Last Saturday, I wrote a blog post, What does a cyberstalking bunny have to do with Chris Dodd, Bloggers, Talk Radio and Corruption?. It provided background on the reporter who attempted to interview the cyberstalking bunny and related it to other issues.

One person commented, “i don’t get it, whats ur point with all this?” The point is context. Everything that happens, happens within a contextual framework. Unfortunately, too often that framework gets lost, especially in the case of a humorous video.

It is this sense of context that is one of the most important things that we are losing as newsrooms face cutbacks or get closed. News organizations that want to survive need to focus more on context and less on juggling advertising and subscription rates.

One communications director noted this when he spoke with me about CTNewsWire. News organizations traditionally receive press releases, often competing press releases, and attempt provide context to help readers understand the full story. I hope that as more bloggers and citizen journalists join CTNewsWire, they will be able to fill some of the gap.

CTNewsWire continues to grow. Recent press releases include messages from Secretary of State Bysiewicz’s office reminding voters about the May Municipal elections, as well as notices from the Secretary of State’s office and the Attorney General’s office about Broadwater and Army Training Facility sites.

Another press release talks about the first field hearing of the Commission on Enhancing Agency Outcomes. One thing commissions can do is to get more agencies to send their media advisories to CTNewsWire.

The State Budget has gotten a fair amount of attention on CTNewsWire. Connecticut Voices for Children sent an announcement to the list about their annual State Budget Forum and a media advisory was issued informing the press of a media availability of Speaker of the House Chris Donovan and Senate President Don Williams to talk about the GOP budget.

In particular, the efforts of Republicans to dismantle the Clean Elections Program was roundly criticized by a large number of groups working together for Good Government in Connecticut in one press release.

CTNewsWire is also now being duplicated in other areas. OKNewsWire is up and running in Oklahoma and western-mass-news is up and running as well.

In terms of legislation, a few bills have recently been highlighted to me. HB 6510 addresses the establishment of a Connecticut Electric Authority which “will help lower electricity costs, have the authority to plan and purchase electricity directly from generators, would bolster electricity supply and promote renewable sources”.

HB 6512 “will create more options in the way electricity will be procured” by allowing “utilities to purchase a complete portfolio of needed generation, but in smaller pieces from a larger number of generators than is currently allowed”.

An interesting press release related to the subject of electricity was issued by the Attorney General’s office, blasting $85.8 Million In Payments To Power Generators Who Delivered No Electricity

Also, relate to electricity utilization is National Hanging Out Day promoted by Project Laundry List, which notes that electric dryers use ten to fifteen percent of domestic energy usage in the United States. National Hanging Out Day is Sunday, and I hope people reading this consider air drying some clothes on Sunday.

Another bill that my friends are tracking is HB 6604, An Act Concerning Public Access Television channels. There seems to be a lot of battles over amendments to this bill.

Other follow up items worth noting: Rick Wood and James Crawford from Beecher Road School have gone to China and have this website where they are writing about their travels. Also, a guardrail has now been installed along Peat Swamp Reservoir.

There are probably a lot of other follow-ups that I should provide, but that is enough for right now. Hopefully, this will provide additional context to articles I’ve written in the past. Are there other things that I’ve written about that you want follow up on? Let me know.