.

~D.L.

Sounds and Sights starts with a bang

The Sounds and Sights Music Festival in Chelsea opened last night, drawing in a lot of the younger demographic to the downtown event. Heritage Newspapers reporter Sean Dalton walked the streets filming various music acts, entertainment as well as talking with Bob Pierce, Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce executive director, and other locals.
The festival continues both Friday and Saturday night, and we'll be bringing a lot more coverage. Check back with us at www.chelseastandard.com over the weekend for stories, blog posts and reviews of performances.

Interview with Brian Rooney

This morning, Brian Rooney, Republican candidate for Michigan's 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, cordially accepted Heritage Newspapers' copy editor Daniel Lai's invitation to be interviewed live on the Ipadio program he has been experimenting with. The phonecast or "phlog" was published as a "live" interview and recorded for others to listen to at their convenience.
Mr. Rooney discussed his plans to address job creation in Michigan, health care reform and other issues pertinent to the 7th District. Mr. Rooney's candidate profile can be viewed at www.heritage.com under the "News" tab.
~D.L.

2nd test with Ipadio

In my ongoing exploration of Ipadio, I took the time to interview an intern who is working with me at our office in Saline over the next few weeks. Ipadio definitely has a lot to offer journalists. Infact, one newspaper Web site I stumbled across in the United Kingdom, relies heavily on citizen journalists using Ipadio to conduct interviews and do their own stories. There’s also a lot I don’t yet understand from the program either. It says you can synch to Twitter and Facebook and Blogger anytime you publish a new audio recording. I tried to do that, following simple instructions, but I haven’t seen a link on my Facebook or Twitter account yet. If you use your phone, you can also upload four photos with your audio recording. I took a picture of Justin to see what the quality would be like. Apparently you do not have to use Ipadio just on a cell phone. You can register any phone with the Website and use the program as well. I talked to the Ipadio CEO and he said the program’s features are free for journalists. There are definitely some bugs to work out in the coming weeks. For instance, I have yet to figure out how to embed the audio interview with stories and other blogs, etc. Stay tuned!

Just back from Stephen West's performance at the Encore

Thank you to Stephen West and Dan Cooney for putting on tonight's Concert Series show. It was my first experience with live opera singing and West represented his craft with aplomb.

Before the Encore folks began the series I always wondered how best to utilize their stage between regular shows -- usually as I was getting out of my seat and leaving the theater after seeing one.

These smaller shows are a perfect way to keep the dust out of the theater, not to mention provide more variety and opportunity to be entertained in Dexter. It's a shame that the series doesn't run for two weekends, as I plan on writing a review for an entertainment section in next week's Dexter Leader.

What a blast!

Testing new technology on a Friday afternoon

In our latest attempt to bring local news quickly, effectively and digitally, I am working on a new experiment with the creators of the program Ipadio. This application, which was first developed for the Apple iPhone, allows anyone, but mainly journalists, to interview individuals anywhere in the world and instantly upload their audio interview to a Website, Facebook page, blog or any social media page online.

When I say "anyone," I mean anyone with an iPhone or cell phone equipped with the Google Android server that can download applications. Ipadio can be downloaded to a user's phone and effectively turns the phone into a personal radio broadcast. Even phone call interviews with elected officials can be recorded and edited on your phone as if you were sitting right next to the person in a broadcast booth.

To help better understand this technology, I conducted a short welcome audio interview with myself and uploaded it to our blog. Hopefully this technology is cool and my knack for creating something "cheesy" hasn't just gotten the best of me.

Take care.
D.L.

The fun part about the job

I've always said one of my favorite parts of being a journalist is learning what the rest of the world does for a living.

I enjoy listening to artists tell their stories about what inspires them to paint or draw. I love watching actors create stage plays or movies. I enjoy talking with politicians just to see what makes them tick. I also love to watch a skillful chef prepare a meal (little known fact: One of my favorite TV shows is "Hell's Kitchen.")

Every now and then reporters get to have a little fun of their own by getting downright dirty. Friday afternoon I spent the day with the Hieber family in Manchester as part of my Adopt-a-Farm series. The Hiebers were as busy as ever working hard to bail hay. They are behind schedule due to all the rain that has come through this area.

When they asked if I wanted to ride on the tractor and watch how hay was actually bailed, I jumped at the chance. The ride was a little bumpy, but not bad. We were in a closed cab tractor, so I didn't have the authenticity of getting dirt and hay all over me while we tended the field.

Unfortunately, about 20 minutes in, the tractor started acting up. The Hiebers had to get it fixed, and they politely asked if I could come back later because they had a lot of work to still do before sunset. Naturally I obliged.

Before leaving, Charles Hieber's wife, Kara, asked if I wanted to see the barn where the family stores all of its hay before I left. Naturally I couldn't resist just a peek. However, I quickly learned I was in store for more than a peek.

The barn was filled to the brim with both square and circular bailed hay and Kara quickly began climbing on the barrels to get to the top of the barn. She asked me to follow her.

"Climb to the top of a barn on hay barrels? You have to be joking!" I thought.

But, for the sake of the story, I decided to throw caution to the wind. At this point I should tell you, yes I am somewhat afraid of heights.

Before I could even get one foot on the hay barrel, I lost my balance and fell. Luckily the ground below wasn't that far. No worse for the wear, I got up, brushed myself off, and started my ascent again. This time I got up near Kara, who informed me we still had a ways to climb.

Crawling on my belly, I followed Kara under wooden beams until we reached the top of the barn, at which point she asked, "Are you afraid of heights?"

I tried to play coy about it, but Kara knew I was a bit nervous (it must have been the shear panic in my eyes that gave me away.)

Kara was nice about it and helped me along until we reached the top and I was able to take a few photos. I also handed her my camera so she could snap a photo of me conquering the mountain of hay.

All in a days work you might say.