Brain Fertilizer

One of the things I think is true about blogging is that if you do real work, real journalism, or provide something unique, you will get noticed.

To back up my belief, I'm going to highlight some good work going on. It's mostly political activism, but also could be considered grass-roots lobbying, and has the potential to transform into true journalism, if the situation warrants it and it is handled right.

Whatever you want to call what she's doing, the proprietor of "Oregon Racing" is tracking the responses to a letter-writing campaign initiated to determine (and hopefully shore up) support for Oregon Senate Bill 929. If you don't feel like following that link, the aim is to provide some relief to the parimutual industry by eliminating a rather arbitrary and onerous restriction regarding bets on simul-casts of races.

You may not care about horse racing...but this is intimately involved with the issue of slot machines, lotteries, casinos, and scratch-offs that many states are turning to for revenue. You may not be from Oregon, but other state legislatures will consider their own decisions based on how this turns out.

The blog proprietor is taking some pretty impressive steps. Please do me the favor of linking or otherwise supporting her efforts.