Story Ideas: Some Resources

The BEST way to get story ideas is to go talk to people, face-to-face, on the streets.
Google won't do it for you. The first thing I ask journalists who "can't find anything" is "who have you talked to?"

So, IN ADDITION to talking to folks, these are some digital ways to find out what is going on:

TWITTER: Follow people through your team's Twitter account who tweet a lot about your beat. Follow those who know and tweet.

GOOGLE ALERTS: Set these up for your towns and school districts. You will get alerts right in your email.

NIXLE: Set up an account at Nixle.com (if your police are on it) to get real-time messages about news. Respond quickly. Local places that have Nixle are Ingham County 911, Ingham County Sheriff's Department, Meridian Township.

RSS FEEDS: Subscribe to RSS feeds on city government sites and the like. They will push news to your mailbox.

These are all automatic services. Set them up and they will work. Also use services that require a little effort, like checking blogs & etc. 

But, remember, journalism is abut talking to people.