| RENTAL UPGRADE: |
| In the days of cheap gas, you'd be thrilled with a free upgrade at the car-rental counter, but with gas now around $4 a gallon that upgrade to a bigger vehicle isn't such good news. How often do customers at your local rental center get stuck with a gas-guzzler after reserving a gas-sipper? Also speak with rental-center managers to see if they can offer any tips to consumers who don't want upgrades (calling ahead to make sure the kind of car they want is there, etc.). |
| Have some reporters make reservations and see what they get. |
| PARKS: |
| Are city-maintenance crews keeping local parks clean during these summer months of their heaviest use? Have reporter-photographer team tour several heavily used city parks on a Monday. Patrons crowd parks on weekend for sports and family picnics, laving lots of debris behind. On-the-spot inspection will reveal if parks are in good shape and being properly maintained, or run down and littered. |
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| DOCTOR ETIQUETTE: |
| One result of enacting the HIPAA laws protecting patients' privacy is that medical office staff may not call a patient by his or her last name in front of others, but some docs even call patients by their first name in the privacy of the exam room, which some patients find offensive. |
| Have your readers sound off on this issue and note age, sex and other factors that may contribute to their reactions. |
| AHH-CHOO: |
| August ushers in the hay-fever season, the time when pollen plays havoc with allergies. |
| Contact city health department for story giving estimate on the number of hay-fever sufferers in your community. Also get advice on how allergy sufferers can manage during hay-fever season. |
| BACKYARD FARMERS: |
| It's midway thru the growing season and many backyard farmers have started their mid-summer harvest of squashes, tomatoes, beans, melons, and other garden delights. You'll usually find a range of gardens running from meticulous to the more overgrown variety. (Like the garden this City Desk editor maintains.) |
| Send out photographer for a tour of some of your local backyard farmers and see how their small plots have turned out this summer. |
| POLICE BEAT: |
| There's one cameraperson in town that no one wants to face -- the police mug-shot photographer. How have mug shots changed with technology -- such as the fact they are no longer in file cabinets -- and how do they aid in crime prevention? |
| Do feature about who does the mug shots for local police and how many thousands of shots they have may have taken over the years. |
| DROP OUTS: |
| Back-to-school time is starting soon and with it there will be some teens who have opted not to go back to school and complete their studies for a high-school diploma. What are your state and local rules regarding dropping out and what kind of preemptive programs do schools have in order to try and prevent dropouts? |
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| MOONLIGHTING: |
| To earn extra money, millions of Americans moonlight at a second job. Not the cop who moonlights as a security guard, but the school teacher who is a dance instructor, the bank official who works part-time as a disc jockey, the fireman who does house painting. |
| Do feature about some of the unlikely moonlighting jobs held by local citizens. |
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| Web Site of the Week |
| WWW.SWIFTREPORT.NET |
 Mobile-phone users have helped police solve many crimes. Witnesses of hit-and-runs or other crimes can send info on what they saw to swiftreport.net via PDA or via mobile-phone text message. Publicize this site to help in your community's fight against crime. |
| http://www.swiftreport.net/ |
| The Date Book |
| Aug. 3, 1900 |
| (108 years ago), war correspondent Ernest Pyle born in Dana, Ind.; |
| Aug. 4, 1901 |
| (107 years ago), jazz musician Louis Armstrong born in New Orleans; |
| Aug. 4, 1912 |
| (95 years ago), diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, born in Sweden; |
| Aug. 4, 1964 |
| (44 years ago), civil-rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwermer found murdered in Mississippi; |
| Aug. 5, 1861 |
| (147 years ago), President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the first federal income tax; |
| Aug. 5, 1962 |
| (46 years ago), film icon Marilyn Monroe, 36, dies after overdosing on sleeping pills; |
| Aug. 6, 1809 |
| (199 years ago), "Charge of the Light Brigade" author, poet Lord Alfred Tennyson, born in England; |
| Aug. 6, 1881 |
| (126 years ago), penicillin discoverer Alexander Fleming born in Scotland; |
| Aug. 6, 1965 |
| (43 years ago), President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law; |
| Aug. 7, 1876 ( |
| 132 years ago), famous female spy Mata Hari born in the Netherlands; |
| Aug. 7, 1990 |
| (18 years ago), President George H. Bush ordered the beginnings of the "Desert Shield" military buildup five days after Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; |
| Aug. 9, 1945 |
| (63 years ago), "Fat Man" Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 70,000 people; |
| Aug. 11, 1965 |
| (43 years ago), Watts riots; |
| Aug. 13, 1961 |
| (47 years ago), the building of the Berlin Wall began. |
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