Newsworthy in the Neighborhood - writercize #6

I have a confession to make.

I am not as informed as I should be.  These days most of my news comes from friends, family, and (blush) Facebook status updates.  There is really no excuse - between magazines, newspapers, cable news and the internet, it is virtually impossible not to follow the news, but somehow I've managed to (not) do it.  

Major crises usually manage to bleep across my radar, so if there's a new American President or a natural disaster or a noteworthy rescue mission, chances are I've heard something about it.  My radio is tuned to NPR, so if I have a long drive that coincides with their news hours, I feel pretty good about staying current.  Most days, I don't drive beyond a five mile radius around my house so even my radio updates are spotty at best.

Today's challenge deals with summarizing the news.  Since any major news outlet is probably covering the earthquake in Japan, which is highly important but by no means the only news happening today, I want to know what is happening where you live.

writing exercise:  Go to Google News (or your favorite local news source).  "Search" the name of your local city or state.  Find an article that appeals to you, click on it, read and summarize in 50-100 words.  

You may click on additional articles if you need more background information and give your story a title.  If you post a comment here, please link to the original news story and remember to use your own words in your summary!

(Click "read more" for writercizer response.)

writercizer response:  (from Millions of sardines headed to Victorville by Brook Edwards in the Victorville Daily Press)

From Fish to Fertilizer

More than 150 tons of sardines were found floating in the harbor in Redondo Beach last week.  Early reports were inconclusive on the reason for their death.  Scientists speculated the fish were either lost or stuck in the harbor and used all the oxygen due to their high density, causing millions of sardine to perish and a fishy stench.  Though time and testing would eventually reveal the reason, the clean-up could begin immediately.  American Organic in Victorville offered to compost the fish and turn them into organic fertilizer.  Clean-up crews were able to quickly load the dead sardines onto trucks for the 100-mile journey to their ultimate transformation from fish food to farm food.