Last night, while watching the PBS Newshour, I watched a segment about the demise of local journalism. The author of a new book on this subject—Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy— Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post, warned about the danger to democracy when citizens are uninformed about local and state issues and get their news only from national sources. When asked if there was any hope for the future, she spoke about the rise of state and local websites.

One of the best of them is Capital & Main, based in Los Angeles, which just won 17 awards at the 62nd annual Southern California Journslism awards.

Capital & Main has posted excellent articles on education and has been vigilant about the abuses committed by errant charter schools and the charter industry. I have posted many of their excellent articles here and am delighted to see that the online journal received the recognition it deserves.

I salute Danny Feingold, the publisher of Capital & Main, for his tireless efforts to keep the new local journalism alive and excellent. He and the journal provide a great service to the community. Not just local news, but heat investigative reporting and fearless independence.