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Fascinating brief link on Romenesko today, to a conservative blog that links to a claim that the mortgage/credit crisis is all the fault of the Atlanta Journal Constitution! Back in 1988, Bill Dedman did a pioneering Computer Assisted Reporting project for that paper, The Color of Money , comparing mortgages issued to people in white and black sections of the county. No surprise, blacks -- no matter their income levels -- didn't get mortgages as easily as whites. Dedman won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting. The column linked on Red State Conservative was by Mike Masterson of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, who says: ...a former investigative reporter for Atlanta’s daily newspaper likely pitched the snowball that grew into the avalanche and buried our leading mortgage institutions... ...exposed the practice of redlining by banks that routinely declined risky home loans in low-income neighborhoods... Dedman replies to the Red State link, See what he did? Hearing "black,"...

Not much to report here, except that I have added some new news researcher blog links to the NewsliBlog 's sidebar. And, for those of you reading the 1968 recaps and wanting a chronological version, I've taken all the blog postings so far and put them on the website: 40 Years Ago: 1968 . I'll copy the upcoming posts there, too, as they're published to the blog. There's a lot more to remember about 1968.

I hadn't seen the new Miami Herald website until I noticed a mention at South Florida Daily Blog . Yep, the site is easier to navigate for sure, much closer to what seems to becoming the standard site layout for newspaper front pages, rather like the NY Times. Says Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, about the makeover and the site : Online readers of MiamiHerald.com have skyrocketed in the past year, making this the leading website for news and information in South Florida... So, my question is, is the Herald online readership 'skyrocketing' because of the content and layout, or is it because in the last couple years bloggers like Rick of South Florida Daily Blog have been heavily linking to the best stories that readers might not have found -- or looked for -- on the site on their own?

Interesting stuff in this first part of Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin. Obviously, she needs a researcher: Couric : But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you've said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this? Palin : I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today. Couric : I'm just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation. Palin : I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) This month, Yale junior Garry Trudeau began to draw a comics series about the football team, called 'bull tales'; they would run in the Yale Daily News , starring BD and Mike Doonesbury. On the cover of GQ , September 1968: Omar Sharif, wearing a plaid wool jacket. On September 7 at the Miss America pageant, Atlantic City: Despite the legend, no bra burning took place. several dozen women's liberation protesters from New York City joined with women from around the country to stage a show on the boardwalk. From Jo Freeman , who was there: Women’s liberation took advantage of this to stage several guerilla theater actions. A live sheep was crowned Miss America. Objects of female oppression – high heeled shoes, girdles, bras, curlers, tweezers – were tossed into a Freedom Trash Can. A proposal to burn the can’s contents was scuttled when the police said that a fire would pose a risk to the wooden boardwalk. Women sang song...

When I was a kid, maybe 12 or so, I was enjoying reading so much I wanted to keep track of my books. So I started a file card system. It lasted a few months. I was getting my own little collection of books. You could buy Pocket Books of the classics for 25-50 cents. When my mother took me downtown shopping we would often stop at the lunch counter at Sibley's department store. Right next to it was a little book section. I'd spend some of my allowance each time on a book. I got lovely little copies with attractive covers of things like Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Last of the Mohicans. Still have some. I still have wanted at times to track my reading, just to see how much and what variety I've read, or to be able to remember a book whose author or title is foggy. A year ago my niece Kerry invited me to Goodreads . Sounded like a fun thing to do, if just to list my books. Now I discover in a year I've read 52 books. Just as I thought, a book a week. The first book I liste...

From Digby , today: (Via Economists for Obama ) From South Florida Daily Blog , a few days ago: (Via Little Joe ) Or even this earlier version, comparing the two, via Digby :